Hardware hacker bunnie has unveiled the Baochip-1x, a mostly-open 22nm SoC designed for high-assurance applications. The chip features a 350MHz Vexriscv CPU with MMU, quad 700MHz PicoRV32 I/O processors, 4MiB RRAM, and 2MiB SRAM. Built using TSMC's 22nm process, it targets a gap between microcontrollers like the Raspberry Pi RP2350 and more powerful chips like the NXP iMXRT1062.

This project stems from the Betrusted initiative, which bunnie began with Ed Snowden eight years ago to address whether hardware can be trusted against state-level surveillance. The Baochip-1x descends from Precursor's FPGA SoC and is designed to run Xous, a pure-Rust operating system. It includes security features typically found in secure elements: TRNG, cryptographic accelerators, secure mesh, glitch sensors, and ECC-protected RAM.

The key differentiator is the MMU (Memory Management Unit), rare in this class of microcontroller. bunnie argues that while newer memory protection technologies exist, the MMU's proven track record since the 1960s makes it the pragmatic choice. The inclusion of an MMU enables secure, loadable applications by isolating each in its own virtual memory space.