GreeneComputing » Android

Why are the Nexus One Linpack scores so mucher higher than on my phone?

Nacoma — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:22:44 +0000

I get all sorts of comments directly to me and I see them posted on many boards. Generally, people want to know why their phone doesn’t show the leap in the Linpack score when they run Froyo that others see on the Nexus One, Droid Incredible, or the EVO 4G. The one word answer: NEON.

After looking into it for a while, I was focusing on what makes the Nexus One so much better than the other phones. On the chip level, I didn’t see it. Then it dawned on me to look at what Google had to say on the matter. Well, it was there in black and white. In their 20 May 2010 Developer’s Blog entry (http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/05/android-22-and-developers-goodies.html) they say that people could see a 2-5x speed increase. I think it is pointed out in an entry later in the blog dealing with NDK, which I initially missed: “ARM Advanced SIMD (a.k.a. NEON) instruction support The NEON instruction set extension can be used to perform scalar computations on integers and floating points. However, it is an optional CPU feature and will not be supported by all Android ARMv7-A based devices. The NDK includes a tiny library named “cpufeatures” that can be used by native code to test at runtime the features supported by the device’s target CPU.”

So, I guess this means that NEON is the difference. If your phone’s CPU has it and it’s enabled for JIT, you can expect higher Linpack numbers.

Froyo for Galaxy S Spotted here first

Nacoma — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:11:07 +0000

If you had an eagle eye and watched the Latest Posts here for Linpack, you would have seen the GT-i9000 posted a Linpack score on 26 Aug. This was before it was announced a couple of days ago as being leaked and in the wild. See: http://www.samsunghub.com/2010/07/28/galaxy-s-i9000-android-2-2-build-leaked/

Now the score that day was 13.415, which not what I was hoping. I have a Vibrant and I would like to see a number like the Nexus One or Droid Incredible. It’s still better than the 8s that I have been getting.

I’m more interested in getting the GPS and compass fix first.

Also, if you looked at the smdkc110 (Samsung Development Kit), you’ll see that it is running a GT-I9000 ROM too. The best score there is 20.7, so hopefully they have some more tweaking to do.

Android 2.2 Leads

Nacoma — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:43:04 +0000

Android 2.2 (FroYo) took the Linpack lead for the most runs this last week. According to my analytics, Android 2.2 was used 43.1% of the time. Android 2.1-update1, the previous leader was used 39.8% of the time. So what was used for the rest of the 17% of the time? How about 158 other ROMs! That is a lot of variety to choose.

Mixed in with the lot is some curious ROMs; Android 3.0, Android 3.0.1 and Android 3.2

Google I/O 2010 included Linpack

Nacoma — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:48:08 +0000

I have been looking thru some of the Google I/O videos from the conference when I saw a mention of Linpack in the talk about “A JIT Compiler for Android’s Dalvik VM”. Check out the video and keep a lookout at 24:27 mark.

A JIT Compiler for Android\’s Dalvik VM

Lots of attention for Linpack for Android

Nacoma — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:00:31 +0000

Thanks to AndroidPolice, there has been a ten fold increase in Linpack runs and views of this website. I’ve also spotted over 400 news articles and blogs that show pictures and links back to here. Thanks for all the attention.

It’s interesting to see all furor for Android 2.2 showing up now. Regulars to this website are sure to remember the Top 10 postings of FroYo back on March 15th. I’m sure the upcoming Google I/O has generated lots of the interest, but it really came down to the AndroidPolice post showing the image of Linpack running on Android 2.2 powered Nexus One. Checkout AndroidPolice for their full article. I liked their last line, “These mysterious numbers from the Linpack Top 10 don’t look so fake anymore now, do they?”

I also checked on some tracking info that shows how many times Android 2.2 has ran recently:

The first time Android 2.2 shows up was 22 March for only one run, then not again until 15 April. Before that it was showing up as FroYo. Today, the number of runs exploded to 28 sessions. It looks like Android 2.2 will soon be coming to a device near you.