According to through a report The informationGoogle originally planned to replace the modified Samsung Exynos chipsets it uses in Pixel phones with a “Redondo” chip designed internally sometime in 2024. However, the report claims that Google has now pushed that planned release window to 2025 and instead will introduce a new custom processor codenamed “Laguna”.
So said a former Google chip manager The information that issues with employee retention and coordinating development between US and Indian teams are at least partly responsible for the delay. The team behind the project was frustrated by Google’s decision to cancel development of several Tensor chips over the past two years, the outlet said. source. We’ve reached out to Google to confirm these reports.
The story sounds similar to Meta’s struggle trying custom chip designs for VR and mixed reality gear, then choosing to strike a deal with Qualcomm to use Snapdragon XR chips for the “future roadmap of Quest products” and “other devices”.
The Redondo processor will apparently be used to design Google’s new Tensor G5 chip
Google is apparently sticking to semi-custom versions of Samsung’s chips for now, but plans to shift production to TSMC – the chipmaker behind Apple’s iPhone chips and many, many others. According to the report, “Laguna” will also use an advanced packaging technology used almost exclusively by Apple that offers greater energy efficiency while maintaining a thin chip profile.
According to the report, the Tensor team was unable to provide TSMC with Redondo’s design by the 2022 trial production deadline, despite dropping some features. That said the former Google manager The information that Redondo will instead be produced as a test chip that will help Tensor engineers design its new Laguna processor.
This will reportedly be called the Tensor G5 and built on TSMC’s 3nm process. Advances in power efficiency and performance mean these 3nm chips are in high demand – Apple said 90 percent reserved of TSMC’s production for the first-generation 3nm process earlier this year.
The Exynos-based Tensor chips used in current Pixel phones suffer from overheating
Google aims to ditch Samsung completely by 2025 in favor of designing its Tensor processors in-house, but The information claims that the search giant will continue to license Arm CPU and GPU cores for the foreseeable future. However, there are several potential benefits for Google moving Tensor development away from Samsung: for example, the Samsung Exynos-based Tensor chips have been criticized for getting hot even under moderate workloads, and even Samsung’s own Exynos-based phones have some glaring performance issues. Bringing development in-house could give Google more freedom to make specific changes to its chip designs, benefiting future Pixel phones, tablets, watches or other hardware in its plans.
However, designing your own custom processors is expensive, and Google may not have the market presence to ensure it will reap a return on such a heavy investment. Google doesn’t disclose how many Pixel units it sells, but according to IDC data indicated by Bloomberg last October, the company sold 27.6 million Pixel phones since the device launched in 2016. By comparison, Samsung and Apple shipped more than 257 million and 232 million phone units in 2022, respectively onlyaccording to research agency Canalys.
