A chip manufacture machine Photo: VCG

UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings said that its latest chip architecture, Armv9, is not subject to the US's Export Administration Regulations (EAR), which means it is able to be licensed to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. 

According to a report by yicai.com, Arm said it has IPs originates from the US as well as outside the US, and after thorough investigations, it confirmed that the Armv9 architecture is not under the rule of EAR, the US restrictions on supplying Huawei.

It is good news for Huawei and its chip arm, Hisilicon, which is blacklisted by the US government, but the significance might be limited as the Chinese company still faces pressures finding chip manufacturers, Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"It is a small success for Huawei. The Arm architecture is a basic framework for chip design," Xiang said, "The Kirin 990 chip, for example, is built based on the Arm's design architecture."

It is not the first time that Arm has decided to continue supplying chip technology to Huawei. In 2019, Huawei secured a lifelong license of the Armv8-A architecture from the chip designer.

Arm disclosed some details about the latest Armv9 architecture, and the company expects will be used in over 300 billion chips in the coming years.. 

Huawei still faces pressure from the US government restricting its technological supplies. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's biggest contract chipmaker, has also stopped taking new manufacturing orders from Huawei. 

Global Times