Cixin Technology Unveils Arm-based SoC with Revolutionary AI Capabilities on 6nm Process

The Chinese company Cixin Technology has revealed its own Arm SoC, featuring a chip manufactured on a 6nm node and equipped with twelve Arm cores. Notably, the processor includes an NPU boasting 30Tops of AI computing power, which in combination with the CPU and GPU, boosts the total to 45Tops.

The P1, introduced by Cixin, a Chinese firm established in 2021, was unveiled during a recent press conference. Despite the announcement, specific details about the SoC remain scarce outside of China as reported by Tom's Hardware. The CPU cores and IGPU on which the chip is based are still unknown, although some general specifications were shared during the event according to the Chinese media source Electronic Engineering Times China.

Cixin reports that the SoC is produced on a 6nm process, but the specific foundry behind the manufacturing is undisclosed. The chip follows the Armv9.2-A architecture and adheres to a big.Little structure, incorporating more powerful cores reaching up to 3.2GHz alongside four energy-efficient cores with undisclosed clock speeds. While details about the specific CPU cores utilized are not provided, Cixin likely licenses CPU core designs from Arm, possibly from the Cortex-A or Cortex-X series. The SoC is expected to house an integrated 'flagship GPU' with ten cores, with speculation from EET China suggesting it might be Arm's Immortalis G720 GPU.

Cixin confirms the inclusion of an NPU for AI tasks, offering up to 30Tops of computing power, although the origin of the NPU remains undisclosed. When combined with the CPU and GPU capabilities, the chip attains a total of 45 Tops. Theoretically, the chip meets the criteria for Microsoft's Copilot+ program and associated AI features such as Paint Cocreator for generating images from sketches. However, Microsoft mandates an NPU with 40Tops exclusive of CPU and GPU computing power, making the specific chip not fully compliant.

Additionally, the chip is said to support up to 64GB of Lpddr5-6400 memory according to IT Home. The SoC must also provide sixteen PCIe 4.0 lanes for potential external GPU connections, along with four USB-C ports and other features. The display engine should handle up to 4k screens with a 120Hz refresh rate. EET China indicates that the SoC is targeted for the Chinese market and can be utilized in laptops, mini PCs, desktops, consoles, and more.