Xiaomi will unveil its own mobile application processors in May, according to a report. A company official said that the in-house APU will be called Rifle and it will use a standard core license technology from British-based intellectual property firm, ARM.
APU is the combination of a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) that significantly improves the rate of data transfer between these two components. APUs are considered as the "brain" that controls computing devices, thus making them more powerful than conventional memory chips.
Currently, Xiaomi depends on Qualcomm, Samsung and MediaTek chipmakers for their processors. It will be tough for the company to immediately cut its reliance to the leading APU producers, particularly its long-time manufacturer Qualcomm, but Xiaomi sources said it is time.
The recent royalty-related fiasco involving Qualcomm has forced Xiaomi to accelerate its efforts in producing its own APU to cut down cost.
Qualcomm makes a huge profit from patent royalties paid by handset manufacturers that uses its APU and the Chinese government didn't like this idea one bit. Beijing has recently imposed heavy restrictions on Qualcomm, thus, resulting in other Chinese smartphone manufacturers to re-strategize their business.
Xiaomi's move to manufacture its own APUs is expected to pose a great threat to the demand of Qualcomm-based and Samsung-made electronics, as they are heavily reliant on the rapidly increasing APU market in China for sales. China is now the world's largest smartphone market, with more than 525 million users as of 2015.
Once Xiaomi successfully launch its own APU, it will officially join the list of smartphone manufacturers that run their own brand of processor. Samsung Electronics, which controls the biggest smartphone market share, produces Exynos SoCs APUs, followed by Apple's own brand of A-series. Huawei Technologies run its Kirin APUs, while LG Electronics has also announced that its own brand of processor is in the works.
The report by Korea Times said that Xiaomi is planning to deploy Rifle across its line of products, including smartphones, tablets and televisions. This is part of the company's strategy to drive down costs of their products and offer budget devices with improved hardware and software features.
Xiaomi, however, is still very quiet about the specifications of the Rifle. The report's source said that a big announcement is scheduled in May during one of Xiaomi's company events.
Photo: Jon Russell | Flickr
