The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn which claims that Google has hired staff and inquiring about fabs which will play ball with its new designs.

Google has apparently hired a senior product executive from Qualcomm along with several engineers from PA Semi, a chip firm that was acquired by Apple. Along with using off-the-shelf ARM designs as a starting point, it would seem Google has the expertise to pull off a chip design.

Google has already given chipmakers a road map for how it is thinking about the future of Android and what will be required to get there.
It also wants an image processor design that can minimise the camera delay in between photos for a "video-like stream" of images.

Buried in the details is the information that Google wants to add memory capacity inside the phone’s main processor so that the processor doesn’t need to reach into a separate memory chip to accomplish certain tasks – some form of caching.

Google wants "more powerful sensors so that the phone can collect more data on its surroundings." It mentions "improved sensor hubs," which presumably means Google wants to standardize or improve the "Android Sensor Hub" and always-on voice chip present in the Nexus 5X and 6P. Google is also looking to add "support for a wider range of sensors, including one that can measure distance," something that would be helpful for AR and VR.

Another idea seems to be to make chips for an “enterprise connectivity device” although details on that are sketchy.

It is not clear what Google hopes to gain from the move. Some have suggested that it might fix Android fragmentation, while others think it will make things worse. Of course the Tame Apple Press claims that Google is just copying Apple.  After all Apple invented the silicon chip.