Software
It's Linux based
If you're like most people, you're probably asking "Where are you getting at?", so allow me to explain. Well, Linux is the fastest moving operating system in the world. According to the video here, Linux has on average 8000 developers developing the operating system collaboratively from all over the world, from multiple companies each year. This means the kernel is changed every few months instead of every few years like with Mac OSX and Windows. This also means there's less issues in the operating system, because usually people will fix a problem and send a patch to the creator and the people in his office for widespread change. With it's support, Linux has brought some features most mainstream OS's haven't implemented like 3D printing and compiler changes that would make the OS snappier and use less memory.
While Android's kernel originally began as something drastically different due to the quest of keeping the OS small, Android is now going back to the mainline of the Linux kernel as it has proven to keep the performance up while making sure the resources used are low. The "K Release" , also rumored as Android Key Lime Pie, will likely introduce an almost fully merged Linux Kernel, which will create the opportunity for the OS to add a massive amount of features that you'd find from Ubuntu, Debian and Red Hat. This means you'd be able to add plenty of compilers (mostly like more a versatile GCC) on the android laptop/desktop OS. IDE's, and other special development tools for programmers can be imported to the Android operating system. That would make the tech guys pretty happy.
Android So Far...
So far, Android has been able to reach a deeper sleep than it ever has with the latest release, Jelly Bean 4.3. Before now, Android has had a problem reaching a deep sleep, which is why it ran hot people's pockets. It's also one of the main reasons manufacturers needed to place massive batteries into their phones compared to the iPhone where the battery is extremely small. The latest android introduced a few other modifications like security, and performance increases. Android 5.0
Android 5.0 is when Android reaches practical perfection. The operating system is supposed to be able to be used in many different configurations like in Google glass, watch, and even laptop like form. The entire theory that Android will soon come in laptop form came from analyst reports. This OS will have many internal modifications for speed and battery purposes just like 4.3 brought. 5.0 will be ever closer to a fully functional linux laptop OS in no time.
App And Developer Support
Android is known for it's wide selection of applications. As I'm writing this blog, there has been 806676 android apps added to the market. An Android Laptop will have at least 50,000 of those apps within the first year or two. With chrome for android, Android will have a unified experience between laptops, web browsers, and other mobile devices.
Gaming
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| Nvidia's Shield |
Facing the facts, Android has a robust game developer support. It could get to the point where it can compete with Windows. Seeing they are now working on solid multiplayer API, and Nvidia's Tegra graphics are getting to the same point as the PS3, I think Android laptops and Gaming systems can compete directly with Xbox and Sony's Console.
Floating Apps and Windows
One true advantage mainstream OSs like OSX and Windows have on Android is Window multitasking support. We've seen with Facebook Messenger that Android can have applications that sit on top of each other, and Samsung has proven that Android apps can be viewed side-by-side too. Android has the capacity for full window support as well. I think Google will implement full window support into Android 5.0 to allow the OS to compete with big league Desktop OSs.Hardware
No matter what form of common hardware you use (ARM or x86), Linux and therefore Android will be able to run on it, the Motorola Razr i is a good example of how x86 architecture works with it. ARM is on 95% of android phones to date, therefore there's no need for further proof that it works with ARM.
Outside of the basic architecture, ARM has a wide array of designers and manufactures that could make the chip's architecture go viral. Here is a list of unique processors that could bring it's technology to Android.
Nvidia's Kepler GPU
Look at the tessellation. So cool
Nvidia's Kepler GPU technology is truly a very efficient technology. Compared to most other GPU technologies, the ARM Kepler is said to outperform every mobile GPU technology by up to 5 times while using around 1/3 of the power. Now I've been looking at the special details for this, and I couldn't find anything extremely specific. I did, however, find a bit of info about Kepler graphics in general.
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| Mobile graphics will make a major leap in the next year |
How Kepler Works
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| Dynamic Parallelism vs Conventional |
The main goal of Kepler chips is to reduce the work load of your CPU. The common CPU/GPU model requires the GPU to send a response every time an action takes place. Sure it works, but it could be a lot more efficient by requiring the GPU to respond less while still getting the sane amount of work completed. To do this Nvidia brought a couple of parallel computing concepts into their Kepler GPU. The first is Dynamic Parallelism, the second Hyper-Q, the third GPUDirect.
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| Perfect Graphic Control |
Dynamic Parallelism allows one GPU core to send processes to other GPU cores without having to send a signal back to the CPU. Therefore the CPU is able to reduce the load taken while completing graphic intensive operations. The GPU is also able to do calculations where the based only on what moves much more efficiently.
Hyper-Q allows each CPU core to complete work on the entire GPU at the same time. That allows the GPU to work at full potential all the time and reduce the latency of the CPU. I particularly love this, as this means the processor can finally compute graphical information to the fullest more efficiently.
GPUDirect enables the GPU to directly make transfers to other 3rd party devices. This means devices such as SSDs or NICs (Network Interface Controllers) can transfer information almost instantaneously, which is why Nvidia technologies can be used with cloud computing. This technology can also allow for other clustering/parallel technologies like insanely powerful mobile peer-2-peer technology or using SSDs to cache large sets graphic information instead of normal mobile disk. The download speeds can greatly be increased too, as downloads are directly connected with the NICs. You'll notice that nvidia's shield has powerful download speeds. Some is contributed to MIMO Wifi, some is also contributed to a slight integration with this technology. Hopefully Nvidia uses this to the full potential.
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| Here's a picture of Ira He's so Cooooool |
Nvidia's technology can make the phone in the next 12 months up to 5x more powerful. While many people reading this blog are probably annoyed that I haven't talked much about other people like the creators of PowerVR GPUs, or Qualcomm's Adreno, but understand I've looked at them both and they didn't impress me enough to focus on. That's mostly because while they will provide powerful graphics, they won't be as efficient as Nvidia's Kepler technology. Qualcomm's Adreno technology won't be licensed out to other chip designers either, making them slightly less relevant in 2014 as the main players in the smartphone business now want to design their own chips.
Motorola's X8
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| The X8 Chip |
Motorola's new X8 processor impressed some, didn't impress others, but it certainly impressed me. The new chip is meant to have the usual dedicated CPU and GPU within the chip, but they introduced a concept I personally didn't think would come about. They made a special core for each natural language and sensors!
I feel some of my readers probably don't care all that much about this feature, and call it bluff, but there's a reason it's the exact opposite. This setup is very similar to the way our brain works. Our brain has something called the Limbic System. While we have the frontal lobe which does allows us to use logic and reasoning skills, the parts in the Limbic System and other lobes control other important functions: memory, speech, emotional responses, cognition, body regulation, visual perception, color recognition, spacial orientation, touch and information processing. The mere fact that they now have specialized cores for specialized task means that they can grow ever closer to a human like robot.
So, the CPU is like the frontal cortex and the GPU is like the Occipital lobe, which is responsible for visual perception and some processing . The Natural Language Chip would be a lot like the speech processing part of our brain, the auditory cortex, and the new sensor chip is much like the Thylamus, which is responsible for registering and transmitting senses within our own brain.
You can probably see where the Motorola X8 is going now. It's heading to the point of having a chip/core for each dedicated task. I had no idea Linux had this type of capability within it's kernel, but now I see it does, I can't wait to see what this will bring about.
Adapteva's Parallella Cores
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| It's coming!!! |
Parallella uses the same concept of Nvidia's GPU parallel processing, only they increase the number of CPU cores instead of GPU. The CPU cores run in parallel in order to increase the speed of certain compilations. As of now, Linux barely supports parallelism within small processors. Usually parallel processing is only found within GPUs and within multi-million dollar super-computing systems. The video below shows the computing difference when parallel CPU processing is utilized.
Skip to 1:05
Android will be a killer Laptop system because it will be able to run smoothly and implement the best parts of hardware and software well before other mainstream operating systems do, much like how normal Linux does. With all of the above Android would seriously be one Killer Laptop OS.
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