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Pixel 6 will be powered by new Google-made 'Whitechapel' chip
9to5Google can report today that Google's upcoming phones for this fall, including the presumed Pixel 6, will be among the first devices to run on the "GS101" Whitechapel chip.
[...] First rumored in early 2020, Whitechapel is an effort on Google's part to create their own systems on a chip (SoCs) to be used in Pixel phones and Chromebooks alike, similar in to how Apple uses their own chips in the iPhone and Mac. Google was said to be co-developing Whitechapel with Samsung, whose Exynos chips rival Snapdragon processors in the Android space.
Per that report, Google would be ready to launch devices with Whitechapel chips as soon as 2021. According to documentation viewed by 9to5Google, this fall's Pixel phones will indeed be powered by Google's Whitechapel platform.
[...] Putting it all together, this fall's Made by Google phones will not use chips made by Qualcomm, but will instead be built on Google's own Whitechapel hardware platform with assistance from Samsung.
Also at The Verge and XDA Developers.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @06:13AM (13 children)
Good.
Qualcomm has been coasting for a while now.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:10AM (6 children)
Serious question.... who gives a crap about 6g google 2x processor? There's a quote I read about advertising, something like "Every time I see a great advertisement, I weep for the artist who created it." Same thing applies to the diligent science nerd who finds him/herself coding advertisements for google selling disposable phone crapware. Yay for your dreams and aspirations, young Jedi.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday April 04 2021, @11:19AM (4 children)
Google does. There are people who have dared to use things like LineageOS and similar to evade Google's dream of universal surveillance, but no more! Now with the spyware built right into the silicon it doesn't matter what you're running, Google will be watching. And collecting. And analysing. And selling to whoever has the money.
Forget about the Huawei scaremongering bogeyman bullshit, it's Google that's the big brother that we all have to worry about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @12:14PM (1 child)
My thoughts exactly. I would love to see a phone using something like RISC-V, rather than this proprietary spyware crap they are pushing.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday April 05 2021, @11:04PM
libre-soc [libre-soc.org]
Unfortunately, still a work-in-progress right now.
There's a reason why they are basing it on IBM's power architecture instead of the obvious RISC-V. IBM turned out to be more friendly to a completely open, libre project.
-- hendrik
(Score: 3, Funny) by Frosty Piss on Monday April 05 2021, @12:07AM (1 child)
Destroy your phone and lock yourself in your basement (mom’s, of course) with your one year supply of Mountain Dew, Cheetos, and lube.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 05 2021, @02:55AM
You forgot kleenex...boxes full bro, pallets of it even. MUST HAVE!
(Score: 3, Funny) by SomeGuy on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:11PM
Smartphones are toys for teenage girls. Are there that many teenage girls visiting this web site? Nah, they are too busy buying dresses online with their smart phones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:26AM (1 child)
They can build their own silicon, but can they evade the patents?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:41AM
Not if they want to connect to the cellular network. Cell protocol standards are all patented and all cellphone makers must negotiate and pay fees to the major players.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:28AM (3 children)
Qualcomm has been doing worse than coasting. They require a proprietary driver that is chip model specific and requires their custom patched kernel. As soon as they stop making a given chip model they stop supporting the driver and neither phone makers nor users can upgrade to newer kernels. LineageOS can't support them either for the same reason. I have two such phones and they dropped support just after the warranty expired.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @03:33PM
yeah, i also like the part where they "lock the bootloader" or what's called. for security. not to make it difficult to install something that can circumvent their "obsolete by design" philosophy. it's for security! your security! ... and their perpetual profit security, lulz.
there really ought to be a law, that forces smart phone manufacturers to provide a bootloader (or what it's called) unlock tool no later then the day the stop supporting THE SOFTWARE-OS on the device (no more security updates).
there is really no way to interpret this as first scaremongering (only a locked bootloader is secure) and then "look, new shiney is better and more secure. old device is a lost cause! buy new! be MEOR secure! ofc, again with a locked bootloader".
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:27PM (1 child)
>LineageOS can't support them either
what now? got any specifics here? because you can usually run the latest android on a really old phone. Nexus 6 is pretty damn old and I assume out of support by Qualcomm, but you can put the latest android on it.
a hardware vendor dropping support for something doesn't mean it magically stops working. Case and point, the latest Linux runs on a whole bunch of old CPUs that aren't supported. Windows of course doesn't, but good thing Android runs on Linux. So, in summary, I'm pretty sure you're completely full of shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @10:27PM
My junk phones have Mediatek chipsets in them, not Qualcomm. Sorry for the noise.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @08:31AM (5 children)
The big question is if these chips will have open source drivers and an unlockable bootloader.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @09:24AM (3 children)
I think a huge, untold, reason for many of the increases in tech prices is all the mergers and acquisitions that have been happening over the years. There isn't as much competition as there used to be. Plus more stupid patents and the attack on iso and other standardization automatic cross licensing deals have also made it more difficult for new entrants to enter the market.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @09:34AM (2 children)
IIRC a lot of that nonsense started with the Rambus lawsuit. RB submitted patented designs to an open standards committee without disclosing that it was patented until after the standard was accepted and other companies were already shipping product. The court not only upheld their patent rights they also refused to make Rambus pay damages to the other companies who had been cheated. The entire industry has gone downhill ever since. Even so, as long as the patents are on the hardware and not on the software then it shouldn't affect drivers, and the bootloader is its own animal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @04:07PM (1 child)
That too but here are a few examples. I will copy and paste.
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Huawei Fights Back
"Looks like Huawei is going to fight back against the U.S. for the sanctions it has imposed on the company... using the U.S. patent system, which recently made some changes to FRAND agreements (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) to make it even easier to sue."
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/07/14/2316236/huawei-fights-back [slashdot.org] [slashdot.org]
(that article was apparently removed during the time that Slashdot had technical issues and a bunch of their articles got deleted so I will add another link to somewhere else. Sucks too because the original discussion was useful).
https://www.fudzilla.com/news/51191-huawei-fights-back [fudzilla.com]
I tried digging a little about what changes were made and this looks to be what is being discussed.
Justice Department’s New Position on Patents, Standard Setting, and Injunctions
"A FRAND commitment ... requires the patent owner to license to all participants in the standard upon payment of a FRAND royalty.
...
In December 2019, the Justice Department, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a formal policy statement on remedies for SEPs. The new statement declares that injunctions should be available for SEPs on the same terms as for patents generally. It also states in a footnote that the antitrust laws are not generally applicable to FRAND disputes."
https://www.theregreview.org/2020/01/06/hovenkamp-justice-department-new-position-patents-standard-setting-injunctions/ [theregreview.org] [theregreview.org]
This looks bad no?
Also
"USPTO Decides To Lower Obviousness Standards"
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/07/1248226/USPTO-Decides-To-Lower-Obviousness-Standards [slashdot.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @10:30PM
How can they possibly lower the Patent Office's obviousness standards? "This is completely obvious. Let's patent it." has been the standard for over 100 years.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday April 04 2021, @11:22AM
You can guarantee that it will have a secure enclave that only Google controls.
And that carefully watches everything else going on in the system.
And reports it to Google.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @12:01PM
I shouldn't reveal this since it's under NDA, but it's a RISC processor and the list of four assembly language instructions are:
MOV: load immediate values
ADR: load addresses to register
FIL: parse all available files for personal information
DAT: send all personal information to 8.8.8.8
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Sunday April 04 2021, @01:19PM (2 children)
Is this the "new" (or actually old) trend that is returning? You are filling up your hardware with your own components. It used to be that you used as many common components as possible to push down the price and make it easy for it to be repaired. Then they started to use more and more of their own components. Consolidating several components into one to make things smaller and cheaper. But also harder to repair cause after all if it's your own component you control the supply. So you can have as many "right to repair" bills or suggestions as you wish but if you can only get the components from one source they can sort of stop this whole thing dead in the tracks by not selling components outside their own production chain and to their own authorized dealers. Keeping the price high for repairs. Sure there will be pirate components eventually, just look at all the screens and such for the various idevices. But Apple knows. If you install some pirate part in their phone all warranty is null and void, if you use a non-apple charger and your house burns to the ground it's not Apples fault etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @01:35PM (1 child)
The only thing worth replacing is, if possible, the touchscreen.
All else has been disposable for a long, long time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 04 2021, @10:34PM
The battery too (if it isn't glued in and you can find a replacement).