Remember Xiaomi’s first-ever self-developed processor, the Surge S1? The chip made headlines back in 2017 as it pushed the Chinese smartphone maker into the elite group of tech companies like Samsung and Huawei that could develop their own chipsets. However, after the Surge S1, we didn’t hear much about its chip development progress. The latest information from China suggests that Xiaomi has likely abandoned its chipset project.

According to an industry insider, Xiaomi is focusing its attention on other projects which are not as complicated or expensive as developing an application processor. Instead of making smartphone processors, the company is looking to develop low power Bluetooth, RF chips, and other peripheral components. He notes that this would be different from Huawei’s strategy of completely investing in its chipset business.

He further adds that Xiaomi seems to be looking for a balance between developing a competitive product and financial profit. In this regard, it is diversifying its chip business to avoid the long-term costs of research and development.

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Over the past couple of years, Xiaomi has heavily invested in a number of chip companies. Just last week, it acquired a stake in Hypower Electronics, a fast-charging chip maker. Earlier this year, Xiaomi made strategic investments in two chipset manufacturers. Last year, Xiaomi had also invested in a chip designing firm, Verisilicon.

Even before this comment from the industry insider, there were reports about Xiaomi abandoning its smartphone processor project and converting this department into an employee-owned company with shares in Xiaomi. So after considering this new information, it looks like Xiaomi has indeed given up on its self-developed chipset ambitions.

The company’s first processor, the Surge S1, received a lukewarm response. But the Surge S2 was expected to be the real star of its processor lineup featuring four Cortex-A73 powered performance cores. This would have made for an upper mid-range chip back in 2018. However, a Xiaomi executive revealed that the company had faced unexpected hurdles in its development project. At the start of 2019, he assured that the team was still working on the new chip.

But it looks like the company’s second Surge chipset may never make it to the market. Designing a smartphone chipset is an extremely complicated process, engulfed with a lot of challenges. Even the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung, with years of experience in this industry, is still unable to match Qualcomm chips in terms of efficiency.

Notably, Xiaomi has not made any official announcement regarding its chipset development since 2018.

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It will be a historic moment for Xiaomi on February 28, when the company will announce its first ever processor, the Xiaomi Pinecone at a conference in China. We have seen Xiaomi’s innovative strategies work out in almost every area where it placed its bets, but processors are not easily developed in-house. If it was easy, you would have seen lots of smartphone chipmakers in the market. But there aren’t many, and it is no surprise that only tech giants like Apple, Samsung and Huawei have managed to successfully develop commercial chipsets for its smartphones. But Xiaomi is nowhere nearly as big as these three giants and it would really be interesting to see the company’s take on its own chipsets.

There are currently a lot of questions and doubts regarding the Xiaomi Pinecone chipset and I’ll try to explain most of the questions regarding the processor in this article. Read on to know more about one of the most important products from Xiaomi till date.

XIAOMI PINECONE

Xiaomi has been eyeing to develop in-house chipsets for quite some time now and we started hearing rumors and reports about this as early as 2015. Lei Jun’s plan to make independently developed chipsets seems to have kick started after the big deal in 2014. At the start of November 2014, a company called Beijing Songguo Electronics (also called as Beijing Pinecone Electronics) entered an agreement with Leadcore Technology Ltd., a Chinese IC design company for ‘SDR1860 platform technology transfer contract’ at 103 million Yuan (~$15 million USD).

Now, initially, when Datang Group (make note of this name as it will come again) announced this deal officially, there wasn’t much thought given to its relation to Xiaomi. But soon, it was found that two of Xiaomi’s employees, who were responsible for research and technical development at Xiaomi also worked at Beijing Pinecone Electronics. This revealed that Xiaomi controlled Beijing Pinecone Electronics, which also meant the company’s plans to develop its own processor got a significant boost.

Fast forward to March 2015 and we saw the first fruit of this deal, the Xiaomi Redmi 2A. It was the first Xiaomi smartphone to be powered by a Leadcore chipset and one of the first steps towards working together with Leadcore to develop its own chip. It was one of the best super cheap smartphones of the time, costing just 599 Yuan ($88).

Since then, we haven’t really seen a Leadcore powered Xiaomi smartphone, probably because Xiaomi was busy developing its own in-house Pinecone processor. But we will surely see the fruits of the past two years on February 28.

So, now you must be wondering why would Xiaomi develop its own in-house processors, when it can continue to rely on established chipmakers like Qualcomm and Mediatek, who are experts in this field.

There are a number of possible reasons for this:

1. First of all, Xiaomi is one of the world’s top smartphone companies and its sales exceed 50 million each year. Given the high amount of smartphone sales and the prospective growth, it actually makes sense to invest money in R&D for an independent chipset. The cost of developing an in-house chip is huge and it gets distributed among the millions of units in sales. If your scale is not large enough, it wouldn’t make sense to spend so much for a self-developed processor.
2. Despite the company trying to sell more high-end smartphones, the majority of the phones sold by Xiaomi is from the low-end to mid-range segment. It is a price sensitive market and you have to make sure that your smartphone is priced aggressively in order to have an edge over the competitor. Given the rising cost of components, it becomes really hard to limit the costs to the current levels. Using an in-house chip could help in bringing down the cost. Every dollar counts in the low-end market.
3. Another good reason for developing in-house chipset is the lack of good choices available for Xiaomi. There are five major chipmakers in the smartphone market today — Qualcomm, MediaTek, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. Qualcomm chipsets are costly, so not ideal for low-end to mid-range market where prices have to be kept near cost; MediaTek’s chipsets are decent, but they are not really up to the mark as compared to Qualcomm and MTK’s reputation is not really stellar; then comes Samsung, whose chipsets are not mass produced in very large quantities (as compared to the other two) and Meizu seems to be the only notable manufacturer getting Exynos chipset orders. Finally, there’s Apple and Huawei whose processors are exclusively used by their own smartphones, so not something that Xiaomi can get hold of.
4. In-house chips could also offer Xiaomi better bargaining power from the likes of Qualcomm and MediaTek for its other models, as the two chipmakers know Xiaomi doesn’t have to rely entirely on their processors.
5. International expansion is also made possible with the help of in-house chipset with its own 4G modem. Remember Leadcore is a subsidiary of the state-owned Datang Group, which has a lot of patents under its belt.
6. Having your own processor gives you greater control over supply chain and product cycles.
7. A self-developed processor will help in better optimization of hardware and software which is very important in the best performance of the smartphone.
8. Finally, to be able to achieve something as making your own processors puts you in the big league, with the big three giants, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. It’s an elite club and will definitely enhance the overall brand image of the company. Lei Jun wants Xiaomi to be regarded as an innovative tech company and Xiaomi Pinecone along with products like the Xiaomi Mi Mix will definitely help the CEO realize this goal.

Xiaomi is reported to have had around 200-300 people employed to work on the development of its in-house chipset around early 2016. And in the initial stage, the Xiaomi Pinecone chipset is said to power the widely leaked Xiaomi Mi 5C smartphone.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note series would also be an ideal potential candidate for the Pinecone processor given it’s one of the best selling lineups of the company and is priced aggressively.

Now coming to another important part: Xiaomi Pinecone Specs

At this moment, the Xiaomi Pinecone processor is said to come in two variants — V670 and V970.

Xiaomi Pinecone V670

So, the Pinecone 1 (V670) is the less powerful version of the two and will be a mid-range chipset. Here are the rumored details of this chipset:

CPU: 4 x Cortex A53 @ 2.2GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 @ 1.7GHz

GPU: ARM Mali-T860 MP4 @800MHz

Process: SMIC 28nm HKMG

Launch: February 2017

Before we move onto the chip’s expected performance, let’s first wonder why Xiaomi Pinecone 1 is manufactured using SMIC’s 28nm process. Some would argue that Xiaomi should have used much-advanced manufacturing node, something like a 14nm process for its first ever independent processor.

There are multiple reasons for this, the major one being the cost. The Pinecone chipset should be giving Xiaomi an edge in pricing its products and the 28nm process is much cheaper than something like the 14nm / 16nm processes used by rival chipsets. Another major reason is that 28nm is enough to meet the performance of eight Cortex A53 cores. Also, Datang Holdings has invested in SMIC, so it’s easier to get a good deal for manufacturing its chipsets.

Xiaomi Pinecone (V670) Performance:

While the chip is yet to be released and tested officially, leaks suggest that the Pinecone 1 should be placed above MTK Helio P10 and Snapdragon 625 in terms of performance. We have already seen the Xiaomi Meri (another name for Xiaomi Mi 5C) on Geekbench with decent performance.

Xiaomi Pinecone V970:

The Xiaomi Pinecone V970, the flagship grade chipset is said to come with impressive specs.

CPU: 4 x Cortex A73 @ 2.7GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 @ 2.0GHz

GPU: Mali-G71 MP12 @ 900MHz

Process: 10nm Samsung

Launch: Q4 2017

Definitely looks like an interesting chipset for Xiaomi’s flagship phones, but for the time being, expect the top-end models from the company to continue using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8XX processors. At this point, we have no info on its performance but the specs definitely instill confidence in the chip.

Of course, these specs, although detailed are rumored and only after Xiaomi officially announces the Pinecone processor, we will know the exact details.

I hope this clears most of the questions regarding the company’s upcoming pinecone processors.

So, what do you think about the company’s move to release self-developed Pinecone chipset?

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Xiaomi is all set to announce its first ever processor, the Xiaomi Pinecone chipset on February 28. We already have seen a couple of warm up teasers from the company, including a poll asking fans which Pinecone logo was the best. Now, the company has released its first ever teaser video for the Xiaomi Pinecone processor.

While the video does not reveal any specific feature or specification of the processor, from the theme, it looks like Xiaomi is trying to hint that the processor will be quite powerful. Recent reports have said that the Pinecone chipset should be placed somewhere above the Mediatek P10 and near to Snapdragon 625 in terms of performance. So, it will basically be a mid-range chipset.

Despite the video showing Chinese text, the theme of the video is quite clear. In the video, Wang Feng, two-time World Memory Championship Winner, is asked to memorize two sets of 100 numbers shown on two large displays. While this would be an impossible feat for a regular human being, Fang is different as he is a mnemonist, and can recall unusually long list of data. So, unsurprisingly, in the video, he managed to write down the entire set of data, in proper sequence without much trouble.

RELATED: Xiaomi Pinecone Processor Could Come in Two Versions

Note that memorizing this much data isn’t a big deal for Wang as he holds three world records — recalling 300 of 400 spoken numbers, memorizing 500 numbers in five minutes and 2660 numbers in an hour!

We can expect Xiaomi to release more such interesting video teasers for its Pinecone chipset in the coming days.

To recap, recent rumors state that the Xiaomi Pinecone processor will feature 8 x Cortex A53 architecture with integrated baseband (Cat. 6 support). We’ll get full details about the chipset at the big event on February 28.

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A couple of weeks back, we came across a new report which said that Xiaomi was working on its own independent processor. The new Xiaomi chip was expected to debut sometime early 2016. Now, we have some new information about the chip.

It is said that Xiaomi will release two different versions of its independent processor. The first one will be a low-end chip which will be used in the company’s super cheap Redmi series. Xiaomi will particularly focus on decreasing the cost of the chip. This would be ideal for the company in the low-end segment as it can reduce the price tag to even a lower level. Of course, this won’t be good news for its direct competitors like Meizu, who still relies on third party chipset manufacturers.

The second version is said to be a higher-end octa-core chip which will go inside its mid-range devices. However, the source stresses that Xiaomi will still rely on Qualcomm made processors for its high-end models. So, premium devices like the Xiaomi Mi Note and Mi5 will most likely use Qualcomm’s flagship chipsets.

The company is expected to release the new chips in 2016, which is still a few months away. But until then, we are sure to come across more information about these independent Xiaomi chipsets. So, stay tuned for more information.

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According to latest reports, Xiaomi is currently developing its own, independent processor. The company has already experimented with a Chinese chip maker for its super cheap Redmi 2A smartphone and taking account of its success, it is said that this Chinese startup is all set to release its first processor by early 2016.

The Redmi 2A which was launched back in April came with Leadcore’s LC1860C quad-core chipset. The performance of the chip was similar to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 but it costed the company way less. As a result, Xiaomi was able sell the device for only 499 Yuan! Naturally, this helped the company sell more than 5.1 million units of the device in the first three months alone.

It is said that Xiaomi wants to overcome the various drawbacks in its smartphones by launching its own chipset. The new Xiaomi processor will be used in low-end Redmi series phones. On the other hand, the high-end devices like the Xiaomi Mi 5 will continue to use Qualcomm’s flagship chipsets (Snapdragon 820?).

Xiaomi has also reportedly acquired the full range of ARM core licenses. Further, the company recently hired the former Qualcomm China President Wang Xiang, which should definitely help it achieve its goal.

Although the company is yet to announce anything officially, this could indeed turn out to be true. All major manufacturers are increasingly becoming independent when it comes to the use of processors. Samsung, Huawei, Apple are some of the company’s direct competitors who use their own chipsets inside their devices. Given that Xiaomi has a habit of making moves pretty quickly, this does seem possible.

Anyways, what do you think about such a move from Xiaomi? Is this best for the company to rely on its own processor for its low-end devices?

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Xiaomi is one of Chinese smartphone vendor, after they sucessfully to lauch Xiaomi Hongmi smartphone, and got the 100 thousand unit of smartphone in just 86 second, is now Xiaomi is working on ttheir own chipset.

According Micpu website, Xiaomi is now working to built their own 16 core mobile processor. There is an image that showing the Xiaomi M3V1 chipset.

The image described that the chipset uses 16 core processor with up to 5.0 GHz clock-speed, built with 14 nm architecture, total 32M cache and reinforced with a GTX780 GPU. This specs is too high for today’s smartphone.

According to that information, Xiaomi is ready to announced this processor in December 19th along with the new Xiaomi router product device. If this true, the 16 core processor from Xiaomi is the fastest and highest processor in the world and it’s seem will broke the new record in mobile era.

What do ​​you think will really is going to start to produce such a processors? Whether we need something like that on smartphones ?

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