Xiaomi won't be presenting at Mobile World Congress this year, but the company is getting ready to unveil its in-house Pinecone processor next week in China. A recent post on China's Weibo suggests the SoC will make its debut on February 28.
Not much is known about the Pinecone SoC, but the first device that will run the chipset will likely be the Xiaomi Mi 5c. Leaks from earlier this year hint at an octa-core CPU design clocked at 2.2GHz, as well as 3GB of RAM and 64GB storage.
By building its own SoC, Xiaomi will be looking to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek while offering features that differentiate its products, much like what Huawei does with its Kirin lineup and Samsung with the Exynos chipsets.
Xiaomi is partnering with Leadcore to leverage the company's cellular technologies in its SoC, and is said to have been working on Pinecone for over two years. The leaked specs suggest Xiaomi is targeting the entry-level segment with its first chipset, which makes sense considering the budget category makes up a bulk of the company's sales.
