Rumor: Huawei will be the first to arrive at the end of this year with a soc with an integrated 5G modem

Huawei would release a soc this year with a 5G modem integrated. If successful, it will be the first manufacturer to do so. Qualcomm plans to release a 5G modem soc in the first half of 2020.

According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the soc with 5G modem from Huawei will be released sometime between October and December this year. The newspaper relies on two sources who are familiar with the company’s plans. There are currently 5G smartphones on the market, but they use a separate modem that is placed next to the soc. Current 5g modems are still relatively large; these need to be made smaller in order to integrate them into the soc itself.

Qualcomm announced at the beginning of this year that its soc with 5g modem will be released in the first half of 2020. MediaTek has also announced a soc with 5g modem for early next year. A soc with an integrated modem from Apple will take longer. The iPhone manufacturer makes its own socs and purchases modems from Qualcomm. Apple is probably planning to also make its own modems, as evidenced by the acquisition of Intel’s modem division. However, developing and integrating a modem into a SOC is a process that can take years. In addition, Apple has signed a deal with Qualcomm that stipulates that it will purchase modems from that manufacturer in the coming years.

Huawei would have the chip made by TSMC on a process with euv. It is probably 7nm, because the Taiwanese chip manufacturer has started EUV production on its 7nm process this year. According to Nikkei, Huawei uses the same process for the Kirin 985, a soc that is already in production and is said to be in the Mate 30 series.

Nikkei sources also say Huawei is working hard to achieve long-term independence from US suppliers. This year, many new Huawei products would still contain American components, but that would change in the coming years. The Chinese manufacturer would now obtain WiFi chips and signal amplifiers that it purchased from the American companies Skyworks, Qorvo and Broadcom from Murata Manufacturing of Japan and the Taiwanese RichWave.

Huawei was blacklisted by the US government in May this year, preventing US companies from trading with the Chinese manufacturer. Top executives of major US tech companies including Google, Intel, Micron and Qualcomm met with President Trump this week in which he pledged to make a decision quickly on whether or not to authorize it to supply Huawei.