Intel's barking up all kinds of trees (ones planted by Qualcomm, NVIDIA and ARM) with its Moorestown Atom platform, and while it'll be quite some time before we see an Atom Inside sticker gracing the face of a smartphone, the company's making sure the world sees what it has ramped up so far with reference builds here in Taipei. Aava Mobile was kind enough to build a number of prototypes for Intel to showcase at Computex, and while the vast majority were running Moblin, a couple were humming along with Android 2.1 underneath. We were able to get our hands around one here at the show, and while performance seemed decent enough, it certainly didn't floor us any more than a 1GHz Snapdragon has in the past. Granted, we weren't able to seriously tax it due to having no internet connection and no pre-loaded HD multimedia, but casual users probably won't notice a significant boost in screen transitions. Don't take our word for it, though -- jump on past the break for a video of Intel doing Eclair.
@LordDarkGoose Doesn't look like a 2.1 to me, I'm not really familiar with all the editions but it looks like a 1.6 judging the applications pull-out drawer thing.
@Billy The most distinguishing features, from a visual point of view, between donut and eclair, when built from AOSP, are the browser and the icons at the settings app. The dialer is also different, and you can see that the Alarm Clock icon corresponds to eclair. It's just that this is a proof of concept and they made a hasty AOSP build without getting down to making any corrections to give the build visual consistency.
It's funny people that criticised the VM on Android because without it every app on the Marketplace would need to be recompiled. Instead it is just the native apps e.g. games.
That being said Google really needs to show some leadership and get all these different companies using the same Marketplace and capable of being upgraded to the latest versions.
Because as a developer having to always target 1.5 is not a good solution as we always want to incorporate the latest and greatest SDK features.
Honest question here: Both Android and S^3 / Maemo / MeeGo need to run on very different devices, sizes and hardware. For Android, the VM seems to ensure apps behave the same across devices, for S^3 / Maemo / MeeGo the solution is Qt.
Which one of these approaches to you think is best, from a developer standpoint? (right now Qt 4.6 is on S^3, Maemo & MeeGo, btw)
The VM in Android allows you to have one app on different microprocessors e.g. ARM or Intel.
QT for Nokia allows you to have one app on different operating systems. If Nokia has one ARM and one Intel chip then you would still need to recompile your app.
It's only an issue if you have an App Store with lots of apps compiled for one microprocessor (as is the case for Palm, Apple and Android).
@taligent Sorry, what is the problem with recompiling? Just provide the damned source code and we can recompile the program to ANY architecture. That was the original reason behind the C programming language - to make the software portable, while keeping the performance of low level languages.
It's that the stupid greedy marketroids who started distributing binaries and came up with the EULAs. Software is the code, not the binaries and people fail to understand that.
ou may even downrank me into oblivion, but that is the truth. The software is the code. Distribution of binaries without the code should be banned, because it is an anti-competitive behavior and locks the user to a specific architecture and that does not do any good to competition and the market. In short, binaries only are the cancer of the competitive market.
Hmm, well people buy (or license?) what the software does, not what it is.
It's kind of like expecting all car manufacturers or architects to ship full blueprints of their work whenever they sell it.
Except the blueprints in this case allow extremely easy copying and modification compared to the car example.
Maybe in the future everything will be GPL and happy, but at the moment I need some way of getting paid for my work, and distrubuting source for everything doesn't seem like such a good idea. I'm happy to support and contribute to some open source projects, but some stuff I'd rather not hand to my competitors.
I do hope we can get past this, but I'm sure a lot of companies and developers feel similarly.
@Eggo For MDPI devices (the screen res on this thing looks akward, maybe some new WHVGA thing on a 3.1" screen) the master and eclair branches (both of which are right now at 2.1r1) use the old art from cupcake. You need to either modify the art and scale it down to MDPI (like I do on my builds using overlays) or compile for HDPI to get the new 2.x look. Having tested the 2.2 sdk, I believe when FroYo dumps to AOSP the art problems will be fixed (since the sdk art seems to be the same in MDPI, LDPI, and HDPI, except for wallpapers). I'm concerned about running an atom processor on a smartphone, though. I have a dell mini 9 and the thing can get pretty hot under load. My HD2 with a qsd8k also gets pretty hot, but not as hot as the atom. I wonder if intel has fixed thermal dissipation on new atoms. It'd be a shame if smartphones were forced to head into a future where they have to come equipped with active cooling. Hell, phones shouldn't rise in temperature above lukewarm at all!!!
@Jubeh Thanks for the clarification! I learn a new thing everyday :)
And yeah, I have serious doubts about the Atom processor, particularly at "standby", compared to ARM architecture. And not just when it comes to heat; battery life is a huge concern for me.
@Eggo The Nexus One shouldn't get all that hot unless you are pegging the radio out with a LOT of traffic. Even playing games like Heavy Gunner 3D, my N1 doesn't get all that warm. However, a long time of streaming audio while charging will get it warm. Maybe it's time to check what apps and services you have running in the background?
@Jubeh I actually wonder why they still call it Atom! Read up on the Moorestown architecture, lots of clever architectural and software tweaks to bring power consumption and heat down
@Cyberdyne Systems Flan never came to be, and FroYo took the letter F in its place. The 2.0 release merely got updated to 2.1 and then the code dropped (at least I don't recall ever seeing 2.0 code drop).
I'm sorry but I don't get the big deal regarding Android. I've played with several Android phones and they seemed slow and unresponsive. Just like the App pull out window in this video..
Whats the big deal about Android again and why do people always yell "Put Android on it." Has the clever marketing brain washed some?
I personally find Meego way more promising/interesting
whomever did the video doesnt know how to show off a phone lol. i dont feel like i need to buy that phone at all.. looks like an iphone running android 1.6... who wants either of those?
@xguntherc AFAIK the vanilla 2.1 does not contain the nexus one launcher, that is why it looks like android 1.6, as said before it looks dam slow even compared to ny phone
@Spooke10 It's not just the launcher, it's the Pull-down Notification Tray. That looks different. The Browser icon isn't right, same goes for the Music Icon, and the settings icon. 2.0 and 2.1 also have a different Google BAR..
also the time in the top right has AM or PM now on 2.0, 2.1 or 2.2.
This is NOT 2.1 I have the Nexus One and run 2.1 and have been running 2.2 for a few days now.
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posted June 2nd 2010 5:52AM
oh dear, well at least there's a little tiny bit of more competition on the market which might help in driving prices down...
@LordDarkGoose Doesn't look like a 2.1 to me, I'm not really familiar with all the editions but it looks like a 1.6 judging the applications pull-out drawer thing.
@Billy
i can't be sure with that video quality, but i don't see the donut weave texture behind the appdrawer, meaning it'd be cupcake
@LordDarkGoose
The battery life is probably one hour and it weighs double and is twice as thick.
Tell us engadget.
@Billy The most distinguishing features, from a visual point of view, between donut and eclair, when built from AOSP, are the browser and the icons at the settings app. The dialer is also different, and you can see that the Alarm Clock icon corresponds to eclair.
It's just that this is a proof of concept and they made a hasty AOSP build without getting down to making any corrections to give the build visual consistency.
@Billy In the pictures it has a photo of the settings with 2.1 update 1 shown.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/android-2-1-on-aava-built-intel-moorestown-smartphone-at-computex-2010/#3033963
@JS
I wonder about this too. What is the battery performance on this? What's the power consumption of the processor?
@Billy thats not 2.1 its either 1.5 or 1.6 same way my mytouch 3g looked before i rooted it to cm 2.1
@Billy its not android 2.1 vanilla. that is the stalk launcher with 2.1 the one on nexus one is actually a custom google thing..
@lars1110 yes, and the squared off drawer on the droid is a moto thing. this is still the stock android drawer.
It's funny people that criticised the VM on Android because without it every app on the Marketplace would need to be recompiled. Instead it is just the native apps e.g. games.
That being said Google really needs to show some leadership and get all these different companies using the same Marketplace and capable of being upgraded to the latest versions.
Because as a developer having to always target 1.5 is not a good solution as we always want to incorporate the latest and greatest SDK features.
@taligent
Honest question here: Both Android and S^3 / Maemo / MeeGo need to run on very different devices, sizes and hardware. For Android, the VM seems to ensure apps behave the same across devices, for S^3 / Maemo / MeeGo the solution is Qt.
Which one of these approaches to you think is best, from a developer standpoint? (right now Qt 4.6 is on S^3, Maemo & MeeGo, btw)
@taligent
Does the market gracefully handle different NDK versions (for different native hardware) similarly to how it handles different SDK targets?
@JFH .. They are completely different situations.
The VM in Android allows you to have one app on different microprocessors e.g. ARM or Intel.
QT for Nokia allows you to have one app on different operating systems. If Nokia has one ARM and one Intel chip then you would still need to recompile your app.
It's only an issue if you have an App Store with lots of apps compiled for one microprocessor (as is the case for Palm, Apple and Android).
@fubarweb .. I don't believe so. It's not an issue that Google has experienced yet. Won't be hard for them to solve though.
However I wouldn't be surprised if some companies give up on Google and create their own marketplace.
@JFH
You forgot to mention Qt 4.6 is also on Windows, Linux and OSX.
@taligent Sorry, what is the problem with recompiling? Just provide the damned source code and we can recompile the program to ANY architecture. That was the original reason behind the C programming language - to make the software portable, while keeping the performance of low level languages.
It's that the stupid greedy marketroids who started distributing binaries and came up with the EULAs. Software is the code, not the binaries and people fail to understand that.
ou may even downrank me into oblivion, but that is the truth. The software is the code. Distribution of binaries without the code should be banned, because it is an anti-competitive behavior and locks the user to a specific architecture and that does not do any good to competition and the market. In short, binaries only are the cancer of the competitive market.
@stoffer
Hmm, well people buy (or license?) what the software does, not what it is.
It's kind of like expecting all car manufacturers or architects to ship full blueprints of their work whenever they sell it.
Except the blueprints in this case allow extremely easy copying and modification compared to the car example.
Maybe in the future everything will be GPL and happy, but at the moment I need some way of getting paid for my work, and distrubuting source for everything doesn't seem like such a good idea. I'm happy to support and contribute to some open source projects, but some stuff I'd rather not hand to my competitors.
I do hope we can get past this, but I'm sure a lot of companies and developers feel similarly.
Is that really Android 2.1? I thought Eclair got rid of the App drawer thingy.
@Eggo
I was thinking the same thing.
@Glitch
Ditto
@Eggo For MDPI devices (the screen res on this thing looks akward, maybe some new WHVGA thing on a 3.1" screen) the master and eclair branches (both of which are right now at 2.1r1) use the old art from cupcake. You need to either modify the art and scale it down to MDPI (like I do on my builds using overlays) or compile for HDPI to get the new 2.x look.
Having tested the 2.2 sdk, I believe when FroYo dumps to AOSP the art problems will be fixed (since the sdk art seems to be the same in MDPI, LDPI, and HDPI, except for wallpapers).
I'm concerned about running an atom processor on a smartphone, though.
I have a dell mini 9 and the thing can get pretty hot under load. My HD2 with a qsd8k also gets pretty hot, but not as hot as the atom.
I wonder if intel has fixed thermal dissipation on new atoms. It'd be a shame if smartphones were forced to head into a future where they have to come equipped with active cooling. Hell, phones shouldn't rise in temperature above lukewarm at all!!!
@Eggo Only the Nexus One has the special drawer, the default one is that slide thingy, it has 'some' of the 2.1 Icons, looks incredibly slow though :/
@Jubeh Thanks for the clarification! I learn a new thing everyday :)
And yeah, I have serious doubts about the Atom processor, particularly at "standby", compared to ARM architecture. And not just when it comes to heat; battery life is a huge concern for me.
My Nexus One can get quite toasty too :(
@Eggo The Nexus One shouldn't get all that hot unless you are pegging the radio out with a LOT of traffic. Even playing games like Heavy Gunner 3D, my N1 doesn't get all that warm. However, a long time of streaming audio while charging will get it warm. Maybe it's time to check what apps and services you have running in the background?
@Jubeh I actually wonder why they still call it Atom! Read up on the Moorestown architecture, lots of clever architectural and software tweaks to bring power consumption and heat down
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3696/intel-unveils-moorestown-and-the-atom-z600-series-the-fastest-smartphone-processor
it looks really thick, almost 2cm or something and the screen is upside down in the gallery ( the 4 buttons are on top and upside down)
Are there any good UI designers working at Google?
@elibi
Android looks fine. I doubt that's running 2.1.
@Glitch
It is 2.1 and no its not pretty.
@JFH thats definitely a 1.6 theme or something because 2.1 doesn't look crappy like that
@JFH: That definitely isn't the 2.1 that came with my Nexus One. 2.1 has the new launcher (i.e. the app drawer with the 8 square icon).
Yea... 2.1 is "Flan", technically not Eclair 2.0/2.0.1. Flan is a whole 'nother dessert.
@Cyberdyne Systems Flan never came to be, and FroYo took the letter F in its place. The 2.0 release merely got updated to 2.1 and then the code dropped (at least I don't recall ever seeing 2.0 code drop).
god help us all with all this phones, but shouldn't Intel advance their technology instead?
Does not look like Eclair. Looks like Donut.
Maybe android will finally have the hardware to run some games with this new Intel chip.
Looks thick and heavy.
an x86 phone? I don't think that's a good idea.
ARM > Intel..fosho.
why the hell does it again looks like iPhone?!
PFft Droid Incredible Clone! :P
Intel is known for including poor GPU w/ their products, relative to others. For example iPhone and Andorid will have a great GPU.
Question: What is the GPU for this Intel product?
I'm sorry but I don't get the big deal regarding Android. I've played with several Android phones and they seemed slow and unresponsive. Just like the App pull out window in this video..
Whats the big deal about Android again and why do people always yell "Put Android on it." Has the clever marketing brain washed some?
I personally find Meego way more promising/interesting
@osiris2600
Exactly. They can't even seem to get the window sliders to be smooth. Me no want.
whomever did the video doesnt know how to show off a phone lol. i dont feel like i need to buy that phone at all.. looks like an iphone running android 1.6... who wants either of those?
says 2.1 but looks like 1.6
something's not right there.
@xguntherc AFAIK the vanilla 2.1 does not contain the nexus one launcher, that is why it looks like android 1.6, as said before it looks dam slow even compared to ny phone
@Spooke10
It's not just the launcher, it's the Pull-down Notification Tray. That looks different. The Browser icon isn't right, same goes for the Music Icon, and the settings icon. 2.0 and 2.1 also have a different Google BAR..
also the time in the top right has AM or PM now on 2.0, 2.1 or 2.2.
This is NOT 2.1 I have the Nexus One and run 2.1 and have been running 2.2 for a few days now.
Aava Mobile is finnish company. This mobile is designed in Finland.