Google may be developing its own processor that could power the company’s Pixel phones as early as next year, while later versions of the processor could be used in Google’s Chromebooks, according to a report by Axios. Apple has long used its own processors on many of its devices, and it seems that Google would like to do something similar for its own hardware.
The chip, apparently code-named “Whitechapel”, may be an eight-core ARM processor built using Samsung’s 5-nanometer process, according to Axios. The processor can be optimized to run Google’s machine learning technology and may have allocated part of the chip to improve Google Assistant performance, the report said.
Google already makes its own chips for other functions on its devices. For example, some of its Pixel phones have a security chip called the Titan M, while the Pixel 4 has a coprocessor called the Pixel Neural Core.
However, at this time, the main processor on the Pixels is made by Qualcomm; Switching to a custom processor designed by Google to run Google’s software and services optimally can improve the experience of using future Google hardware, just as Apple’s A-series chips are optimized to run iOS feed. The move would also be a major blow to Qualcomm, which currently supplies processors to most of the Android phone world, with only Huawei and (some of) Samsung devices not featuring Qualcomm chips.
Google declined to comment.