What's the difference between TPU vs. GPU?

Google’s Pixel 11 phone uses a Tensor G6 processor with a powerful TPU. How is it different from a GPU, and what does that mean in real-world use. What’s the difference between TPU vs. GPU.

Then came AMD’s Accelerated Processing Unit (APU, if you’re nasty). And with the advent of the AI PC and smartphones, we’ve welcomed the NPU (Neural Processing Unit). But now, thanks to Google, we’re getting yet another chip: the TPU.

First internally deployed by Google back in 2015, the TPU, or Tensor Processing Unit, is the company’s proprietary AI accelerator designed to handle all the complex mathematical calculations necessary for artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) workloads. Designed for cloud-based applications, the TPU is used primarily for data centers. This term has recently popped up in the new Pixel 11 smartphone by way of its Google Tensor G6 chip, which the company says packs " 50 percent more TPU compute." So which is it.

In the Pixel 11 series smartphones, the TPU is basically Google’s fancy-schmancy way to say NPU.