It was rumored last year that Google could dump Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors in favor of its in-house smartphone chips. The internet advertising giant has reportedly partnered with Samsung to make a high-end processor for Pixel smartphones. The first signs of the upcoming processor have now started appearing, and it looks like we might see it inside the Pixel 6.
According to a report from 9To5Google, the Pixel 6 will come equipped with Google’s GS101 processor (codenamed ‘Whitechapel’). The chipset has reportedly been co-developed with Samsung Semiconductor’s SLSI division, and it is built using the South Korean firm’s 5nm LPE fabrication process. The report claims that references to Exynos were found in connection with Google’s GS101 Whitechapel processor.
A separate report from XDA Developers claims that Google’s first mobile processor features a tri-cluster CPU, a TPU (Tensor Processing Unit), and an integrated security chip codenamed ‘Dauntless’ (like the Titan M). Going by previous reports, the processor features two Cortex-A78 CPU cores, two Cortex-A76 CPU cores, and four Cortex-A55 CPU cores. It could also use an off-the-shelf 20-core ARM Mali GPU.
The report also claims that Google’s processor has some commonalities with Samsung’s Exynos processor, including software components. However, Google may have removed Samsung’s default ISP and NPU components in favor of its own designs. The Pixel 6 series is codenamed ‘Slider’, and it has two devices: ‘Raven’ and ‘Oriole’. The two codenames probably refer to the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 XL and could go official sometime in Q3 2021.
With the new processor, Google could have complete control over its smartphones and software updates, similar to Apple. It could probably offer higher performance, deeper integration, better camera quality, and long-term software update support. Google and Samsung could be working on more chipsets for Chromebooks and other smart home devices.
