小米發佈首款自主設計芯片

China's Xiaomi has become the world's fourth smartphone maker to design its own processor, revealing its "Pinecone" chip yesterday aimed at breaking its reliance on foreign providers such as Qualcomm.

中國的小米(Xiaomi)已成爲全球第四家自己設計處理器的智能手機制造商。昨日，該公司推出了其松果(Pinecone)芯片，力求打破對高通(Qualcomm)等國外供應商的依賴。

The handset maker is leading a wave of Chinese tech groups that are trying to follow Apple, Samsung and Huawei by creating their own internal intellectual property, rather than relying on external sources.

這家手機制造商正引領着一波中國科技集團追趕蘋果(Apple)、三星(Samsung)和華爲(Huawei)的浪潮，創建自主知識產權，而不是依賴外部資源。

"The ability to create its own chip sets is the pinnacle of achievement for any smartphone company. For Xiaomi, the move is an essential next step in our development," said Lei Jun, chief executive, at the launch.

小米首席執行官雷軍在發佈會上表示："芯片是手機科技的制高點，小米要成爲偉大的公司，必須要掌握核心技術。"

Zhang Ziming of Analysys, a tech consultancy, said: "These Chinese firms want to break the monopoly on chip technology by foreign companies and take part more in upstream competition."

科技諮詢公司易觀國際(Analysys)的Zhang Ziming表示："這些中國企業想要打破外國公司對芯片技術的壟斷，更多地參與到上游競爭中去。"

Like most other smartphone makers, Xiaomi had previously relied on Qualcomm to supply chips. But the US group's global dominance has led to complaints over how it charges smartphone companies to use its designs.

像其他大多數智能手機制造商一樣，小米以前一直依靠高通提供芯片。但這家美國集團的全球主導地位，使外界對其收費讓智能手機公司使用其設計的方式發出抱怨。

In December, the company was fined $854m by South Korea for abusing its market position and charging excessive fees. It is now facing two lawsuits over licensing fees, one from US regulators, as well as a $1bn case involving Apple .

去年12月，韓國政府以濫用市場地位和收費過高之由對高通罰款8.54億美元。目前，高通正面臨兩起因專利使用費而起的訴訟案--其中一起來自美國監管機構，而另一起跟蘋果有關，涉案金額爲10億美元。

"Designing chips in-house means that Chinese companies will suffer less from supply-chain disruptions. Xiaomi has previously had to delay the launch of its flagship phone because of problems with Qualcomm's chip set," said Ding Jie, analyst at tech research group Canalys.

"自主設計芯片意味着中國企業受到供應鏈中斷的衝擊將會更小。此前，由於高通芯片組出了一些問題，小米曾不得不推遲其旗艦手機的發佈，"易觀國際的分析師Ding Jie表示。

Xiaomi's chip ambitions date to October 2014, when it set up a subsidiary, Beijing Pinecone Electronics.

小米開發芯片的抱負可以追溯到2014年10月，當時小米成立了一家名爲"北京松果電子有限公司"(Beijing Pinecone Electronics)的子公司。

China-based companies' share of chip designs in the global market roughly doubled to 11 per cent in the four years to 2015, while US-based companies have more than 60 per cent, according to Christopher Thomas of McKinsey.

麥肯錫(McKinsey)的克里斯托弗o托馬斯(Christopher Thomas)表示，在截至2015年的4年裏，中國企業在全球芯片設計市場的份額達到11%，大約提高了一倍，而美國企業的市場份額超過60%。