Signed/Encrypted Bootloader: Limiting the Potential of Dual-Core?

[mikednichols]

I've been researching here, at XDA and the greater interwebs for a good answer to the following question/concern (posted by wackydavo a month ago in the droid x forums) but can't seem to find one I understand.

"... It sounds like the real downside is limiting custom roms available. Because of this, I am somewhat concerned that Motorola will stop pushing Android upgrades to the phone after 1+ years and my choice of roms may be limited.

Another concern is performance enhancements. I suspect that the new motoblur is not as efficient as it could be (especially on the Atrix's dual core). I have read that certain roms (including CM) provide speed enhancements through the kernal, which is unaccessible in a signed/encrypted bootloader. I'm not talking about overclocking, which sounds like it is do-able even without access to the kernal. Anyone have any knowledge as to what types of speed/efficiency improvements might be found in a rom that enhances speed within the kernal? ..."

I am concerned that a native kernal that natively supports/utilizes dual-core (both in the OS and applications) may not be released by Motorola for a long time (if ever) following its release. I understand that we will be able to run custom ROMs on top Blur/Froyo, but from my understanding those ROMs won't be able to take advantage of dual-core and will be much less efficient (since a skin is running on top of blur instead of by itself).

If it's (1) unlikely that the dual-core feature will be able to be fully exploited and (2) Motoblur (even though it's a new "better" version) must serve as the base for any ROM, I don't know how much better (i.e. faster) this device might be than a custom-ROM'd Thunderbolt.

I am very much a novice in this stuff, so please help me to understand these potential limitations. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Jeffdubya757]

I have just started my second degree and it will be a mixture of CS/IT and as far as I know android 2.2 and 2.3 do not support dual core....only honeycomb does. Supposedly the next android OS will support dual core. As far as I know all of the custom ROMs are still somewhat similiar to froyo and gingerbread. If someone can work some honeycomb features into a custom ROM then it may be feasible. Someone correct me if I am wrong as I am looking to load a custom ROM on my bionic when it arrives as well.

 

[DolfanCole]

I have just started my second degree and it will be a mixture of CS/IT and as far as I know android 2.2 and 2.3 do not support dual core....only honeycomb does. Supposedly the next android OS will support dual core. As far as I know all of the custom ROMs are still somewhat similiar to froyo and gingerbread. If someone can work some honeycomb features into a custom ROM then it may be feasible. Someone correct me if I am wrong as I am looking to load a custom ROM on my bionic when it arrives as well.

My understanding is that the next version will blend Gingerbread and Honeycomb to allow dual core devices such as the Bionic to really thrive. Last I heard was that this was expected to come out in April (or at least in the next few months). However, it'll be some time after it's released before the Bionic has it's version of it from Motorola/Verizon. So, what you're looking for will be coming in an update. After that, there may be some custom ROMs that may take further advantage of the dual core.

 

[Preach2k]

My understanding is that the next version will blend Gingerbread and Honeycomb to allow dual core devices such as the Bionic to really thrive. Last I heard was that this was expected to come out in April (or at least in the next few months). However, it'll be some time after it's released before the Bionic has it's version of it from Motorola/Verizon. So, what you're looking for will be coming in an update. After that, there may be some custom ROMs that may take further advantage of the dual core.

Yes it is called Ice cream Sandwich... Android 2.4

 

[TuxDotKing]

The Bionic will have basic support for its dual core processor through an SMP enabled kernel, just like the Atrix.

 

[Jeffdubya757]

Yep, I had read that ice cream, or ice cream sandwich, would blend gingerbread with features from honeycomb. The person writing the article or the person they spoke with speculated that one of those features would be support for dual-core.

Now, TuxDotKing says it will have basic support for it through an SMP enabled kernal. What do you mean by "basic suppprt"?

I also heard that games would be able to take advantage of it, and since it is NVidia's processor some games could come from Tegrazone I believe...maybe an app. Is that what you are refering to, or is it that and more?

 

[terrain]

Yes - the dualcore is supposed to give us some future"proofing" - too bad they did not keep the 1GB the Atrix has... When 4.3 comes out I'm hoping that we will see some large performance gains.

 

[TuxDotKing]

Yep, I had read that ice cream, or ice cream sandwich, would blend gingerbread with features from honeycomb. The person writing the article or the person they spoke with speculated that one of those features would be support for dual-core.

Now, TuxDotKing says it will have basic support for it through an SMP enabled kernal. What do you mean by "basic suppprt"?

I also heard that games would be able to take advantage of it, and since it is NVidia's processor some games could come from Tegrazone I believe...maybe an app. Is that what you are refering to, or is it that and more?

That and more, the OS can take advantage of the dual core too. In my opinion, it fully supports dual core right now.

The only reason I say 'basic support' is because most of Moto's optimizations seem to be at the kernel level. Which is great, because that's really all you need because of how Linux works. I think the rest of the Android codebase may also recieve some tweaks and whatnot with Ice Cream Sandwich though, to squeeze a bit more performance out of it and help app developers take advantage of it more easily.

 

[akhi216]

Yes - the dualcore is supposed to give us some future"proofing" - too bad they did not keep the 1GB the Atrix has... When 4.3 comes out I'm hoping that we will see some large performance gains.

The extra ram that the Atrix has is strictly for the dock.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

 

[DC Damien]

Between the Thunderbolt and the other phones already announced, do you all recommend the Bionic over the others?

 

[akhi216]

Between the Thunderbolt and the other phones already announced, do you all recommend the Bionic over the others?

I recommend the Bionic over the others. The Bionic has a huge battery, a tablet dock, a webtop dock, and 16 gigs on internal memory...you can't go wrong with it. If you have a phone that you can stick with for 8-9 months you might wanna wait on the Motorola Targa, a quad-core phone Android phone.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk