Huawei unveils blazing fast Kirin 960 processor

[Coaxialgamer]

Quote

Huawei, like Apple, is one of the only phone brands that makes its own processors. And its latest one, the Kirin 960, looks to be a winner.

 

Announced at a Shanghai press conference earlier today, a phone powered by the Kirin 960 wa put to the test against an iPhone 7 and aSamsung Galaxy Note 7, Android Central reports. The Huawei device pulled ahead of the other two when it came to launch speeds of 13 of the 14 most popular apps in China.

 

The octa-core processor is reportedly powered by four ARM Cortex-A73 cores and four A53 cores. It'll be the first CPU to use the new ARM Mali-G71 MP8 GPU, which, in theory, will make this one of the best chips for the mobile gamer.

The Chinese giant also talked up battery life improvements, saying a phone that can currently run Pokemon Go for half a day would, equipped with the 960, be able to go for 1.2 days.

   

 

Quote

Performance for the Kirin 960, as presented in Huawei's announcement, is +10% single core performance and +18% on the multi-CPU performance compared to the Kirin 950. (This isn't quite as much as we would have hoped from an A73 design, though.) HiSilicon presented GeekBench 4 scores for the new chipset and the K960 seems to benchmark around 2000 for single-core and 6400 for multi-core. The single-core scores slightly beat other Android SoCs in the market, however isn't a too drastic improvement. We don't have more exact sub-scores yet but one we know about is the vastly improved memory bandwidth of the new design that seems to beat all other SoCs at the moment. This is surely a result of both the Cortex A73's strong memory subsystem as well as new use of the CCI-550 in the Kirin 950 that also promised an increase in effective memory bandwidth over the preceding CCI-400 design.

 

 the GPU sees a significant shift as we move from a Mali T880MP4 to a Mali-G71MP8, which essentially doubles the number of shader cores employed. HiSilicon decision to go with a wider GPU on the same process node was undoubtedly made much easier by the new G71's much better die area efficiency. The new GPU runs at 900 MHz, the same as the older SoC. The combination of doubling the shader cores over the 950 and moving to a new architecture over the 950 results in a 180% increase in the GPU's performance compared to the Kirin 950. As a result, Huawei is positioning the Kirin 960 directly above the other high-end SoCs launched this year (though we expect the other SoC vendors to also have respective increases with new generations soon). GFXBench Manhattan 3.0 and T-Rex Offscreen scores were showing the performance of the G71MP8 in above both the Snapdragon 820 and the Exynos 8890, but a tad under the new A10.

If this is true , then my next phone might just be from huawei . I'm tired of the iterative improvements made my qualcomm on the snapdragon 821 and the soon-will-be 830. (which both feature kyro cores )

Progress on these architectures ( while still much faster than on current intel chips) feels slow to me, with a bigger focus on core count rather than per core performance. I feel that apple does better in this regard considering the a9 and a10 are still the fastest chips on the market ( at the very least in terms of single core performance )

 

sources : https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-unveils-blazing-fast-kirrin-960-processor/

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10766/huawei-announces-hisilicon-kirin-960-a73-g71

[PocketNerd]

Blazing fast.... until compared with the A10 apparently.

Gotta admit, Apple knows how to make rock-solid hardware. Shame that their marketing and pricing suck balls.

[Coaxialgamer]

1 minute ago, PocketNerd said:

Blazing fast.... until compared with the A10 apparently.

Gotta admit, Apple knows how to make rock-solid hardware. Shame that their marketing and pricing suck balls.

i would still use some salt . But not much

[Godlygamer23]

Single core performance needs work. But the single core score is something I would expect when looking at its multi-core performance. Is Huawei doing any increasing of clock speeds on single cores when they're stressed? The scaling isn't quite linear. If it was, the single core performance would be around 1600 points.

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, Jorgen297 said:

I don't get how these companies except intel and AMD make their processors, and how they're competitive with the rest. Where do you even begin when making a microarchitecture? Do you steal ideas or something? Idk I can't grasp the concept lol. 

It depends. They can look at some architecture, identity weaknesses, and then tackle those weaknesses to vastly improve performance. For example, AMD makes an architecture and it fails badly. Intel might look at where AMD failed, and then ensure not to make that same mistake, or find some way of making it work. The market is also a big place too - where they want to focus when it comes to CPU prowess and caching.

 

But it is a lot of work. Designing anything is a lot of work, not just computer chips. 

Edited October 21, 2016 by Godlygamer23

[Coaxialgamer]

8 minutes ago, Jorgen297 said:

I don't get how these companies except intel and AMD make their processors, and how they're competitive with the rest. Where do you even begin when making a microarchitecture? Do you steal ideas or something? Idk I can't grasp the concept lol. 

1_Companies like apple , huawei etc design the chips and usually pay a company like tsmc or samsung to manufacture them ( just like amd does with Globalfoundries )

 

1.1_Intel is one of the only chip designers that design AND manufacture their cpu's . There are advantages and disadvantages of doing this ( you get better control over supply and process tech , but you have to pay the R&D costs associated , which fabless companies like amd or huawei don't have to do ) 

 

2_ There are different approaches. You usually start by hiring a team of highly talented engineers and you then establish what you want the chip to do , what it will be good that and what compromises will have to be made . And since chip design takes years , you have to "guess" what technology ( process nodes etc ) will be available and how software will take advantage of it  ( threading ) . Or you can license a design from other companies like ARM , and either use it as such or modify it to fit you needs .

 

3_Industrial espionage is highly illegal  

[Coaxialgamer]

10 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Single core performance needs work. But the single core score is something I would expect when looking at its multi-core performance. Is Huawei doing any increasing of clock speeds on single cores when they're stressed? The scaling isn't quite linear. If it was, the single core performance would be around 1600 points.

well they are the first to use ARM's  new cortex a73. Most SOC's are still stuck on the a57 for the big core ( which kyro is pretty close to ) 

[vanished]

I am tremendously confused... they're all proud of this thing when their own slides seem to indicate the A10 whoops it?  what!?

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I am tremendously confused... they're all proud of this thing when their own slides seem to indicate the A10 whoops it?  what!?

The only area that's definable as being whooped is in single-threaded performance. Otherwise, it's pretty competitive. 

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I am tremendously confused... they're all proud of this thing when their own slides seem to indicate the A10 whoops it?  what!?

idk , but it does beat the a10 in multicore , which the E8890 and S821 can't do . Some will also argue geekbench 4 isn't a good benchmark .

 

I guess we will see . the main thing is that the two sources had different views at to the results ( cnet was much more optimistic , while anandtech was more conservative )

[dizmo]

The chip in the 955 wasn't too bad either. The 960 should be a pretty significant increase in the GPU power.

Interesting chip, can't wait to see if it's in the new Mate device coming out. Need something to replace my Note.

 

I think you're a little hard on the 820. It was a huge improvement over the 810, and they add many things other than simply speed. For example the ability to sense fingerprints through the display, eliminating the need for a separate sensor.

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I am tremendously confused... they're all proud of this thing when their own slides seem to indicate the A10 whoops it?  what!?

It's a pretty huge improvement over what they have now...so...there's that.

I think showing the ability to leap in performance year to year is more impressive than simply having the highest numbers.

Shows they're worth watching

[vanished]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

The only area that's definable as being whooped is in single-threaded performance. Otherwise, it's pretty competitive. 

well, it's worse in 3 out of 4 tests - significantly so in one case (single threaded) - and in the one test where it is better, it doesn't seem like it's by a lot...

 

Is it a ba chip?  No, I guess not, but is it "blazing fast" and something news worthy?  Probably not... I mean, If Intel releases the i5 6600, no one's gonna make a huge fuss over the 6500 when that drops...

[vanished]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

idk , but it does beat the a10 in multicore , which the E8890 and S821 can't do . Some will also argue geekbench 4 isn't a good benchmark .

 

I guess we will see . the main thing is that the two sources had different views at to the results ( cnet was much more optimistic , while anandtech was more conservative )

But that's not really anything amazing... just add more cores. 

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, dizmo said:

The chip in the 955 wasn't too bad either. The 960 should be a pretty significant increase in the GPU power.

Interesting chip, can't wait to see if it's in the new Mate device coming out. Need something to replace my Note.

 

I think you're a little hard on the 820. It was a huge improvement over the 810, and they add many things other than simply speed. For example the ability to sense fingerprints through the display, eliminating the need for a separate sensor.

 

I'm not saying the 820 was a bad chip or anything ( it's 4 cores handily beat the 810's 8 cores ) , and kyro seems to be a good architecture . Just saying that we'll be seeing kyro at the very least until the 830, and that IPC is nowhere near what the a9 and a10 can achieve

[suicidalfranco]

impressive, if only Huawei made phones as good as the LG V10 or V20

[Lays]

1 hour ago, Jorgen297 said:

I don't get how these companies except intel and AMD make their processors, and how they're competitive with the rest. Where do you even begin when making a microarchitecture? Do you steal ideas or something? Idk I can't grasp the concept lol. 

Maybe because intel and AMD aren't really making phone processors lol

[Lays]

42 minutes ago, Jorgen297 said:

how do i download 3dmark firestrike? and btw did you really use ln2? also isnt 1.43v a little high for skylake?

Ln2 no, dry ice yes.

 

No, skylake has a higher voltage tolerance than Haswell.

 

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/3dmark-download.html

[Doobeedoo]

Well really nice performance overall. Though single core performance of these chips vs A10 just wow so odd.

[WereCat]

I have Huawei Mate 8 with K950 and I dont think there is really a big need for faster CPU. The only thing that excites me more about K960 is the improved GPU performance because the GPU in K950 is more comparable with mid range phones.

It can play games but not all of them are really fluid. That said I dont care as I dont play games (except occasional HearthStone).

If they can keep the efficiency on K960 the same or better than on the K950 then holy cow... I already charge my phone only twice per week so I am looking forward to see if they can make it only once per week.

[Pyrii]

Single Core performance requirements aren't going to go away and I think it'd been documented that in real-world scenarios, most apps rarely make use of more than 2 or 3 cores. If we're to start seeing multitasking take off, then the only improvement from multi-core processors is going to come from the OS distributing the apps across cores better.

 

But for right now, I'm not sure where this processor fits in.

[Qwerty2323]

1st of all ARM processors are all about price and power consumption. 

2nd as much as I know chip dessign aint really so simple issue so they are mostly done by ARM and applied by other companies like Samsung, Qualcomm, Huawei, Apple

3rd Apple having lighter OS and bad battery life been known for ages but faster processors so might as well question their choises.

4th Issue with Huaweis processors is use of Mali gpu which seem to be much weaker than adreno gpus for last few gens at least, so huaweis products kinda suffer when it comes to total package.

5th mobile processors are fast enough already. Question is what's in future for mobile phones as battery seem to be biggest issue in terms of size and in terms of limiting useage.