What "Whitechapel" means for Pixel 6! By 9to5Google

So with Google's upcoming phones for this fall, including the presumed pixel 6, we're going to be seeing some of the first devices to run on Google's own gs101 white chapel chip. But what does that mean for the future of the pixel series? Well, let's go over all the major talking points, thanks for watching 95 google here on YouTube, remember to thumbs up, hit, subscribe and then tap the bell icon to be among the first to watch our upcoming videos. So just casting your mind back to where all this started during an earnings call. Last fall. Google, CEO, Sundar Pichai teased some deeper investments in hardware, and that was where a terrific roadmap ahead for 2021 was touted many interpreted that as a confirmation that google would indeed be developing their own processors. An effort, code named Whitechapel and not to be confused with the British TV show first rumored in early 2020 Whitechapel is an effort on Google's part to create their own system on a chip or soc to be used in pixel phones and Chromebooks alike, similar in how apple uses their own chips in the iPhone and mac.

Google was said to be co-developing white chapel with Samsung, whose Enos chips, rival snapdragon processors in the android space, but maybe not in quite the ways you would expect per that report. Google would be ready to launch devices with white chapel chips as soon as this year, 2021 according to documentation. Viewed by us here at 95 google, this falls. Pixel phones will indeed be powered by Google's white chapel platform. In this document, white chapel is used in connection with the code name slider a reference.

We also found in the Google camera app from what we can piece together. We believe that slider is a shared platform for the first white chapel soc internally. Google refers to this chip as gs101, with gs, presumably being short for Google silicon. Looking at other projects connected to slider, we find the code name is also directly connected to Samsung, including references to Samsung Enos from the references. It seems that white chapel is being developed with Samsung semiconductors system, large scale, integration or SLSI division, meaning that Google chips will have some commonalities with Samsung Enos, including some software components.

The first phones to be built on this slider platform are raven and Orion. Two pixel code names that we leaked. Last year. We reported that those two phones are set to be released side by side. This fall presumably as the pixel 6 and a phone.

Hopefully that isn't called the pixel 5 a5g. So putting all of that together. These falls made by google phones will not use chips made by Qualcomm, but instead will be built on Google's own white chapel hardware platform, with assistance from Samsung. On top of that, google declined to comment on our story so make of all of that information. What you will.

Naturally, there is no denying that this move has major implications for the pixel lineup as a whole, but why is googled doing this in the first place? Well, let's take a look at all the pros and potential pros and cons, and we might have a clearer picture of what this could eventually mean. First things: first, it's incredibly important to note that right now, all of this does remain speculation. What we know about white chapel is very limited at this point. In time. What's been reported, though, gives us a better overall picture of what it could bring to the table.

So what do we know about white chapel itself? Well, a report from axis is what first put white chapel on the map that report claimed. The chip was designed by google, but at least in some capacity they have had input from Samsung. Apparently Samsung would be tasked with producing the chip itself as far as the specs go, there's not much to go on yet aside from this being an eight core arm design. The original report also mentioned that white chapel would have a dedicated portion designed to improve the performance of Google Assistant, specifically in an always-on capacity at the moment. That's actually all we know about this chip.

However, there is a lot we can speculate on. So what does a pixel 6 stands to gain from this custom chip? Well, the biggest question about why chapel is what advantage it will have over current implementations. After all, Qualcomm snapdragon chips are used in millions upon millions of android phones each year, and they do genuinely keep getting better and better, especially now that more cost tiers are made widely available. There are a few key areas, though, that google could benefit from its own custom chipset. First there's what the original report mentioned: optimizing the chip for specific tasks.

This is an effect Google Pixel phones are actually no stranger to the pixel.2 saw the debut of a Google chip known as pixel visual core that custom chip was designed to speed up the AI heavy processing of pitches taken on the pixel, as well as enabling those processes in third third-party applications. The chip actually wasn't present in the 3a 485 or 45g, and while it didn't really break the experience, the speed of processing is definitely noticeable. The pixel, 4 and 4 XL also introduced an upgrade to this chip. The pixel neural core, which was said to improve Google Assistant speed. Another custom design in pixel phones is the titan m, a security chip used to strengthen encryption and store data such as biometrics.

With a custom-made chip. Google could, in theory bring all of that into one convenient place on the chip itself. Google could also benefit from white chapel in the pixel 6, with long-term software support as it stands today. Pixel phones that run on Qualcomm hardware only get three years of OS updates. It's not awful, but it's pretty disappointing compared to iPhones, which sometimes get six or seven a huge part of the reason that pixels don't get longer support is because of Qualcomm.

Google worked with Qualcomm to bring future chips up to four years of support, but that still leaves a tough situation for android OEMs. That may want to go past three or four years, but can't reasonably do so because of Qualcomm's support timeline. One more potential way that ditching Qualcomm could help. The pixel series is of course, cost. There are too many unknowns at this point to say anything remotely definitive, but a custom chip could bring a more affordable cost for Google versus buying direct from Qualcomm.

This could mean the pixel 6 may have better performance than the pixel 5, which used a second-tier, snapdragon 765 g, in contrast to the likes of Samsung, OnePlus and other flagships with the 865 and 888. If the cost is low enough, we may also see the chip show up in Google's cheaper pixel phones, which may improve performance across the board. One potential roadblock, though, could be the scale of Google's production. Pixels, don't often sell in huge numbers, so costs are likely proportionally higher. So what are the potential downsides? They're moving to their own chipset? Well, there are probably many other upsides to white chapel in the pixel 6, but what about those potential problems? Well for one there's, a raw performance issue: google seems to be working with Samsung on its design, which is good but Samsung's own Enos chips are notorious for lagging well behind their Qualcomm counterparts.

Given Qualcomm's expertise, it seems highly unlikely that google could match snapdragon in terms of raw performance, and that may be a downside to many. But as mentioned in a perfect situation, Google could find a middle ground that sees lower performance compared to the snapdragon 800 series chips, but keeps costs similar to the snapdragon 700 series, which therefore benefits the end user. On a similar note, switching away from the established normal could result in compatibility issues with android apps and more again, there's far too much that we don't know about this chip to even begin to speculate on what these issues may be. But the potential for problems is certainly there and a very real concern. There's also the elephant in the room after five generations of pixel google has showed it might not be actually that great at hardware, even the most ardent of fans ourselves included, have to admit that the company's track record has seen less than stellar.

Quality control and a fair amount of bugs on selected hardware are in specific hardware areas. The pixel 3 had a laundry list of hardware problems and Google even had to issue better warranties. Following launch issues with the pixel 2 series, this is something important to keep in mind as google produces its own chips as they're, putting an additional and core component of the device under further control. But this could mean performance far ahead of similarly spec competition and an outright rival to the raw benchmarking prowess of apple's own silicon. But there may be issues down the road, but realistically that's just about everything we know, or we can more or less speculate about the white chapel ship.

At this stage we can already tell there is a ton of excitement building, and it makes waiting until the pixel 6 series launches this year that little more interesting. Let us know down in the comment section below what you think of all this news and if white, chapel and Google's own silicone will mean for you and the wider smartphone market. But as always, this is Damien with 95 google saying thanks for watching, and I will speak to you later. You.

Source : 9to5Google