IMPORTANT NOTE: this is the nth part of my MWC (Barcelona) report series (a lot more to come!). Of course, I’ll try to cross-post them here too (I couldn’t do so while in Barcelona because of the very slow & expensive Internet connection), but it’ll take a lot of time; in the meantime, feel free to check out the original articles. It’s REALLY worth checking out them: many of them contain info that you won’t ever read anywhere else. Furthermore, some of the more “thematic” articles discuss all the news of a given area (audio encoding, Web browsing, advanced Bluetooth etc.)
MWC Audio Encoding News Roundup; Skype cracked!
MWC: Breaking Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1 news & pics!
MWC: Bluetooth news: A2DP news & reviews (e.g. Voyager 855); a new BT access point; Nokia’s new DVB-H transmitter
MWC: Web browsing: WebKit, Thunderhawk news; a dedicated Web browser handheld
MWC: the competition: BlackBerry (RIM) and Nokia
MWC: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 to come with WM 6.5?
MWC: a really-really great e-paper & WindowsCE- based (!) phone & reader from Polymer Vision: Readius – the first foldable(!) e-book reader ever
MWC: more S-E Xperia X1 shots & info; it'll be based on the Qualcomm chipset?
MWC: more S-E Xperia X1 info & photos
MWC Report Part I: Opera Mobile 9.5 pics, i-mate, Nokia, MS Press Conference, MSN Direct news etc.
OK, now, to the article:
Samsung
Architecture-wise, it’s without doubt Samsung’s MWC announcement of a brand new, high-end chipset (also having a CPU), the S3C6410 (and its budget version, the S3C6430), that may be the most interesting to Windows Mobile users.
As you may already know, Samsung’s SC3244x (for example, the SC32442 used in the HTC P6300 (HTC Panda), E-Ten’s late 2007/early 2008 models like the X650 and the M800 etc – see the complete list HERE and HERE for the SC32442 and the SC32440, respectively), the chipset used in several current(!) Windows Mobile devices, is REALLY outdated. I’ve shown numerous examples and proofs of this (see for example THIS) - for example, the very bad CPU usage of A2DP (about 50% at 400 MHz) and the complete lack of advanced multimedia (MP3 / AAC) en/decoding support (this is why you can’t, for example, use the high-quality Resco audio codec pack with (old) Samsung CPU’s, as has also been pointed out HERE). These two tasks are all far better handled by any other, current CPU’s like Intel XScales (even the “old” PXA-2XX ones) and TI OMAP’s (again, even the oldest ones used in Windows Mobile 5+ devices). The only real advantage of the SC3244x is the CPU usage-independent power consumption – the other two, above-mentioned architectures can’t boast with this. (See the bottom section of THIS article for a proof.)
Before MWC, as far as their newer chipsets are concerned, only the S3C6400 was known. For example, E-Ten’s brand new, high-end, feature-packed V900 (to be released in April) will have this chipset. (Currently, there’re no other existing/announced devices (see THIS) with this CPU.)
This chipset is the base (the direct predecessor, parent) of the new S3C6410/ S3C6430 models. In this respect, it’s pretty much comparable to the Marvell XScale PXA270 as opposed to the PXA310, let alone the even more feature-rich PXA320.
The just-announced S3C6410, which is an even more advanced version of the S3C6400 , is even better; for example, it supports hardware 3D acceleration. Again, it’s like the PXA310 or the PXA320 compared to the PXA270. Unfortunately, currently, no future devices are known to have it.
(the 3D performance demo of the brand new S3C6410; you can see the S3C6410 flier I’ve also made some shots of here)
(multimedia demo on the older S3C6400)
(HD AX audio decoding demo on the older S3C6400)
(this is how an imaginary device could house the S3C6400)
Note that, currently, the only available online information is the above-linked one. While it does explain the advantages of the new S3C6410 platform over the “old” S3C6400 one, it’s definitely worth checking out their offline brochure I’ve taken a shot of (with my Nokia N95 – man, it DOES have a very nice camera. Hear that, Windows Mobile ODM’s? We want something similar on WM too!) Also note that Samsung’s portal doesn’t have any information on the S3C6430 at all. Finally, note that none of the other portals reporting on MWC have anything else on the new CPU than the above-linked press release (see for example MobileBurn, electronista.com, techon - these are the sites mentioning S3C6410 I could find via Google). That is, it’s in by me that you get a full rundown of the differences between the new CPU’s and the “old” S3C6400.
(again, click the pictures to get a full-resolution, readable one!)
As can clearly be seen, the S3C6410 is a much more advanced version of the S3C6400: it uses 65 nm technology instead of the 90 nm one (most probably resulting in major power and size savings), it has advanced 2D capabilities (for example, H.264 hardware decoding – as is also explained in the online version) and even 3D hardware acceleration. The “budget” S3C6430 seems to be exactly the same as the S3C6410; the only difference seems to be the complete lack of 3D hardware acceleration. Hope we’ll still see the latter (that is, the S3C6410) with proper (!) 3D drivers.
Also see THIS for their roadmap and THIS for a S3C6400 datasheet. Note that these pages only list the “old” S3C6400 and (still) don’t link to anything related to the S3C6410/S3C6430. By the time you read this, however, they may have already added info / links to this new info, though.
The S5L8900
Also note that Samsung has also had another, pretty much mysterious chipset for over a year, the S5L8900. It is, therefore, a year older than the S3C6410/S3C6430 (and is of about the same age as the S3C6400); this may also mean it’s still using the old, 90 nm technology, not the new, 65 nm one. It’s being used in many Apple products (including the iPhone) and only one WindowsCE (NOT Windows Mobile!)-based, announced Meizu M8 miniOne high-resolution phone. Unfortunately, it’s still not out and, again, it’s WindowsCE-based only, meaning NO (hacking-less) compatibility with the vast majority of Windows Mobile programs. You can find a full list of the mobile devices using the S5L8900 HERE.
Interestingly, Samsung’s official pages have absolutely no information on this chipset either – just like the case with the brand new, but, because of the lacking 3D hardware acceleration, not very interesting, “budget” S3C6430.
It’s stated to have a lot of goodies; for example, hardware 3D acceleration (a PowerVR MBX 3D processor). See THIS for more info, links and for some speculations on why Samsung doesn’t even mention it on their homepage.
All in all, way to go Samsung, and DO force hardware ODM’s use your S3C6410 – NOT the old S3C6400 or the budget S3C6430! (For example, could you force E-Ten to switch to S3C6410 from the already-outdated S3C6400?)
Finally, a somewhat unrelated shot of their new, power-saving LCD technology:
Imagination Technologies's stuff (incl. PowerVR)
When discussing the S5L8900 above, I’ve already mentioned the PowerVR 3D hardware accelerator used in the top-secret, only-for-Apple S5L8900 Samsung chipset. Now, let’s see what they have on offer. A LOT!
Note that the PowerVR 3D hardware graphics accelerator is used in several other chipsets; for example, the (advanced) Texas Instruments OMAP2420 chipsets used in the Nokia N93/N95/N82.
They have announced several advanced designs at MWC (see their original press release HERE). The new chipset is about two times faster than the currently available one in, say, the above-mentioned Nokia phones. Therefore, of course, first, I’ve asked them when we’ll see see their latest 3D mobile (low-power) hardware accelerator chipset to appear in mainstreams CPU’s (or CPU architectures) like the above-mentioned TI OMAP 2420 chipset. There isn’t any information on this.
I’ve also asked them on what they think of the Nokia N96 I’ve elaborated earlier on and whether they think its lack of a dedicated 3D accelerator, along with the lack of 3D hardware accelerator support in Next-Gen N-Gage games, means the end of using the PowerVR hardware acceleration technology in Nokia’s highest-end entertainment / multimedia / gaming devices. They consider the N96 a niche product – one that is not really made for gaming fans, but more likely those of watching TV in realtime. They also explained the lack of the 3D acceleration in the N96 is deliberate: Nokia didn’t want to totally cannibalize the N95 8GB (which was only released less than half a year ago) sales. And, I should add, those of the N82 – albeit, the latter phone also has a Xenon flash. All in all, they aren’t afraid of Nokia’s completely stopping releasing 3D-accelerated devices. They have also added that, sooner or later, Next-Gen N-Gage games will also get hardware 3D acceleration support (currently, they’re software-only, which pretty much sucks).
Turning to the question of Windows Mobile, while more and more WinMo models are receiving the more up-to-date TI OMAP chipsets, it still remains to be seen if any of these will have a chipset directly supporting 3D hardware acceleration. They didn’t have any information on this.
Unfortunately, the same stands for their new, mobile H.264 hardware accelerator solution. If you’ve read my H.264 Bible, you know well enough that, currently, no Windows Mobile chipsets support accelerating H.264 playback by doing the decoding in the much more efficient hardware. (Yes, in theory, the new Marvel PXA310 and PXA320 in the iPAQ 110 / 21x Pocket PC’s do – but whether there will be players to utilize this still remains to be seen. Hope the CorePlayer folks indeed manage implementing this.)
Note that they have also shown a 3D demo (still with their old drivers) of a non-3D hardware accelerated Nokia and on an accelerated one. The video can be found for example in THIS pocketgamer.co.uk article. (I’ve also made a video of it, but will only make it available later, when I have some time for transcoding it into high-resolution H.264 to avoid the problems associated with the low resolution of YouTube or Google Video).
Finally, a big-big thanks to the Imagination folks. Being pretty busy at discussing the H.264 issues, I’ve left my highest-end P&S camera (the 12 Mpixel Ixus 960 costing over 530 US$ in Europe) on their booth. When I wandered backwards (still having not realized my camera is missing – I’ve had a ScottVest on me, fully packed with mobile phones and PDA’s and, therefore, I haven’t promptly noticed the missing camera), they came to me and handed my camera back. Great and sincere folks – again, I can’t express my gratitude enough!
Qualcomm
First and foremost, if you’re a user of a HTC-manufactured, Qualcomm-based device like the Kaiser/Tilt, your first question will surely concern the 3D and the graphics drivers. (If you aren’t aware of the issue, just look around HERE, particularly around the sticky threads) Let me elaborate on this question first.
I’ve also spoken to a device manufacturer (an ODM). Their name must remain unknown (upon their request). They have a pretty nice (albeit QVGA) device with all the necessary (wireless & connectivity) goodies and is built on the current Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset (the one that lacks the 3D / real display driver in HTC’s current devices). They stated – XDA-Developers folks (and anyone else wanting a proper video / 3D driver for their Qualcomm devices), attention! – it’s in no way impossible to create a 3D driver for it. Some of the framework has already been produced but they have to work on the drivers too. We’ll see the results pretty soon, if the hardware manufacturer in question indeed manages to ready the driver before their deadline – which will be before the XPERIA X1’s release (or the Kaiser’s getting outdated). This also means that, should they manage to create a driver, the XDA-Devs hacks will have a decent source to get the already-written driver from – at last.
I’ve also talked to the Qualcomm folks themselves about the driver issues with HTC-manufactured devices. They didn’t want (read: refused) to comment on anything (pretty much understandably).
New Qualcomm chipset?
Of course, I’ve also spoken to the Qualcomm folks on whether they have anything to announce as, right before MWC, I’ve heard of their releasing a supposedly new chipset, running at 560 MHz and having a lot of advanced features compared to their current MSM7200. The MSM7200A (notice the trailing “A”) might not be the chipset in question because it “only” runs at 528 MHz (as has been also explained HERE). Unfortunately, the person in charge of answering questions like this wasn’t present so we’ll need to e-mail each other; I fill you in as soon as I receive some new info.
MWC: Chipset Vendors & New Chipsets - Part II has been posted to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1980944
Does this provide any immediate benefits for us?
http://www.betanews.com/article/ARM_announces_software_for_3D_graphics_on_phones/1203534141
I was under the impression that the Kaiser was Xscale rather than ARM, but I could be wrong...?
MobilePhoneUser said:
Does this provide any immediate benefits for us?
http://www.betanews.com/article/ARM_announces_software_for_3D_graphics_on_phones/1203534141
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Our Qualcomm chip is ARM as implemented by Qualcomm. XScale is ARM as implemented by Intel->Marvell.
This doesn't help us it's just a graphics engine spec upgrade for Java and for another GPU, while our GPU is by ATI.
NuShrike said:
Our Qualcomm chip is ARM as implemented by Qualcomm. XScale is ARM as implemented by Intel->Marvell.
This doesn't help us it's just a graphics engine spec upgrade for Java and for another GPU, while our GPU is by ATI.
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Java??? it's about OpenGL ES, 3D & Acceleration. It's about the API they use & I'm most certain that the MSM7xxx series processors fall into this catagory. This will allow for better programing & Acceleraition & 3D grapics for S/W based on the engine & help porting high-end & graphic intensive games & apps. In therory it should aid in porting popular PC games to mobile devices.
The Khronos Group's OpenGL ES spec is designed specifically for embedded systems such as mobile handsets and video game consoles, and is the API of choice for the PlayStation 3. Members of the Khronos group include graphics companies nVidia and ATI, CPU manufacturers AMD and Intel, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and Samsung.
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While this will mean nothing for the Kaiser initially, it very well could be the start of something. It could be that this engine will have the ability to use H/W acceleration without being dependent drivers. These programs would run well like CorePlayer, but would not present a solution in & of themselves.
Right now I don't care about the video/graphical performance of my Kaiser - I think its a foregone conclusion that we're not going to see any *REAL* resolution to this problem.
But I say... bring on nVidia's APX 2500!!
lol or you could use the search this thread tool instead of just search
GTRoberts said:
But I say... bring on nVidia's APX 2500!!
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seconded... hell, i'll even take one in the bigass engineering size they had. as long as it has good bluetooth anyhow. i can't imagine holding that up to my ear... lol
GSLEON3 said:
Java??? it's about OpenGL ES, 3D & Acceleration.
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Mobile device CPU manufacturer ARM today announced Mali-JSR297 software, which takes full advantage of OpenGL ES 2.0 standard GPU and allows for 3D graphics processing on mobile platforms.
Mali-JSR297 is an addition to ARM's Mali graphics stack, an implementation of the OpenKODE set of APIs which the Khronos Group devised as a way for developers to produce cross-platform games and applications more quickly and easily. With it, calculations in Java will be minimized, allowing more sophisticated 3D graphics, which ARM claims can be similar to high-end consoles and PCs.
Also, MSM7200 is OpenGL ES 1.0, or 1.1, compatible only afaik.
Still, looks like it could be something ... if the pictures says it could support native apps.
1. (WinMo, desktop Windows): The creators of Shadow of Legend, a really promising multiplayer (!!) MMORPG I’ve several times reported on, have announced (see http://www.shadowoflegend.com/web/News.aspx?ID=452 ) the forthcoming, vastly enhanced 2.5D version of their game.
Unfortunately, there will be NO Windows Mobile-specific version of the new game, unlike with the previous, 2G (isometric) version. It will only be released later, if at all: the developers state they will only look into releasing the WinMo version when WinMo hardware manufacturers do come up with much more gaming-friendly (mostly importantly, 3D hardware accelerated) devices – that is, not in the foreseeable future.
2. (WinMo, BlackBerry, (Symbian?)): Concrete Software ( http://www.concretesoftware.com/ ) have announced the forthcoming native (non-emulated!) ports of the titles of the great Microprose classics, Civilization (IV?), Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon.
The ports will, at first, be released for BlackBerry. (Which may also mean they’ll also be made available for Symbian and other platforms with strong Java MIDlet support – after all, BlackBerry apps are also Java-based.) The BlackBerry games list (http://www.concretesoftware.com/blackberry/index.shtml ) on the homepage of the developer already shows these four titles; Civilization (here, referred to as Civ IV: War of Two Cities – that is, not the first episode) is slated for Sep. 2., while no release date is provided for the other two titles. The listing of other platforms doesn’t list the new titles as yet.
While, at least on Windows Mobile, you definitely can play these titles under emulators (for example, Civilization does run under n0p’s DOSBox – see The definitive guide to running (MS-)DOS (80x86) programs under Windows Mobile at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_definitive_guide_to_running_ms_dos_8_12 for more info), doing the same with native (or, at least, Java MIDlet-based) games is much better: much less CPU usage (resulting in much better battery life), advanced (midi / Adlib / Sound blaster) audio, customizable keys etc.
3. Make sure you check out Eric Pankoke’s My World Of Handhelds http://www.myworldofhandhelds.com . Among other things, it has decent a review of Xassar's Quest ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=33 ) and Igor ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=1 ) – two titles I couldn’t fully test upon writing a quick news items on them. Of particular interest is Xassar's Quest, an RPG, which definitely is worth paying attention to.
4. (Windows Mobile devices with accelerometer): There is a real abundance of games utilizing the accelerometer of the HTC Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro. See the list of these games at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411419 . The thread started post is worth checking out now and then for new projects.
Still speaking of 3D hardware acceleration, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=415873 has a decent C#/.NET Compact Framework wrapper for OpenGLES. If you’re a .NET CF games programmer looking into 3D acceleration, check it out.
5. (Symbian): Several new, high-quality titles have been released for Nokia’s Next-Gen N-Gage platform. Some of the better titles include the adventure Dirk Dagger (official website: http://www.dirkdagger.com/ ; AAN post & discussion: http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7858_Dirk_Dagger_now_available_on_N.php ) and, most importantly, Reset Generation (see related AAN story at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7789_Reset_Generation_The_first_Meg.php and http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7774_Reset_Generation_out_now_on_N-.php ), a truly multiplayer, really nice game well worth trying. Note that it has a free Web version you can test in your desktop browser; it’s available at http://www.allaboutngage.com/games/item/Project_White_Rock.php . Also note that you can even put the game on your own website as is explained at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7781_How_to_put_the_full_version_of.php
Still speaking of the N-Gage platform, the also-new Dogz has received pretty bad press; see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7914_AAN_reviews_Dogz_for_N-Gage.php
6. (Symbian, Palm, WinMo): Infinite Dreams, the developer of some killer titles like K-Rally and SkyForce (Reloaded), have a blog on their own at http://idreamsblog.blogspot.com/ (also see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7742_Infinite_Dreams_Blog.php ). There aren’t many entries there; still, fans of the developer may still want to check the page out.
7. (WinMo): A free (!) Metal Slug-remake, Psycho Team’s Symbian Killer (see http://psygame.org/publ/2-1-0-4 ; direct download: http://psygame.org/download/SymbianKiller.CAB ) is definitely worth checking out if you like Metal Slug, one of the bets 2D platform games ever written. (See my Guide to Emulating NeoGeo and CPS: A must if you’re into quality and FREE arcade games! at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_guide_to_emulating_neogeo_and_cps_a for more info on emulating the original titles.)
8. (WinMo): another platformer: Firetop Adventure. Allen Gall's review is at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blog/5248/the-week-in-games-firetop-adventure
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youtu.be/cVinMEM_2NU