Google is already working on a new chip

Google has left several clues in the code of its apps, which all lead in the same direction: Big G is working on a new chip, more powerful than Tensor

The new Pixel 6 phones have just arrived but, apparently, Google already has in mind the Pixel 7. And, above all, it has in mind the new chip on which the next smartphones of the Web giant will be based. Many clues, in fact, suggest the arrival within the next year of a successor to the SoC Tensor present on the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Notes in this sense come from the online newspaper 9to5Google and the French developer Dylan Roussel: both have found references to what they believe is a new hardware platform within the apps preinstalled on the Pixel 6. These apps, logically, will also work on the next Pixel 7 and, for this reason, already contain some references to the hardware of future googlephones. But there's more, from further investigation into the code of the apps it seems almost certain that there will be a next-generation chip and not just an update of the current Tensor.

The new Google chip

In the analyzed apps you can read the code name of "Cloudripper", which is not the actual chip, but the common hardware platform that will share the future Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. Exactly as "Slider" is the platform codename of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.

There is then a second reference, this time to the actual chip: "GS201". In Google's app code, the current Tensor processor is identified as "GS101", so it seems obvious that this is not an evolution of Tensor (which would have been called "GS102", or with a similar name), but a next-generation chip.

In both cases, the prefix "GS" stands for "Google Silicon", so it identifies the System on Chip of the smartphone. Joining all the dots, then, 9to5Google and Dylan Roussel declare themselves quite certain of the arrival of a new Google processor.

When GS201 arrives

What we just listed are just the first rumors about the future Google chip, which will equip the Pixel 7. It's still too early not only to speculate its features, but also a possible time window of presentation.

Remember, in fact, that the first news about Google Tensor (i.e. "GS101") date back to late March 2021, the official announcement of the first Google chip dates back to August 2021 and the arrival on the market of the Pixel 6 dates back to a few days ago.