Xiaomi partners with Leadcore to manufacture custom-designed processors

With most handset makers using home grown chips in their mobile devices, Xiaomi is contemplating a similar move.

The China-based firm wants custom-designed processors to be used in its devices, to differentiate its product, confirmed an executive of Leadcore Technology, the Chinese fabless semiconductor company, which Xiaomi chose to manufacture the chip, instead of creating its in-house chip designing team, suggests an EE Times report.

The Leadcore Technology is owned by China's Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group.

"Leadcore is working with China's fastest growing smartphone company on all three different level -- product, technology and patent," Marshal Cheng, vice president of Leadcore mentioned in a meeting at China's industry gathering, and further added that Xiaomi's strategy shift is "inevitable". This will be a huge move for the handset maker, considering it massive product shipment. Last year, the company shipped 61.12 million units worldwide.

Moreover, Cheng rubbished rumours that surfaced last year stating Xiaomi was making an investment of 51% in Leadcore and said, "It's not possible. One third of our parent group-Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group is still state-owned."

Last month Xiaomi rolled out a new smartphone, the Redmi 2A. The Redmi 2 and 2A support 4G, but while the former uses Snapdragon 410, the latter uses Leadcore's LC1860, built around up to 2GHz hexa-core Cortex-A7 architecture, paired with Mali T628 graphics unit.

The chip is designed using the 28nm process and supports up to 2K resolution. It supports 1080p video at 60fps and LTE, 3G and GSM support in terms of connectivity.

[Source: EE Times via Gforgames]