The long-rumored new self-developed smartphone SoC from Xiaomi has finally been officially announced!
On the evening of May 15, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced via Weibo that Xiaomi’s self-developed smartphone SoC chip is named “Xuanjie O1” and will be officially released in late May this year. However, Lei Jun did not disclose more details about the “Xuanjie O1”.
In fact, back in February 2017, Xiaomi officially released its first self-developed smartphone chip, the Surge S1, which was first launched in the Xiaomi 5C, making it the fourth smartphone brand in the world to have its own smartphone chip after Apple, Samsung, and Huawei.
Unfortunately, the Surge S1 did not succeed in the market due to its weak baseband capabilities (it did not support Unicom’s 3G and 4G network standards and did not support all network standards of Telecom). However, the subsequent development of the Surge S2 was reported to have encountered multiple tape-out failures, leading Xiaomi to temporarily abandon the development of smartphone SoCs. Subsequently, Xiaomi shifted its focus to the development of relatively simpler peripheral chips for smartphones, such as ISP chips (Surge C series), fast charging chips (Surge P series), battery management chips (Surge G series), and signal enhancement chips (Surge T series).
It wasn’t until 2021 that Xiaomi re-established a chip design subsidiary—Shanghai Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xuanjie”), which not only has a registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan but is also directly led by Xiaomi’s Senior Vice President Zeng Xuezhong, who was previously the CEO of domestic smartphone chip manufacturer Unisoc. In June 2023, Xuanjie Technology also increased its capital, raising its registered capital from 1.5 billion yuan to 1.92 billion yuan. In October of the same year, Beijing Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 3 billion yuan, also led by Zeng Xuezhong. Rumors indicate that Xuanjie currently has a research and development team of over 1,000 people.
The officially announced “Xuanjie O1” is developed by Xuanjie, which is why Xiaomi’s new self-developed smartphone SoC does not continue to use the previous “Surge” series naming but is named “Xuanjie”.
According to previous rumors, Xiaomi’s “Xuanjie O1” may adopt a 3nm process. Currently, only TSMC, Samsung, and Intel have the capability for 3nm process foundry, but Samsung’s 3nm process has a low yield, and Intel’s Intel 3 currently seems to have no external customers, so it is highly likely that the Xuanjie O1 is based on TSMC’s 3nm process. However, there have also been rumors that O1 is based on TSMC’s N4P process.
Some may say that TSMC’s advanced processes have been cut off from domestic supply, but this is not the case. The restrictions currently imposed by the United States mainly target AI chips, and consumer chips are not restricted.
According to the latest restrictions announced by the U.S. BIS on January 15, 2025, any logic IC produced using “16/14nm nodes” or below advanced processes, or using non-planar transistor architecture, and whose packaging contains “aggregate approximate transistor counts” exceeding the specified limits (such as export, re-export, or domestic transfer in the specified year), or as described above, if the “front-end manufacturer” or “OSAT” (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) company cannot confirm the final packaged item’s “aggregate approximate transistor count”, then the item is assumed to be a data center product under ECCN 3A090.a rules, which will be subject to export controls.
Unless the following three conditions are met:
(a) The “aggregate approximate transistor count” of the final packaged IC is less than 30 billion transistors, or
(b) The final packaged IC does not contain high bandwidth memory (HBM), and the “aggregate estimated transistor count” of the final packaged integrated circuit is below 35 billion transistors in any export, re-export, or transfer (domestic) completed by 2027; or
(c) Any export, re-export, or transfer (domestic) completed after 2029 exceeds 40 billion transistors. This overcomes the assumption of ICs specified in ECCN 3A090.a.
In simple terms, if a chip’s final packaged transistor count exceeds 30 billion transistors (relaxed to 40 billion transistors after 2029), or if the packaging contains high bandwidth memory (HBM) leading to a transistor count exceeding 35 billion, it will be restricted; otherwise, it will not be restricted. Therefore, as long as the smartphone chips and intelligent driving chips of domestic companies are not on the U.S. blacklist, they can still utilize TSMC’s advanced processes for foundry.
Regarding the core configuration of the Xuanjie O1, since the current smartphone SoC ecosystem is based on the Arm architecture, the Xuanjie O1 will also be based on the Arm architecture. According to previous leaks, the Xuanjie O1 may adopt an 8-core or 10-core tri-cluster CPU architecture design, benefiting from the 3nm process, with the super-large core using Arm’s currently strongest Cortex-X925 CPU super-large core, and also integrating Arm’s strongest Immortalis-G925 GPU, potentially comparable to or stronger than the Snapdragon 8 Gen2. The baseband chip may use an external MediaTek or Unisoc 5G baseband chip.
In summary, if the above information is true, Xiaomi’s Xuanjie O1 is expected to become the first 3nm process chip in the country and will also be the strongest domestic smartphone SoC.
Editor: Chip Intelligence – Wandering Sword
Previous Exciting Articles
Interpretation of the Latest U.S. AI Restriction Policy: Why is Huawei’s Ascend Chip Banned Globally?Former Chairman of Unisoc Zhao Weiguo Sentenced to Death with a Two-Year Suspension!Rumored New Kai is Seeking $2.8 Billion in Financing, Valuation Has Reached $11 Billion!Chip Shine Obtains Investment from Xinhua News Agency and Others! Biran Technology and Suiruan Technology Also Received New Investments!U.S. Revokes “AI Diffusion Rules”, Plans to Ban Huawei AI Chips Globally!China and the U.S. Cancel 91% Tariffs, Suspend 24% Tariffs, What Impact on the Semiconductor Industry?Malaysia’s GPU Imports Surge by 3400%, U.S. Worried About Final Destination!5nm, 10-core, Has Lenovo Developed Its Own Processor?South Korea and the U.S. Cut Off HBM Manufacturing Equipment to China?From “Cut Off” to “Breakthrough”: Huawei’s HarmonyOS Computer Opens a New Chapter in Domestic PCsProduction Line Encountered Unexpected Situations, SMIC’s Q1 Performance Below ExpectationsAccumulated Losses of 4.58 Billion Yuan Over 8 Years, CloudWalk Technology Lays Off Staff to Survive!Jensen Huang: Missing the Chinese AI Chip Market Will Cause “Huge Losses”!Wistron Announces $725 Million Investment in “Made in America”!To Combat Smuggling, the U.S. Plans to Mandate Location Tracking Technology in NVIDIA AI Chips!The U.S. is About to Impose Semiconductor Tariffs: Rates May Reach 100%?
For industry communication and cooperation, please add WeChat: icsmart01
Chip Intelligence Official Communication Group: 221807116