Huawei has announced its desktop computer, the Qingyun W515x, built on the company’s proprietary chip, the Kirin 9000C, with an eight-core and the operating frequency up to 3.1 GHz. This new development comes as a response to the inability to use advanced Intel Alder or Raptor Lake processors due to US government sanctions.
Product Details and Features
The Qingyun W515x is an OEM PC targeting business customers. It’s housed in a thin Micro-ATX case, which only supports installation of low-profile PCIe cards. Customers can select between three device configurations: 8 GB RAM with 256 GB ROM, 8 GB RAM with 512 GB ROM, or 16 GB RAM with 512 GB ROM. Additionally, the computer comes with an NVMe M.2 PCIe interface for solid-state drive attachment.
Notable Design and Cooling Details
The computer uses a low-profile cooler to maintain the Kirin 9000C chip’s temperature below 30°C even under maximum load, with the cooling system noise level at just 21.82 dB. Interface features include three USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB Type-C, a standard audio jack, and a DVD drive in the front panel. The rear holds three audio jacks, VGA, HDMI, a serial port, four USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and one Ethernet port.
Performance Metrics
Huawei hasn’t divulged the full specifications of the Kirin 9000C chip yet. However, based on industry speculation, it is believed to be similar to the 5nm process chipset Kirin 9000S made by Chinese chipmaker SMIC. In terms of performance, the Kirin 9000C significantly falls behind the Kirin 9000, which is manufactured using the more advanced SMIC N5 process.
