So, what about hardware acceleration?

[sveetsnelda]

in short, Android will never be as smooth as iOS or Windows Phone because it is not a composite based OS like those are. android is an "on-the-fly" OS, hence is why it allows customizations, widgets, different launchers, etc. they're banking on the consumers not knowing any better by throwing out "dual-core" and flashy words that still don't equate to single core devices' smoothness (i.e. Windows Phone devices)...

I created an account *just* to respond to this. You need to go look up "Dalvik Cache". What you're saying only applies to running an application for the first time after it was installed on an Android device. The next time that code is ran, it's "composite".

I certainly understand where you're coming from about Apple's devices being smooth. They are *very* smooth. However, iOS users are "jailed" from changing their devices enough to make them _not_ smooth. That's great for someone who knows nothing about the device itself (the every day user). For someone who educates him/herself and wants to do what they please with the device, this is a nightmare.

Again, I understand the arguement, but I'm not sure that you know as much as you think that you do about the OS.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I created an account *just* to respond to this. You need to go look up "Dalvik Cache". What you're saying only applies to running an application for the first time after it was installed on an Android device. The next time that code is ran, it's "composite".

I certainly understand where you're coming from about Apple's devices being smooth. They are *very* smooth. However, iOS users are "jailed" from changing their devices enough to make them _not_ smooth. That's great for someone who knows nothing about the device itself (the every day user). For someone who educates him/herself and wants to do what they please with the device, this is a nightmare.

Again, I understand the arguement, but I'm not sure that you know as much as you think that you do about the OS.

I won't argue with you there....there is a LOT I don't understand. Really, this is more of a way for me to learn more, but I was going off of what I've learned. I've just started my first development job fresh out of college like 5 months ago and am learning more everyday, so I'm going off of what I've researched and thought I understood. How would you explain smooth graphics in Windows Phone and QNX operating systems then?

 

[Crispy]

There are 3 sources of lag that are present in Android and what causes it to be not as smooth/responsive as WP7/iOS -

1. Lack of HA. This is fixed in ICS from the sdk docs, but remains to be seen to what extent the OS and apps use it. The critical line is that apps must have a minimum version number to use the 2d gpu support. So ideally any recent app will be hardware accelerated on any ICS phone (including roms on older rooted phones)

2. Java and garbage collection - Dalvik does a bunch of stuff to optimize this but its not going to as fast as native code. ICS was also said to move garbage collection (the process of freeing up memory and unused code in the OS) to the 2nd cpu core, which would e.g. eliminate the lag that happens while you are in the middle of scrolling. Haven't seen confirmation of this.

3. Multitasking - Android is the only OS woith true multitasking since both iOS and WP7 will immediately suspend a background app unless its using certain special api's (like playback or naviagtion). On Android everything keeps running till the OS decides it needs more resources, then it kills or tombstones the app. This again requires more resources.

and a small #4 - till ICS, Android barely used the 2nd cpu core. So all the dual core phones running GB will see an improvement.

 

[sniffs]

From what I remember, hardware manufacturers have to license GPU acceleration from ARM. ARM makes the SoC and the manufacturers have to license what they want to use on the SoC. So TI/Nvidia/Samsung, etc have to pay ARM a fee to use the bluetooth chip, another fee to use the wireless radio, another fee to use the 3G/4G radios, etc.. Since the CPU does an "ok" job at rendering, they are opt'ing to not pay extra for this feature, so no GPU acceleration. And with dual cores in the mix, they are hoping it becomes less of a problem.

Since Steve Jobs was a perfectionist, Apple is most likely paying ARM for all the licenses, they can do what they want.

Remember, most of these companies make their own CPU's but ALL are instruction sets based on ARM cpu's which require licensing. Snapdragon, TIOMAP, Tegra, all use ARM based instruction sets.

Apple's one of the only companies that builds for longevity.. the other companies don't care about this, they want to sell you a new phone every week.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

From what I remember, hardware manufacturers have to license GPU acceleration from ARM. ARM makes the SoC and the manufacturers have to license what they want to use on the SoC. So TI/Nvidia/Samsung, etc have to pay ARM a fee to use the bluetooth chip, another fee to use the wireless radio, another fee to use the 3G/4G radios, etc.. Since the CPU does an "ok" job at rendering, they are opt'ing to not pay extra for this feature, so no GPU acceleration. And with dual cores in the mix, they are hoping it becomes less of a problem.

Since Steve Jobs was a perfectionist, Apple is most likely paying ARM for all the licenses, they can do what they want.

Remember, most of these companies make their own CPU's but ALL are instruction sets based on ARM cpu's which require licensing. Snapdragon, TIOMAP, Tegra, all use ARM based instruction sets.

Apple's one of the only companies that builds for longevity.. the other companies don't care about this, they want to sell you a new phone every week.

This would make sense, as Microsoft also has "bookoo" cash to give to pay for the use of the GPU for Windows Phone. It may also explain why Qualcomm (despite how much I don't like their chips) is the only manufacturer Microsoft is dealing with; to cut costs while maintaining efficiency. Interesting indeed......love learning about this stuff.

 

[trivor]

From what I remember, hardware manufacturers have to license GPU acceleration from ARM. ARM makes the SoC and the manufacturers have to license what they want to use on the SoC. So TI/Nvidia/Samsung, etc have to pay ARM a fee to use the bluetooth chip, another fee to use the wireless radio, another fee to use the 3G/4G radios, etc.. Since the CPU does an "ok" job at rendering, they are opt'ing to not pay extra for this feature, so no GPU acceleration. And with dual cores in the mix, they are hoping it becomes less of a problem.

Since Steve Jobs was a perfectionist, Apple is most likely paying ARM for all the licenses, they can do what they want.

Remember, most of these companies make their own CPU's but ALL are instruction sets based on ARM cpu's which require licensing. Snapdragon, TIOMAP, Tegra, all use ARM based instruction sets.

Apple's one of the only companies that builds for longevity.. the other companies don't care about this, they want to sell you a new phone every week.

Where did this come from - you don't license the SOC, you need to pay separately for each subsystem - nobody I now would buy into this kind of scheme. Where's your proof of this kind of licensing deal?

 

[meany105]

Where did this come from - you don't license the SOC, you need to pay separately for each subsystem - nobody I now would buy into this kind of scheme. Where's your proof of this kind of licensing deal?

and hardware acceleration wouldn't be a seperate subsystem right? it's not dependent on the chip having anything other than a GPU, which all chips capable of running ICS would have.