What does the Google Tensor processor mean for the company's future devices?
The Google Tensor Processor, officially presented today with a teaser of Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro posted on Twitter, is a huge step for the Mountain View company, and represents its attempt to create an ecosystem similar to that of Apple with its own processors, and also as a declaration of independence from Qualcomm, the supplier of chips for Pixel devices launched to date.
We made a chip!#Pixel6 is powered by our first ever smartphone SoC: meet Google Tensor
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- Made by Google (@madebygoogle) August 2, 2021
With its SoC, Google has much more control over the final product, and can better integrate Android 12 with its own hardware, potentially increasing and optimizing battery life, application performance, etc.
When it chose to use the Snapdragon 765G and not a Qualcomm flagship at the launch of the Pixel 5 In October of last year, Google claimed that the goal was to have greater control over the hardware, which shows that this desire has been around for years. This time, the processor should not have top-of-the-line performance, but the fact that it is manufactured by Google allows for much greater control and optimization.
Faster AI and machine learning tasks, running locally
Tensor's highlight is that it can process AI and machine learning models on the device itself, which should improve the user experience with the Pixel 6's camera, speech recognition, and other functions. According to the company, Google Tensor enables big leaps in voice commands, translation, real-time captions, and dictation (voice transcription). In addition, Google has added layers of hardware security to Google Tensor, which should potentially make the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro very secure.
Rick Osterloh, Google’s VP of devices and services, said: “AI is the future of our innovation work, but the problem we’ve encountered is the computational limitations that prevent us from fully delivering on our mission. So we’ve dedicated ourselves to building a technology platform built for mobile that allows us to bring our most innovative AI and machine learning technologies to Pixel users. We dedicated ourselves to creating our own System on a Chip (SoC) for Pixel 6. And now, years later, it’s almost here.”
Since Google has put so much emphasis on AI and machine learning, its deep investment in hardware should be used for more than that. So while it's exclusive to the Pixel 6 line for now, it's safe to assume that Google will leverage its processors in other devices and products.
