Hisilicon Kirin 980 Driver
The HiSilicon Kirin 980, announced by HiSilicon (Huawei’s semiconductor subsidiary) in August 2018, represents a landmark SoC (system on chip) in mobile silicon: it was the first commercially announced mobile SoC built on TSMC’s 7 nm manufacturing node and the first to incorporate Arm’s Cortex-A76 CPU cores and Mali-G76 GPU in a mobile product. The Kirin 980 combined leading-edge process technology, heterogeneous CPU topology, advanced multi-core GPU, dedicated NPU (neural processing unit), and a broad set of integrated control and multimedia subsystems to push performance, energy efficiency, and AI capabilities in smartphones of its era.
The HiSilicon Kirin 980 remains a masterclass in mobile silicon engineering. Its enduring relevance is directly tied to the efficiency of its driver stack. By maintaining a highly optimized translation layer between sophisticated hardware clusters and evolving operating systems, HiSilicon ensured that the Kirin 980 continues to deliver fluid performance, robust AI processing, and efficient power management years after its debut.
Since 2019, HiSilicon has faced severe restrictions on manufacturing and official software distribution channels involving US technology.
Occasionally, Huawei/Honor releases GPU optimization packages through the AppGallery under system apps. hisilicon kirin 980 driver
The HiSilicon Kirin 980, launched by Huawei, stands out as a landmark system-on-a-chip (SoC). It was the world's first commercial 7nm processor, introducing dual Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and Mali-G76 graphics to the mobile market.
As developers work with Kirin 980–powered devices—whether for custom ROM development, Linux porting, or embedded system optimization—understanding the driver ecosystem is essential. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of every major driver component in the Kirin 980 platform, from GPU and NPU drivers to CPU frequency scaling and peripheral controllers, along with practical installation, troubleshooting, and performance tuning guidance.
Kirin 980 is in mainline Linux, but work is ongoing. The HiSilicon Kirin 980, announced by HiSilicon (Huawei’s
Open the application and navigate to > Drivers .
| Component | Driver Type | Source | Availability | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Kernel Driver | ARM / Linux Mainline | High (Open Source) | | GPU (Mali-G76) | Proprietary Blob | ARM / HiSilicon | Medium (Extracted from Firmware) | | NPU (Neural Engine) | Proprietary Blob | HiSilicon | Low (Proprietary HiAI SDK only) | | Modem (Balong 765) | Proprietary RIL | HiSilicon | Low (Firmware Extraction Required) | | USB Interface | Android ADB Driver | Google / Huawei | High (Standard Android Drivers) |
| Component | Driver Type | Typical Source | |-----------|-------------|----------------| | CPU | ARM architecture, PSCI, cpufreq | Mainline Linux + vendor hooks | | GPU | Mali GPU kernel driver (Panfrost? No – uses proprietary Mali r25+ userspace) | ARM Mali Driver + Android Gralloc/HWUI | | NPU | Proprietary HiAI driver | /dev/hisi_npu – closed source | | Display | Kirin DPU (Display Processing Unit) | hisi_drm driver | | Camera | ISP + MIPI CSI-2 | himax , hisi_camera | | Audio | Digital Signal Processor (Hi6403) | hisi_mailbox , ALSA SoC | | Storage | UFS 2.1 + f2fs/ext4 | Standard UFS driver | | Sensors | I2C/SPI | Vendor-specific HAL | | Modem | MBIM/QMI over shared memory | hisi_rmnet , hisi_bsp | Its enduring relevance is directly tied to the
If you are having trouble updating a specific device (e.g., Mate 20 vs. P30 Pro), please let me know your model number, and I can check if there's a specialized driver package available. Share public link
: Drivers for the CPU, Mali-G76 GPU, and Dual NPU are updated through standard Over-the-Air (OTA) EMUI or HarmonyOS system updates. There is no official portal to download these individual component drivers. USB/ADB Drivers : If you need to connect a
No separate driver installation is needed. The kernel (based on Linux 4.14 or 4.19) already contains all hardware drivers.
The most unique aspect of the Kirin 980 is its Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This chip was famous for migrating from third-party IP (like Cambricon on the Kirin 970) to Huawei's custom in-house .