Google Delays Release of Its First Fully Custom Pixel Tensor Chip

Alphabet's Google has delayed the release of a fully custom chip for its Pixel smartphones until 2025, The Information reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Google originally planned to release the chip, internally called Redondo, next year to replace the semicustom chips it currently designs with Samsung Electronics, the report said.

The tech giant will also switch from Samsung to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) for making the chips, called Tensors, according to The Information.

The world's largest contract chipmaker counts companies such as Apple and Nvidia among its customers.

Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while TSMC declined to comment.

Google will stick with Samsung for another year and wait until 2025 to introduce a fully custom design chip, internally code-named Laguna, according to The Information.

The Laguna chip will be based on TSMC's 3-nanometer manufacturing process, currently the world's most advanced chipmaking process, the report added.

Google's in-house Tensor G2 SoC powers the new Pixel 7a and Pixel Fold smartphones that went official in May during the company's I/O event. The Tensor G2 SoC is also present in last year's Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro models. The upcoming Pixel 8 series smartphones are expected to pack the next-generation chipset from Google, the Tensor G3 codenamed “Zuma”. 

A recent leak suggested that it will feature 9 Arm cores and 10 GPU cores with a 1+4+4 layout. It could include one 3.00GHz Cortex-X3 core, four 2.45GHz Cortex-A715 cores, and four 2.15GHz Cortex-A510 cores.

July 07, 2023