When Google launched its first Pixel cellphone, we all assumed it would be the iPhone’s biggest competitor. It didn’t fairly work out that means. The Pixel has but to interrupt out amongst Android’s biggest promoting telephones and launches have been plagued with quite a few bugs and points.
That would possibly change with the upcoming Pixel 6. A new report from 9to5Google says that the Pixel 6 will use Google’s first system-on-chip, codenamed “GS101” Whitechapel. The Pixel would then be one among the solely U.S. Android telephones to ship and not using a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The report says Google has “assistance” from Samsung to make the chip and it could share some frequent options. Samsung manufactured a number of of Apple’s earliest A-series chips earlier than shifting to TSMC.
It’s not clear from the report whether or not the chip could be modeled after higher-end processors corresponding to the Snapdragon 888 or keep nearer to the mid-range like the Pixel 5’s Snapdragon 765.
Overseas telephones from Samsung use its personal Exynos chips, however Qualcomm largely has a monopoly on telephones in the U.S. A homegrown chip from Google could be a serious break and could result in a renaissance for the Pixel, which has struggled to achieve traction. Apple has been making its personal smartphone chips since the iPhone 4 and it offers its handsets an enormous velocity and energy effectivity benefit over Android telephones.
This wouldn’t be Google’s first crack at a smartphone chip. It already makes a Tensor Processing Unit for AI cloud-based duties in addition to a smartphone model referred to as the Pixel Neural Core. It additionally made an ISP referred to as Pixel Visual Core for the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3, however these duties at the moment are dealt with by the PNC. The Pixel four additionally included movement sensing made doable by the Soli chip however was discontinued with the Pixel 5.
However, a system-on-chip could be a completely completely different animal. More importantly, a Google chip would give the iPhone its first true competitor that controls the “whole stack.” Google already makes one among the finest cameras you will get in a smartphone, and lately it has begun siphoning features from Android to present the Pixel a level of exclusivity. By controlling the processor, {hardware}, and OS (like Apple) Google could create one among the finest telephones to run Android. There’s much more that goes into it, after all, however the Pixel would immediately grow to be the closest Android cellphone to an iPhone and make the competitors between the two firms rather more contentious.
The report additionally says the chip could energy some Chromebooks as properly, just like Apple’s M1 chip for Macs. Google’s earlier Chromebook efforts have used a spread of processors from Intel—that will be one other blow to the chipmaker, which has taken to bashing the MacBook following Apple’s cut up.
Michael Simon has been protecting Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with know-how goes again to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He’s nonetheless ready for that to return again in fashion tbh.
