Huawei is already selling the motherboard, details below. It runs Linux and connects to standard PC components. Deng Li says it will come out with the next version of Hongmeng/Harmony, possibly in August.
It runs on the Kunpeng 920, Huawei’s own processor based on ARM cores. Measured by performance, it’s a hot chip, with some tests scoring higher than Intel. On the other hand, it’s cool, drawing less power than the comparable Intel chips. It’s already widely used in servers.
ARM designs are in almost every mobile phone chip, including Huawei and Qualcomm. They draw considerably less power than Intel and numerous companies have adapted them for servers.
Amazon has its own version, the Graviton2. Ampere and Marvel also are selling ARM server chips. Intel has only held on to market share in the cloud by selling Xeons for half what it charges in other markets.
For more than a decade, China has tried to develop its own PC chip. Kunpeng is an advanced 7 nm processor with a good track record.
This may be China’s time.
From the company
The industry’s highest-performance ARM-based server CPU to date
Huawei Kunpeng 920 is the industry’s highest-performance ARM-based server CPU to date. Using the cutting-edge 7nm process, the CPU was independently designed by Huawei based on ARMv8 architecture license. It significantly improves processor performance by optimizing branch prediction algorithms, increasing the number of execution units, and improving the memory subsystem architecture and so on. At typical frequency, the Huawei Kunpeng 920 CPU scores over 930 in the SPECint Benchmarks test, which is 25% higher than the industry benchmark. At the same time, power efficiency is 30% better than that offered by industry counterparts. Huawei Kunpeng 920 provides much higher computing performance for data centers while slashing power consumption.
Huawei Kunpeng Desktop Board
Developed based on the Huawei Kunpeng 920 processor, the Kunpeng desktop board is compatible with mainstream hardware such as memory, hard drives, and network interface cards (NICs). It supports the Linux desktop operating system and provides reference design for chassis, heat dissipation, and power supply. The Kunpeng desktop board features high performance, rich interfaces, high reliability, and ease of use.
High performanceRuns on the Huawei Kunpeng 920 processor, which integrates the bridge chipset, and Ethernet, SAS and PCIe controllers to provide powerful computing.
High reliabilityThe Kunpeng 920 processor supports various Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) features and error-correcting code memory (ECC memory), meeting server-level reliability requirements.
High energy efficiencyUses efficient on-board Voltage Regulator-Down (VRD) to reduce power loss in DC/DC conversion; supports intelligent fan speed tuning and processor frequency adjustment for lower power consumption.
Specifications
| Parameter | Specifications |
| Board Model | D920S10 |
| Processors | 1 Kunpeng 920 processor, 4/8 cores, 2.6 GHz |
| Internal Storage | 6 SATA 3.0 hard drive interfaces, 2 M.2 SSD slots |
| Memory | 4 DDR4-2666 UDIMM slots, up to 64 GB |
| PCIe Expansion | 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x4, and 1 PCIe 3.0 x1 slots |
| LOM Network Ports | 2 LOM NIC, supporting GE network ports or optical ports |
| USB | 4 USB 3.0 and 4 USB 2.0 |