Traditionally we see the Google Pixel release towards the latter half of the year and Google
is not changing their release schedule with the Pixel 6 which means expect the launch to happen
in early October. We know a few things about the Pixel 6 already such as a new front design
where the punch hole camera is not only going to be smaller than last year but Google is also
changing the position from far left to the middle. Also, the handset is expected to
have an in-display fingerprint scanner. That said, during an earnings call last year,
Google's CEO said that they are doing some deeper investments in hardware” and that
there was a “terrific roadmap ahead” in 2021. We finally got to know what he was referring
to and this deeper investment in hardware is how Google is planning to make the Pixel 6
stand out from the giants, Samsung and Apple. You see, news broke out last year that Google has
apparently been working with Samsung to develop a new chipset for its devices.
The new Google chipset would reportedly appear in Pixel phones as soon as this year,
which means the Pixel 6 might not have Qualcomm power. Turns out the report was on point,
9to5Google has obtained some internal Google documentation which reveals Pixel 6 will be the
first Google product to have this new GS101 chip from Google. GS refers to Google Silicon and GS101
is what they are calling the chip internally. The document reveals that this codename is
also directly connected to Samsung, including references to Samsung Exynos which means the
Google silicon and Samsung's Exynos will have some commonalities including software components.
This is in line with last year's report, that Google is teaming up with Samsung, which is
providing design support and manufacturing for the project. The report says the Google SoC is
an eight-core ARM processor with hardware "optimized for Google's machine learning
technology" and the always-on capabilities of the Google Assistant. The chip would be built at
Samsung's foundries on the firm's 5nm process. Google developing its own phone processor would
mean dumping the Qualcomm SoCs it usually uses. Although high-end Snapdragon chips used by the
vast majority of smartphone makers provide very high general-purpose as well as graphics
performance, therefore enabling manufacturers to innovate with their cameras and software. However,
because they are off-the-shelf, they do not carry any custom-designed exclusive
hardware that could differentiate a device in terms of performance and capabilities.
I mean companies like Apple, Huawei and Samsung have developed their own smartphone SoCs for a
while now. Apple went even further and built its own highly-integrated SoC for its Macs,
which appeared to be quite powerful when compared to x86 processors from Intel. Furthermore, its M1
chip carries numerous special-purpose accelerators that enable performance and capabilities not
accessible to off-the-shelf CPUs, which changes the way Apple's processors can be used.
So it's only natural for Google to get into building the chips that its OS runs on. It
will allow them to optimize the chip design to how the next version of their OS and Apps
will need to run most efficiently. Also, Google's current chips that include Pixel Neural core which
is camera silicon will work better on Google's in-house designed main chip since Google can tweak
controls however they want which is something not possible with off-the-shelf Qualcomm's chips.
So an SoC division would give Google some much-needed flexibility when it comes to
hardware. This will allow Google to innovate its Android and Chrome OS platforms quickly
and stay competitive with Apple and Microsoft since it is considerably easier to implement
certain features into in-house designed silicon than persuade a third party to incorporate
something into their SoC. Also this means the Pixel 6 will have a proper in-house
flagship processor and not a midrange one. Of course with that being said, let me know
what do you think about this down in the comments and as always I'll see you tomorrow...Peace out