Xiaomi’s best selling Mi Band series is getting a new update tomorrow i.e. June 11. Before its official release, we have got some exciting news about the processor that powers the new Mi Band 4. Huami’s CEO, Wang Huang has just teased that the AI-powered Huangshang No.1 chip has been mass-produced. He’s likely talking about the Mi Band 4 since the official Mi Band page on Weibo has forwarded his post.
Huangshan No.1 was released late last year by Huami. The processor is said to be more efficient than ARM’s Cortex M4 based competitors. This is a really big move for Xiaomi since it would mean that the Chinese smartphone maker is trying its hands on an open-source RISC-V based processor instead of the more popular ARM alternative. The timing is also significant, since just a couple of days back, we reported that Qualcomm made a big investment in SiFive, the leading provider of RISC-V based processor IP. So, it looks like companies are increasingly looking for alternatives to ARM’s Cortex based chip designs.
The Huangshan No. 1 (MHS001) is the world’s first wearable processor that features an integrated AI-neural network. There are four core artificial intelligence engines — cardiac biometrics engine, ECG, ECG Pro, and Hearth Rhythm Abnormality Monitoring Engine.
It’s also an important milestone for Huami as well. Mi Band series has a tradition of selling millions of units. This means it will be the first time the Huangshan No.1 is mass produced in millions. Its departure from ARM-based Cortex IP is a big move, especially after what happened to Huawei and Hisilicon after the US ban.
The Mi Band 4 is already listed on Aliexpress on pre-order. You can read more about it from here.
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