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Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro aren’t all that old and all the talk right now is still about the Pixel Fold and Pixel 7a, but the rumour mill waits for no one. It’s time to turn our attention to what comes next.
What comes next is the Pixel 8, and we’ve already started to see some rumours about what it and its bigger cousin, the Pixel 8 Pro, will have to offer. Now, a new report has pointed the finger squarely at some big upgrades in the world of Google’s silicon – the chip that is expected to power the Pixel 8 series and likely be named the Tensor G3 if Google follows its own precedent.
A chip with cores for days
The latest news comes courtesy of a report by Android Authority which cites an unnamed “source inside Google” when discussing the specifications of the upcoming Tensor G3.
According to that report, Google is ready to up the ante this time around, packing the Tensor G3 with more-modern cores in an attempt to ensure that the phones it powers will be able to better compete with silicon like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Samsung’s Exynos.
“With Tensor G3, Google’s finally putting more up-to-date cores in the chip,” the report claims. “The entire CPU block has been rearchitected to use 2022 ARMv9 cores. The core layout has also been modified — gone is the unusual 4+2+2 setup, and in its place, Google put in… an even weirder one?”
The gist, it seems, is that the new Tensor G3 will feature nine CPU cores. Four of them will be little Cortex-A510 cores while they will be joined by four Cortex-A715s. After that, a single Cortex-X3 core will handle the heavy lifting with all of those cores sporting higher clock frequencies than Tensor G3.
That means that the Tensor G3 will have little cores running at 2.15GHz. Those Cortex-A715 cores will run at 2.45GHz while the sole big core will run at 3.0Ghz. That’s at least a 150Mhz clock boost over last year’s chip.
All of that will of course help improve performance, while other changes will see support for ARM’s Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) – a feature that should help prevent memory-based attempts to compromise devices.
That isn’t the end of it, either. The report suggests that graphics will be boosted by a new GPU based on the Mali-G715, a chip that will have three more cores than last year’s Tensor G2. A modest clock speed will also be included, too.
This will all reportedly be coupled with support for UFS 4.0 storage, ensuring that apps and games should load nice and speedily. However, those hoping for even faster connectivity might be left wanting – the report claims that the Tensor G2’s Exynos 5300 modem will remain.
We can of course expect there to be more leaks between now and the expected October(ish) release date for the new Pixels, so buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!