SK Telecom's Android SIM prototype combines CPU, storage and OS into one (video)
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 17th 2010 8:28AM
posted February 17th 2010 8:28AM
posted February 17th 2010 8:28AM
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So lose your sim and you've lost your phone basically?
Awesome! /s
@Rem DX
Not quite. Ideally, with Android, most of your data will be up in the cloud. The SIM would just contain the OS itself and your settings or personal preferences.
I had wanted to see something like this for several years now; the great thing of such a set up is that jetsetters wouldn't have to dream of a holy-grail quad-GSM, quad-UMTS, WiMAX and LTE all-in-one device. Instead, just get a device with the correct antenna for your region, and pop in the OS-of-your-choice SIM; your entire (personalized) software experience made to run on any phone.
@fh
Sounds great, really does, but that does require some serious setting of open standards and/or freely available drivers for lots of chips... Won't be within 3 years if you ask me, probably not even in 5?
@Rem DX If you lose your phone you've lost your phone and sim basically.
@Demios
I travel internationally like a lot of people here and when I do, I simply take out my sim and put in a new sim of the country I'm in. Usually a pay as you go sim card. I can easily lose my sim in that situation.
Also, this would mean I'd have to get a pay as you go sim with this technology or I'm just carrying a brick around.
For this to work, it would have to be the norm. That or they'd only have specific devices that worked with the technology. Either way, this would be a leap so giant, it's pretty much unimaginable at the moment.
@Rem DX
I'm trying to fathom up a scenario where if I lost my SIM.. I wouldn't have lost my phone along with it since that's where it resides... but I'm coming up blank..
@hfm
I just gave you one in the post above but I guess you decided to try to be clever instead of reading, or thinking harder for that matter eh? :)
so phones will be able to like 99% battery soon???
@theoneandonlyradiostation No, the batteries will be the same size, that space will just be filled with shit we didnt ask for like picoprojecters
If I take the processor and OS with me, what's the point in upgrading?
@(Unverified) Form factor, carrier, other features...endless list...
@juanvaldez carrier was dumb, sorry.
@(Unverified) Form factors, mainly.
One day I might need thin and light portability in my handset so I'll grab my candybar and slide the SIM in and boot to a simple phone. Maybe the next I need to go to a big hot-shot corporate meeting so I'll grab my netbook and slide the SIM in and give a presentation with it. And then the next day I'll be investigated for embezzling by the FBI - and it's a hell of a lot simpler to shove a SIM card up there than a cellphone.
@dragonfli Full of insight, and win!
@dragonfli That is absolutely the best reply I've ever read at engadget... You should win something, like... a free cavity search.
I can't think of a reason I'd ever want one of these sim cards, but I read about one that turns your 3g/4g phone into a wifi hotspot awhile ago, and would definitely want one of those.
That sounds great until they introduce the faster, better, cheaper processor (with even more memory) 3 months from now.
Isn't the whole point of a SIM to separate authorization from the handset and it's applications anyway?
@(Unverified)
We still haven't found the right way to do things like this yet. This SIM has potential upgrading problems
Frankensim.
Not a bad idea, but can you store multiple phone numbers on the same SIM? It'd be annoying if you'd have to have duplicates for different countries.
@jussi to clarify - I have different SIM cards with different numbers for different countries. If I could merge them all into one, that'd be perfect already.
I'm sorry Engadget, but this is most certainly NOT the future. Well, perhaps it is, but not the way you're painting it. If anything, they will store the basic OS on this, along with the usual things a SIM does now, yes, but if we're to believe anything, and if anything is gonna make our 'migrating' from phone to phone easier, it's some sort of (personal) cloud. The flash-chip on this would better be used as a cache for your cloud-content if this concept is to go any further.
And to those that think that the processor will be outdated and then you'll have to get a new SIM (and these babies sure will be expensive, if there's any decent processing power in them), you're probably right, but maybe that will shift.
We're seeing major Android updates being pushed back to quite a few older devices, Apple provided OS upgrades for even the 1st generation iPhone quite some time, and I can run WM6.5.3 on a phone that once came with WM5.
And this is a trend that should be continued, as I think a lot of software optimisation can and should be done, because even though just shoving a new chip in may be easier, and even cheaper if you calculate the hours programmers have to make to make new great software work on older chips, replacing gadget after gadget because new silicon has arrived is certainly not as environmentally friendly as updating the software is.
Memory would be enough i guess.
Ans did anyone of you realise theres more than one processing unit in a modern phone? they could still differ in 3D, Audio, ... accelerators.
Mayber the approach would be to not use the slow cpu in high end phones but to make it a lot cheaper to produce dumpphones that dont need much power ;)
lol at Girl's Generation SIM cards!
It would be relatively easy to make a smartphone similar to the size of the phone in zoolander with this chip. Since basically everything besides whats in the battery and screen is in the chip it might be very easy to through together yourself.
thanks for the shitty CPU on a SIM offering SK... but I think I'll stick to an OMAP. Pff. Get real. Everything makes sense up until that. CPU?? Pull that out the equation, make sure the ROM is fast, and it sounds interesting. *Im sure they're reading this*
This is the telecom's dream NOT ours
Basically this is carrier locking to the max. It would be near impossible to simply switch SIMs and thus switch carriers on a whim's notice.
OS on a chip = cool
OS + telecom on a chip = NOT cool
I was under the impression that Android does that on its own -- stores your settings and contacts in the cloud so that you can login on any phone and have your data sync'ed.
@brown like dookie notice how a live cd for a linux distro generally auto-detects your hardware and loads drivers and somehow magically works? Just like that.
Doesnt this mean you wouldn't be able to upgrade Android since it's embedded onto the chip?
Sure makes that SIM+Wifi SIM look like old news, its crazy what they can fit into such a small form factor anymore. Makes you really wonder what they can do they they won't tell you about....grabs tin foil hat and runs to faraday cage.
Does anyone notice the cod on the chip in the picture has NES on it,
The NES based cell phone... awesome.
This thing... not quite so.
So you need to have the drivers on there too? I have to make sure I know what handsets I plan to use today so I can have appropriately compiled kernels with the correct driver support ready and waiting on my SIM card everywhere I go!
This could change the way smartphones are...
yeah I have a 1ghz,32GB,android,and verizon(no carrier offense) on my SIM but thats probably faarrrr off.