Google's first fully custom Pixel chip, Tensor G5, coming 2025 from TSMC
Last Updated : 07/10/2023 10:27:39
Google is planning to launch (2023) its fully customized Tensor G5 chip, which appears to be made by TSMC instead of Samsung.
According to a new report 6th July 2023, Google is indeed working to replace Samsung with TSMC for Tensor G5 development.
The information describes how the plan is to unveil the "first fully customized chip" for Pixel phones in 2024. Instead, "Redondo" missed a trial production deadline last year after handing off to a Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing company. "Earlier this year." Redondo is now being used as a test chip ahead of the next generation, which "will not be ready for mass production until 2024," according to report.
Laguna, these chips will have a beach motif and may be branded as Tensor G5, targeting 2025. According to today's sources, the Tensor G5 is based on TSMC's 3-nanometer manufacturing process and has an integrated fan-out for reduced thickness and increased power efficiency.
Google is sticking with Samsung for next year's Tensor chip design and manufacture, but is replacing more and more Samsung components (“everything from communications and audio to image and graphics processing”) with its own IP each generation.
Meanwhile, "multiple tensor chips" have been phased out over the past two years. A Tensor-powered Pixelbook was rumored but canceled last year. In particular:
Google's delay in bringing fully compatible Tensors to market is partly due to the U.S. And that stems from challenges dividing and coordinating work between India, where the majority are Tensor silicon engineers, along with high turnover in the group, according to a former Google chip executive with first-hand knowledge of the effort.
Meanwhile, the former executive also reportedly is bearish on how much Google is spending on custom chips because the Pixel has yet to sell in volume.
