Saturday, 8 July 2023

Google Delays launch of Custom Chip for Pixel Devices to 2025

According to a report, Google had originally intended to replace the customized Samsung Exynos chipsets it uses in Pixel phones with an in-house created “Redondo” chip sometime in 2024. However, this plan was scrapped. The article alleges that Google has now pushed back that intended delivery window to 2025 and would instead offer a new proprietary CPU dubbed “Laguna.” However, the story does not provide any evidence to support this assertion.

According to a former Google chip executive who spoke with The Information, the delay can be attributed, at the very least in part, to difficulties in retaining people and coordinating development between teams in the United States and India. According to the source of the outlet, the group responsible for the project was dissatisfied with Google’s decision to cancel the development of multiple Tensor chips over the course of the past two years. We have reached out to Google to inquire further about these concerns.

Google’s new Tensor G5 chip

The situation sounds very much like the difficulties that Meta experienced when it attempted to create its own bespoke chips for virtual reality and mixed reality equipment. In the end, the company agreed with Qualcomm to use Snapdragon XR CPUs for the “future roadmap of Quest products” and “other devices.”

It appears that Google will continue to use semi-custom versions of Samsung’s chips for the time being, but the company has plans to switch manufacture to TSMC, which is a big chipmaking company that is responsible for Apple’s iPhone chips as well as many other chips. According to the source, “Laguna” will also feature an innovative packaging technology that is virtually solely used by Apple. This technology delivers improved power efficiency while keeping a small chip profile and will be used in “Laguna.”

The study indicates that the Tensor team was unable to meet the 2022 deadline set by TSMC for the trial production of the Redondo design, even though some of the characteristics of the plan were eliminated. According to the former Google executive, who spoke with The Information, Redondo will not be manufactured as a consumer product but rather as a test chip that will assist the Tensor engineers in the development of their new Laguna processor.

According to recent reports, this will be known as the Tensor G5 and will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process. Because of the improvements in power efficiency and performance, these 3nm chips are in high demand. Earlier this year, Apple is rumored to have reserved 90 percent of TSMC’s manufacturing capacity for the first-generation 3nm process.

Pixel phones have experienced overheating issues

Google wants to stop using Samsung completely by 2025 and make its own Tensor processors, but The Information says that the search giant will continue to license Arm CPU and GPU cores for the immediate future. There are a few reasons why Google might want to move Tensor development away from Samsung. For example, the Samsung Exynos-based Tensor chips have been attacked for getting hot even when doing simple tasks, and Samsung’s own Exynos-based phones have some obvious performance problems. Bringing development in-house could give Google more freedom to make specific changes to the way its chips are made, which could help its future Pixel phones, tablets, watches, and other gear.

Creating your custom engines is expensive, though, and Google may not have the market presence to ensure it will get a return on such a big investment. Google doesn’t say how many Pixel phones it sells, but IDC data revealed by Bloomberg in October 2017 states that since the Pixel was released in 2016, the company has sold 27.6 million Pixel phones. Research company Canalys says that Samsung and Apple shipped more than 257 million and 232 million phones in 2022 alone.

The post Google Delays launch of Custom Chip for Pixel Devices to 2025 appeared first on AsumeTech.



from Technology - AsumeTech https://asumetech.com/google-delays-launch-of-custom-chip-for-pixel-devices-to-2025/

No comments:

Post a Comment