“Tao (τ) Law” Breaks New Ground in Semiconductor Technology

Tingbo He delivering a keynote address at ISCAS 2026

On May 25, 2026, Tingbo He, a Huawei board member and president of its semiconductor business, delivered a keynote address at ISCAS 2026.

The semiconductor industry has long faced slowing geometric transistor scaling, diminishing cost benefits, and barriers to advancing conventional fabrication processes. To meet exponentially growing demand for computing performance, the global chip industry urgently needs a new, sustainable path forward. The proposed Tao (τ) Law offers a solution to this industry challenge.

On May 25, 2026, Tingbo He, a Huawei board member and president of its semiconductor business, delivered the keynote “Exploring and Practicing a New Semiconductor Path” at the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2026). She introduced Tao (τ) Law as a new principle for semiconductor development. Addressing the physical limits and economic challenges facing Moore's Law, it replaces geometric scaling with time (τ) scaling. Innovations such as LogicFolding reduce signal propagation delays and increase transistor density, opening a new path for the continued evolution of semiconductors and electronic systems. It marks the first time China has proposed a guiding principle for the global semiconductor industry.

Research Results

Newest first

09-04

2026

V1 ChinaXiv:202609.00031

Huawei's τ Chip Was Supposed to Melt?

                            Version Highlights:
                            Examines thermal management in folded silicon using measured power consumption and temperatures at matched performance on the Kirin 2026 NPU, GPU, and CPU.
                        

Heat is the sharpest concern on τ scaling law — the time-scaling principle behind Huawei’s folded silicon, named for the delay τ (“Tao”) it sets out to shrink. Our Kirin measurements turned that objection upside down. The reason is one every commuter already knows: on a chip, as in a workday, it is the travel that burns the majority of the energy, not the work at the desk.

Tingbo He · Electronics and Communications Technology

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07-03

2026

V2 ChinaXiv:202605.00224V2

A time scaling theory for multi-layer electronic systems

                            Version Highlights:
                            Adds LogicFolding gear ratios and Kirin 2026 production data, and outlines future engineering roadmaps for Kirin and Ascend.
                        

For six decades, Moore's geometric scaling drove progress in semiconductors. That industry compact no longer holds. This perspective argues for a successor scaling principle — τ scaling — that adopts time itself, rather than transistor area, as the primary metric of progress. On a mobile SoC, LogicFolding delivers a 55% step-wise increase in transistor density and a 41% power-efficiency gain at a fixed device node.

Tingbo He · Electronics and Communications Technology

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05-25

2026

V1 ChinaXiv:202605.00224V1

A time scaling theory for multi-layer electronic systems

                            Version Highlights:
                            Introduces the τ-scaling theoretical framework presented at ISCAS 2026, replacing geometric scaling with a characteristic time constant as a new principle for industry development.
                        

τ scaling is the first scaling principle since Dennard to give the whole computing stack one shared optimization target: shrink the delay τ. This ChinaXiv first release accompanies the ISCAS 2026 keynote Exploring and Practicing a New Semiconductor Path, replacing geometric shrink with time shrink.

Tingbo He · Electronics and Communications Technology

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