Google Goes All-In with TSMC

Google tensor G4 chip manufactured by Samsung Foundry on its 4nm process. However, it was a minor upgrade over the Tensor G3 in the pixel 8 series as reflected by benchmarks & even the G4 itself is codenamed 'Zuma Pro' while G3 is 'Zuma'. G4 still utilizes Samsung's older FO-PLP packaging instead of the newer FO-WLP, which played a key role in resolving heating issues in the Exynos 2400—unlike its predecessors.

Now with Tensor G5, Google is not only switching to TSMC, but it will made it on the latest 3nm node & will also utilize TSMC's InFO-POP advanced packaging.
Tensor G6 to power Pixel 11 series, likely codenamed 'malibu', will also be manufactured by TSMC only on its latest 2nm process

FunFact: Apple Apple Foundational Models, both on device and server, for Apple Intelligence were fully trained on Google TPU clusters instead of NVIDIA.
Google's Axion, its first custom Arm-cores based TPU v5p for datacenters, is also made on TSMC 3nm N3E node

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Tiny little UI experiment in Android 15 that I enabled:

When music is playing, the three-dot menu button in the volume slider can turn into a waveform.

This obviously hasn't rolled out yet, but what do you think of it anyways?

Oh wow, I did NOT expect Google to launch this yet!

Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2 enables desktop windowing support, and it runs directly on tablets just like I said it might!

Although the Pixel 9 Pro is already available to purchase in many countries like the US, however, atleast in India, Pixel 9 Pro will go on sale in November.
( 3 months late from the August release)

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The Wear OS 5 update is finally here for the Pixel Watch 1 and Pixel Watch 2!

The September 2024 update that's rolling out now brings Wear OS 5 based on Android 14. With the update, you'll get a new grid-view app launcher, improved Camera controls, and the Pixel Recorder app from the Pixel Watch 3.

Here are the build IDs:

Pixel Watch 1: AW2A.240903.005.A2

Pixel Watch 2: AW2A.240903.005.A1

Here's a first look at Priority Modes, the supercharged version of Do Not Disturb mode in Android 16!

You can create custom modes and toggle them from a new Quick Settings tile.

🔗 Screenshots + details on Priority Mode can be found in my latest article.

Google is preparing to let you run Linux apps on Android, just like Chrome OS

The company is working on a Terminal app that downloads, configures, runs, and interfaces with an instance of Debian in a VM.

🔗Full details in my latest article over on Android Authority.

Here's a demo of Android's in-development Terminal app for running Linux apps!

The Terminal app currently doesn't automatically download and configure the Linux VM for you, so the developer who sent me this had to use the LinuxInstaller app to download Debian.

(I sped the video up a bit in the middle because it takes some time to boot the VM for the first time.)

Google is testing a new version of Chrome for Android with extensions support

The new Desktop Android project brings browser extensions support to Chrome for Android, but there's a catch: It's not intended for mobile devices at the moment.

More details on this new project can be found in my latest article on Android Authority.

BREAKING: Google Tensor G5 Specification Leaked

Google’s Tensor G5 to power the Pixel 10 series next year will be designed internally by Google themselves without relying on Samsung for the bulk of the work. It will be manufactured on TSMC 3nm node process.

Tensor G5 CPU: codenamed 'Laguna'
SLC: 8MB
RAM: LPDDR5X (8533 Mbps)

• 1x Cortex-X4
• 5x Cortex-A725
• 2x Cortex-A520
Sadly Google is NOT using ARM's latest X925 cores which debuted with MediaTek Dimensity 9400 recently.

TPU:
The TOPS value is 18 / 9 TOPS (INT8/FP16), making it 40% larger compared to Tensor G4 but it will be around 15% faster only. The improved TPU also comes with a few new features for Google’s developers, such as small embedded RISC-V cores to allow running operations that are not implemented in hardware, as well as support for on-device training.

GPU:
This is the MOST disappointing part of the whole G5 chip. That's NOT because Google is ditching Mali GPU, but because Tensor G5 will feature PowerVR GPU from Imagination technologies — IMG DXT-48-1536 clocked at 1100MHz.

These GPU are mostly used by UNISOC in their chips for smartphones. The only reason why Google switched to PowerVR GPU is due to virtualization support. It also supports Ray tracing, however, the GPU will just have 2 CU (compute units) only in 2025 for 1000$ flagship phone

Now, to get your an idea of how fast would be the GPU, some crazy people calculated the expected benchmarking value of OpenCL compute & it will score around ...... well ........ 🤫 Let it be a surprise for Pixel fanbois.

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BREAKING: Google is developing its own custom architecture for future Tensor chips

Google already has its own custom architecture called 'Cypress' but it is basically for Axion processors for datacenters.

But now, Google is also working on a custom CPU core called 'Orion' that will debut with future Tensor chips, atleast 'after' the Tensor G6. Interestingly, Google is even testing some tensor chipsets clocked at 5.1GHz & manufactured on a 3nm node, likely TSMC.

Coming to the Tensor G6, it will power the Pixel 11 series & is codenamed as 'Malibu'. Although other SoCs will already be built on 2nm chip design in 2026, Tensor G6 will still be manufactured on 3nm node (N3P) by TSMC .

CPU:
• 1x Cortex- X930
• 6x Cortex- A730
SLC: 4MB
RAM: LPDDR5X
So, Tensor G6 will be a '7-core' configuration SoC

GPU:
Don't expect Google to ditch PowerVR GPU quite soon. Tensor G6 will have an IMG EXT GPU, having 3 CU (compute units) running at 1100Mhz. It will support virtualization & ray tracing, both.

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Here's a first look at Android's upcoming all-in-one Terminal app, which downloads, configures, runs, and interfaces with an instance of Debian running a virtual machine!

Currently, the Debian images are hosted on a Googler's GitHub, but Google plans to host these images themselves soon. For more info on this Terminal app, check out this article.

(Thanks to an anonymous dev for sharing this!)

BREAKING: Google Tensor G4 Spotted on Geekbench with PowerVR GPU

In a surprising twist, an early prototype of the Tensor G4 with a PowerVR GPU instead of Mali-G715 graphics has arrived on Geekbench. Many people assumed that its the Tensor G5, but in reality its a very early tensor G4 prototype to test and compile tensor new GPU drivers ahead of it final build.

According to some Google AOSP Dev, those chip on Geekbench are just basically tensor G4 with a different NPU under TSMC. So this is just a prototype for Google and Imagination developers to test and optimize the new drivers for the IMG DXT GPU. For the Tensor G5, Google has NOT even finalized the SoC core layout yet (especially the NPU).

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