Xiaomi Forms A Special Division Of Chip Platforms, Ready To Produce Its Own Processor For Smartphones

Xiaomi is ready to launch its first self-developed smartphone processor (photo: x @gizmochina)

JAKARTA - Xiaomi is getting serious in its efforts to be independent in the semiconductor sector by forming a special department of chip platforms under their mobile product division. This move marks the company's commitment to strengthening control over core components in their smartphones, following long-term ambitions to manufacture its own chips.

The new Division will be led by Qin Muyun, former senior director of Qualcomm, who will report directly to Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi. This appointment signifies Xiaomi's seriousness in building a strong and experienced team in developing System-on-Chip (SoC) independently.

Xiaomi has actually started its first step in the chip design world since 2017 through the launch of the S1 Driver, an 8-core 64-bit processor based on the 28nm process. This chip was first present on the Xiaomi 5C phone, but the product failed to compete on the market and the S1 line disappeared from radar.

Despite failing in the first attempt, Xiaomi has not given up. In recent years, they have launched various internal specialist chips to manage important features in mobile phones, including:

C Series for image processing (ISP)

P Series for fast charging

G Series for power management

T Series for signal improvement

D Series for screen display control

Although it does not cover the main processor, these chips are an important stepping stone for Xiaomi in building expertise in various aspects of mobile hardware.

Recent reports indicate that Xiaomi is ready to launch its own first self-developed smartphone processor, and will reportedly be in the near-sign flagship class.

This chip is rumored to be carrying an octa-core CPU configuration with the ARM architecture as follows:

1x Cortex X925 at 3.2GHz

3x Cortex A725 At 2.6GHz

4x Cortex A520 At 2.0GHz

This configuration is similar to MediaTek's Dimensity 9000 chip, although Xiaomi uses performance cores and efficiency from previous generations. This means its performance is likely not the equivalent of the cutting-edge flagship, but is very competitive for sub-flagship classes.

On the graphics side, Xiaomi chips are said to be relying on Imagination Technologies IMG DXT72 GPU at 1.3GHz. Interestingly, the initial estimate states that this GPU can outperform Snapdragon 8 Gen 2's Adreno, making this chip potentially powerful for gaming and other heavy tasks.

This latest move strengthens Xiaomi's position in reducing dependence on external chip vendors such as Qualcomm and MediaTek. If successful, Xiaomi could more freely regulate production costs, feature integration, and software-hardware optimization on their phones.

By building the chip independently, Xiaomi wants to follow the steps of major rivals such as Apple with series A chips, and Samsung with Exynos, who have already developed an in-house SoC for their devices.

The move not only marks a new chapter for Xiaomi, but also signals that competition in the mobile semiconductor industry will be even tighter in the next few years.