Xiaomi has officially unveiled its first smartphone processor during a packed launch event in the China National Convention Center.

The Beijing-based tech company is now joining giant tech firms like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei to produce its own smartphone chip. With its own chip, Xiaomi is hoping to take control of its own destiny in terms of supplying on its own. The latest move will help the company to diminish its dependency on chip suppliers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek. It would also make a difference on performance from other Android smartphones. 

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In 2014, Xiaomi has started to develop its own chip called Surge S1 under Pinecone Electronics, a Xiaomi subsidiary, and stems from a partnership with Chinese chipmaker Leadcore. The company said that it took 28 months to make the Surge S1 chipset ready.

“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,” said Xiaomi CEO and cofounder Lei Jun in a statement.

The Surge S1 has eight cores using ARM's Cortex-A53 processor. It has undergone on the 28-nanometer manufacturing process, sporting four high-performance 2.2GHz cores alongside four low-power 1.4GHz cores, and its GPU – the Mali T-860 MP4 – which is capable of 4K video playback. Moreover, the Chinese tech firm developed a dual image signal processor for photography that increases light sensitivity by up to 150 percent. 

China has been spending enough funds to develop homegrown chip makers. The latest move of Xiaomi is backed by a chip development fund from the country's technology ministry, the Beijing municipal government, and Beijing’s Zhongguancun high-tech district.

TagsXiaomi, Smartphone chip, apple, Samsung, Huawei, smartphone processor