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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

+hardware
+techonomics

Move over, Qualcomm [wikipedia.org] and MediaTek [wikipedia.org]. Here comes Xiaomi [arstechnica.com]:

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal [wsj.com], Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is looking to join the ranks of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei by developing its own smartphone chips. The report says the move is part of "aspirations to join the top tier" of smartphone manufacturers and an attempt to stand out from the slew of other OEMs.

For now, Xiaomi's processor is apparently called "Pinecone," and it will be released "within a month" according to the report. This might be talking about the processor of the Xiaomi Mi 6, which, if Xiaomi keeps to the usual yearly release cycle, should be out sometime in March. Xiaomi's chip design division isn't coming from nowhere—using a shell company called "Beijing Pinecone Electronics," Xiaomi paid $15 million to acquire mobile processor technology from Datang subsidiary Leadcore Technology Ltd.

Also at TechCrunch [techcrunch.com] and Engadget [engadget.com].

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