Looks like Facebook is getting serious about making its own chips

It's been said for months that Facebook might be interested in building its own, in-house processing chips. Now, it seems that the social networking company is really going for that. Bloomberg reported Friday that Facebook has managed to attract one of Google's best silicon engineering managers to direct its own efforts in the field.

Shahriar Rabii, former director of engineering for Google's silicone division, will take the title of vice president head of silicon on Facebook, according to his LinkedIn profile. What it will create exactly at this point is not yet quite clear.

By Bloomberg, Rabii helped lead the Google team that built the chips used in several giant search devices, including the Visual. Basic chip found in the Pixel smart phone lineup, the company's first business-on-chip system, which is partly credited for the phone's impressive photography capabilities. According to 9to5Google, Rabii was also involved in creating server security chips known as Titan.

It seems unlikely that Facebook asked Rabii to have him work on another phone like Google. (Facebook has taken this route once, a little, and it has not worked very well.) But there are all kinds of potential areas where the processing power could serve the social network and its many branches. # 39; activity.

there is Oculus, the virtual reality society that Facebook has recovered for $ 2 billion in 2014 and which has not yet figured it out. Since Rabii would work under Andrew Bosworth, director of virtual reality and augmented reality of Facebook, according to Bloomberg, this idea seems to have at least some aspects. The Oculus Go, a bit affordable but a little disappointing, was launched earlier this year, but still relies on a Qualcomm chip. Maybe Facebook sees value in creating its own chip for future models.

Bloomberg reported that Facebook also has plans for a variety of other hardware that could benefit from a powerful processor, including a series of smart speakers that would include a touch screen designed to be used for video chats.

And then, of course, there is just the processing of the huge amount of data that Facebook processes each day. The company relies heavily on algorithms to monitor its platform for all sorts of potential violations, including hate speech and spam, which are not arguably very good. Most of these processes rely on modified GPUs, powered by Nvidia, by The Verge. Exclusive processors designed for these tasks can better serve the business.

Whatever it is on Facebook, it is Rabii who will take care of it, it seems that the company is seriously concerned about it. In April, the company began posting job offers to build up its team of chip makers. Now, it seems that at least the leadership for the project is in place.

[Bloomberg, 9to5Google, The Verge]