Google planning to design its own Android chip

Google is reportedly taking a page out of Apple's playbook and expressing interest in co-developing Android chips based on its own designs, according to a report today from The Information. Similar to how the iPhone carries a Ax chip designed by Apple but manufactured by companies like Samsung, Google wants to bring its own expertise and consistency to the Android ecosystem.

The report says that during discussions that happened this fall, "Google representatives put forward designs of chips it was interested in co-developing, including a phone’s main processor." The new chips are reportedly needed for future Android features that Google hopes to release "in the next few years."  Soon, Google was discussing the possibility of designing its own smartphone chips as well, the report states. One benefit of Google's strategy would be the ability to bake in cutting edge features into future versions of Android, like support for augmented and virtual reality, that would require more closely integrated software and hardware.

To do that, it would need to convince a company like Qualcomm, which produces some of the top Android smartphone chips today using its own technology, to sacrifice some of its competitive edge. Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Now Google wants to design its own VR and AR chips, presumably to power this new Android virtual reality OS and experimental devices like Project Tango. Augmented reality in particular is extremely hard on a processor. Overlaying a 3D image onto a video feed or a transparent display means constantly measuring the space in front of the display in 3D and rendering and positioning the objects in that 3D space many times a second. You're running the CPU, GPU, cameras, and accelerometers at full blast the entire time.

Google is also reportedly looking for an image processor design that can minimize the camera delay in between photos for a "video-like stream" of images. 

One curious point mentions "adding memory capacity inside the phone’s main processor so that the processor doesn’t need to reach into a separate memory chip to accomplish certain tasks." This is indefinite enough to fit the defination of cache, something every mobile processor already ship with.

Finally, the report mentioned that these talks originated "from Google’s efforts to find a manufacturer to make chips for an “enterprise connectivity device,” a plan that is still ongoing.