Back in November 2025, Minisforum made a splash in the tech world by launching the world's inaugural Arm - based mini AI workstation, the MS - R1. This cutting - edge device is built around the domestic 6nm processor, the 'Cixin P1 (CP8180)', which was rolled out by Cixin Technology in July 2024.

The processor boasts a 12 - core heterogeneous design, comprising 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. It can reach a maximum clock speed of 3.2GHz. Moreover, it incorporates a 10 - core Immortalis - G720 GPU. This GPU is no slouch; it supports hardware ray tracing and can handle a 4K120fps display. In terms of AI computing power, it delivers an impressive 45TOPS, with 30TOPS coming from the NPU unit. This robust computing capability allows for the local deployment of large models with billions of parameters.

The MS - R1 is incredibly compact, with a volume of just 1.7 liters. It comes equipped with a full PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (although the physical bandwidth is x8), which opens up the possibility of independent graphics card expansion. Memory - wise, it offers a maximum of 64GB LPDDR5 - 5500. For storage, it can go up to 8TB, thanks to its dual M.2 slots. In terms of network connectivity, it's well - equipped with dual 10GbE Ethernet, Wi - Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3.

The operating system comes pre - installed with Debian 12, and it's also compatible with multiple other systems. When it comes to pricing, the official starting price is $503.9 for the 32GB model that doesn't come with a hard drive. The top - tier 64GB + 1TB version is priced at up to $695.5.