Google LLC has reportedly delayed the launch of its first fully custom Pixel smartphone chip until 2025, according to a report today in The Information.

The company was originally planning to replace the modified Samsung Exynos chips it uses in its current generation of Pixel smartphones in 2024. The plan was to use a chip designed in-house codenamed “Redondo.” However, Google has now pushed back the launch date by a year, and will instead use Redondo as the basis for a newer chip design, called “Laguna.”

The Information cites an unnamed former Google chip executive as saying that the project was beset by challenges the company faced with retaining employees. In addition, it also had problems coordinating development of the new chip between its U.S. and India-based teams.

The report goes on to say Google will now produce Redondo as a test chip that will help its engineers to design Laguna, which will be a superior processor. Google, which will keep using semicustom chips built by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. for the time being, will also switch manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest chipmaker, which builds Apple Inc.’s custom iPhone chips.

The Laguna chip will reportedly be called the Tensor G5 chip when it launches. It will use an advanced packaging technology that enables greater power efficiency in a slimmer profile, which is currently used almost exclusively by Apple.

The Tensor G5 chip will be built on TSMC’s most advanced three-nanometer process, but it’s not clear how many of the chips Google will be able to build. According to The Information, the advances in performance and power efficiency mean TSMC’s three-nanometer process is in high demand, and Apple has reportedly reserved 90% of its manufacturing capacity this year.

Google wants to create fully custom Tensor chips for the Pixel smartphone because doing so will provide several benefits. Bringing chip development in-house gives Google the freedom to make more specific changes to its designs and can potentially boost the performance of its Pixel smartphones. Google is also said to be critical of Samsung’s Exynos-based Tensor chips, which can run hot even with relatively modest workloads.

Although there are advantages to building custom processors, doing so can also be very expensive, and The Information said it’s not certain Google will see a significant return on its investment. Google doesn’t reveal how many Pixel smartphones it sells, but a report by International Data Corp. last year estimated that it had sold just 27.6 million units since launching its first-generation Pixel device in 2016. In contrast, Samsung is believed to have sold 257 million smartphones in 2022 alone, while Apple shipped 232 million iPhones in the same year.

Photo: Johnny_px/Pixabay