AMD Jumping on the Android Bandwagon

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]znegval[/nom]I might be wrong but I think it kinda is. I have to watch my ass constantly when running my Android apps because some of them are sucking my battery life away. By having a tight control over which apps you can buy Apple probably tries to guarantee that the app doesn't do stuff life this (or they'd be blamed for having a crappy battery).But then again I could never afford an iPhone so I might be a little off on this one. Maybe the same thing happens but I would be surprised.[/citation]
Might be wrong? How about, you are completely wrong. Whether the OS is "open" or not has absolutely zero impact on battery consumption. What does effect battery consumption, is hardware utilization. More utilization = more battery usage. My poor little LG Rumor Touch doesn't utilize it's hardware at all.....so, it has an insanely long battery life..... It gets charged once a month, whether it needs to be or not...and as a note, my phone eats up roughly 1000 minutes a month of talk time.

 

[trandoanhung1991]

[citation][nom]dcompart[/nom]Everyone please remind me what great games that Android has to offer. Anything with graphics on par with Infinity Blade, etc? I haven't seen anything android based that has comparable graphics. Note, I may be uninformed of some upcoming titles for Android, but who cares about having superior hardware when there's developers (eg. Epic) staying clear of Android. I know I may be biting my words with the release of the Sony Xperia and it's upcoming games, but we'll see.[/citation]

Well, just wait until the GOOD android tablets come out. Then you'll see devs flocking in for the games. Playing any proper game on a smartphone is just dumb.

Not to mention the fact that many android phone makers cheap out on the touch screen and give us only single touch or dual touch.

Android is new, give it time. And please remember that Apple has a reputation for the "It just works" motto for a reason. With android phone makers? Not so much.

 

[Sp0cK]

[citation][nom]piesquared[/nom]Tegra is ARM. AMD doesn't have an ARM architecture, they have x86. They are talking about driver development for X86 on Android. So it has nothing to do with NV as they don't have an x86 license. Apples and oranges, cats and dogs, night and day.[/citation]

FYI to anyone that thinks AMD does x86 CPUs. AMD has not made a true x86 chip since the AMD Am486/Am5x86 or AMD K5 and please correct me if I am wrong anyone. X86 is actually emulated on the chip it self using RISC instructions. AMD can make any type of CPU it chooses. The question is how well can they make a chip that runs someone else's instructions..., Or create a new set of instructions that are very efficienct with VERY low power needs....

 

[Guest]

to the comment about games... is that all you ipeople got.. games on a 3.5inch screen? COME ON! and battery life? my Optimus V does great, overclocked to 800MHZ isnt that what the Iphone runs at?

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]dcompart[/nom]Everyone please remind me what great games that Android has to offer. Anything with graphics on par with Infinity Blade, etc? I haven't seen anything android based that has comparable graphics. Note, I may be uninformed of some upcoming titles for Android, but who cares about having superior hardware when there's developers (eg. Epic) staying clear of Android. I know I may be biting my words with the release of the Sony Xperia and it's upcoming games, but we'll see.[/citation]
Xperia Play has already been released on certain parts of the world.

 

[aznshinobi]

That fact that you just stated "40nm isn't power saving enough", I forget who, is clearly wrong. Because my G2 rocking the 45nm A8 @ 800mhz lasts at least 2 days. Maybe that's just me, I do the occasional texting (more occasional than some) and the constant music. Still doesn't kill my battery like people say Android does. I will admit though, iOS is a better power managing OS, my father's iPhone 3G back in the day lasted quite a while. Still I'm more excited about the A15+Adreno 3xx, that or something like a mobile Llano would be nice.

 

[schmich]

Why are people comparing to mobile phone chips? AMD has no product in that field so it is irrelevant. A better discussion would be about what kind of products AMD is thinking about. Either some kind of powerful tablet/netbook with Zacate running on Android or just making sure they're future-proof in case they make a new product? To me I guess they're thinking that Android will be more than just on phones so they're preparing.

 

[pelov]

I think they're likely to try to downsize their APUs to fit into phones and tablets. In essence, it's perfect for the job. It handles computing well and has phenomenal graphical performance. The downside, of course, is the power draw. Intel tried with the atom and it didn't really work out that way, but I think AMD will likely try to do the same. They'd need to decrease the power usage by a very very large amount to even be considered viable in that market. The question is, though, just how much do they think they can accomplish sticking to x86? and would x86 even be feasible in such low power applications?

 

[megamanx00]

Stupid board -_-. It's certainly not too late, but considering the state of honeycomb I think it might be too early. Sure fusion could be great for android tablets, but not for phones simply due to power and heat. The advantage of running x86 code (mainly windows) is useful for tablets but absolutely impracticable for phones. CPUs that get used in both phones and tablets are going to see more optimization and performance than those relegated only to tablets simply due to the volume of each.

 

[f-gomes]

[citation][nom]xbeater[/nom]Get your head out of your ***[/citation]

I'm still using Symbian on a Nokia 2006 pseudo-smartphone, I just love it. It still works and I can still sync with Outlook 2010, unbelievable. Couldn't care less about Android or iOs...

 

[sudeshc]

quite happy to know that AMD is responding quickly to market trend........

 

[everettw]

On the topic of Android phones vs. Iphone 4 (and to be 5). Hasn't this all been done before? Is history not repeating itself in a way?

Think back to ipod when it became the #1 choice for a portable music player. It was easy as hell to use, had awesome better life, was durable, small etc. It bested any other any other mp3 player/portable music device. The ipod ruled consistantly and then slowly by surely an avalanche of other mp3 players flooded the market and eventually you had a ton of choices for cheaper and arguably better, then the ipod was no big deal anymore even when the newer models came out. Apple moved on and created the iphone that started it all over again.

Symbian, Android, Windows phone7, whatever it may be, if that if you are going to dominate the tech market like Apple, you need to think ahead of the pack consistently. Apple has harnessed exactly what the mass majority of what people want, and delivered it on schedule yearly. They have set precedents while everyone plays catchup. The only downside to Apple products are their strict propriatary nature..it's a strength and weakness. If it's exploited properly it could be their downfall.