Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Enter the Snapdragon
These days pretty much any new smartphone that launches seems to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC in it. While I've covered ARM's Cortex A8 before, I've never really talked about the Qualcomm Snapdragon before. Let's change that.
ARM is a different sort of microprocessor company than the ones we're used to covering. AMD and Intel design the instruction set, microarchitecture and ultimately do everything up to (and including for Intel) actually fabbing the chip. Owning the entire pipeline from ISA (instruction set architecture) all the way down to manufacturing is expensive. The graph below shows the rough costs of simply keeping up with fab technology every two years:
That's not really feasible for most companies. In fact, AMD recently got out of the fab business partly because of the incredible costs associated with it. Actually designing these architectures is a tough job. It'll take a large team of highly talented engineers multiple years to crank out a good design. Then you've got to test the chip and ultimately, you have to sell it.
Now it's hard to sell just a microprocessor, which is why both AMD and Intel offer a full platform solution. You can buy graphics, chipsets, SATA controllers, basically everything but a motherboard from these companies. It's difficult for a company to offer such a complete solution.
To sell the chips you need customers, you need to be able to deliver on their schedules and keep the whole machine running. Fabs, engineering, testing/validation, sales and marketing - it's an expensive business to run.
There's rarely room in any mature market for more than two competitors. And among those two competitors, there's never room for both to behave the same way. This is why AMD and Intel have wildly differing approaches to microprocessor architectures at the same process technology node. ARM can't follow in Intel's footsteps, so the alternative is to cut away the excess and remain focused.
Which is exactly what ARM does. ARM will sell you one of two things: a processor architecture, or a license to use its instruction set. The majority of customers take the former. If you're a processor licensee this is how it works.
At the core ARM creates an instruction set, just like Intel and AMD use x86, ARM has its own ISA. Next, ARM will actually create an entire processor designed around this instruction set. For example, the Cortex A8 is an ARM design based upon the ARMv7 ISA - just like the Core i7 is based upon Intel's x86 ISA.
This processor is tested, validated but not manufactured by ARM. Instead, ARM will give a licensee everything it needs to integrate this CPU core into its own design. Remember the part about needing a platform? It's usually up to the customer to grab a GPU, video decoder, image processor, etc... and put them all on a single chip with the ARM core they've just licensed. This way ARM doesn't have to deal with the complexities of lining up five different roadmaps and delivering a chip that its customers want. ARM provides the CPU, Imagination or some other company will provide the GPU IP and so on and so forth. Everyone gets a chip tailored to their needs.
Like I said, the majority of companies take this route. It's more cost effective because you don't have to do the CPU design yourself. You do lose a bit of a competitive edge, as your competitors can easily license the same cores you do. So you can differentiate based on how well you integrate all of this IP, what tradeoffs you make vis-a-vis power vs. performance vs cost, or marketing prowess, but not on base architecture. Take this route and you do run the risk of your chips performing the same as your competitors. Companies like TI (OMAP3, OMAP4) and Samsung (S5PC100) are ARM processor licensees. They license ARM11, ARM Cortex A8 and ARM Cortex A9 cores and integrate them into SoCs along with a GPU, video decoder and other IP that they source from various companies.
Samsung's S5PC100 is based on the Cortex A8 licensed from ARM
With as many players as there are in the SoC market, differentiation is key. For customers looking for more gain at the expense of increased risk, ARM offers a second option: an architecture license.
An architecture license means that you have the right to use the underlying ISA. AMD and Intel have broad cross licensing agreements in place that allow them both to produce x86 processors using instructions introduced by each maker. I don't have a license to the x86 ISA so you and I can't go out and sell our own x86 CPU tomorrow. Sorry.
Companies like Marvell are architecture licensees. They take an ARM instruction set (e.g. ARMv6, ARMv7) and use their own engineers to build a microprocessor around it.
This is a much more costly and risky approach. Building a CPU isn't easy, in fact the faster it is, the more complex and difficult the task becomes. Even companies that have tons of experience doing it screw up from time to time. It takes a lot of time, requires smart folks and you have to pay them good salaries. The upside is that with a bit of effort, you can outperform ARM's own designs. As with most things in life, the larger the risk, the larger the upside.
This is the route Qualcomm took.
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Chloiber - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Sorry for repeating myself, but I really look forward to a test of the HTC Sense UI with either the HTC Desire, Legend (slower though) or Evo. I read several reviews and in every single one they were really impressed by the onscreen keyboard.ol1bit - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
I love the android platform. Now my last smart phone was the first Palm ever, so I could be thrilled with anything.The kicker for me was buying my android at Amazon for $49 (3 weeks ago), and now it's only $19!
It's hard for me to grasp how much power is in my hands for $19. Sure I have to have a 2 year contract, but I'd have that anyway.
As far as difference between mine and Goggle's? there's some, but the core functionality is present in both, just like an HP and a Dell computer with their built in thingy's.
Cheers on a great review!
LongTimePCUser - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Today on Amazon the Motorola Droid is $19.99.Amazing. I bought mine about 3 weeks ago at $49. I thik that it is great and a bargin at the price I paid.
They are practically giving it away now. That tells you how profitable their $30/month data plan is.
naalex - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Wow, I've got to say: Super Job! Not only did you review the Nexus One, but you managed to simultaneously review Android, review the iPhone OS, compare the two's strengths and weaknesses, and describe ARM's role in the smartphones and microprocessor business (which I never understood). Long yes, but every page was well worth it.After reading all the hyperbolic tech news coming from Engadget, CNET, and PhoneArena, I was under the mistaken impression that Snapdragon was a clear smartphone platform champion, so I found it rather interesting that Snapdragon's integrated GPU was inferior to the PowerVR solution on the iPhone 3GS. If I'm not mistaken, this is the GPU that is used in the TI chip in the Droid, so does this mean that my Droid may be able to keep up with Nexus Ones/Snapdragons with 3D gaming apps, or will there be too much hardware and OS fragmentation for any app developer to create any optimized 3D gaming app for Android.
This is going to be my go-to resource to provide to people who ask, "What is that strange object pressed to your face that isn't an iPhone? Does it cure cancer like the iPhone?" Trying to explain to my clueless tech friends that there are other viable smartphone options out there is an uphill battle, but one that may go a little easier now.
ExodusC - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Anand, I'll admit, this is the gist of what I expected from your article (I don't mean that in a bad way, mind you--). I own an iPhone 3G, and have for almost a year now. I like it, but I don't particularly love it. I imagine the 3GS would be a more fluid (and therefore more enjoyable) experience. For some reason, tech reviewers tend to not want to get rid of their iPhones for some reason. Even with a device like the Nexus One at their fingertips. I type this from a Motorola Droid right now, and I love it.I agree, I love the fluidity of the iPhone compared to Android devices (why must they be so powerful, but so choppy? That's my biggest complaint), but I love the feature set of Android even more.
I also really want to know, why do you feel Android's pull-down notification menu is awkward? The first time I picked up an Android device and used it (never knowing about the feature), I felt it was very intuitive and a wise design choice.
I completely agree with your general consenus that Android needs some polish, however.
I absolutely love your website, reviews, and attention to detail. Keep up the good work! I just thought I'd share my honest opinion with you. Hopefully you'll have time to respond.
ExodusC - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Excuse my extra "for some reason" in that post. I was a bit distracted while typing up my reply...Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
It's just an odd construct in my opinion. It's the only place in the entire OS that you pull something down to reveal more notifications. If anything I'd expect a tap to expand sort of deal, but the pulldown seems strange to me.I will say that after using it for a while, it has lost it's weirdness in my opinion :)
Take care,
Anand
DukeN - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
Love the slide out keyboard - if only this was like the original G1 but with all the new horsepower.The G1 is the first phone that has tempted me away from a blackberry (well...almost) in 5 years.
EazyVG - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
I have been a WinMo user for past 3-4 years, but I have to agree that Android, not WinMo7, is the replacement for Windows Mobile 6.5, and hence I will be jumping to Android phone (as of today I like the HTC Desire, but want QWERTY) from my current HTC Touch Pro 2.Pitne - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
wow I cant believe how biased this article is towards apple. Almost every word you used when talking about the Nexus One had a negative connotation. Most of your 'negatives' towards the nexus one are completely false.The notification area for one--this implementation is 100% better than apple or palm and you think its a poor way of handling it? Wtf are you smoking.