Google is working on processors for future Pixel phones and Chromebooks. With these, the company follows the major competitors Samsung and Apple who have been making their own chips for some time now.
According to Axios, Google has made ‘considerable progress’ in designing a self-produced processor. The chip, codenamed Whitechapel, allegedly is to be produced on Samsung‘s 5nm process. Samsung has been self-producing chips too, Exynos, which could be found in Galaxy phones for some time now, and has also helped Apple produce A-series processors for iPhones.
It is still unclear exactly what advantages the Google processor has to offer. Axios reports that it is not only an eight-core chip, but also contains hardware for Google’s machine learning technology and enhancements for Google Assistant. The new Pixel phone with the chip might appear on the market in 2021.
Earlier Pixel models contained special chips such as the Pixel Visual Core to help with photography, and last year’s Pixel 4 had an upgraded chip called the Pixel Neural Core, which was designed to enhance its machine learning and photo capabilities. All previous Pixel phones are powered by Qualcomm processors.