Google was among the first hyperscalers build custom silicon for its services, starting first with tensor processing units (TPUs) for its AI initiatives, and then video transcoding units (VCUs) for the YouTube service. But unlike its industry peers, the company has been slower to adopt custom CPU designs, prefering to stick to off-the-shelf chips from the major CPUs. This is finally changing at Google, with the announcement that the company has developed its own in-house datacenter CPU, the Axion. Google's Axion processor is based on the Arm Neoverse V2 (Arm v9) platform, which is Arm's current-generation design for high-performance server CPUs, and is already employed in other chips such as NVIDIA's Grace and Amazon's Graviton4. Within Google, Axion is aimed at a wide variety of...
Google Announces The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL: The 2019 Pixels
Today Google announced the new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL flagship devices, representing Google's vision for 2019 and 2020. The new phones upgrade the hardware to the latest...
95 by Andrei Frumusanu on 10/15/2019
Made by Google 2019 Live Blog (Starts at 10am ET/14:00 UTC)
We've seen the latest and greatest smartphones from Apple, Samsung, LG, and Huawei. Now as we're getting ready to close out the year, it's the final major smartphone launch...
51 by Andrei Frumusanu on 10/15/2019_carousel.jpg)
A Day with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro: Kirin 990 and 7680 FPS Slow Motion Tests
Last week Huawei launched its latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 30 Pro, featuring its latest Kirin 990 chipset. At the heart of the new hardware is a waterfall wrap-around...
47 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 9/23/2019
GlobalFoundries Sues TSMC Over Patent Infringement; Apple, Qualcomm, Others Named Defendants
GlobalFoundries has filed a lawsuit against TSMC and its clients in the USA and Germany alleging the world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors of infringing 16 of its patents...
97 by Anton Shilov on 8/26/2019
The Google Pixel 3a XL Review: Does Mid-Range Make Sense?
It’s nearing 8 months since Google released the Pixel 3 and we extensively reviewed the phone. It also has been several years now since Google abandoned the Nexus line...
94 by Andrei Frumusanu on 6/27/2019
Huawei Clarifies Android Update Situation, Commits to Android Q for Last 2 Generations
Huawei last night launched an information campaign about the status of software updates on existing devices in the face of the company’s troubles with the U.S. Commerce Department. The important...
21 by Andrei Frumusanu on 6/21/2019
Google Reveals Stadia Launch Details: November 2019, Starting With a $129 Bundle
A couple months back at GDC 2019, Google announced their intent to step into the video game streaming market with Stadia. Based around Google’s cloud computing platform that’s been...
59 by Ryan Smith on 6/6/2019
Update: Huawei Issued Waiver by U.S. to Continue Software Updates & Hardware Maintenance
Update 05/20, 9pm: Following last week's ban and Google's suspension of business operations with Huawei, the U.S. Commerce Department has issued a new waiver for the company to continue...
116 by Andrei Frumusanu on 5/20/2019
Google Announces Pixel 3a & Pixel 3a XL: Mid-Range Phones With Flagship Camera
Google’s Pixel smartphone line-up has been a mainstay of the industry for a few years now. We’re all familiar with devices such as the latest Pixel 3 which is...
72 by Andrei Frumusanu on 5/7/2019
Google Announces Stadia: A Game Streaming Service
Today at GDC, Google announced its new video game streaming service. The new service will be called Stadia. This builds on the information earlier this year that AMD was...
147 by Ian Cutress on 3/19/2019
Google Acquires Smartwatch Tech and R&D Personnel from Fossil
Google and watch marker Fossil on Thursday announced that Google would be acquiring smartwatch-related intellectual property and personnel from Fossil. The technology is currently under development and will only...
18 by Anton Shilov on 1/18/2019
Google Rolls Out Night Sight Tech to Improve Quality of Low-Light Photos
Google on Wednesday began to roll out its Night Sight low-light computational photography technology to its Pixel-branded smartphones. The technology is designed to improve the quality of low-light photos...
33 by Anton Shilov on 11/14/2018
The Google Pixel 3 Review: The Ultimate Camera Test
The Pixel 3 is Google’s third generation in-house design, meant to showcase the company’s own view of what an Android device should be, whilst fully embracing Google’s first-party software...
135 by Andrei Frumusanu on 11/2/2018
Google Unveils 2018 Chromecast: 1080p at 60 fps, Chromecast Audio Support
Google on Tuesday introduced its newest Chromecast dongle for media streaming. The updated device adds support for 60 fps streaming at 1080p, but does not support a 4K resolution...
23 by Anton Shilov on 10/9/2018
Google Announces the Pixel Slate: A 12.3-Inch x86-Based Chrome OS Tablet
Google on Tuesday introduced its first tablet PC based on its Chrome OS operating system, the Pixel Slate. Being based on Intel’s high-performance x86 SoCs and equipped with a...
40 by Anton Shilov on 10/9/2018
Google Launches the Pixel 3 & Pixel 3 XL
It has likely been the most leaked phone in existence, and while there’s a lot we’ve known about the new Pixel 3’s – today Google has finally officially announced...
86 by Andrei Frumusanu on 10/9/2018
YouTube, Netflix Publish First Videos Transcoded Using AV1
UPDATE: 9/14 5 PM ET: Adding information regarding Netflix videos transcoded using AV1. YouTube has uploaded about a dozen videos that were transcoded using the AV1 codec, whcih was introduced...
53 by Anton Shilov on 9/14/2018
Hot Chips 2018: Google Titan Live Blog (6pm PT, 1am UTC)
The second talk on security is on Google's Titan Root-of-Trust silicon that sits between the BIOS and the processor on its custom systems.
8 by Ian Cutress on 8/20/2018
Hot Chips 2018: The Google Pixel Visual Core Live Blog (10am PT, 5pm UTC)
Hot Chips has started! One of the first talks today is from Google, detailing the Pixel Visual Core processor found in the latest Pixel smartphones. The talk is called...
14 by Ian Cutress on 8/20/2018
European Commission Fines Google €4.3bn For Android Market Dominance Abuses
Today the European Commission has announced that it has found Google in breach of EU antitrust laws and has fined the company €4.34 billion. The original proceedings against Google formally...
58 by Andrei Frumusanu on 7/18/2018
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