Google's in-house chip can bring the 5G Pixel 6 line closer to the iPhone with this feature

Google is planning to use its own chipset for the first time to power the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Last year's Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G were both equipped with the mid-range Snapdragon 765/G SoC. But this year, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are bringing the Pixel name back to the flagship playing field after taking a step backward with the Pixel 5.

The new Whitechapel chip (AKA GS101), as Google's first homemade chipset is called, is manufactured by Samsung Foundry using its 5nm LPE process node. According to Wffctech, Google expects the chip to bring flagship performance to the 2021 Pixels even though the chip itself isn't designed to compete with the Snapdragon 888, Snapdragon 888+, and the rumored next-gen Snapdragon 895.

Production Validation Test (PVT) units running the Whitechapel chip reveal that the component's performance is closer to the Snapdragon 870 than Snapdragon 888. But one rumor says that Google is focusing on AI and machine learning. The same rumor states that the ARM Mali-G78 GPU performs well on the chip without the throttling it is known for. Google's in-house chip features two Cortex-A78 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores, and three Cortex-A55 cores.

There is already speculation about a possible successor to the Whitechapel. The sequel to the latter is expected to use AMD's GPU instead of ARM's Mali component.

Using a Google-designed chip on a Google-designed phone is bound to lead to optimizations that will enhance the capabilities of the Pixels powered by the SoC. For example, there is some talk that Google is planning on offering five years of Android updates for the new Pixels. Considering that Apple supports its phones for seven years from the time a model was last sold and it designs both the chip and the phone, we can probably give credit to the Whitechapel chip if this rumor is true.

Additionally, the Whitechapel SoC might contain a new security chip called Dauntless that replaces the Titan-M chips used in the previous generation of Pixel handsets.