back to article US sanctions drain Huawei of homegrown advanced chips

Chinese telecom giant Huawei has reportedly run out of homegrown advanced chips for smartphones due to Trump-era US sanctions that were enacted. A report from Hong Kong-based firm Counterpoint Research said it determined that Huawei recently depleted inventory of its smartphone chipsets from the company's HiSilicon chip design …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well , if they just make them slow and very low power, with no AI garbage, I'll be first in the queue to get one.

    Long battery life, and advanced lenses will do it for me.

  2. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

    American trade protection

    Dressed up as national security.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: American trade protection

      Putting the cap on capitalism!

      1. jansaigon

        Re: American trade protection

        I guess... was China a free market?

    2. NoneSuch Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: American trade protection

      "Dressed up as national security."

      I expected more from the VoiceOfTruth.

      China tends to make up its own rules. Ignoring international trademark / copyright laws and conventions when inconvenient. The CCP directs the Peoples Liberation Army to actively steal trade secrets and information globally. They bribe, coerce and threaten anyone who opposes them, beat and try to kill dissidents living abroad and it is illegal to criticize their government.

      Yes, it's for national security, but more to ensure the Chinese people are treated as human beings.

      1. lotus123

        Re: American trade protection

        >"...but more to ensure the Chinese people are treated as human beings"

        Please do not feed my inner skeptic. I do not think the US cares about this particular aspect otherwise it would not be dealing with the countries like SA. National Security - yes, for the US loosing its numero uno position as a world leading superpower is a National Security issue.

        1. fxkeh

          Re: American trade protection

          yes, I said something similar in a comment on another story - that US policy doesn't have anything to do with human rights so even if China changed how it treated it's citizens the US policies wouldn't - and got heavily downvoted, then my comment was deleted by a moderator.

      2. TheInstigator

        Re: American trade protection

        @NoneSuch I'm guessing you're either a patriotic American, or believe everything the US Government feeds you in terms of information regarding other countries.

        Don't get me wrong - I am not saying China is a great country - and a champion for democracy, the rule of law and all that mighty fine stuff (I think Iraq might disagree with that statement though!) - but as others have pointed out in other articles, the US pulled the same kind of "national security issue" in the 80s - or even before this - when they controlled the Japanese's access to LCDs - citing national security issues.

        As I said - I'm not saying China is great - but do you truly believe America is selflessly fighting for truth, freedom etc whatever the consequences are? All countries - wherever they are in the world - act in their self interest primarily - it would be good to remember this.

    3. Dagg Silver badge

      Re: American trade protection

      Ok, so it is bad when America does it to China, but good when China does it to Australia...

      1. TheInstigator

        Re: American trade protection

        I don't think China has done anything close to what US has done in terms of bans etc

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dark times ahead for ....

    China internally still have access to at least a 12 nm process, and probably 7 nm process as well. And they still have any RISC-V IP they gained before the trade restrictions. Alibaba have their latest and greatest by T-head Semiconductor Co. Ltd RISC-V cores, which I think is made using a 12 nm process, XuanTie C920. The long term result will be that the US, and EU, are fully locked out of the market in China, because they will no longer be able to compete on price.

    1. TheInstigator

      Re: Dark times ahead for ....

      Alternatively they could be locked out of the country because they're banned to compete by China.

      I've always wondered what China will do in terms of retaliation - traditionally they've just mirrored what their counterpart has done - so for example if you make it hard for Chinese people to visit your country, they will make the visa process hard for your people (unless of course they've got skills that China wants).

      This case is slightly different - I think the only thing China could respond with is controlling rare Earth minerals - but at that point, I think America will either try to get countries to stop something like food imports to China (i.e. try to starve them out) or invade saying they're having to ensure world safety/control of rare Earth metals etc

      If you look at world history, generally the West doesn't get along with countries it hasn't beaten in some way on the battlefield and controlled as a whole in the past - parts of China have been taken over, but never the whole country by an invading force, and I for one think we are long overdue for another world war - it should help to sort things out categorically one way or another.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Dark times ahead for ....

        "I for one think we are long overdue for another world war"

        Two data points don't make a trend. What are you smoking?

        1. TheInstigator

          Re: Dark times ahead for ....

          You say that like a war is bad - war has driven humanity forward even in the bleakest of times. Unit 731 etc may have committed war crimes, but the US and hence the world has benefitted from the medical knowledge that has filtered into the mainstream from this and other events. The financial world has benefitted from Fixed Income bonds - which came from having to finance war effort.

          People will always die - they might as well die for something useful

  4. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Can't unlock Huawei phones

    According to Wikipedia (yeah, I know, but Google seems to agree) you can't unlock the bootloader on a Huawei phone, which means you can't root it.

    So as far as I'm concerned, it's no great loss.

  5. asphytxtc
    Unhappy

    Shame really

    Every Huawei product I've owned has been fantastic. It was a complete no questions asked upgrade to another Huawei handset when my Mate 20 pro were to die.. at least it was until the whole Trump era restrictions came in.

    That being said, I'm currently typing this on a Matebook D14, hooked up to a Mateview GT34 monitor. I genuinely have been that impressed with their products.

    Worried about Chinese snooping? Nah not really.. worst they'll find is pictures of cats really.

  6. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Having owned both a ZTE and Huawei phones in the past it is a shame that both of these companies have been hobbled from being able to sell flagship consumer phones on the ground of 'national security'.

    But I guess that even using chips that aren't cutting edge they can still make some good mid range or budge devices if they are willing to optimize on the software side. After all projects like Lineage OS show that phones that are approaching 10 years old such as Samsung galaxy S4 can still run up to date Android versions if developers put the effort.

    1. TheInstigator

      Looking at the items that America is trying to stop China getting imported - I noted one type of item was chips which could be used in EVs.

      For me, this is proof that it is all about trade protectionism - there is no national security risk associated with chips used in EVs - oh yes I suppose you could hack them etc - but remember China is trying to buy them in from external sources - not actually manufacture them (where it would be easiest to introduce hardware based vulnerabilities).

      If America had its way I am guessing China eventually will only be allowed to work in takeaways and laundrettes - or making plastic rubber duck toys or the like

  7. lotus123

    The end result would be the US trading with EU while the rest of the world will be buying cheaper products from China. They do not really need the "best and greatest" things that cost an arm and leg. Barring some world catastrophe China's tech will eventually catch up to that of the west.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like