Xiaomi and TSMC working together on new 16nm Surge S2 SoC

Xiaomi’s first attempt at creating an in-house SoC was far from perfect. The Surge S1 was used exclusively on the Mi 4C but that device failed to earn significantly positive reviews. The company has gone back to the drawing board, though, and is apparently set to produce the Surge S2.

According to reports from China, Xiaomi has reached a “secret” agreement with TSMC that will see the Taiwanese semiconductor company produce the Surge S2 on its 16nm manufacturing process. There doesn’t seem to be much going on here, as there were already reports a few months ago that the Surge S2 would be a 16nm SoC.

The Surge S2 is expected to be an octa-core chipset, with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. The on-board GPU is said to be the Mali G71-MP8. The Surge S2, all things considered, seems quite similar to the Kirin 960. The Kirin 960 does have higher clocked Cortex-A73 cores, though, and so will have raw power. On the other hand, the Surge S2 should be slightly more efficient.