Google's recent purchase of Agnilux, a company started by former PaSemi (and then Apple) folks, seems at first to be to improve the power/performance for the data centers. This would be the natural direction, since Agnilux was purported to be working with Cisco on more efficient chips. However, I think it's more likely that Google wants to seriously think about making chips that go into end consumer products such as mobiles, tablets and TV set-top and/or the TV's themselves.
Google has been a big proponent of improving the power efficiency of data centers. However, designing a chip that delivers the kind of performace for such heavy compute tasks is not easy. ARM architecture also doesn't seem to lend itself directly to use in server chips. On that other hand, ARM is an ideal candidate for low-power consumer product chips as established by Apple designing its own processors based on such technology. Why would Google want to develop its own chips instead of buying them off-shelf from vendors. I think it's primarily motivated by the desire to own the entire ecosystem from design of the hardware and the software and eventually, design (or atleast create reference designs) for products they wish to see in the market. If Google controls the product, they control the display where they can show the advertising that will make them good money. This ties in well with their desire to encourage consumer access to high-speed broadband at home and wireless on the go.
I will post more info on this as and when I learn more. I'll leave you with a recent news I hear about Google reportedly preparing to intro TV software next month
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