Google Tensor Processor Powering The Pixel 6 Series Explained

Google has officially unveiled the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, powered by the all-new Google Tensor processor. For the first time ever, Google has not used a Qualcomm processor, instead, it has built a processor of its own to power the latest Pixel smartphones.

According to Google, the Tensor processor offers the latest advancements in machine learning (ML). ML is extensively used to provide features like real-time language translation and also improves camera performance.

Using the ML capabilities on the Tensor processor, Google offers exclusive camera features like Motion Mode, Face Unblur, Speech enhancement, and HDRnet to videos technologies on the Pixel 6 series of smartphones. Google also claims that, when compared to the competition, the Tensor processor consumes less power while running ML models.

These ML models are extensively used on the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro on features like Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and the company also confirm that, with the power of Tensor processor, Google can now offer ASR technology even on long-running applications like Recorder.

Google Tensor Chip CPU Specifications

Google Tensor SoC comes with an octa-core CPU design with two high-performance cores based on Arm Cortex-X1 architecture with a clock speed of 2.8GHz, two medium performance cores with a peak clock speed of 2.25GHz, based on Arm Cortex-A76 architecture. Lastly, the four efficient cores are based on Arm Cortex-A55 architecture.

The Tensor chip is built on 5nm fabrication, which makes it as power-efficient as the current flagship SoCs from Apple, Qualcomm, and even Samsung. The Tensor SoC also has a custom GPU, which is said to be 370 percent faster than the GPU on the previous generation Pixel smartphone.

On the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, users can now use the live translate feature even on third-party apps like WhatsApp and Messenger. When compared to the Pixel 4, the Pixel 6 consumes less than half the power while running an on-device neural machine translation (NMT) model.

All-new camera features on the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro are also powered by the Google Tensor processor. Google now offers a new feature called "Motion Mode" which converts a still image into an image that looks like it is in motion.

Google is also introducing a new video feature called HDRNet, which offers a signature pixel look even on 4K videos with 60fps. Besides, the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro also offer improved face detection capability, again, while consuming less than half the power as of the Qualcomm-processor-powered Pixel 5.

Tensor Also Offers Better Security

With the Tensor processor, Google is also upping on the on-device security by a notch, as the company has combined Tensor processor with the Titan M2, Google Tensor security core. This ensures that hackers won't be able to steal data from the Pixel 6 series of smartphones even if they physically attack the device using voltage glitching or laser fault injection.