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sensation single core?

im just curious to kno when we over clock this phone with temp root ...are we only over clocking one processor? im asking this because I've been reading that gingerbread doesn't even use both cores...and we have to wait until ice cream sandwich for both cores to be used like there supposed to be...I kno some games utilize both cores, but for the most part we only have a "single" core phone?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

I'm interested in underclocking/disabling a core. Seeing how that would play out on battery life.

A post I found online says it nicely:
Right now, the android sdk (2.3) provides no means to use more than one CPU core.
Still, multicore CPUs will increase performance because background processes can use CPU time on the core not being used by the running app.
This also applies to garbage collection (GC) which happens periodically (I guess you can trigger it manually too) whilst an app is running. With more than one core, the GC won't block the app which makes it feel "smoother".
I remember reading about Google's plans to improve multicore-support in android 2.4. It will take some time for existing apps to use it though (like it's happened with desktop applications).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you can now see, even though the device is dual core, the OS and any applications won't make -full- use of both cores until they are designed to do so. Just like most applications these days won't utilize a quad core processor on your desktop. You are correct in saying that some games are designed to use both, which is noticeable. I don't see why an overclock wouldn't affect both cores.
By the way, your title is full of fail "Gingerbread only using one core?" would have been more suitable, since the device itself has nothing to do with how the OS utilizes its hardware.

I wonder if within the development here we can actually get that working?

xamadeix said:
I wonder if within the development here we can actually get that working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get what working, the overclock on both cores? Or Gingerbread using both cores?
If A: Yes (once S-OFF update comes, or temporarily with Fr3vo until then)
If B: No.

haha I thought about that after I posted..I kno how some pple are on here...easy to flame ya...which is why I don't post often..just read...but thanks for the info...I figured that was the case...can't wait to see what this phone is really capable of....s-off will be here sooner then later
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

dontw said:
I'm just curious to know when we over clock this phone with temp root ...are we only over clocking one processor? I'm asking this because I've been reading that gingerbread doesn't even use both cores...and we have to wait until ice cream sandwich for both cores to be used like there supposed to be...I know some games utilize both cores, but for the most part we only have a "single" core phone?
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you.
It would be nice if both cores ramped up to full speed when even only one is needed.

So in basic terms..
SGSII is a monster of CPU power....
you say its only using 1 core, and SGSII scores about 2-3 times more than our HTC Sensation...
When icecream will be released, the samsung galaxy S ii will socre even higher than our sensation....
I do not think android 2.3 is using one core for sure its using both .( even if the OS doesn't support )

tomeu0000 said:
I do not think android 2.3 is using one core for sure its using both .( even if the OS doesn't support )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, huh? Are you saying that you think the GS2 is using both cores, and the sensation is only using one? That would completely explain the benchmark scores. Bring on 2.4

tomeu0000 said:
So in basic terms..
SGSII is a monster of CPU power....
you say its only using 1 core, and SGSII scores about 2-3 times more than our HTC Sensation...
When icecream will be released, the samsung galaxy S ii will socre even higher than our sensation....
I do not think android 2.3 is using one core for sure its using both .( even if the OS doesn't support )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you see a benchmark score where the SGSII is 2-3 times higher than the HTC Sensation?
The only one that I have checked was CF-Bench (which supports dual core) and the SGSII was about 20% higher. Certainly not 200%-300% higher.

tomeu0000 said:
So in basic terms..
SGSII is a monster of CPU power....
you say its only using 1 core, and SGSII scores about 2-3 times more than our HTC Sensation...
When icecream will be released, the samsung galaxy S ii will socre even higher than our sensation....
I do not think android 2.3 is using one core for sure its using both .( even if the OS doesn't support )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
this is gonna be a forever argument between the sensation and the gsII...on paper the sensation has better hardware ..Google it..its all over the forum ...the software is not optimized for the phone.with that being said..neither is the gsII...unless its running honeycomb somehow or ice cream sandwich ...gingerbread its self is the issue...now touchwiz may utilize both cores..im not sure..that may be why the gsII seems way smoother....just wait until this BL is unlocked...this phone will be monster

Do any of you guys remember this: MS update - KB896256?
I remember what that did for my laptop.
Worked real well.

[Q] Processors

Can somebody explain me, how it is possible, that my Desire HD processor can run at 1,9Ghz, and it has got no cooling? Or how is it cooled?
I have got a notebook with Pentium 3 running at 1,0 Ghz, and it produces a lot of heat.
Is it because of new nm technology or what?
Thanx for explaining me that. Because i really don't understand it

Simple answer: a phone processor doesn't use as much power, therefore putting off less heat.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

The Mhz numbers can be pretty irritating
Even on the desktop, you can't rely on a 1.8Ghz processor actually being able to do more than another that's only clocked at 1.6Ghz. And that's with processors that are part of the same family.
The trick is that the instruction sets are different. Even though they may be able to process the same number of instructions in a given timeframe, a given problem may take a single instruction on one platform and a hundred on another.
Power consumption comes rises with the number of instructions available. ARM processors have only a very limited instruction set, so they need a lot less power finding out which instruction is coming it.
An example: all x86 (since the 486) chips are able to perform floating-point math, while ARM only gained that ability recently. So 1.1+1.1 is very simple on x86 (it's not actually a single instruction, but that's not the point here), but takes a lot of cycles on ARM (since it needs to implement all of this in software).

And a phone processor is smaller .

p0cait said:
And a phone processor is smaller .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's debatable. The dies are pretty close in size, for compareable ARM and x86 cpus.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

How do the Dual cores work in this phone?

I got my sensation and love it, I have Android Revolution 3.1 and the RCMix version 1 kernel. It is currently overclocked to 1.78 ghz with Daemon OC.
I was curious though, I heard that some games and apps are not optimized for the dual cores. How do they work in these situations? Will one power down while the other works?
Also, In the newest update for Revolution HD, in the change log he mentions how the dual cores run constantly and that this is a first. Wouldn't this drain battery life?
Sorry about starting a new thread, im just curious. Thanks for any help!!

yes it s a very good question
i am gonna try that rom
especially about battery life.
any idea ?

i'd love the answer to this one myself.

Anyone??
Sent from my Virtuous Sensation, and loving it...

About the thing where the cores run constantly; I've been following the oc dual core thread, and someone found a way to keep both cores online and that overall, it had almost no effect on battery life but seemed to increase performance slightly.
To describe the way our dual core chips are setup would be very complicated, and would draw away from you initial question.
Just know, it shouldn't effect your battery too much.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

Generally
Dual Core = Better battery life
As long as the software is optimised to use them both

Really? Wow i thought dual core will consume more battery
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

The dual cores in our phones are asynchronous, meaning instead of both cores splitting the workload evenly like some other chipsets, one core will remain offline until it's needed then spool up to assist with the load. This was causing a problem with overclocking because only one core was recognizing the clock speed and governor settings. Keeping both cores idling allows them to both recognize the proper settings. The thread about it can be found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1233103

CrazyCharlie said:
The dual cores in our phones are asynchronous, meaning instead of both cores splitting the workload evenly like some other chipsets, one core will remain offline until it's needed then spool up to assist with the load. This was causing a problem with overclocking because only one core was recognizing the clock speed and governor settings. Keeping both cores idling allows them to both recognize the proper settings. The thread about it can be found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1233103
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dual core. Keeping it simple
think of a double Decker bus as synchronous CPUs
And two single deck buses. As asynchronous CPUs
passengers are your workload.
Most cpus out there are synchronous. so this means both processors split the load continuously at any one time. . Eg galaxy s2 and Intel CPUs
Asynchronous
Each core works independently from the other. Amd cpus do this and sensation.
But sensation only keeps one active till it needs the other one
Synchronous dual core cpus. These are your double decks. the bus Carries people and uses both floors at one time
Asynchronous in sensation.
these are your single decks. Only one bus will carry passengers. But when the bus is full or cannot cope the second bus is used
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

xl VipeR lx said:
dual core. Keeping it simple
think of a double Decker bus as synchronous CPUs
And two single deck buses. As asynchronous CPUs
passengers are your workload.
Most cpus out there are synchronous. so this means both processors split the load continuously at any one time. . Eg galaxy s2 and Intel CPUs
Asynchronous
Each core works independently from the other. Amd cpus do this and sensation.
But sensation only keeps one active till it needs the other one
Synchronous dual core cpus. These are your double decks. the bus Carries people and uses both floors at one time
Asynchronous in sensation.
these are your single decks. Only one bus will carry passengers. But when the bus is full or cannot cope the second bus is used
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first : the best explanation so far about how this phone works , two thumbs up !!!!
2nd : I'm currently thinking on moving from my Htc DHD to a new dual core phone ( had the Atrix , hated the pentile screen )
so in terms of everyday use ( i don't give a s**t about benchmarks ) which one is better to get - SGS2 or HTC Sensation ?

moshikko said:
first : the best explanation so far about how this phone works , two thumbs up !!!!
2nd : I'm currently thinking on moving from my Htc DHD to a new dual core phone ( had the Atrix , hated the pentile screen )
so in terms of everyday use ( i don't give a s**t about benchmarks ) which one is better to get - SGS2 or HTC Sensation ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL well I.am the noobproof dude. so just keeping it simple.
At the moment its hard to say. Depends on your taste and also true power of sensation isn't even seen yet
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

sensation performance / aSMP info needed please

Hi,
i recently return my samsung (4th time) galaxy s2 becouse of various defects , i been looking at the sensation however i have a few questions , firstly for all its issues i like how fast and responsive the galaxay was however when i tryed the sensation i noticed its not as smooth as the galaxy or that much smoother then the desire hd.
One possible reason for this i noticed was that the sensation uses a asmp cpu , which seems a bit cheeky to me. I mean im buying a dual core phone so i would like both cores to work at the same time as opposed to one working then the second kicking in when the first is loaded. From what ive read ics should have better support for this setup , so i was curious does anyone think we will see that much of a difference bearing in mind the sensation is asmp.
I notice there`s a lot of talented devs from the desire development and hd which is encouraging so i was hoping to learn from various users how much of a performance increase there seeing in custom roms ie is the browser jerky like stock ??
Appreciate any / all feedback thank you

I'm interested in some more more info on this topic as well.....
Sent from my Sensation using xda premium

Read up!
ok so aSMP doesn't really work in the method of core 0 gets loaded then core 1 kicks in, thats way off.
basically SMP cpus like Tegra and Samsung's both cores run at the same speed, so core 1 follows core 0. This doesn't mean that core 1 is actually processing anything. In most cases due to gingerbread the phone is still mainly running on one core unless the app supports multicore.
aSMP allows the cores to run completely independent. This is great for battery life. Core 0 can do things like play games and stuff at full speed while core 1 handles background data.
so playing angry birds while syncing photos on flickr:
core 0 could be running at full 1.5Ghz
core 1 could be running at 500Mhz just do handle the syncing
This is basically the idea. We will get better support with ICS for full and proper support for multiple cores and the kernels will only get better as devs learn.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1233103

Hi,
Thank you for you detailed reply ive been following the thread you posted which is what led me to posting question here , i obviously misunderstood what was being said. That being said im no expert but if i buy a dual core phone id rather have both cores committed to one task like pc ... this is one of the things thats making me hold back on sensation. Althougth its a great phone with great ui and fantastic potential with future updates and dev support to the touch at present the galaxy s2 just seems smoother with the way its doing thing.
As i say thou im not expert i can appreciate theres other factor to take into account such as kernal etc, im just going with hands on usage and trying to evaluate the future potential for both devices before making a decision to which i should choose

tonnytech said:
Hi,
Thank you for you detailed reply ive been following the thread you posted which is what led me to posting question here , i obviously misunderstood what was being said. That being said im no expert but if i buy a dual core phone id rather have both cores committed to one task like pc ... this is one of the things thats making me hold back on sensation. Althougth its a great phone with great ui and fantastic potential with future updates and dev support to the touch at present the galaxy s2 just seems smoother with the way its doing thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sensation's CPU works in a much more power efficient way, while still offering the speed of any other dual core CPU. It allows different clock speeds for different cores so applications using only a single core will be able to clock it differently to those using the other in the background. Computers, especially laptops work in a similar way, as there is a need for power efficiency. Realistically the Galaxy SII runs smoother due to it running a much less resource hungry skin on top of android, but both the CPU of the sensation and the Galaxy SII are both of a similar calibre, so it is very difficult to say which is better.

again thanks for the reply , defintly understand how this asmp buisness works more now which has given me some stuff to think about

tonnytech said:
Hi,
Thank you for you detailed reply ive been following the thread you posted which is what led me to posting question here , i obviously misunderstood what was being said. That being said im no expert but if i buy a dual core phone id rather have both cores committed to one task like pc ... this is one of the things thats making me hold back on sensation. Althougth its a great phone with great ui and fantastic potential with future updates and dev support to the touch at present the galaxy s2 just seems smoother with the way its doing thing.
As i say thou im not expert i can appreciate theres other factor to take into account such as kernal etc, im just going with hands on usage and trying to evaluate the future potential for both devices before making a decision to which i should choose
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither architecture, SMP or aSMP, will commit both cores to one task unless the app is multithreaded and it currently needs the use of both cores. This is the same way that multicore pc's operate. That's why when quad core CPU's first came out people said that they didn't feel any faster than comparable dual core chips - most existing apps at that time were written for single or dual threaded use so the third and fourth cores largely sat unused. The pc doesn't just force the use of the extra cores just because they are there (regardless of how they scale, aSMP or SMP).
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

Also the new firmware has made it smoother due to extra optimisations. Web browser is not as good as the galaxy S 2 due that being GPU accelerated. Power wise the Sensation you will get somewhat more out of your battery life wise.

hardensm said:
Realistically the Galaxy SII runs smoother due to it running a much less resource hungry skin on top of android, but both the CPU of the sensation and the Galaxy SII are both of a similar calibre, so it is very difficult to say which is better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look at my thread and see the post:
MSM8x60:
Adreno 220 GPU
2x Cortex A8 Based Cores
512KB L2 Cache
45nm
upto 333Mhz LPDDR2
Exynos 4210:
Mali 400 GPU
2x Cortex A9 Based Cores
1MB L2 Cache
45nm
support for LPDDR2/DDR3
Tegra 2:
ULP Geforce GPU
2x Cortex A9 Based Cores
1MB L2 Cache
40nm
support for 600Mhz LPDDR2
So the biggest thing is is that the Exynos is based on a new core micro-arch then the Snapdragon 2, also it has the ability to support DDR3 memory. To go into more detail about ARM Cortex.
Items that A8 and A9 have in common:
Jazelle RCT for JIT Compilation
Neon SIMD Instruction Set (Optional)
Thumb2 Instruction set
VFPv3 Floating Point Unit (Optional)
Cortex A8:
Superscalar Dual-Issue Micro-Arch
2.0 DMIPS/Mhz
Cortex A9:
Out-Of-Order Superscalar Micro-Arch
2.5 DMIPS/Mhz
Jazelle DBX for Java Execution
Dual-Core Processing Built In
The SGSII has a new generation architecture as so does the Tegra

This thread is iteresting. I want to continue that.
my cpu0 and cpu1 arrive at 1,7 ghz. so cpu1 doesnt arrive up to 500 mhz

let me see if i understand this correctly

so the g2x has a duel core processer that gingerbread does not support? so i'm only useing one. and ics does support duel cores. the only way i'll get ics is to root my phone and wait for on of the devs to get an ics rom working on the the g2x. thanks in advance

In a nutshell
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

It controls the two CPUs as one, it doesn't just use one. The rest I believe is correct.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

I think even rooting the phone and waiting for ICS from here will still not use the dual core properly as it will not have the Nvidia drivers till after it is released by LG.

GTWalling said:
I think even rooting the phone and waiting for ICS from here will still not use the dual core properly as it will not have the Nvidia drivers till after it is released by LG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW, thats pretty weak.

It's not that you're only using one core, it's that the two cores cannot function independently. They both focus on the same task and clock at the same speed, all the time. So you do notice an increase in performance above, say, a Nexus S, but it's not as good as it could be.
This is not a limitation of Gingerbread per say, but more a limitation of the drivers. Since nVidia does not release their driver source, we have to wait for them to provide better ones, which in all likelihood will never happen.

Two processors, one task
Due to resource sharing (cache, memory, mass storage, I/O), it is VERY hard to get two processors to work on one task. Some manager/executive would have to partition or parallelize the work between the two processors. And most tasks have many serial operations - what mechanism is going to serialize the tasks amongst two processors? I have yet to see a linux kernel expert on these forums declare Froyo or GB his a linux kernel that supports this.
The procs have dedicated L1 cache, and a shared L2 cache - stale cache blocks (aka cache miss) would be a nightmare if two procs were working on the same task - it would actually be slower.
Symmetric multi-core is made for multiple tasks or threads, not trying to parallelize a single task. I thought this was discussed in another thread...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1129074
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

albertorodast2007 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1129074
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the forward
edit:so i was reading the forwarded link and i ran in another like
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...alcore-1015/&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13219228920753
and in this link it says the tegra 2 didn't use the asynchronous duel cores because nividia says it loses 10-15% performance. so i'm led to believe there not working independently. unless i'm misunderstanding.

Both cores are running just not as efficiently as they could with multi-threading. ICS will multi-thread and properly use the dual cores.

Thread scheduler
So does anyone know what mechanism handles thread scheduling? I guess it'd have to be at the Android layer... And I thought that was introduced in 3.0?