Get Acquainted With Google's Tensor Chip, A Manifestation Of Google's Seriousness In Playing In The Mobile Phone Industry

HP Google Pixel 6 (The Verge)

YOGYAKARTA - Yesterday, Google officially introduced two new products, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Instead of conveying various detailed information about features, Google is even more focused on its latest System on Chipset (SoC).

By the company, the chip, which CEO Sundar Pichai says has been in development for 4 years, is named Tensor. Citing The Verge, the name is inspired by the company's Tensor Processing Units (TPU) data center.

Many parties consider that Tensor is a manifestation of the company's seriousness in playing in the smartphone industry. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro deserve to be called products that the company is working on more seriously.

It's just that, in the midst of increasingly sophisticated chip competition like today, how can Tensor be different from competitors' products?

To address this question, the VOI team summarized more in-depth information about Tensor from several sources.

Supported Titan M2 Security Chip and TPU for AI Operations

It should be noted, Tensor is a SoC. Not a single processor. And even though it's called by many as Google's design, it's also unclear which components are actually made by the company and which are just buying licenses from other parties.

Even so, there are two components that have been confirmed to belong to Google. Namely the mobile TPU which functions for the operation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Titan M2 chip for security.

The rest, including the CPU, GPU, and 5G modem, remains a mystery. That is, it is not yet known whether Google made its own or just bought a license.

However, according to Google's chief hardware officer Rick Osterloh, his chip will be the market leader.

"The standard features that look will be very competitive, while the AI features will be a differentiator [with other products]," explained Rick as quoted from The Verge, Tuesday, August 3.

Like SoCs from other manufacturers, Google has added a number of licensed technologies in it. However, the Tensor chip is specifically designed with the aim of further enhancing the company's ML (Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence).

One of the most important is, Tensor is a mobile version of the Tensor Processing Unit. It is known, Google has been developing TPU for five years to manage its servers.

The TPU itself is dedicated to performing AI and ML tasks more efficiently. So, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will be the first phones to run Google's SoC.