Tang Jianguo, chief economist of the municipal economy and information technology bureau in charge of Beijing’s hi-tech industry, said Xiaomi successfully “taped out” China’s first 3-nm-grade mobile chip, in a news report aired by state broadcaster Beijing Radio and Television Station (BRTV) on Sunday. No details were given.
Tape-out refers to the final stage of the design process before chips go into mass production. Sunday’s report was immediately picked up by dozens of local media outlets. However, they were quickly removed from the Chinese internet.
BRTV did not release any official correction of its original report. Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Xiaomi runs an in-house semiconductor-design unit to customise chips for its own projects, based primarily on imported chips. Since its establishment in 2017, the unit has designed several chips, including the S1, a mobile system-on-chip and C1, an image sensor.
