Oliver Haslam on April 3, 2021, 1:11 am

Google’s Pixel 6 Will Reportedly Run A Google-Made Chip

When Google announces the new Pixel 6 later this year it will be the first to run a Google-made chip in the form of the “GS101” Whitechapel chip. That’s according to a new report by 9to5Google.

The news comes after Google CEO Sundar Pichai teased “some deeper investments in hardware” and that there was a “terrific roadmap ahead” during the company’s most recent earnings call.

Many had taken that to mean that Google was looking into its own chips for use in smartphones and more, with 9to5Google now reporting that this fall’s Pixel devices will be powered by Whitechapel.

First rumored in early 2020, Whitechapel is an effort on Google’s part to create their own systems on a chip (SoCs) to be used in Pixel phones and Chromebooks alike, similar in to how Apple uses their own chips in the iPhone and Mac. Google was said to be co-developing Whitechapel with Samsung, whose Exynos chips rival Snapdragon processors in the Android space.

Per that report, Google would be ready to launch devices with Whitechapel chips as soon as 2021. According to documentation viewed by 9to5Google, this fall’s Pixel phones will indeed be powered by Google’s Whitechapel platform.

Internally, we’re told that Google refers to the new chip as GS101, with the assumption being that the “GS” part refers to “Google Silicon.”

It’s thought that two phones will use the new chips, with the codenames Raben and Oriole leaked last year.

The reasons for Google’s move to its own chips are obvious and you only need to look at the performance of Apple’s A-series chips, powering the iPhone and iPad, to see the benefits of designing your own silicon as a smartphone maker.