Stefan Mileschin

Pixel own in house SoC dream dies

Google has reportedly lots three of its key hardware engineers that gave the iPhone A series chip its edge. Manu Gulati, John Bruno and Vinod Chamarty waved Google goodbye, the departure caused by the lack of Google’s ambition to build a serious mobile SoC platform. Apple will have an easier time to complete, now.

Samsung has a high end SoC and so does Huawei. Both did quite well with their high end phones as the in house SoC, helps you differentiate against the competition. Android phones for the most part are very much look alike and most of them are based on high end Qualcomm chips.

John Bruno
These three were hired to build a custom in house high end SoC as they are world class material. Yours truly met John Bruno back at the ATI technology chipset division in early 2000s. Bruno worked at both ATI and later AMD’s Trinity mobile platform before he left for Apple.

As ex-Apple workers rarely talk about their time there, rumor has it that Bruno worked on the mobile platform as a system principal engineer on the A series and iPhones where he stayed between mid-2012 and late 2017. Bruno is a well-known hardware platform engineer while Manu was the SoC lead for Google.

It is funny how history tends to repeat itself as John Bruno went to Apple in 2012, as we reported back then, following the footsteps of Intel’s famous Raja Koduri who also spent a significant time at Apple. This might be an indication that these two great gentlemen will meet again at Intel.

Google SoC exit
The decision almost sounds like it has been heavily influenced by the recent Apple and Qualcomm settlement, but this is just an educated guess rather then something that we have been able to confirm. Google leaving the custom high end SoC dream helps Apple as well as Qualcomm who will end up being in Pixel 4, 5,6 (insert number) in years to come.

Development of a mobile SoC is an incredibly complex and expensive job and very few people dare to walk that path. Apple and Qualcomm are doing exceptional jobs while Samsung and Huawei are making what fits their needs. Qualcomm is predominantly shipping SoC for the majority of the Android market but Samsung and MediaTek certainly help to fil the gap.

https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/487...bile-engineers