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Originally Posted by JRSCCivic98 Some of us don't believe that the Java platform that RIM is using for the OS has the capabilities to make proper use of the full video chipset acceleration hardware.... and probably never will. |
This is probably at least 75% of it... At least as things stand right now. Adding in support for this sort of thing would be a not so small bit of redoing the plumbing of the OS. Sort of like adding a bathroom to a house.
I'd say the remaining 25% is almost entirely composed of the fact that it doesn't make good business sense to go to all this time, effort, and expense for one phone. Maybe 2 if you count the Tour. If they did it in a generic enough way, they could probably apply it to future phones, but it's something of a pandora's box. Once RIM opens that door, they will probably never be able to close it again. They will forever after have raised the level of expectations that people have for the BB brand, and be forced into including some kind of a GPU.
When you're looking for a chip that does CDMA, GSM, and native Java bytecode interpretation, your selection is probably pretty slim. Maybe 3-4 options total, tops. The cost of fabbing any kind of microchip is astounding, so it's not a field with a lot of players. Out of all the options available when the Storm was still in the early planning stages, I'm sure the chip that's in there now was probably the best for the money at the time. I'm betting the fact that it had a GPU wasn't even of interest to RIM, it's just one of those extras that you don't care about.
I'm sure RIM will eventually add GPU support to the BB OS, but they're going to do it on their timetable. Aside from games though, there's really very little benefit to having a GPU. It's just one more bit of circuitry putting a drain on your battery.