Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Inside Snapdragon is a Scorpion
Several years ago Qualcomm assembled an architecture team in the Research Triangle Park in NC, coincidentally around 30 minutes from where I live. One of their tasks was to design a high performance CPU core around the ARMv7 instruction set. They called it Scorpion.
While the Scorpion core is normally referred to as a Cortex A8, Qualcomm views it as more of a Cortex A9 competitor. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. Like the Cortex A8, Scorpion is a dual-issue in-order microprocessor architecture. As I mentioned in my iPhone 3GS article, you can think of it as a modern day Pentium processor (but not an Atom).
Qualcomm claims the ability to do some things out of order, but by and large the pipeline is in order which ultimately keeps it out of the A9 classification.
Qualcomm hasn't shared much about the base architecture other than to say that it's definitely not based on the Cortex A8. It might have a deeper pipeline than the Cortex A8 to help it reach higher clock speeds. Unlike the ~600MHz target the A8 will hit at 65nm, Qualcomm's Scorpion will run at 1GHz at 65nm.
Scorpion also implements the NEON extensions to the ARMv7 ISA, although Qualcomm's implementation is a higher throughput version of what the Cortex A8 offers. It's my understanding that NEON isn't very widespread in usage today, so I'm not sure that Qualcomm's advantage here matters just yet.
Cache sizes are unknown but I'd expect that they're competitive with what we've seen from competing Cortex A8 implementations. Ultimately everyone is bound by die size and power consumption at 65nm.
Qualcomm integrates the Scorpion core in its Snapdragon SoC. The version of Snapdragon in the Nexus One is the QSD8250. This SoC includes a 1GHz Scorpion core and an integrated 3G modem. The QSD8650 will be used in the Verizon version with support for EVDO and CDMA 2000.
Qualcomm's integrated modem is a very different approach from what we've seen from companies like NVIDIA, Apple/Samsung and TI. Those companies rely on an external modem solution to reduce time to market. Qualcomm's response is to instead offer an SoC that integrates support for all major wireless standards. The QSD8250 used in AT&T's supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE and HPSA networks. The QSD8650 supports CDMA2000 1X, 1xEV-DO Rel 0/A/B, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and HSPA wireless networks.
When I spoke with Qualcomm one message it stressed was how calculated the timing of Snapdragon was. It's not by accident that all of the major Android phones being announced today use Snapdragon, it's because of very careful timing and planning that Qualcom was able to hit this bulge in the market. Most SoC makers would cite time to market as a reason for not integrating a modem into an application processor, it's clear that Qualcomm faced that challenge and took timing very seriously with Snap Dragon.
The CPU side of the Snapdragon SoC is fast. Faster than what's in the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Motrola Droid. Unfortunately there are other issues. Qualcomm scaled up processing speed but didn't increase memory bandwidth. The Snapdragon still has a 32-bit LPDDR1 interface, giving it the same memory bandwidth as its competitors despite boasting a much higher clock speed.
The even bigger problem with Snapdragon is its use of the Adreno 200, a dated and slow GPU Qualcomm acquired from ATI a couple of years ago. Luckily for Qualcomm, intensive 3D gaming hasn't really taken off on smartphones just yet but here Snapdragon is at a disadvantage to the Samsung and TI SoCs that use Imagination Tech's PowerVR SGX.
So the Nexus One has better CPU performance, identical memory bandwidth and worse GPU performance compared to the iPhone 3GS. Nothing is ever easy in this world.
Later this year Qualcomm will introduce its 45nm Snapdragon SoCs. These will range from being simple clock bumps of the 8650 in the Nexus One with LPDDR2 support, to full fledged dual-core versions with a much higher performance 3D core. Qualcomm also confirmed its intentions to move to an out-of-order architecture at some point in the future. I'd expect to hear more about that next year.
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coolVariable - Saturday, April 10, 2010 - link
Oh, STFU you fanboy.1. No calendar sync. Buggy Contact sync (e.g. contact pics, birthdays, ...). Buggy e-mail sync (just stops randomly). STFU since you have no clue what you are talking about.
3. A phone that can't even make calls. GREAT!!!! I don't fvcking care what the reason for the problem is. A $600 phone should be able to make a fvcking phone call!!!!!!
4. Love your little walled garden? Why don't you get an Apple phone if you are soooooo in love with a company locking down the functionality of your phone???????? Anand bad-mouthes Apple for its walled garden and ignores this "walled garden"???
5. Walled garden! Walled garden! Walled garden! Walled garden!
All of the above are pretty big problems with android per se and the Nexus One specifically!
It's pathetic that they weren't even mentioned during this review.
Not to mention the myriad of other (often cosmetic) problems and bugs with android (e.g. contact sort, etc).
And a tech-savy reviewer would have also mentioned the hypocrisy that you need to "jailbreak" android to do a lot of things. While that is fine, it pretty hypocritical that you can't "un-jailbreak" the Nexus One for a warranty exchange (something that is pretty easy to do with the iphone).
ruzveh - Sunday, April 11, 2010 - link
Anand nice article and m also looking fwd to buy one phone in near future from GoogleFrom my point of view is that 1GHz processor with 65nm is draining the battery life. Imagine if u insert 1GHz processor with 32nm (todays std) or even less will boost ur battery life almost double. I dont understand so called this chip company why not jumping onto 32nm bandwagon or to somewhat 25nm or even less?
i just feel these cos r wasting so called resources and time for money / profits. Dont they knw resources r limited and so purchasing power.
Thats secondary thing. Ohh what? r u thing i forgot to mention primary issue? lolz
Well its obvious.. Innovation in Battery power. What i hate in mobiles are speed and battery life for which i m ending up using my cell ph for only calls & ofcourse sms since past 8yrs 6630 and not willing to change untill they come up with good phones..
coming back to battery life i really dont understand why these cos r not doing something in batter life when there is lot of room for improvement in it like todays model feature only 1500mah battery power wheres a small pencil cell can go all the upto 3000mah or even more. We definitely want to see double the capacity then what they r featuring today.. Anand can u clear me on this prospect?
I am v much sure if v give proper attention in this area we can do wonders. Comon someone has to do something sooner or the later...
7.saturnine - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link
I don't understand the trend of putting as few physical buttons on a device as possible. How do you skip or pause music when the device is in your pocket? Pull it out, unlock the screen, find the music app & press the button? That is ridiculous.On my HTC Touch (WinMo6) it has hardly any buttons either, but at least one programmable physical button (that I have programmed to open the camera from any app I am in) & a directional pad/enter button. Sometimes I just like using the directional pad to go through menus & select something rather than moving my thumb all the way up the screen. Yes that sounds incredibly lazy, but aren't these devices all about ease of use, simplicity & speed? Programmable hardware buttons do just that. They are focusing too much on the aspect of a touch screen.
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
This seems to be a forgotten thing. I spent 2 hrs playing around writing probably pages worth of notes just to test it out on Android.You say the iPhone lackED it? I have an iPod Touch 1G and I guess I'm used to multitouch by now, but how long did it take for Apple to add it? I notice how ridiculously fast I can type on it and not skip words/keys. On Android, it's a totally different thing.
A few tips from me as I've investigated this for a long time and I've made cries out on Android forums with very little sympathy:
1) HTC's IME keyboard that is modded on XDA is a LOT better. The developer tried to implement a little pseudo multitouch so it is more used to you pressing the next key before releasing the previous. This is a HUGE issue with the space bar and if you use the stock android keyboard, you're going to be skipping words like mad if you type too fast.
2) Smart Keyboard Pro has multitouch. It also features a debug mode that you can look at your touch points. It definitely picks up multitouch flawlessly. Is it as good as the iPhone keyboard? Somehow I was still typing faster on my iPod than on my Android phone with Smart Keyboard Pro.
However, with the mods the modders have made on the HTC IME Keyboard, I've decided to stick with it. It's getting better and it's handling multitouch somewhat even though it's not a true multitouch implementation.
But you're right. It's night and day without multitouch. For people who haven't used the iPhone enough, they fail to appreciate the keyboard. Most people just go "Oh I type fine on my Nexus One. I type pretty fast." Obviously you can't type THAT fast if it lacks multitouch. Maybe they should look at what "fast" means on the iPhone :D
rossmandor - Monday, August 30, 2021 - link
nice one