Google’s rumored Pixel 6 Tensor processor sounds extremely weird

Google will launch its first internal smartphone chipset, the Tensor SoC, on its upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones. And if the latest report from XDA that’s right, the rumored Tensor CPU configuration could be very, very weird, even by Google’s standards.

So far, Google has been largely publishing the performance of the SoC Tensor artificial intelligence; but has not revealed any information about the basic specifications of the chip’s CPU and GPU. Rick Osterloh of Google would just say so The Verge that “the standard things people see will be very competitive and AI things will be totally differentiated.”

Some aspects of the Tensor components have already come to light. An earlier one XDA the report notes that the Pixel 6 will likely use a Mali-A78 Arm GPU design (which Samsung uses in its flagship Exynos 2100) Reuters reports that Google will provide its Samsung 5G modem.

But the CPU remains a mystery, to this day, when XDA published a report based on both a Geekbench score and a source claiming to have a real Pixel 6 Pro. The report states that the CPU configuration in the Tensor will consist of two Cortex-X1 performance cores at 2,802 GHz, two Cortex-A76 performance cores at 2,253 GHz, and four Cortex-A55 efficiency cores.

Image: Google

If you’ve been up to date with the major flagship cell phone chips, it’s a very strange list to watch, combining new and powerful cell phones with weaker old ones. Let’s take a step back to explain why:

When we examine most SoCs for smartphones, there are usually two main parts: performance CPU cores and efficiency CPU cores. Arm-based designs tend to blend them into large configurations. LITTLE, to enable devices that can increase performance by using more powerful “big” cores for intensive things like gaming, while performing less demanding tasks (like checking email) on “few” efficiency cores ”To extend battery life.

A typical arm-based design can include four performance cores (such as the Cortex-A78) and four efficiency cores (such as the Cortex-A55). But last year, Arm added an even more powerful new performance option for chip makers: the Cortex-X1.

Therefore, the best smartphones of 2021 tend to offer a triple cluster design: the Snapdragon 888 uses partially customized versions of a single-core Cortex-X1, three Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55, while Exynos 2100 Samsung uses a similar configuration. Tensor is said to offer two Cortex-X1 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores, and the usual four Cortex-55 cores.

Which makes it a very weird version of a triple cluster design. By including not one, but two Cortex-X1 performance cores, Tensor could theoretically allow it to surpass even the best chips from Qualcomm and Samsung, on paper, if not for the second half of the rumor, which is that Google also uses two older Cortex-A76 cores … which, in a nutshell, make no sense.

How XDA points out, the Cortex-A76 was introduced in 2018 and is completely two generations behind the Cortex-A78 design used in the flagship chips of 2021. There is also no logical reason why Google would use the previous design; the A78 is faster i more efficient than its older counterpart, making it a extremely strange option to include as part of the CPU Tensor cluster, especially if Google is already doing both with two X1 cores.

There is a possibility that Google is simply obfuscating its CPU design in the Geekbench score, although the report notes that it would be unlikely.

For now, though, the mystery of the Pixel 6’s Tensor chip has become even stranger. And it will probably stay that way until Google reveals more information when the phones arrive later this fall.