TSMC has halted shipments to Chinese chip designer Sophgo after a chip it manufactured was reportedly found in a Huawei AI processor, according to Reuters, which cited two sources familiar with the situation.

According to Reuters, Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that were identical to those found in Huawei’s Ascend 910B processor. While Huawei faces strict U.S. export restrictions due to national security concerns, the path by which the chip reached Huawei’s product remains unknown.

Sophgo responded to the situation on Sunday with a statement on its website, firmly denying any business ties with Huawei, whether direct or indirect. The company, which has connections to crypto mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain, emphasized its strict compliance with all relevant laws, including U.S. export controls. To support its position, Sophgo submitted a detailed investigation report to TSMC demonstrating its non-involvement with Huawei.

When contacted by Reuters, TSMC declined to comment on the matter, and Huawei has not yet responded to inquiries. The U.S. Department of Commerce acknowledged it was aware of potential export control violations but would not comment on any ongoing investigations.

Huawei Sound X4 smart speaker was launched on Huawei Mall, and full pre-sale started on the same day, and the first sale of the new product started at 20:00 on October 31.

The smart speaker is available in two colors: Rhythmic Black and Dynamic White, priced at 2199 yuan and 2599 yuan respectively.

The speaker contains eight units, including 1 woofer, 4 mid-range speakers, 1 tweeter and 2 passive radiators . Officials said that the high, medium and low frequency units work within their respective frequency response ranges, giving full play to the advantages of each unit. A HUAWEI Sound X4 can bring “symphony orchestra-like” sound effects.

The speaker has obtained Hi-Res high-definition sound quality certification, which can provide more sound details and also perceive the spatial sense of the sound. Its subwoofer has a power of 50W and is also equipped with 2 passive radiators. The low frequency dives to 36Hz and has a 25mm stroke.

In addition, its high-frequency unit has a power of 3W and the mid-frequency unit has a power of 5W, and they use pure titanium diaphragm and self-developed mica fiber diaphragm respectively.

The speaker is equipped with Huawei SOUND bass enhancement algorithm, which can actively control the vibration of the speaker, reduce distortion, improve the transient response of low frequency, and achieve deep and powerful low frequency performance. It adopts Sym-Pole mirror design to offset vibration noise and bring rich bass.

In addition, it supports control methods such as one-touch, one-cover, and two-tap, which can respectively complete operations such as lighting, muting, and turning off the lights. The speaker also supports intelligent recognition of spatial structure, emitting sound waves to detect the room structure and receiving feedback, and can automatically match the sound effect scheme in the spatial scene.

Huawei’s GoPaint App was released in May this year and officially launched in August this year. The App is a digital painting software provided by Huawei. Yesterday, the app was newly adapted to 4 tablets including the MatePad Pro 11-inch 2022 model.

A user recently asked in the community for the app compatibility and support replied that “This function is expected to be supported in the first quarter of 2025.”

According to reports, the official version of GoPaint App has over 150 preset brushes, more than 80 brush parameters that can be adjusted, and fluid brushes that can restore the real pen-and-paper rendering effect. At the same time, new realistic canvas styles have been added, including watercolor, ink, oil painting, rock color, etc.

The official version of GoPaint App also has Fangtian Painting Engine 2.0 built in, supports 100+ 6K high-definition layers and 8K ultra-large canvas, and is the first to use a floating splash brush, which can splash ink by double-clicking the pen.