Xiaomi launches self-developed chips again, taking the lead in comprehensive technological breakthroughs

"By replacing one manual worker with a robotic arm, one assembly line has reduced five work stations, and each machine has saved 30 seconds of assembly time on average, saving up to one million in OEM fees." The Xiaomi smart factory located in Yizhuang, Beijing is the product of Xiaomi's use of the Internet to empower the manufacturing industry. It can realize fully automated unmanned dark-light production in the entire factory's production management process, mechanical processing process, and packaging, storage and transportation process.

According to the plan, Xiaomi's smart factory is designed to have an annual production capacity of one million. In addition to serving as a dedicated production line for Xiaomi's high-end flagship products, it also focuses on the trial development of new processes, pre-research projects, output of benchmark standard processes, and research and development of automated equipment. It is a test field for Xiaomi's high-end products.

In fact, domestic technology companies have recently taken action to tackle technological problems. Industry experts said that "intelligent manufacturing" like Xiaomi's smart factory has truly penetrated into the deep field of manufacturing, and the high-end manufacturing industry based on "intelligent manufacturing" will help lay a solid foundation for the future "new real economy".

Xiaomi's smart factory in Beijing is also known as the "dark factory": the entire factory's production management process, mechanical processing process, packaging, storage and transportation process are fully automated and unmanned. Photo provided by the interviewed company

Fire the starting gun for a comprehensive technological breakthrough

At present, the development of our country in the field of science and technology has entered the "fast lane". According to data from the National Development and Reform Commission at the end of 2020, in the past 2020, the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress to my country's economic growth has risen to more than 60%. But at the same time, my country still faces many bottlenecks in the field of science and technology. Among them, key core technologies and equipment are controlled by others, which is what we usually call the "neck problem", which is more prominent.

In this regard, the People's Daily published an article on March 24, proposing that enterprises should play a leading role in scientific and technological innovation and scientific and technological breakthroughs. The article pointed out: "In response to the current situation, we should accelerate the integration of innovation resources, incorporate relevant government departments, the business community, the scientific and technological community and other social forces into the innovation network, strengthen overall coordination, information sharing and innovation cooperation, and form a strong synergy. At the same time, we should give full play to the leading role of enterprises and encourage them to innovate."

In fact, the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Outline of the Long-Term Goals for 2035 have also clearly mentioned the status of enterprises in scientific and technological research, stating that the market-oriented mechanism for technological innovation should be improved, the position of enterprises as the main body of innovation should be strengthened, and various innovative elements should be promoted to gather in enterprises, so as to form a technological innovation system with enterprises as the main body, market-oriented, and deep integration of production, education, research and application. The innovation motivation of enterprises should be enhanced by improving standards, quality and competition regulations.

Breaking through the "bottleneck" problem, enterprises accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements

Since the beginning of 2021, technology companies across the country have significantly accelerated the pace of technological research and development, especially in semiconductor research and development, chip manufacturing and other links, and have made a series of major progress.

Semiconductor devices are a field where my country is facing a lot of bottlenecks. Every research result has attracted special attention. According to media reports, a batch of relevant research and development results have been released recently. For example, the ArF (193nm) photoresist independently developed by Nanjing University of Optoelectronics has been put into use, the physical engineering department of Tsinghua University has achieved a breakthrough in EUV lithography, and the launch of Xiaomi's imaging chip "Pengpai C1" has attracted widespread attention. Among them, Xiaomi's folding screen mobile phone MIX FOLD is not only equipped with the self-developed imaging chip "Pengpai C1", but also all of them are mass-produced in smart factories, which is particularly outstanding among similar scientific and technological innovation results.

According to media reports, the flagship phone is equipped with the self-developed image signal processing chip "Pengpai C1", which took Xiaomi two years and a huge amount of R&D expenses to complete. It can achieve faster autofocus and greatly improve the shooting effect in low-light conditions. And this phone uses a liquid lens, which can more easily achieve 3X optical zoom, up to 30X telephoto, and 3cm macro focus.

Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said that it has been seven years since the launch of Xiaomi's first chip, and Xiaomi's journey to making chips has never stopped. "This Surge C1 is a small step on the road of Xiaomi chips and a milestone in Xiaomi's imaging technology. To provide users with a better experience, we will continue to explore and the sound of the waves will never stop." Lei Jun also spoke generously at the press conference.

Industry insiders pointed out that although ISP is just a small chip, it has a lot of technical content. Xiaomi is one of the only two mobile phone manufacturers in China that can mass-produce self-developed ISP. The Xiaomi foldable screen mobile phone MIX FOLD fully realizes intelligent manufacturing, which not only shows that my country's manufacturing industry has truly embarked on the "fast track" of intelligent industry upgrading, but also lays a solid industrial foundation for "technological research".

At this stage, the independent and controllable production and manufacturing of foldable screen mobile phone products will directly boost the confidence and determination of the manufacturing industry. As Xiaomi's most high-end product, the independent mass production is confirming Xiaomi's determination to impact the high-end market.

As one of the foldable phones with the largest screens currently on the market, Xiaomi MIX FOLD has been a hot-seller since its release. Users can use the foldable phone to enjoy business office, entertainment and audio-visual experience on the large screen.

Technological innovation is driving the upgrade of intelligent manufacturing. At the same time, technological innovation is improving our office efficiency and quality of life through "good products".

Technological innovation drives the acceleration of intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrading

At present, industrial upgrading has become an inevitable topic in the context of rapid economic development.

Miao Changxing, a first-level inspector of the Equipment Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that at present, the deepening of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and the accelerated integration of new-generation information technology and manufacturing are constantly breaking through new technologies and giving birth to new formats. It can be said that developing intelligent manufacturing to seize the commanding heights of future global industrial development has become a consensus among countries. After years of cultivation, my country's intelligent manufacturing development has entered the current stage of in-depth implementation and comprehensive promotion from the initial concept popularization and pilot demonstration stage, forming a good situation of pilot development leading, efforts at both ends of the process, and multi-party collaborative promotion.

According to the reporter, the production process of Xiaomi's foldable screen mobile phone MIX FOLD, which was recently unveiled in Beijing, was completely realized in the Xiaomi smart factory in Beijing Economic Development Zone, without human involvement throughout the process, which fully reflects the industrial advantages of "intelligent manufacturing" in improving production efficiency, ensuring standardized production, and improving production quality. Xiaomi's smart factory has many core self-developed technologies, including self-developed board testing systems, central scheduling and control platforms, and automatic calibration visual algorithms. In the specific production process, as Lei Jun said, "Except for the process of loading and unloading materials, there is no one on the production line."

In fact, smart factories and intelligent manufacturing have been frequently mentioned in the newspapers in recent years and have become one of the "core buzzwords" in the current Chinese manufacturing industry. According to media reports, from a general trend, my country's scientific and technological revolution and economic transformation are intertwined. Intelligence is not only an important breakthrough in the scientific and technological revolution, but also an important direction for industrial transformation. Seizing the trend of intelligence is an important direction for broadening the path of industrial upgrading. In this field, my country still has considerable room for development.

In the next decade, smart manufacturing will further boost the rise of Chinese brands. According to Lei Jun, Xiaomi Industrial Fund has invested in more than 70 semiconductor and smart manufacturing companies. What Xiaomi wants to do in the future is to "manufacture the manufacturing" and help more manufacturing companies realize smart manufacturing.