1. dony71's Avatar
    I'm trying to find out what CPU speed, core and memory size for BB10 alpha
    Anybody knows?
    05-02-12 05:16 PM
  2. xsacha's Avatar
    1.5GHz Dual-core OMAP4460
    1GB RAM

    It's pretty much the Playbook (slight update on the OMAP4).
    The final devices will be using Snapdragon S4.
    05-02-12 11:36 PM
  3. samab's Avatar
    The final devices will be using Snapdragon S4.
    Are you sure?

    I always assume that RIM would use the S4 MSM8960 on the first BB10 phone, but the OMAP chip in the prototype is giving me a pause on that --- because game developers would have to re-optimize their games for a different GPU.
    05-02-12 11:58 PM
  4. eorian's Avatar
    hope rim will be use OMAP5430 on BB10
    05-03-12 12:08 AM
  5. xsacha's Avatar
    Are you sure?

    I always assume that RIM would use the S4 MSM8960 on the first BB10 phone, but the OMAP chip in the prototype is giving me a pause on that --- because game developers would have to re-optimize their games for a different GPU.
    The Colt (which is what this dev alpha is), currently at revision 6, is an abandoned device on limited run that was initially devised back when the Playbook was created. Winchester2 and Colt have always had OMAP4460.

    All the new hardware such as London, Nile etc are using Qualcomm 8960 and 8660.

    Very sure
    Last edited by xsacha; 05-03-12 at 12:26 AM.
    app_Developer and VerryBestr like this.
    05-03-12 12:23 AM
  6. Bla1ze's Avatar
    The Colt (which is what this dev alpha is), currently at revision 6, is an abandoned device on limited run that was initially devised back when the Playbook was created. Winchester2 and Colt have always had OMAP4460.

    All the new hardware such as London, Nile etc are using Qualcomm 8960 and 8660.

    Very sure
    Yes.
    10Char.
    05-03-12 12:32 AM
  7. samab's Avatar
    The Colt (which is what this dev alpha is), currently at revision 6, is an abandoned device on limited run that was initially devised back when the Playbook was created. Winchester2 and Colt have always had OMAP4460.

    All the new hardware such as London, Nile etc are using Qualcomm 8960 and 8660.

    Very sure
    I remember the history.

    Circumstances change, RIM had one set of deadlines on one set of CPU --- they missed the deadlines --- then they had to improve the hardware/CPU. Then Apple changed from launching iphones in June to all the way back to October --- then RIM had to change their schedules and another hardware/CPU change.

    All I was saying was that now these big 3D game developers like making Galaxy on Fire 2 HD has to start the porting on the OMAP4460's GPU prototype and then after finishing 80% of the project, they have to optimize it on the MSM8960's GPU.
    05-03-12 12:38 AM
  8. xsacha's Avatar
    I remember the history.

    Circumstances change, RIM had one set of deadlines on one set of CPU --- they missed the deadlines --- then they had to improve the hardware/CPU. Then Apple changed from launching iphones in June to all the way back to October --- then RIM had to change their schedules and another hardware/CPU change.

    All I was saying was that now these big 3D game developers like making Galaxy on Fire 2 HD has to start the porting on the OMAP4460's GPU prototype and then after finishing 80% of the project, they have to optimize it on the MSM8960's GPU.
    If they change the CPU, they change the device name too because it's a new device Currently all the devices slated for 2012 have 8660/8960.

    Changing the GPU doesn't hinder the developers. Galaxy on Fire 2 HD was ported in a single day from iOS -> Playbook.
    Also, changing hardware spec delays release substantially and the partners (developers) get access to the new hardware long before consumers.
    05-03-12 01:03 AM
  9. samab's Avatar
    If they change the CPU, they change the device name too because it's a new device Currently all the devices slated for 2012 have 8660/8960.

    Changing the GPU doesn't hinder the developers. Galaxy on Fire 2 HD was ported in a single day from iOS -> Playbook.
    Also, changing hardware spec delays release substantially and the partners (developers) get access to the new hardware long before consumers.
    PR speak --- they also said that last year with when they showed off a bunch of big 3D games (like Lara Croft), only to show up in the appworld months and months later.

    The S4 is a good chip that I always assumed would be in the first BB10 phone. I am saying that with the missed deadlines --- the easiest path would have been using an OMAP chip for the first BB10 phone (especially when RIM probably bought too much chips for the Playbook) --- so that RIM doesn't have to write a new GPU driver, optimize the battery life on another CPU platform...

    Maybe RIM is saying that the prototype has a OMAP4460 and the actual product will have a different chip --- and that chip is OMAP4470 (with a newer GPU SGX544). Rewriting a SGX540 driver to a SGX544 driver would be faster and easier for RIM.
    05-03-12 01:30 AM
  10. B_Berry's Avatar
    I know it's still a BlackBerry 10 Developer Alpha unit. But I hope the HW specs is at least similar to Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III (Quad-core) or better and of course battery performance a must.

    Also, a Gorilla glass screen not a so called liquid-plastic LCD.
    Last edited by B_Berry; 05-03-12 at 11:06 AM.
    05-03-12 08:35 AM
  11. xsacha's Avatar
    I know it's still a BlackBerry 10 Developer Alpha unit. But I hope the HW specs is at least similar to Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III (Quad-core) or better and of course battery performance a must.
    Won't have a quad-core Blackberry any time soon, as far as I can see.
    Even though the Blackberry is more likely to use the four cores than any Android device IMO.

    Those Snapdragons are plenty quick though. Outperforms the Tegra 3 quad-core if that's any consolation.
    05-03-12 09:50 AM
  12. xnwrx's Avatar
    Hopefully you're wrong, future will say...
    I would have by far prefered an OMAP 5 SoC in future BB. Cortex A15 and TI would have made the gap (and buzzz) bigger when compare to current, so classical and quad-core A9.
    Snapdragon aren't bad SoC. But TI SoC are the best and A15 are by far better than A9...

    Please RIM continue with TI and OMAP 5
    05-03-12 12:53 PM
  13. xsacha's Avatar
    Not really about being wrong, you can see what they have included in the firmware and it's difficult for them to remove these references.
    There's nothing about OMAP4460 (or any other OMAP) that isn't a year old.
    They already have the Snapdragon S4 code in there with several product name references that use this chip.
    05-03-12 05:08 PM
  14. Skeevecr's Avatar
    While some devices are going to tend to use the S4 due to them needing LTE support for Verizon and AT&T, it wouldn't surprise me if we don't see a mix of omap for a RoW device and S4 for the American market in much the same way that HTC has done with one of their new models for the simple reasons that performance will be similar, having multiple suppliers will not leave them too dependent on one to deliver and finally because a fair amount of their developers will not have worked on qualcomm chipsets previously so they wouldn't be getting the best out of them and that could lead to backlogs.
    05-04-12 08:21 AM
  15. samab's Avatar
    While some devices are going to tend to use the S4 due to them needing LTE support for Verizon and AT&T, it wouldn't surprise me if we don't see a mix of omap for a RoW device and S4 for the American market in much the same way that HTC has done with one of their new models for the simple reasons that performance will be similar, having multiple suppliers will not leave them too dependent on one to deliver and finally because a fair amount of their developers will not have worked on qualcomm chipsets previously so they wouldn't be getting the best out of them and that could lead to backlogs.
    Remember how Android ends up with "optimized for Tegra 2" games.

    It's a nightmare for a platform still looking for developer support.
    05-04-12 10:35 AM
  16. Supa_Fly1's Avatar
    Hopefully you're wrong, future will say...
    I would have by far prefered an OMAP 5 SoC in future BB. Cortex A15 and TI would have made the gap (and buzzz) bigger when compare to current, so classical and quad-core A9.
    Snapdragon aren't bad SoC. But TI SoC are the best and A15 are by far better than A9...

    Please RIM continue with TI and OMAP 5
    I most definitely agree! The power consumption, GPU performance, DSP, radio stack support and all around performance is CATERED to QNX ... TI has Cortex A15 chip design's certified for QNX, not to mention they are THE PREMIER vendor for all ARM Holdings designs the first to make products on them.
    05-04-12 11:46 AM
  17. xnwrx's Avatar
    Right ;-)
    Check for TMS320TCI6636
    05-04-12 01:13 PM
  18. samab's Avatar
    It won't be Cortex A15 --- it takes about 1 year from sampling to actual production usage. If they said sampling begins in 2H12 (basically October 2012 at the earliest), then you will see it in actual products in 2H13 (basically October 2013 at the earliest).

    The Linley Group - TI Boosts Base-Station Processors

    The only 2 options for BB10 handsets are:

    OMAP4460 application processor + Qualcomm baseband processor

    or

    Qualcomm MSM8960 (which is application + baseband processor combined).


    Even the OMAP4470 (basically a OMAP4460 with a newer GPU) is looking to be too optimistic for BB10 shipping in Q4.
    Last edited by samab; 05-04-12 at 02:06 PM.
    05-04-12 02:00 PM
  19. xnwrx's Avatar
    Nop, OMAP 5 will be in production before end 2012 ;-)
    05-05-12 01:32 AM
  20. xsacha's Avatar
    Nop, OMAP 5 will be in production before end 2012 ;-)
    But unfortunately it won't be on any Blackberry device in 2012
    05-05-12 01:46 AM
  21. liquid_metal's Avatar
    What on earth would a phone need a quad-core CPU for? I'd rather have a quad-cell battery.
    05-05-12 02:02 AM
  22. jasperlin's Avatar
    man... no OMAP 5 for 2012 bb10 products?

    where did you get these snapdragon processors from? how ddid you guys figure that first gen bb10 devices will be snapdragon?

    i thought that omap 5 would be complete and ready to ship in products in the second half of 2012, which is when bb10 is supposed to come out.

    also, since they're using omap4 in the dev alpha device, i thought they'd stick with OMAP for their final hardware as well. does that not make sense?
    05-05-12 04:36 AM
  23. xsacha's Avatar
    where did you get these snapdragon processors from? how ddid you guys figure that first gen bb10 devices will be snapdragon?
    also, since they're using omap4 in the dev alpha device, i thought they'd stick with OMAP for their final hardware as well. does that not make sense?
    All their devices are documented in the startup script.
    Colt is an abandoned/developer product that first made a showing last year. Revision 6 of this was sent off to developers as Dev Alpha.

    The newest devices listed are Blackberry Nile and Blackberry CoolStream. Again, Snapdragon S4.
    05-05-12 09:13 AM
  24. samab's Avatar
    Nop, OMAP 5 will be in production before end 2012 ;-)
    Nope, the earliest is 2013.

    Texas Instruments shows off OMAP 5 at CES, not shipping until 2013
    05-05-12 09:55 AM
  25. samab's Avatar
    All their devices are documented in the startup script.
    Colt is an abandoned/developer product that first made a showing last year. Revision 6 of this was sent off to developers as Dev Alpha.

    The newest devices listed are Blackberry Nile and Blackberry CoolStream. Again, Snapdragon S4.
    As I said it earlier --- everything including abandoned projects could be in the scripts.

    Thorstein could have scrapped these newer Snapdragon S4 projects after he took over and went back to the long abandoned colt project (with a OMAP4460 speed bump) because of the missed deadlines. RIM needs to ship BB10 phones before the Christmas holidays and they already wrote the GPU drivers for the SGX540 and game developers don't have to make optimizations for another GPU for their games.

    I always assume that RIM would pick MSM8960 as their BB10 chipset, but after the Dev Alpha came out with OMAP4460 --- I am not so sure.
    05-05-12 10:05 AM
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