Huawei's 24-core Kunpeng desktop CPU said to be faster than Intel's Core i9-9900K

[nanoguy]

The big picture: Huawei could come up with an ARM-based desktop CPU before Apple does, as the company is readying a desktop PC for China's 3-5-2 plan to replace foreign hardware from its public infrastructure by 2022. And when it does, this CPU could be faster in some scenarios than Intel's Core i9-9900K, marking an important milestone on China's road to technological self-sufficiency.

Huawei has been gradually losing its silicon partners as a result of US sanctions. Next month, the Chinese tech giant will lose access to TSMC's foundry, leaving it without its biggest supplier of chips for its vast portfolio of products.

The company has built a stockpile of chips that should last it through the end of 2021, and a new leak (spotted by Gizchina) on Weibo reveals that Huawei is preparing to launch an ARM-based CPU for desktop systems later this year.

Back in January 2019, Huawei announced the Kunpeng 920 CPU family for servers, which is now being adapted for use in desktop platforms. These are based on the TaiShan v110 microarchitecture and come with up to 64 ARM v8.2 cores running at up to 3.0 GHz (2.6 GHz base clock), built on a 7 nm process node.

Huawei's desktop PC is known internally as Pangu, and will come equipped with up to a 24-core Kunpeng 920 3211K, which is a 60 mm x 75 mm BGA package soldered onto the motherboard. There's support for up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM running at 3200 MHz, and you have three PCIe 3.0 slots for expansion (one x16 port, one x4, and one x1 port). For storage, there are two M.2 slots and six SATA 3.0 ports.

Someone managed to get their hands on a base model, which comes with the eight-core Kunpeng 920 2249K CPU paired with 16 GB of RAM, a 256 GB DTST SSD, and a Yeston RX 550 graphics card. It runs the Unified Operating System (UOS), which is a Linux distribution based on Deepin and developed by Tongxin Software as a replacement for Windows in China.

All of it is powered by a 200-watt power supply, but that's not the most surprising part of the report. Apparently, the Kunpeng 920 can surpass Intel's Core i9-9900K in terms of multi-core performance. There's no mention of single-core performance, which could mean that Huawei's CPU isn't particularly good in that department.

The eight-core Kunpeng 920 2249K is able to finish the Blender BMW test in 11 minutes and 47 seconds, as opposed to 16 minutes and 45 seconds for the Core i9-9900K. Even so, the range of software that can run on UOS is very limited, and there's no emulation layer for popular x86 software.

Overall, the Kunpeng 920 is much better than Zhaoxin's x86 chips, which are lagging behind Intel offerings in every aspect. China is planning to replace all hardware and software in its public institutions by 2022, and Huawei's chips look like the better option. The company could tap into a local foundry like SMIC, which could begin 7 nm production later this year.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86330-huawei-24-core-kunpeng-desktop-cpu-faster-than.html

 

[brucek]

OCD nitpick: if the brand logo on the chip is "Kunpeng" why does this article refer to it as "KunPeng"?

 

[VitalyT]

24-carat Kingpin?

 

[raschmidt]

OCD nitpick: if the brand logo on the chip is "Kunpeng" why does this article refer to it as "KunPeng"?

Kun and Peng are two different chinese letters, so usually in PinYin you'd write them with a capital before each letter to define which chinese letters you are using for that name/word. For example Huawei would be HuaWei and Xiaomi would be XiaoMi to help identify those letters more clearly.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

But will Trump ban it?

 

[Achaios]

I dislike Kung Pao.

 

[veLa]

I'd be interested in tinkering with one.

 

[candle_86]

Utterly useless outside of China, and inside of China they are going to have to look for new software to pirate and clone.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Utterly useless outside of China, and inside of China they are going to have to look for new software to pirate and clone.

Lol, I'm looking forward to the internecine accusations of IP theft between Shanghai and Guangzhou. ???

 

[Syd Wright]

"Even so, the range of software that can run on UOS is very limited, and there's no emulation layer for popular x86 software."

Ever heard of Wine and qemu ?

 

[Ludak021]

But I need windows, so this CPU doesn't even work from my viewpoint. Huawei is building up on this trend of making things no one asked for or has a need for. Just because Apple can successfully do something, doesn't mean everyone can. Besides, we are yet to see if Arm in Apple Mac will even be a success.

 

[raschmidt]

But I need windows, so this CPU doesn't even work from my viewpoint. Huawei is building up on this trend of making things no one asked for or has a need for. Just because Apple can successfully do something, doesn't mean everyone can. Besides, we are yet to see if Arm in Apple Mac will even be a success.

Most likely this computer was not made for you. If you are living in China /or are chinese and wanting to support local businesses, or you are a Chinese government agency, this will probably be the best way to go.

Huawei is dead in the water in the PC market without this, they don't have a choice but to develop it.

 

[Squid Surprise]

But I need windows, so this CPU doesn't even work from my viewpoint. Huawei is building up on this trend of making things no one asked for or has a need for. Just because Apple can successfully do something, doesn't mean everyone can. Besides, we are yet to see if Arm in Apple Mac will even be a success.

This is a Chinese government initiative. They don’t care about individuals- never have!
If the entire country uses this, that’s hundreds of millions of orders...

 

[Lionvibez]

Lol news at 11, 24 core processor out performs an 8 core one in multi threaded benchmarks.

Where are the single thread results where this lntel chip probably beats it?

 

[neeyik]

Lol news at 11, 24 core processor out performs an 8 core one in multi threaded benchmarks.

The claim is about the base 8 core model, not the higher core count ones, so if it is genuinely better than a 5 GHz 8C/16T Intel chip in Blender, then it certainly is news. If...

 

[Lionvibez]

The claim is about the base 8 core model, not the higher core count ones, so if it is genuinely better than a 5 GHz 8C/16T Intel chip in Blender, then it certainly is news. If...

Now that I re-read it you are correct the title of the article which has this in it 24-core Kunpeng let me to believe they were testing against this.

 

[Ludak021]

This is a Chinese government initiative. They don’t care about individuals- never have!
If the entire country uses this, that’s hundreds of millions of orders...

You might be surprised but, Chinese use windows and components just like the rest of the world. The rest of your post is, no offense, biased and mostly based of off propaganda from the west (UK and USA). I am pretty sure there is truth in that, but I am pretty sure a lot of it is a lie.
Either way, I don't care for any of this. I am basically waiting for Huawei to get their store few notches up, and I am going to buy their devices again because they are good.

 

[Squid Surprise]

You might be surprised but, Chinese use windows and components just like the rest of the world. The rest of your post is, no offense, biased and mostly based of off propaganda from the west (UK and USA). I am pretty sure there is truth in that, but I am pretty sure a lot of it is a lie.
Either way, I don't care for any of this. I am basically waiting for Huawei to get their store few notches up, and I am going to buy their devices again because they are good.

So you didn't bother to read the article I see?

Here's the relevant quote from near the end...
" China is planning to replace all hardware and software in its public institutions by 2022, and Huawei's chips look like the better option. "

This would be what I was talking about...

 

[Ludak021]

That part is of course true The part that is not is that a billion Chinese is going to use that. They buy iPhones man.

 

[Squid Surprise]

That part is of course true The part that is not is that a billion Chinese is going to use that. They buy iPhones man.

Public institutions dude.... that could be hundreds of millions of computers....

 

[hel0sn8]

Kun and Peng are two different chinese letters, so usually in PinYin you'd write them with a capital before each letter to define which chinese letters you are using for that name/word. For example Huawei would be HuaWei and Xiaomi would be XiaoMi to help identify those letters more clearly.

I think I might love you, thank you. GAF about OCD.

 

[hel0sn8]

But will Trump ban it?

Its Huawei aint it? For sure.

 

[hel0sn8]

Lol news at 11, 24 core processor out performs an 8 core one in multi threaded benchmarks.

Where are the single thread results where this lntel chip probably beats it?

Yer. Defo the ONLY news that matters regarding this CPU. Single core speed dont mean f all. Is not a gaming CPU. And core count is besides the point. Could have a 1000 cores. If its cheaper than 9900K and faster thats the point that matters.

 

[MaxSmarties]

Did someone already tested the bandwidth of the included backdoor? /s