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Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

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Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#81

Post by zozbot234 »

matmatmatmat wrote: post #80
Teknoman117 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. My point was that Qualcomm is not doing this themselves. The only snapdragon support in upstream (Linux, Mesa, etc.) is done by dedicated people in the OSS community. Qualcomm (and MediaTek, etc.) fork the latest LTS kernel or android common kernel, hack it up for that SoC, and dump that on vendors as the msmXXXX kernel. They'll rebase on top of upstream or android common kernel patches (of that version) for t…

This seems like such a short-sighted move by Qualcomm, is there some reason that they would do this and risk losing Google as a customer? Or, did they always assume that they would lose Google as a customer and so they thought it wouldn't be worth the investment?

The downstream kernels are full of terrible and disgusting hacks. They're just doing the bare minimum to get some semblance of Linux running on the hardware, then forgetting about it almost entirely aside from whatever random security hotfixes they're going to release, and refocusing entirely on their next design. There's no real effort being put into coding for long-term maintainability, that's left to the hobbyist community.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#82

Post by ferdowsi »

dheera wrote: post #43
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #19

Unrelated to this article specifically, but the biggest thing I'm looking forward to with the Pixel 6 is the improved updates timeline, as Google has said they will provide updates for at least 5 years, which puts them more in-line with Apple. Previous Pixels worked great but then inexplicably lost OS updates after only a few years.

"Tensor"? Google makes some great stuff but I really wish their product naming conventions weren't so confusing. First they have the Nexus 7, Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and then ... Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, ... oh wait they aren't versions, they are number of inches ... -____- and most people in this world don't even think in inches -_____- And then they have Google Hangouts, Google Hangouts Meet, google Meet, Google Chat,…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_Processing_Unit

> Osterloh did explain that the SoC is an ARM chip designed around a TPU, or Tensor Processing Unit

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#83

Post by dgudkov »

63 wrote: post #22

I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.

If that extra millimeter went to extra battery capacity, it would give an extra day of life to the phone. I would appreciate it more than just a flush back.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#84

Post by npteljes »

jmnicolas wrote: post #58
Jtsummers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reduced latency. Which has an apparent performance boost versus sending data to Google for processing and waiting for a response. Potentially improved privacy (this is how Apple tries to sell it). Less data has to leave the phone to gain the utility of the ML models. Improved device performance. Reduced network use and better specialized chips leading to better performance. Either in terms of better battery life or b…

> Potentially improved privacy On a Google device I would say the potential is reduced to zero!

I agree that the prospect is ludicrous. Hoping for potential of privacy from an ad-tech giant. Nonsense.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#85

Post by handrous »

63 wrote: post #22

I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.

The design makes sense if your assumption is that approximately everyone's going to put a case on it, whether or not the back is flat.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#86

Post by deeviant »

one_off_comment wrote: post #3

Yikes. I'm not a fan of the design because I like my phone to be able to sit flat on surfaces.

I'm having difficulty thinking of use cases where you'd need your phone to sit flat other than alleviating OCD?

Regardless, I'm sure someone will make a case that mostly flush.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#87

Post by the-rc »

qmarchi wrote: post #50
aix1 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google has an incentive to go all in on CPU design as that helps their data centers and GCP both, so we might see significant gains over time. It seems that CPU design for phones and for data centres are quite different problems, or do you see them as facets of the same problem?

I'd imagine that if Google were to ever start deploying ARM servers, it could be a big boon. Amazon Web Services and Oracle Cloud already have ARM servers available, and Azure is supposedly working on their own ARM chips, wouldn't be that much of a stretch. (Disc: I work for Google, but not in Cloud nor Pixel)

It doesn't need to be public facing servers. It could be also for internal uses such as the storage nodes or YouTube transcoding (which has custom decoding/encoding HW as well). I doubt they'd keep the Tensor subsystem for applications like those, though... Except perhaps for YT, where one day you could feed models with frames as they get converted.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#88

Post by handrous »

lvs wrote: post #41
63 wrote: post #22

I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.

The sharp edge looks like it will catch on a pocket. The Nexus 6 also had a flawed camera bump, causing the phone to spin freely on flat surfaces.

I had an early Nexus phone (I forget exactly which one) that had a seemingly physics-defying ability to slooooowly (over the course of minutes) slide off apparently-flat-but-actually-slightly-not surfaces, when laid on its back. Not due to alert vibrations, either, but when entirely idle, or even turned off. I think Google accidentally made the back out of some kind of sci-fi ultraslick material or something.

Re: Google Tensor SoC debuts on the new Pixel 6 this fall

#90

Post by brokensegue »

dgudkov wrote: post #83
63 wrote: post #22

I imagine I'm in the minority but I'd rather have a phone a fraction of a millimeter thicker that has a flush back. At this point it's getting out of hand.

If that extra millimeter went to extra battery capacity, it would give an extra day of life to the phone. I would appreciate it more than just a flush back.

I'd like to see the math behind this
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