Google's In-House 'Tensor' SoC To Power Upcoming Pixel 6 Smartphones

Technology giant Google on Monday (2 August) announced the debut of its in-house designed Tensor System On A Chip (SoC) on its upcoming Pixel 6 smartphones that are slated to launch later this year.

The AI-enabled Tensor SoC has been developed specifically for Pixel phones.

"AI is the future of our innovation work, but the problem is we’ve run into computing limitations that prevented us from fully pursuing our mission. So we set about building a technology platform built for mobile that enabled us to bring our most innovative AI and machine learning (ML) to our Pixel users. We set out to make our own System on a Chip (SoC) to power Pixel 6. And now, years later, it’s almost here," said Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President, Devices & Services.

"Tensor is our first custom-built SoC specifically for Pixel phones, and it will power the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro," he added.

Google said that Tensor was built for how people use their phones today and how people will use them in the future.

"For example, with Tensor we thought about every piece of the chip and customised it to run Google's computational photography models. For users, this means entirely new features, plus improvements to existing ones," the company said.

Google has also upgraded the rear camera system on Pixel 6.

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have new materials and finishes, too -- like the Pro's light polished aluminum frame, and the 6's matte aluminum finish.

In 2016, Google launched the first Pixel.

"Over the years, we introduced features like HDR+ and Night Sight, which used artificial intelligence (AI) to create beautiful images with computational photography," the company said.

"As more and more features are powered by AI and ML it's not simply about adding more computing resources, it's about using that ML to unlock specific experiences for our Pixel users," it added.

(With inputs from IANS)