Xiaomi's Proprietary Flagship Mobile SoC Reportedly Downgraded to TSMC "N4P"

[T0@st]

According to reports from last year, Xiaomi was expected to unveil an oft-rumored proprietary mobile chipset design at some point in 2025. By October 2024, the Chinese technology giant allegedly reached the tape-out phase of its first 3 nm SoC—at the time, insiders posited that Xiaomi was seeking a manufacturing partner. Months earlier, a prototype design was linked to TSMC's 4 nm "N4P" node process—this rumor raised many smartphone watchdog eyebrows. Unlike many other Chinese firms, Xiaomi was reportedly allowed to select a fairly advanced manufacturing process at Taiwan's premier foundry service. In a past weekend news article, Wccftech outlined interesting circumstances: "(US) export controls have yet to affect Xiaomi, which is supposedly on track to launch its first in-house chipset later this year. However, while we reported last year that the company was scheduled to unveil its custom 3 nm SoC in 2025, we were disappointed to learn just the specifications of this version that will utilize TSMC's 'N4P' process. According to more details, this silicon will not sport any homegrown cores like Qualcomm has adopted for the Snapdragon 8 Elite."

Late last week, Jukanlosreve highlighted another leaker's prediction—regarding the technological foundations of Xiaomi's mystery flagship mobile processor. Fixed Focus Digital's Weibo post mentioned the "N4P" node, as well the utilization of current generation Arm Cortex-X925, Cortex-A725 and Cortex-A520 units. A speculated Imagination Technologies "IMG DXT 72-2304" integrated graphics solution is touted to outperform Qualcomm's Adreno 740 iGPU; as featured in their Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (2022) SoC. As highlighted by Wccftech's report, one of the publication's associates has deemed Fixed Focus Digital to be an unreliable source of inside track info. In response to Jukanlosreve's tweeted question, Mochamad Farido Fanani opined: "that's right, how does Xiaomi use N4P in its new chipset? But this guy always guesses blindly." Older leaks—based on "N4P" rumors—projected performance levels roughly on par with Qualcomm's first generation Snapdragon 8 chip. This model was introduced at the tail end of 2021.



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[Denver]

In January 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense designated Xiaomi as a "Communist Chinese military company," leading to investment restrictions. However, by May 2021, following legal challenges, Xiaomi was removed from this blacklist, lifting the associated restrictions.

Chinese companies do not have access to TSMC, Xiaomi is an exception to the sanctions for some random reason. Sometimes, I wonder if the world was ever meant to make sense.

 

[Dr. Dro]

This news piece reads like the newspaper from Sim City 2000, and I love it

 

[tabascosauz]

8 Gen 1 performance?? Big yikes, that does not sound like a reliable leak

I've always had a soft spot for Xiaomi mainly due to being somewhat less "Chinese" in general design sensibilities and embracing the rom community fairly openly. Hope that doesn't change but I don't have much hope nowadays