Google reportedly is creating a Tensor chip for the Pixel Watch

We all know that beginning with subsequent yr’s Pixel 10 sequence, the Tensor G5 SoC powering the telephones will not be constructed on an Samsung Exynos platform. As a substitute, the chipset can be designed from the bottom up by Google which can enable the corporate to construct new improvements and capabilities for Pixel handsets proper into the Tensor software processor (AP). And Google can be saying goodbye to Samsung Foundry, the corporate that manufactured the primary 4 Tensor chipsets.

Subsequent yr, Pixel 10 customers may discover an enchancment within the efficiency and probably even the battery lifetime of the Pixel 10 models in contrast with this yr’s fashions. That is as a result of beginning in 2025, the Tensor G5 AP can be constructed by the world’s main foundry, TSMC, utilizing its second-generation 3nm course of node (N3E). This might shortly assist flip what has been a weak spot for the Pixel sequence into a bonus.

And now there’s discuss of Google creating a customized SoC for the Pixel Watch which might be prepared in a few years. The primary Pixel Watch, launched in October 2022, was powered by the Samsung Exynos 9110 as Google borrowed the processor technique used on the Pixel smartphones for the primary Pixel Watch. However that technique shifted in 2023 and 2024 because the Pixel Watch 2 and Pixel Watch 3 each comprise  Snapdragon chipsets designed by Qualcomm. This alteration gave Pixel Watch customers a giant enchancment in battery life beginning with 2023’s Pixel Watch 2.

Android Authority was capable of learn paperwork leaked from Google’s chip division stating that the personalized chip for the Pixel Watch, with the codename “NPT,” can be outfitted with older CPU cores taking the main focus off of cutting-edge efficiency and concentrating on effectivity as an alternative. This appears to be the development for the processors getting used as of late on wearable gadgets like smartwatches. The customized Tensor NPT chip for the Pixel Watch might debut in 2026 on the Pixel Watch 5.

The configuration of the chip is rumored to incorporate one Arm Cortex-A78 CPU efficiency core together with two Arm Cortex-A55 CPU effectivity cores. The latter core goes again to 2017. The Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 that powered final yr’s Pixel Watch 2 used Cortex-A53 cores which date again even longer, again to 2012. The chip was produced on a 4nm node. One other at present employed chipset, Samsung’s Exynos W1000 SoC, is discovered contained in the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Extremely. This chipset makes use of an analogous configuration made up of 1 Cortex-A78 CPU efficiency core and 4 Arm Cortex-A55 CPU effectivity cores.