Google, after announcing that it will use its own chipset in the Google Pixel 6 series seems to be intending to make use of larger self-made CPUs for its future PCs and tablets running Chrome OS.
This news comes to us via Nikkei Asia, which quotes three sources familiar with this development, stating that Google plans to unveil these new chips by 2023, with the use case being in laptops and tablets that run Google’s Chrome OS operating system. This new CPU is supposedly based on Arm blueprints.
The reason for this is apparently the success of Apple and its M1-chip, which is now in use in the company’s MacBook and iPad. Certain companies like Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, Alibaba Group Holding are also working on their own semiconductors for use in cloud services and products.
These companies are choosing to do so as the custom chips help in bringing new and improved features for use in the company’s own products, leading to fitting features for certain tasks, bringing harmony of sorts in both software and hardware side of things.
Google’s Chips Could be Based on ARM
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The report quotes analysts who say that it will likely cost around $500 million to build and design a new chip based on TSMC‘s 5nm process, a whopping $450 million more than the usual 28nm process. To build on this chip, Google is also hiring chip engineers from Taiwan, India and Israel.
Eric Tseng, the chief analyst with Isaiah Research, told Nikkei Asia that “We found that all the tech titans are joining the foray to building their custom chips because in that way they could program their own features into those chips that could meet its specific needs,
“In that case, these tech companies could easily adjust R&D workloads without being restricted by their suppliers and offer unique services or technologies. In an ideal scenario, using one’s own chips also means better software and hardware integration.”
Peter Hanbury, a partner at the consulting firm Bain & Co added that “Very few players have the skills or financial resources to design their own chips, so the typical players considering this path tend to be extremely large players, like the cloud service providers, or have very valuable applications for these specially designed chips.”
Google already has its own Pixebook and Pixel Slate notebook and tablet running Chromebook, but, the sales for these products are less than ideal. The Pixel 6 series, for anyone wondering, will take on Google’s own chip, which sports the insider name Whitechapel.
