Xiaomi introduces the Surge S1, its first in-house SoC

After smartphones, tablets, PCs, drones, air purifiers and more, Xiaomi has set foot into a new territory, making it debuts in the mobile device chip market joining the likes of world's top smartphone manufacturers, Samsung, Apple and Huawei, who design and develop their own chip for their devices. Xiaomi is also the second second Chinese smartphone manufacturer only after Huawei to produce its own processing units. 

Xiaomi's first ever SoC is called Surge S1 and is developed in partnership with Pincecone, and will make its debut with the Mi 5c.

The Surge S1 is an octa-core 64-bit chipset with 4 x high performance ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and 4 x power-efficient ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHz. It has big.LITTLE structure for efficient usage of the eight cores. The chip is built using TSMC's 28nm process technology and has “lower power consumption for daily use,”. It packs quad-core ARM Mali T860 GPU with 40 percent improved power efficiency when compared to Mali-T760. 

Xioami says it took 28 months to plan, manufacture and integrate Surge S1 into a device in large scale. The company also shared GeekBench 4.0 CPU multi-core benchmark and GFXBench Manhattan off-screen benchmark, according to which, Surge S1 beats Qualcomm's 14nm Snapdragon 625 chip, MediaTek's Helio P10 and Helio P20 in terms of performance.

The chip has 32-bit high performance DSP for better voice processing for calls and dual microphone for noise reduction. It integrates 14-bit dual ISP to enhance image processing capabilities and Xiaomi's Surge ISP algorithm to improve light sensitivity by up to 150 percent  and the dual noise reduction algorithm also preserves detail in low light. The chip also supports VoLTE and has an upgradable baseband. 

Xiaomi Surge S1 processor specifications
Octa-core 64-bit chipset (4xA53 cores 2.2GHz + 4xA53 cores 1.4GHz)
28nm High Performance Computing (HPC) process
Mali-T860 quad-core GPU
AFBC + ASTC image compression technology
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
VoLTE high quality call and video support
Chip-level security; TEE architecture, strict compliance with safety regulations

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative