Crap and Rap about my life
Binoy
You've reach the blog of Binoy. This small 'about' blurp really should have more text and a few links in it, but I can't be bothered, as I seem to break it constantly anyway. So, instead I suggest you take your pointer, move it around and see what you can click. Maybe you'll find something interesting
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Posts by Binoy
The Fastest Android?
Aug 12th
There is no better platform to compare mobile processor power than Android. Thanks to the linux kernel, manufactures have ported the android os to a variety of hardware and it the OS has shined on all of them.
In the early days most devices (including my beloved G1) featured the same Qualcomm 528 Mhz ARM11 processor. The performance was wow at that point of time, that until Motorola developed the Droid. With a 550 Mhz OMAP 3430 processor bloew everything else out of the water. It was clear, the more processing power, you supply the google OS, the experience changed dramatically.
HTC Evo (and SE Xperia) brought in the 1 Ghz revolution to android, and boy did it sell. Since then almost all manufactures have incorported some form of 1Ghz processors in their mobile devices. These processors also power the legandary Nexus One, which is now the official google developer handset (replaced the htc G1)
A true geek knows it not all about processors, there’s more to speed than just processing power. The GPU and the memory interface play a big part.
Although all of the high performance mobile processors are based on the Cortex A8 ARM processor, manufactures have tweaked it as per their needs and market demands. The Qualcomm Snapdragon was the first chipset to bring 1 GHz speeds to Android, but it has the slowest GPU of the three. The 65nm Cortex A8 processor is mostly bundled with the Adreno GPU. The Evo was the first phone to use this on Android.
Since then Samsung and Texas Instruments have stepped up and brought more powerful 1 Ghz processors with smaller power footprint(45nm) and better GPU bundle. Texas Instuments has built a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 + PowerVR SGX530 GPU + 430 MHz C64x+ DSP + ISP (Image Signal Processor). These processors power the new motorola droid’s (Droid 2 and Droid X) and boy they are snappy.
Samsung, which is soon becomming the powerhouse of mobile processor development (even powers the Apple Iphone), has one-upped Texas Instuments in building a 1 GHz 45nm Cortex-A8 with PowerVR SGX540 to power its Hummingbird line of processors. These processors now power the Galaxy S series of samsung phones and is currently considered the fastest mobile devices till date. Some experts have noticed a poor I/O performance for the rom’s that come in galaxy S series(with the SD card actually performing better), but a fix is already available and the problem is expected to be fixed when samsung pushes Android 2.2 to its devices.
While the hardware manufactures have been pushing the mobile artitecture to its limits, google has been improving its software. Android 2.2 shows a huge performance boost as compared to its predesseors, The benchmarks shows a 3x cpu performance boost when using Nexus One with Android 2.2 as compared to 2.1.As the Hummingbirds and OMAP are get ready to run android 2.2 in the next couple of months, the world avaits with bated breath.
The future will see processor speeds stepping up, respecting Moores law. Dual cores for mobiles have already been manufactured by Texas Instruments and Samsung. By November we should have a 1.3 GHz mobile processor on our hands and by next year dual cores and Nvidia Chipsets will be powering our mobiles.
Do you ubuntu?
May 2nd
You know that thing that happens on your computer, when you are using Windows? You ask it to do something, It replies you with, “are you sure ?” , and then thinks about it, and then it keeps thinking, and then you go off and make a cup of tea, and it’s still thinking, and you want to headbutt the wall, again and again, until gets all smeared and red and bloody and bits of your brain are raining down on to your shoes? Yes? Well, there’s a way to stop that happening. Stop using Windows. Use Ubuntu instead.
Ubuntu is an operating system. If you are the one who don’t know what that is, better stop reading and continue looking at the hourglass. The latest version of Ubuntu was just released. You can head over to ubuntu.com and get your copy now. burn it into a CD and install it. If you are lucky enough (actually if can read english and follow the install instructions carefully), you will end up with whats called a boot menu, where you can ‘dualboot’ your windows and your shiny new ubuntu.This new version of ubuntu comes with some nice new features. You can read all about it on the ubuntu homepage.
My ubuntu setup is much faster than my vista, which seems to do nothing but install updates and show me blinking screens asking for stupid confirmations. Yes I have heard of windows 7, and I have not tried it out yet. Is it available for free? Does it promise me a virus free experience? Does it promise it wont go slow after 6 months of use ?
“Ok I will try out ubuntu” you say, “but does it run word ? ” . Umm well no. It does not run word or any windows program for that matter (remember you are using ubuntu to get rid of windows) . It does have alternatives and pretty decent ones they are. Heard of OpenOffice ? Firefox ?
Oh and to the gamers out there, Ubuntu does not run <insert your favorite game here> . There i said it! These games are built for windows only. Unless you plan to get a shuttle J1 or G2, get a console. PS3 preferably.
Hmm. I’m going on a bit, aren’t I? Look, I’m not an anti-Microsoft freak, I swear. I run XP quite happily on all my dad’s machine, because it works just fine and I don’t want to hear my dad complaning that his favorite media player wont work with ubuntu. But on the big Dell tank that sits on my lap, it’s Ubuntu all the way. Now the new version is out, you should try it, too. Download it, put it on a disk, stick it in the drive and see what happens. You can run it from there, if you want, or you can tell it to install alongside whichever OS you’ve got on there already. Personally, I dual boot with Vista, although I’ve barely used Vista three times in six months. The sole reason I do this is because Ubuntu won’t run some ‘xyz only for windows app’ .
