US efforts to curb China's advanced chip industries may be having an effect, amid claims that Huawei is having difficulty ramping up production of its Ascend 910B accelerator. The news comes as China's president aims to bolster the country's self-reliance in key technologies including chips.

Huawei's Ascend 910B is regarded as China's answer to Nvidia's GPUs, the most powerful of which are banned from sale in the Middle Kingdom as Washington fears they could be used to develop AI for Beijing's military.

The chip is claimed to have performance on a par with that of Nvidia's A100 GPU, and is believed to be an in-house design manufactured by Chinese chipmaker SMIC using a 7nm process technology, unlike the older Ascend 910 product.

Not surprisingly, buyers in China were said to prefer Huawei's product to the special GPUs Nvidia makes for that market, the performance of which is deliberately restricted to meet export requirements.

Yet according to The Information, Huawei is facing difficulties in ramping up production of the Ascend 910B, citing unnamed sources connected with the company's supply chain.

The problem appears to be that the fabrication equipment used to produce the advanced chips were designed for older generations of production process, and repurposing them is leading to technical issues.

Huawei declined to comment.

Washington continues to crack down on the supply of chipmaking equipment to China, as well as convincing allies such as Japan and the Netherlands - home to key photolithography supplier ASML - to follow suit.

The most advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipemnt was already banned from sale in China, and the US extended this last year to cover some deep ultraviolet (DUV) kit as well.

This year, Washington cajoled chipmaking equipment suppliers into not fulfilling the maintenance agreements they had with Chinese semiconductor companies.

In May, the US Commerce Department also revoked some of the licenses held by American technology companies to supply their products to Huawei.

However, analysts have previously expressed doubts over whether Huawei would be able to produce advanced semiconductors at scale, as The Register reported last year when the company hit the headlines after launching a smartphone powered by a 7nm homegrown processor.

Unsurprisingly, Beijing is not taking this lying down. According to China's United Daily News, President Xi Jinping gave a speech this week in which he said it was necessary to increase scientific and technological innovation, especially in six areas, one of which is semiconductors.

It is vital to ensure that important industrial chains and supply chains are independent, secure, and controllable in order for China to become a "technological power" by 2035, Xi said at the National Science and Technology Conference (speech translated).

Regarding the current situation with the US, he said "the scientific and technological revolution and the game between major powers are intertwined," adding that "the high-tech field has become the forefront and main battlefield of international competition."

Earlier this year, it was reported that Huawei was looking to research and develop its own chipmaking equipment at a sprawling industrial complex near Shanghai, including lithography machines.

The US government said in March it was considering measures against a number of Chinese semiconductor companies linked with Huawei that were suspected of being part of a covert network to help it circumvent restrictions and perhaps indirectly purchase chipmaking equipment or other supplies that would be off-limits to the tech giant. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/06/26/huawei_struggling_to_ramp_gpu/