XDA Developers says it can corroborate the report, saying, “According to our source, it seems the SoC will feature a 3 cluster setup with a TPU (Tensor Processing Unit). Google also refers to its next Pixel devices as ‘dauntless-equipped phones,’ which we believe refers to them having an integrated Titan M security chip (code-named ‘Citadel’).” A “3 cluster setup” would be something like how the Snapdragon 888 works, which has three CPU core sizes: a single large ARM X1 core for big single-threaded workloads, three medium Cortex A78 cores for multicore work, and four Cortex A55 cores for background work. The Pixel 6 should be out sometime in Q4 2021, and Pixel phones always heavily, heavily leak before they launch. So I’m sure we’ll see more of this thing soon. “I think the biggest benefit we’ll see from a Google SoC is an expanded update timeline,” writes Ron Amadeo. “Android updates go a lot smoother when you get support from the SoC manufacturer, but Qualcomm abandons all its chips after the three-year mark for major updates. This lack of support makes updates significantly harder than they need to be, and today that’s where Google draws the line at updates.”
“Beyond easier updates, I don’t know that we can expect much from Whitechapel,” adds Amadeo, noting that lots of Android manufacturers have made their own chips but none of them have been able to significantly beat Qualcomm. “It’s hard to be bullish on Google’s SoC future when the company doesn’t seem to be making the big-money acquisitions and licensing deals that Apple, Qualcomm, and Samsung are making. But at least it’s a start.”
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