The world is in a precarious geopolitical mess, and we live in an age where hegemonies can be a dangerous thing.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Huawei shook the technology world with two announcements.
Huawei Innovates Around Chip Act
China and the US haven’t engaged in open warfare, but battling each other across cyberspace has been no secret.
The passage of the US Chip Act has led to a ban of high performing microprocessors and CPUs being sold to China, Russia, and other foreign adversaries. The policy also limited exports of advanced chipsets and components used in microchip manufacturing.
On the front side, this seemed like a good idea of keeping the good stuff home and not letting it fall into bad hands. The policy would shut China and Russia out from getting their hands on advanced chips used for AI and other high tech applications. The reality is drastically different.
After waging a trade war on Huawei that started during the Trump administration, the company was forced to innovate on its own without many resources at its disposal.
Last week, Huawei announced the Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro. Two 5G enabled smartphones with satellite capability built from the ground up using Huawei’s processor technology. Huawei boasts they are using a 7-nanometer lithography process to produce its processors. Processor design performance is typically measured by how closely components can fit next to each other on a sheet of silicon. The latest state of the art and smallest spacing is IBM’s 2-nanometer process. That’s just 5 atoms of spacing between components.
The Mate 60 is regaled as a super phone and is poised to help Huawei return to high performance hardware. The phone has a 6.2 inch screen, a 5G chip, 1TB of storage, and an OLED screen. It’s definitely designed to compete, and on its own terms with its own operating system.
Speaking of which.
Huawei’s second announcement was aimed squarely at the discount computer market. HarmonyOS, the same operating system running on its phones, is compatible with Intel and AMD processor computers. Huawei’s is taking aim at Microsoft and has loudly proclaimed HarmonyOS can run on PCs.
Is Windows in Trouble?
HarmonyOS is gunning for Windows. Many have tried and failed. An operating system has to be a significant game changer and redefine human interaction in order to dethrone the Windows macOS hegemony.
I wish them luck, but I’m not convinced.
What I am convinced of is the mistake sanctions have played out in the marketplace. Sanctions were placed on Huawei and TikTok with the motives of punishing Chinese companies, and instead they’ve gone ahead to build their own stuff. Potentially pushing themselves ahead of us.
Invention is the product of necessity and we’ve seen two cases where countries with resources don’t need US or Western markets for their economies.
We need to rethink how we treat the rest of the world. The US may be the lone superpower, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is helpless. Countries are trading and helping each other every day. We need to remember that.
You can buy the Mate 60 for $1,500 on eBay.