Symbian running on a multi-core CPU configuration
By Dusan Belic on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 1:59 AM PST In Symbian, Technologies
Symbian Foundation’s blog has recently announced that a team at ST-Ericsson and ARM have managed to make Symbian running on a highly capable SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) configuration. In other words, Symbian can sing along on dual-core CPUs!
The test environment consists of an ST-Ericsson U8500 smartphone platform embedding the first silicon implementation of ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore in the industry. A single instance of the Symbian operating system schedules multiple threads concurrently, distributing the CPU load on two cores. This guarantees the best combination of high performance and low power providing an unparalleled capability to build next generation mobile products for a variety of advanced consumer experiences.
The hardware used also contains an HSPA Modem, and can accommodate features and functionality such as:
- HD 1080p camcorder and video
- Up to 18 million pixels camera
- ~100 hours audio playback time
- 10 hours HD video playback time
- Simultaneously TV out over HDMI
- Video and Imaging accelerator
- Hardware accelerated 3D Graphics supporting OpenGL ES 2.0
- 2xWVGA (960×854) displays
- Touch UI on 2 displays
Please note that this is more of a proof of concept than something any manufacturer will pursue in the short term. Who knows how much we’ll have to wait to see the first dual-core smartphone being released. We’ll certainly watch carefully for any such news…
Symbian should understand that the fact that they’ve been ablo to port and developer-test their OS on a multi-core mobile CPU tells the sad state of their affaris, and not the opposite.
Other manufacturers are almost ready to *ship* products based on CPUs like Snapdragon and Symbian has just managed to barely port/test-run their OS?
Good grief.
They really need to sharpen up their communication skills.
While this may be good news for Symbian, the spin is totally off.
Is Nokia going to make a decision to take Symbian or Maemo as their OS of choice?
What’s the real difference? It seems kind of a waste to support two open source OSes.
ST-Ericsson started to work on the Mont Blanc (code name for the 8500) a while ago.
The 8500 is a double cortex A9 core. This processor is more powerful than the qualcomm
snapdragon. The first OS supported will be Symbian because the ST legacy with Nokia
and the AP Nomadik family. The next OS to be supported will be Android.
Many interesting things are coming… LTE too
[...] [Via IntoMobile] [...]
Snapdragon is not a multi core processor. It’s just an ARM and a DSP. This exist for a very long time. Here we are talking about two ARM core running together Symbian OS. This wil lallow to reduce the bare clock speed, and ask the second processor, or the 3rs, 4th…, to take its part of the jobe to provide horse power when needed. This should lead to longer standby time and better battery usage.
[...] [Via IntoMobile] [...]