Googlebook Official Replacement for Chromebooks Driven by Gemini AI and Intel Core Series 300 Wildcat Lake Hardware From Major Partners
Google has given some of the technical details about the next series of devices known as the Googlebook which is the official replacement for Chromebooks. Google Vice President John Maletis was cited stating that the devices are to form a new type of hardware driven by an intelligent platform powered by Gemini. He also commented that Google is looking at how to build an OS around these types of capabilities, not just simply adding them to an existing solution.This appears to represent a shift in their mobile computing hardware architecture approach.
Intel was confirmed as being a partner for the Googlebook, and the first devices are stated as using chips from their Core Series 300 processors. These Wildcat Lake chips feature 2 performance cores based on a Cougar Cove core design, with an X86 architecture, 4 efficiency cores based on a Darkmont core design, Xe3 graphics and also a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) which has 40 TOPS worth of performance. This on device processing is essential for the intelligent features Google has stated it wants to implement on these devices.
Googlebook devices are being made by Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo withIntel as the primary hardware partner althoughQualcomm and MediaTek are stated as providing the ARM based variants for the devices as well. All manufacturers have been given certain design limitations such as the configurations of the hardware or keyboard layout in order to standardize certain features of the Googlebook devices, with all the current generation of devices focused towards the premium hardware space for a release sometime this fall.
One interesting returning piece of hardware has been noted as returning for the Googlebook and this is the Glow Bar that was first seen on the 2013 Chromebook Pixel. This will be featured on all Googlebook devices to relay system and Gemini related information to the user through visual cues. It is clear Google wants to put some emphasis back on premium hardware in their device lines along with pushing their AI capabilities in a way that the device hardware and Gemini become one integral piece of hardware.
