HiSilicon Kirin 955 vs HiSilicon Kirin 980

The HiSilicon Kirin 955 and Kirin 980 are two powerful processors developed by HiSilicon. Let's compare their specifications to see the improvements made with the Kirin 980.

Starting with the architecture, the Kirin 955 consists of 4x 2.5 GHz Cortex-A72 cores and 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 cores. On the other hand, the Kirin 980 features 2x 2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 cores, 2x 1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 cores, and 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. The Kirin 980, therefore, offers a more diverse range of cores, including the powerful Cortex-A76, which provides enhanced performance and efficiency compared to the A72 and A53 cores found in the Kirin 955.

Both processors have 8 cores, which allows for improved multitasking and handling of complex tasks. Additionally, they both support the ARMv8-A instruction set, ensuring compatibility and optimization with modern software.

Moving on to the lithography, the Kirin 955 is manufactured using a 16 nm process, while the Kirin 980 utilizes a more advanced 7 nm process. The smaller lithography of the Kirin 980 results in improved power efficiency and better performance. Furthermore, the Kirin 980 contains around 6900 million transistors, which is a substantial increase compared to the 2000 million transistors found in the Kirin 955. This increase allows for more advanced and complex operations to be executed efficiently.

In terms of power consumption, the Kirin 955 has a thermal design power (TDP) of 5 Watts, while the Kirin 980 has a slightly higher TDP of 6 Watts. Despite the slightly increased power consumption, the Kirin 980 compensates for it by offering significant improvements in performance.

One notable addition to the Kirin 980 is the presence of the HiSilicon Dual NPU (Neural Processing Unit). This dedicated neural processing capability enhances AI-related tasks and improves the efficiency of machine learning algorithms.

Overall, the HiSilicon Kirin 980 surpasses the Kirin 955 in various aspects. With its more advanced architecture, smaller lithography, increased number of transistors, and the addition of a neural processing unit, the Kirin 980 provides improved performance, power efficiency, and AI capabilities.