[Q] Combines SGS III Mali Drivers from Kernel with RK3188 Kernel - General Questions and Answers

Howdy all,
I am a bit new around here but I stay pretty busy on some other forums and I run a site called rockchipfirmare.com. I don't consider myself a developer in the true sense of the word but rather I mix-n-mash roms primarily without getting into too much actual coding.
So I have a question that is slightly out of my league and I am hoping someone with a bit more knowledge can lend a hand.
I have two chipsets in front of me.
One is the Samsung Exynost 4412 (Quad-Core A9 with Mali-400 MP4 gpu)
The other is a Rockchip RK3188 (Quad-Core A9 with Mali-400 MP4 gpu)
Basically, I have noticed that Exynos pretty much runs EVERYTHING just a little bit smoother than the RK3188 does, even though the RK3188 actually does better in most synthetic benchmarks.
I think it -might- be a driver optimization issue as I am sure Samsung does a heck of a lot more with their drivers than Rockhip. I also suspect that the Mali-400 GPU in the RK3188 is running at a lower clock than Rockchip claims. Thus far I haven't found a way to figure out what the GPU specifically is clocked at.
Anyhow, here is my question....
Would it be possible to get the Samsung Mali drivers from the Siyah kernel and import them into the RK3188 kernal for a specific device?
I think I have most of the tools to do so already as I can unpack and repack boot images for the RK3188. Although I never have gotten into the extracted kernel image.
I guess I am asking if I should spend time on the above or whether it is a fools errand and if I do spend time on it what exactly am I looking to get from the SIyah kernel once I get into it?
Any thoughts our help someone would like to throw my way are most welcome.
Kind Regards,
Roman

Would be wonderful if someone can do this

Well, that is what I am try to learn, how to combine different modules drivers.
If the module is compile with the same kernel version (Linux 3.0.36), then maybe it could work.
How is going so far? I really would like to learn about that to be able to recollect all the modules for different RK3188 tablets and the be able to recompile new version of the kernel.
I am going to start playing with a PIPO M6 but any help will be much appreciated.
Note: If the GPU driver are integrated in the kernel I don't know you are going to be able to use them, as you cannot build a complete kernel for your RK8188 tablet.
For mali, the source code is open source and it can be found at http://malideveloper.arm.com/develo...source-mali-gpus-linux-kernel-device-drivers/

Related

Arm v7 or v9?

These things are being advertised as having v9 processors, but mine, according to a system process app, doesn't.....it had v7.
I called viewsonic and they had no answers.
I feel like if you're advertising it, that's the way it should be. Guess chinese companies don't feel the same way.
Anyone else notice this?
Sent by the interwebs
ARM can be confusing
The tegra 2 in an ARM cortex A9 processor which is the ARM v7 family of processors. Check out the wiki for the ARM architecture and you'll seee just how confusing it can get.
81FSUnole said:
These things are being advertised as having v9 processors, but mine, according to a system process app, doesn't.....it had v7.
I called viewsonic and they had no answers.
I feel like if you're advertising it, that's the way it should be. Guess chinese companies don't feel the same way.
Anyone else notice this?
Sent by the interwebs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the thing about ARM designation is that a lot of the time lower numbers can be faster. What matters is that our Tegra2 core is really fast. Check out the Anand benches. Its pretty much the fastest Android tablet/phone out there.

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

No Dual Core Cpu support yet ?

Still can't find any indication that IceCreamSandwich (Android 4.0) supports dual core cpu
http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html
We all know that any kernel already supports smp so it should't take so long for Google to make android OS support it too...
If you find anywhere a clue for that please reply
it should support.
but, this is the wrong section to post this question. The Nexus S isn't dual core. You may get better answers in Android General Questions
You won't find anything about it because dual core support has sort of been there since before 1.0, and really since before android. Linux has been multithreaded pretty much from the beginning, it isn't' something google needs to add to android, its all there. The huge performance boost we'll see with ICS will be from hardware acceleration in the UI, not some magical unicorn dual core support.
The reason all these dual core phones aren't living up to the hype is because the software the OEMs made for them really sucks, its not google or android's fault.
As far as I know IceCream Sandwich DOES support Dual Core CPU's.
imneo1 said:
Still can't find any indication that IceCreamSandwich (Android 4.0) supports dual core cpu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the fact that EVERY SINGLE Honeycomb tablet uses a dual core processor is proof enough...
063_XOBX said:
Maybe the fact that EVERY SINGLE Honeycomb tablet uses a dual core processor is proof enough...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because Android runs on such device does not automatically means that is uses both cpus(cores) for each process. for that to apply we should see threads of an app processes.
so my question remains...
Orangestrat said:
You won't find anything about it because dual core support has sort of been there since before 1.0, and really since before android. Linux has been multithreaded pretty much from the beginning, it isn't' something google needs to add to android, its all there. The huge performance boost we'll see with ICS will be from hardware acceleration in the UI, not some magical unicorn dual core support.
The reason all these dual core phones aren't living up to the hype is because the software the OEMs made for them really sucks, its not google or android's fault.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you said the same thing i said ... well, almost ...
I said that Linux support dual core (smp) but there is much more to that.
we should see that the VM actually uses the Linux(Kernel) support managing to provide a correct data to the kernel, so that the process will be threaded (run on both cores)
Can you (or anyone owning a dual core device) provide a proof for that ?
Can we see a process of an app runs on both cores ? (a screenshot from shell showing that it uses both cpus/cores)
also, you should read about SGS2 for example.
even though it has a dual core CPU Android only uses on core to run itself (VM) and apps
so the answer is not that simple as you pointed
and my question remains...
ICS actually supports multi-core cpu's, not just dual. Meaning it supports up to either 4 or 8 cores (I can't remember which)
Add edit: When there are more cores in phones, multiple cores will be used to run (like you said) the apps AND the system. Quad-core phones are supposed to be coming out this summer.
063_XOBX said:
Maybe the fact that EVERY SINGLE Honeycomb tablet uses a dual core processor is proof enough...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's funny, considering we're running Android 4.0.3 on our SINGLE-CORE phones. And add the fact that there's a small mod that will change it to the tablet interface, and you've got proof that you dont need 2 cores.
Just because multi-core devices are now standard doesn't mean that ICS 4.0 requires 2 cores. Our phone alone is proof. It's not a different version of Android. ICS on a tablet is the same ICS as on a phone, in a nutshell. That was the whole point of ICS in the first place -- to unify phones and tablets into 1 OS.

Android pre-installed on Atom x86 tablets

I've searched high and low for this but can't find any information. Does anyone know what is the source of the Android that comes pre-installed on various Chinese/Taiwanese tablets with Intel Atom (x86) processors? Is an image available somewhere? I'm pretty sure it can't just be Android-x86 as these tablets often use Atoms with PowerVR SGX 5xx graphics which IIRC are not supported by Android-x86 .
Like as not, you guessed right the first time...
I realize this is a pretty late response, but...
What you are probably looking for is Android-x86.org, in fact, after all.
I would not be one bit surprised, if any cheap-ish Chinese x86 tablet, you find, is running a knock-off of the Android-x86 project. The Chinese manufacturers may list atoms with PowerVR graphics chips, but what's listed, and what's functionally supported, when you receive the tablet may be two entirely different things.
That said, Android-x86 runs reasonably well, if you don't mind tweaking the kernel config to fit your hardware, before compiling. (Reasonably <> perfectly, of course...)
XTCrefugee said:
I've searched high and low for this but can't find any information. Does anyone know what is the source of the Android that comes pre-installed on various Chinese/Taiwanese tablets with Intel Atom (x86) processors? Is an image available somewhere? I'm pretty sure it can't just be Android-x86 as these tablets often use Atoms with PowerVR SGX 5xx graphics which IIRC are not supported by Android-x86 .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tekowalsky said:
Chinese manufacturers may list atoms with PowerVR graphics chips, but what's listed, and what's functionally supported, when you receive the tablet may be two entirely different things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact that the cedarview/clover trail Atoms have PowerVR chips is down to Intel. That's how they're designed. It's not something an OEM could change, Chinese or otherwise.
Without hardware graphics support, cedarview Atoms are pretty hopeless. They simply aren't capable of doing things like HD video, or pretty much anything related to 3D graphics. There's some limited Linux support, but aside from that it's Windows only if you want a capable system. Without an Android driver (which Android-x86 lacks) it really wouldn't even be worth trying, believe me.
Most likely (as others have said in other threads) these tablets run Android-x86 with some custom (probably unlicensed) PowerVR driver

UNU - building kernel -which defconfig to choose

Hi,
I bought Snakebyte UNU tablet recently. It's rooted by default do I thought I'll try and learn building kernel and stuff with it. The problem is what to build the kernel for, though. The CPU is quad core RK3188, the board is RK30sdk, but many apps such as CPU-Z show it as dual core RK3066. The specs seem to confirm it so honestly I'm confused. I went ahead and built a kernel for RK30sdk, but flashing it resulted in hard-brick. The good part is I learned how to restore it in future if something goes wrong. Anyway, I included a few screenshots with specs. I hope one of you can point me in the right direction.
I included my build.prop as well.
Sent from my unu-7-3188 using XDA Free mobile app

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