Google Tensor G5: Pixel 10 series' SoC allegedly tapes out on TSMC's 3 nm node

[Redaktion]

A report from Taiwan says Google's Tensor G5 has successfully taped out. The 3 nm chip is slated to use Google's fully in-house design and manufactured by TSMC.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-Tensor-G5-Pixel-10-series-SoC-allegedly-tapes-out-on-TSMC-s-3-nm-node.855455.0.html

[Randy chan]

Based on Google's first custom in-house chip tensor G1 based on Samsung exynos disappointing history beginning in 2021, I'll take a wait and see approach on tensor G5. My hope was for Google to return to using Qualcomm snapdragon chips because I have good reason to believe that in 2025 Qualcomm's 8 Gen 5 will be far superior to tensor G5. Or another option I hoped for was for Google to have a joint Google-qualcomm in designing the tensor G5 which certainly would have been far better than the joint google-samsung exynos. Both of those options would have made Google Pixel phones great and one of the best android phones on the market. It's doughtful that Google has the expertise to compete with qualcomm or Media Tek in making their own chips thus Tensor G5 powering Pixel 10 pro will be a disappointment.

[Shane V]

That is far beyond the truth. Alphabet Inc. is falling apart. The last Pixel Device that actually worked was the 5, and it was the only device released that year. Since then, they have completely botched, not 1, 2 A.I. launches, almost brought Google search engine to complete halt, further restricted search results to those that pay them advertising money, and casually let corporate sensitive documents get posted for the world to read. They are building junk with known defective parts and programming engineers that break 3 more features with every one they fix. The June update fixed the reception problems, every one stating "I have twice the reception I did before the update!" Nobody has better reception, the engineers altered the threshold numbers for the display icon. What displayed at 103db now displays at 117db. In actuality, the reception has gotten worse, a lot worse.

[Dila Yir]

What does "taped out" mean? It's mentioned twice, quickly, with no explanation. Poor journalism to not explain industry-specific lingo to your readers.

[Adam T]

Taped out?  Tapped out?  Tapes? Taps?  Confused.

[Bill Reyes]

What does "taped out" mean? It's mentioned twice, quickly, with no explanation. Poor journalism to not explain industry-specific lingo to your readers.

It's the final stage of the design process of a Soc/circuit board before it goes to manufacturing for mass production. You can apply this to GPU cards, and game consoles as well. Usually they have the design taped out 1-2 years before production. Not much on a chip can be changed after, minus clock speeds for CPU, GPU, and the amount of RAM. Otherwise it would require another design and tape out again.

[George]

What does "taped out" mean? It's mentioned twice, quickly, with no explanation. Poor journalism to not explain industry-specific lingo to your readers.

It is Electrical Engineering lingo...

While it has more historical roots then modern day practice the term is still used today in relation to a few different subsystems.

Way back BEFORE actually "printed" circuit boards were made designers would draft their schematics of their circuits and then conceptually place & arrange the electrical parts they were using on their chosen size & shape of circuit board.

"Tape out" refers to the actual placing of tape on the copper circuit board to protect the copper elements the designers wished to use as "wires" interconnecting the electrical parts that they were planning on attaching to the circuit board.

Once "taped out" the circuit board would be dropped in an acid bath which would remove all the copper that was not covered by tape.

After cleaning (and optional drilling) as well as coatings to protect the exposed copper the finished bare PCB (we can call it 'printed' as there is now a circuit schematic etched/printed on it!) can be assembled with electrical devices to become a product.

(modern times they use "photo etch" instead of tape)

In Electrical Engineering "tape out sets in stone" the physical locations and electrical connections of the devices. Afterwards the design is transferred to PCB manufacturing for fabrication and 'stuffing' (of the parts).

In reference to CHIP's, the planning for all the gates, devices & layers of material are complete and ready to send to the factory for fabrication.

[Unnamednewb]

The origin of "taped out" is actually disputed. Some say it is because historically, the mask data was so huge, you had to store it on magnetic tape and send it to the fab for production.

Others say it is because the first generationsnof process masks were actually cut out of foil. This was then turned into the photomask through an optical process.

Tapeout just means design is finised, as once the tape is out the design is pretty much locked. Of course this could be a prototype run on an mpw in which case it could be a while before production starts.(an mpw or multiproject wafer is where multiple customers share a set of masks to reduce prototype costs - a full 3nm mask set will likely cost north of 20 million USD).