Google Tensor G5 leak details key changes

A new report from Android Authority details the upcoming Pixel 10 series’ custom Tensor G5 chipset. The new report corroborates previous claims that the G5 will be designed by Google and fabbed by TSMC instead of Samsung and we get a lot more details on the components inside the upcoming chip.

Tensor G5 will be fabbed on TSMC’s 3nm-class node and Google will use Arm Cortex CPU cores. The big difference on the G5 is that Google will opt for an Imagination Technologies GPU, namely the IMG DXT, which replaces the Arm Mali-G715 MP7 from the Tensor G4.

The other notable change is the fully custom image signal processor (ISP), which will replace the partially custom designs of its predecessors, which relied on modified Samsung ISPs with Google-designed blocks. Ever since switching to Tensor chips, Google has not used a fully custom ISP in its Pixel phones so this change should be a big one for camera performance.

Google is also expected to use a custom memory controller, system-level cache and power modules.

Elsewhere, Google will go away from its custom “BigWave” AV1 video codec and Samsung’s MFC (Multi Format Codec) and will instead rely on Chips&Media’s WAVE677DV which supports encoding and decoding in AV1, VP9, HEVC and H.264 formats.

Tensor G5 is also expected to feature third-party USB, PCIe, and I3C components as well as third-party interfaces for the DSI (display), DisplayPort, flash storage and memory (LPDDR5x).

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