JAKARTA - Huawei is offering a new way to chase advanced chips. Not by continuing to shrink transistors, but by making many chips work more closely and faster as one system.
According to a report by China Daily, quoted Saturday, May 30, the idea is called Tau Scaling Law. This theory was introduced by He Tingbo, President of Huawei's Semiconductor Business Department, in a paper submitted to the journal Science China Information Sciences.
For decades, the chip industry has relied on Moore's Law. The premise is simple: the number of transistors in a computer chip roughly doubles every two years. Transistors are the small components in chips that help process data.
The problem is, transistors are now so small, approaching the limits of modern production capabilities. Making them smaller is getting harder and more expensive.
Zhou Jianjun, a professor at the School of Integrated Circuits of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said Huawei was looking for another path. The way is no longer to force transistors to get smaller, but to make a group of chips work more efficiently.
According to He, the essence of transistor scaling has been to cut the chip's working time. Tau Scaling Law tries to cut that time from the other side, namely reducing the travel time of signals between devices, circuits, chips, and systems.
The analogy, Moore's Law is like a single runner who continues to be trained to get faster. Knowing the Scaling Law is more like a relay team. Not all runners have to be the fastest, but a neat pass can make the team win.
Zhou said this theory opens up a new direction for global semiconductor technology and provides a new roadmap for China's chip industry.
"Chip manufacturing no longer has to rely too much on the most advanced lithography tools, and the strategic role of advanced chip packaging technology continues to increase," said Zhou.
China Daily reported that the background of this idea is inseparable from trade pressure on China's semiconductor industry. The United States blocked the shipment of extreme ultraviolet lithography tools and advanced chip-making equipment from the world's leading suppliers.
Lithography is a process of printing very small patterns on chips. The more advanced the tool, the smaller and denser the components that can be made.
Huawei said the Tau Scaling Law could help it produce chips with a transistor density equivalent to 1.4 nanometers by 2031. For comparison, TSMC, the world's largest advanced chipmaker, is targeting a 1.4 nanometer process by 2028.
Huang Leping, chief global technology strategy analyst at Huatai Securities, assessed that Huawei is "using architectural innovation to cover the lack of advanced manufacturing processes and equipment".
One example is Huawei's new Kirin chip, which will be released this fall. The chip will use LogicFolding, a layered architecture that shortens the main cable path and increases transistor density and efficiency.
360 Security Group founder Zhou Hongyi said China's chip industry is now beginning to answer an important question: when access to cutting-edge chip technology is restricted, is there still a second path?
However, experts warn that it is too early to call Tau Scaling Law as a replacement for Moore's Law. This theory also still needs to be tested on various types of chips, design tools, production ecosystems, and real-world use.
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