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Another self-developed chip exposed by Google
In order to ensure the viewing experience of YouTube, Google has developed a custom chip called Argos, which is designed to ensure that YouTube can provide users with the best video quality and free you from broadband or mobile monthly data limits. .
Google revealed to CNET in an exclusive interview that there are currently thousands of chips running in Google's data center. If you upload a video today, it is almost certain that the Argos chip will process it so that it can be watched all over the world. A special benefit is that when it processes high-resolution 4K video, it can be completed in a few hours instead of a few days.
Google introduced its Argos chip in detail for the first time at the ASPLOS conference on Wednesday, making it rare to see the internal operation of its data center. Scott Silver, the vice president of Google’s engineering department responsible for YouTube’s huge infrastructure, said that a team of about 100 Google engineers began designing the first-generation chips in this series in 2015. In recent months, Google has gradually adopted its second-generation Argos chip, which has also promoted the development of video compression.
Silver said: "Customers must pay for bandwidth in one way or another." "Our goal is to ensure that people get the highest quality video on any device."
Designing custom chips may not be suitable for the faint-hearted. But today, this may be an important way to succeed.
For example, Apple has more control over its destiny through its M1 processor, which powers MacBooks and the new iPadPro and iMacs. The design of the M1 allows Apple to extend battery life, add AI accelerators and other circuits the company wants, and follow Apple's own product schedule instead of Intel's product schedule. A situation more similar to YouTube is the Graviton2 chip of Amazon Web Services, which can reduce computing costs.
500 hours of YouTube videos uploaded every minute
On YouTube, processing video is a daunting task. Every minute, 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube worldwide. This means that Google must do a lot of transcoding, convert these original uploaded videos into different compression formats, and adapt them to different screen sizes. And this is exactly what Argos does.
The YouTube server uses an electronic board with two Argos video processing chips.
Since it is difficult to improve the performance of general-purpose chips, custom chips can also enable companies to increase their computing priorities. For the Argos chip as an example, this means that Google can use this to reduce costs, make YouTube users happier, and can improve its preferred video technology.
Taking into account the design and manufacture of the chip, the use of the chip in the Google data center and the cost of paying YouTube's huge electricity and network usage fees, the video processing efficiency of Argos is 20 to 33 times that of traditional servers.
On YouTube, processing video is a daunting task. Every minute, we upload 500 hours of video to YouTube. This means that Google has to do a lot of transcoding-converting these original uploaded videos into different compression formats and adapting them to different screen sizes. This is why it is worthwhile for Google to design custom chips.
Google calls its Argos chip a video coding unit (videocoding unit: VCU), which has given YouTube a boost in the video frenzy caused by the pandemic. Considering that we also watched 25% of the videos during the pandemic, this helped us a lot.
Create video "variations"
When you upload a video, YouTube will immediately need a new version based on the original video. For example, from 1080p video, it can create lower resolution 720p and 360p versions. This is because people watching on mobile phones may not have the full resolution version of the screen resolution or network capacity.
Silver added that in some areas with slower mobile network speeds, YouTube will even generate lower-resolution versions and videos at lower frame rates.
All these processes are the work of the Argos chip-the term video coding unit. Each Argos chip has 10 modules to process video, and Google puts two Argos chips on each circuit board.
The Argos chip also creates versions encoded using different compression formats. Silver said that each original video will become 10 to 15 variations.
Promoting the development of AV1 video compression
These compression formats (called codecs) are a huge issue in the industry. Over the years, advanced video codecs have come from the Motion Picture Experts Group (MotionPictureExpertsGroup). Numerous technology companies created the format and then granted licenses for the patents required to use the codec. This is the origin of the H.264 codec (also known as AVC), which drove the first explosion of video on the Internet and mobile phones. Recently, the group created HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as H.265) and VVC (Multi-Function Video Coding or H.266).
The patent problem proved to be tricky. The cost of licensing can be high, and the restrictions run counter to Google’s preferred open source software philosophy. Google provides royalty-free for VP8 and higher version of VP9 codec, and as an open source to try to offset this trend.
Compared with H.264, VP9 requires 30% less data under the same video image quality.
As the successor of VP9, Google and Mozilla, Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon and Netflix and other allies formed the Open Video Alliance. They created a new codec called AV1, which won Apple’s approval, and Apple has only just begun to gain popularity.
AV1 can increase video quality by another 30%, thereby reducing network usage, or when the previous network only supports 1080p streaming, YouTube can send 4K streams.
Cracking the chicken and egg problem
AV1 is now available in certain web browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, and SamsungInternet, and online video giants (such as Netflix and Facebook) now offer AV1 video. However, it will take several years for the codec to keep up with the trend. For example, Qualcomm lacks support for AV1 in its new Snapdragon888 chip, even though AV1 fans have promised to support AV1 in smartphones in 2020.
The second-generation Argos chip adds AV1 support, which is the main motivation for mobile phone manufacturers to increase support.
Siliver said: "People who make chips or devices don't want to add new decoders...unless there are streams available." "What YouTube can do is break the chicken and egg problem and enable people to have a better experience."
Google revealed to CNET in an exclusive interview that there are currently thousands of chips running in Google's data center. If you upload a video today, it is almost certain that the Argos chip will process it so that it can be watched all over the world. A special benefit is that when it processes high-resolution 4K video, it can be completed in a few hours instead of a few days.
Google introduced its Argos chip in detail for the first time at the ASPLOS conference on Wednesday, making it rare to see the internal operation of its data center. Scott Silver, the vice president of Google’s engineering department responsible for YouTube’s huge infrastructure, said that a team of about 100 Google engineers began designing the first-generation chips in this series in 2015. In recent months, Google has gradually adopted its second-generation Argos chip, which has also promoted the development of video compression.
Silver said: "Customers must pay for bandwidth in one way or another." "Our goal is to ensure that people get the highest quality video on any device."
Designing custom chips may not be suitable for the faint-hearted. But today, this may be an important way to succeed.
For example, Apple has more control over its destiny through its M1 processor, which powers MacBooks and the new iPadPro and iMacs. The design of the M1 allows Apple to extend battery life, add AI accelerators and other circuits the company wants, and follow Apple's own product schedule instead of Intel's product schedule. A situation more similar to YouTube is the Graviton2 chip of Amazon Web Services, which can reduce computing costs.
500 hours of YouTube videos uploaded every minute
On YouTube, processing video is a daunting task. Every minute, 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube worldwide. This means that Google must do a lot of transcoding, convert these original uploaded videos into different compression formats, and adapt them to different screen sizes. And this is exactly what Argos does.
The YouTube server uses an electronic board with two Argos video processing chips.
Since it is difficult to improve the performance of general-purpose chips, custom chips can also enable companies to increase their computing priorities. For the Argos chip as an example, this means that Google can use this to reduce costs, make YouTube users happier, and can improve its preferred video technology.
Taking into account the design and manufacture of the chip, the use of the chip in the Google data center and the cost of paying YouTube's huge electricity and network usage fees, the video processing efficiency of Argos is 20 to 33 times that of traditional servers.
On YouTube, processing video is a daunting task. Every minute, we upload 500 hours of video to YouTube. This means that Google has to do a lot of transcoding-converting these original uploaded videos into different compression formats and adapting them to different screen sizes. This is why it is worthwhile for Google to design custom chips.
Google calls its Argos chip a video coding unit (videocoding unit: VCU), which has given YouTube a boost in the video frenzy caused by the pandemic. Considering that we also watched 25% of the videos during the pandemic, this helped us a lot.
Create video "variations"
When you upload a video, YouTube will immediately need a new version based on the original video. For example, from 1080p video, it can create lower resolution 720p and 360p versions. This is because people watching on mobile phones may not have the full resolution version of the screen resolution or network capacity.
Silver added that in some areas with slower mobile network speeds, YouTube will even generate lower-resolution versions and videos at lower frame rates.
All these processes are the work of the Argos chip-the term video coding unit. Each Argos chip has 10 modules to process video, and Google puts two Argos chips on each circuit board.
The Argos chip also creates versions encoded using different compression formats. Silver said that each original video will become 10 to 15 variations.
Promoting the development of AV1 video compression
These compression formats (called codecs) are a huge issue in the industry. Over the years, advanced video codecs have come from the Motion Picture Experts Group (MotionPictureExpertsGroup). Numerous technology companies created the format and then granted licenses for the patents required to use the codec. This is the origin of the H.264 codec (also known as AVC), which drove the first explosion of video on the Internet and mobile phones. Recently, the group created HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as H.265) and VVC (Multi-Function Video Coding or H.266).
The patent problem proved to be tricky. The cost of licensing can be high, and the restrictions run counter to Google’s preferred open source software philosophy. Google provides royalty-free for VP8 and higher version of VP9 codec, and as an open source to try to offset this trend.
Compared with H.264, VP9 requires 30% less data under the same video image quality.
As the successor of VP9, Google and Mozilla, Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon and Netflix and other allies formed the Open Video Alliance. They created a new codec called AV1, which won Apple’s approval, and Apple has only just begun to gain popularity.
AV1 can increase video quality by another 30%, thereby reducing network usage, or when the previous network only supports 1080p streaming, YouTube can send 4K streams.
Cracking the chicken and egg problem
AV1 is now available in certain web browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, and SamsungInternet, and online video giants (such as Netflix and Facebook) now offer AV1 video. However, it will take several years for the codec to keep up with the trend. For example, Qualcomm lacks support for AV1 in its new Snapdragon888 chip, even though AV1 fans have promised to support AV1 in smartphones in 2020.
The second-generation Argos chip adds AV1 support, which is the main motivation for mobile phone manufacturers to increase support.
Siliver said: "People who make chips or devices don't want to add new decoders...unless there are streams available." "What YouTube can do is break the chicken and egg problem and enable people to have a better experience."
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NEXT：Wang Jiangping, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: In the second half of the year, we will focus on in-depth analysis of chip shortages and other issues
