A deep dive has unveiled the Huawei Kunpeng 930, the outfit’s quickest and most advanced server CPU yet. Based on TSMC’s 5nm technology, the Huawei Kunpeng 930 comes with 120 TaiShan CPU cores, a gargantuan 364MB L3 cache, and a brand-new chiplet-based design, showcasing how quickly Huawei’s kept pace with in the server processor market.
A Big Step Up From Kunpeng 920 to Kunpeng 930
Huawei’s long march to the server chip industry: Kunpeng 920, a 7nm ARM-based chip full of thunder and lightning The new Huawei Kunpeng 930 is a massive generational leap. The CPU package’s size is 77.5mm × 58.0mm with an arrangement of 4 compute dies and a single large I/O die inside it, and was confirmed in the @Kurnalsalts teardown.
- Each compute die measures ~252.3mm²
- Detector size The horizontal and vertical detector sizes are 312.3 mm 2 and 58.8 mm 2 (corresponding to 125 125 I/O die).
- The design allows for 96-way memory links.
This chiplet implementation permits Huawei to scale cores and cache more optimally, and the Kunpeng 930 is out in front of the Kunpeng 920 by a wide margin.
A Look Inside the 120-Core Huawei Kunpeng 930
Each compute die incorporates 10 CPU clusters, all of which have four cores, leading to 40 cores per die. With four dies, it hits 120 TaiShan CPU cores. Adertisement One die brings 91MB L3 cache and 2MB L2 cache, adding up to 364MB of total L3 cache on the chip.
The cores themselves are not a huge surprise as they’re almost certainly based on Huawei’s in-house TaiShan architecture, which are tuned ARM-based cores designed with server performance and efficiency in mind.
Memory, I/O, and Platform Support
The Huawei Kunpeng 930 also comes with strong I/O and memory specifications:
- 96 PCIe lanes
- 16-channel DDR5 memory support
- Support dual CPUs (Dual socket motherboard)
Versus the 920, the new CPU almost doubles the core count, significantly improves L2 and L3 cache bandwidth, and is able to benefit from the increased SRAM density afforded by TSMC’s N5 process tech.
Competing With Global Giants
While the Huawei Kunpeng 930 still can’t outpace the latest AMD and Intel server CPUs, it can go toe-to-toe with top-end models from just a couple of generations ago. This makes it a powerful domestic competitor for China’s data center and enterprise computing markets.
The teardown highlights Huawei’s resolve to lessen dependence on overseas chips and proceed with its own designs. “Huawei is willing to use Splitted-token to show that it is capable of designing high end processors which can not only handle heavy workload but can also handle high memory bandwidth and modern infrastructures of cloud also,” it said.
Conclusion
(i) The Huawei Kunpeng 930 teardown takes us to a new map of chip design, core scaling, and memory bandwidth in a bold era. Boasting 120 cores, TSMC 5nm technology and a gargantuan cache structure, it’s the fastest server chip Huawei has produced, and a pretty clear statement as to where the company believes it’s headed in the global race for semiconductor dominance.
FAQ
The Huawei Kunpeng 930 is a 120 core TaiShan CPU die arranged onto a chiplet.
Huawei Kunpeng 930 is based on TSMC’s leading 5nm process.
Compared with Kunpeng 920, Kunpeng 930 has nearly 2 times the number of cores, larger cache, and adds DDR5 support.
It is compatible with 16-channel DDR5 memory and it works with dual-CPU motherboards.
Not quite at the bleeding edge, the Kunpeng 930 could compete against chips from AMD and Intel that were launched in recent years, giving it a walloping presence in China-specific markets.
