Xiaomi has introduced Surge S1, its first in-house SoC at an event in China. Surge S1 is the first-0n-house processor by Mi and Pinecone. Xiaomi is now only the second Chinese smartphone manufacturer after Huawei to produce its own processing units. Manufacturers who have successfully developed their own chips include market leaders Samsung with its “Exynos”, Apple with its “A” series, and Huawei with its own “Kirin” processor. Xiaomi will be the 4th player joining them.
Along with a CPU, a SoC (system-on-a-chip) usually contains a GPU (a graphics processor), memory, USB controller, power management circuits, and wireless radios (WiFi, 3G, 4G LTE, and so on) into a single silicon chip.Xiaomi Mi 5c will be the first smartphone to be powered by a Surge S1 Soc.
The Surge S1 is an octa-core 64-bit processor that runs up to 2.2GHz at max frequency. It integrates an Octa-Core SoC with four high-performance ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and the other four power-efficient ARM Cortex A53 cores are clocked at 1.4GHz. It’s Mali-T860 quad-core GPU has a 40% improved power efficiency compared to the previous-gen Mali-T760. The Surge S1 Soc also features a 32-bit high performance DSP for better voice processing for calls, dual microphones for noise reduction. It also has support for VoLTE (Voice-over-LTE).
Xiaomi Surge S1 specifications
- Octa-core 64-bit chipset (4xA53 cores 2.2GHz + 4xA53 cores 1.4GHz)
- Supports device display up to 2560×1600 resolution
- 28nm High Performance Computing (HPC) process
- Mali-T860 quad-core GPU
- AFBC + ASTC image compression technology
- Dual channel LPDDR3 933MHz RAM, eMMC 5.0 Storage
- 32-bit high performance DSP for voice processing
- 14-bit dual ISP; enhanced image processing capabilities
- Surge ISP algorithm improves camera light sensitivity by 150%
- Dual noise reduction algorithm reduces noise and preserves image detail in low light
- Upgradable baseband; programmable modem, OTA upgradable
- Network -LTE Cat.4 – 5 modes 23 bands; VoLTE high definition voice and video calls
- Chip-level security; TEE architecture, strict compliance with safety regulations
According to Xiaomi, the Surge S1 Soc beats the 14nm Snapdragon 625 and both MediaTek Helio P10 as well as P20 in AnTuTu 6.0 benchmark, Geekbench 4.0 CPU multi-core benchmark and GFXBench Manhattan off-screen benchmark.
Commenting on its first in-house SoC, Lei Jun, CEO and co-founder of Xiaomi, said:
The ability to create its own chipsets is the pinnacle achievement for any smartphone company. For Xiaomi, the move is an essential next step in our development. In order to deliver on our promise to make innovation available to everyone, we need to master the core technologies of our industry and tightly integrate the development of our hardware with our software, helping us to make even better smartphones that will consistently surprise the industry and delight consumers.
