Huawei has quietly taken another step in its chipmaking ambitions with the unveiling of the Kunpeng 930, a powerful new server processor that blends advanced and legacy manufacturing techniques. 
A teardown video revealed that the main CPU die is manufactured on TSMC’s cutting-edge 5nm (N5) process, while its I/O components are believed to come from SMIC’s 14nm process.
The Kunpeng 930 is no small feat in design. Measuring 77.5mm x 58.0mm, it is engineered for dual-socket motherboards and is based on Huawei’s Mount TaiShan architecture. Each CPU die carries 10 clusters, with 2 cores per cluster, adding up to a staggering 80-core total. To keep those cores fed, the chip is packed with 91MB of L3 cache and 2MB of L2 cache per die, ensuring smooth performance for heavy workloads.
Connectivity is also a highlight. The Kunpeng 930 offers 96 PCIe lanes along with 16-channel memory support, giving it the bandwidth needed for modern data centers. Early estimates suggest the chip could deliver nearly double the performance of its predecessor, although it still trails behind the latest generation of Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC processors.
While Huawei’s chip doesn’t yet rival the very top tier in global server performance, the Kunpeng 930 represents a significant technical achievement under ongoing supply chain restrictions. It shows Huawei’s determination to stay in the game – and perhaps build a foundation for future breakthroughs in high-performance computing.
1 comment
ngl the cache size is impressive 👀