Google has lifted the lid on its silicon-design capabilities for video transcoding, after dabbling in AI-focused chips for some time. Specifically, it has unveiled its Argos ASIC chips, two of which are housed inside a PCIe card that has been installed in Google servers since 2015, to handle transcoding duties for YouTube. Notably, we are only just seeing these first-generation designs, and Google is now in the process of upgrading these installations to the second-generation – which crucially marks the beginning of Google overhauling its cloud infrastructure to support the AV1 codec. With AV1 taking hold, Google is going to be painfully aware of the required upgrades needed to accommodate the increased computing workload for AV1. While the codec produces…