Google is poaching Qualcomm and Intel engineers for its new chip design team
Google is expanding its efforts to design its own smartphone and data center chips by building a new team of engineers dedicated to the project in Bengaluru, an up-and-coming semiconductor site in the capital of the south Indian state of Karnataka, according to a report from Reuters. The new team, which Reuters says includes at least 16 engineers and four recruiters and will likely continue to increase in headcount, is the latest sign that the tech industry's biggest players are trying to rid themselves of reliance on the traditional chip business. Among the new hires are engineers from Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, Reuters reports.
Also at Wccftech.
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Google is Expanding its Chip Design Efforts, Hiring Engineers from Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by MrGuy on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:21AM (5 children)
OK, so Bangalore (aka Bengaluru), one of the first and largest hearts of the Indian technology economy, is "up-and-coming"? The big western and native tech companies have called Bangalore home for more than two decades now. It's the third largest city in India, and it's one of the largest technology hubs in the world. It's often referred to as the silicon valley of India. There's nothing "up-and-coming" about it.
Maybe the author of the article didn't recognize it by it's de-westernized official name, but if you feel the need to explain what and where Bangalore is in a tech article, in a way that suggests you haven't heard of the city before, maybe you shouldn't be taken seriously writing about technology. "I dunno - the Reuters article I'm referencing has this city named in it. I looked on a map and apparently it's in someplace called Karnataka apparently?"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:40AM (2 children)
"up-and-coming semiconductor site"
Is it known for its chip designers or fabs?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @06:02AM
Actually, does the town have reliable power grid for fabs? Perhaps they will just do design works and contract an outside fab?
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday February 13 2019, @07:28AM
It's mostly famous for its torpedoes [youtube.com].
Hope this doesn't all blow up in Google's face.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:41AM
To be fair, the name as presented does look suspiciously like something a chinese knock-off company might use.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:00PM
An Indian Fab has been talked about for years but nothing commercially competitive has materialized. There were plans for a plant in Prantij, but I haven't heard anything beyond initial announcements years ago. There is a single fab in Chandigarh dedicated to ISRO, although I'm unsure if they have advanced beyond 180nm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics_and_semiconductor_manufacturing_industry_in_India#Semiconductor_Manufacturing [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @12:40PM (3 children)
because the more chip designs there are, the more programmer jobs there are.
why would we focus on solving problems, when we can instead spend society's time and energy on solving the same problem in several different ways?
we have all the time in the world, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:15PM
you must be one of those lone survivors from that alien (mono-culture-chip-powered) mothership we saw Xplode in the original "independence day" ...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:44PM (1 child)
Yep, fragmentation IS good. Just ask anyone using this type of grenade.
But seriously.
I had long dreamed of a day when we wouldn't be locked into a single chip architecture. I remember decades ago in computer science where computer architecture was an actual subject that was taught as a requirement.
The dream was that the compilers would have (easily) retargetable back ends, and then everything built on top of them from, the compilers, the OSes, applications, etc would all be portable across hardware architectures.
The purpose of an OS was always to abstract away the hardware and provide some basic services to make applications easy to write. Later the OS abstracted away variations in a line of similar hardware. Eventually OSes abstracted away even the chip architecture. Raspberry Pi using Raspbian, derived from Debian, has some 20,000+ packages from Debian -- on ARM. And on a device that is different from phones, laptops and tablets.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:25PM
"on a device that is different from phones, laptops and tablets."
Rpi is a lobotomized phone.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @06:56PM (2 children)
Chips that send data to Google? What other reason would Google want to make chips? Every other thing they do is about surveillance. Why not this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:01PM
Maybe Google wants to hire Indian engineers in India instead of Silicon Valley, so Sergei won't lose another pair of loafers to street shit.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:22AM
Unlikely. They are probably making chips that will go directly in their own datacenters.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]