Symbian OS Makes its Debut as a Symmetric Multiprocessor System

Published by Ewan Spence at 9:34 UTC, June 5th 2009

As well as a new promotional video targeted at developers that would make Terry Gilliam proud, the Symbian Foundation announced on their blog that the Symbian OS is now running under a symmetric multiprocessor system. Simply put, more than one CPU can connect to the main memory of a computer at the same time, allowing for any processor to work on any application thread, and have the tasks passed around the processors to keep everything running efficiently.

The contrast between the advert (below) and the technical details shows why the Symbian Foundation believe they are on to a winner. The Symbian OS has always been designed to run on smaller devices and make best use of the limited resources available on a mobile phone, and that means ever more complicated technology and systems, but at the same time ensuring the system retains a level of simplicity for both the end user and the first and third party developers.

There are some concerns in the comments that, using multiple processors, the battery usage could rise, and that is one area where technology does not make huge leaps every year in terms of capacity, but in fact the same load but shared over the processors will take up less power than on a single chip.

See below for some additional technical highlights and try and keep the drool to a minimum.

About the hardware :

  • Single chip base band and application processor engine
  • HSPA Modem Release7
  • ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore

Which can accommodate features and functionality such as :

  • HD 1080p camcorder and video
  • Up to 18 Million pixels camera
  • ~100 hours audio playback time
  • 10 hours HD video playback time
  • Simultaneously TV out over HDMI
  • Video and Imaging accelerator
  • HW accelerated 3D Graphics  supporting OpenGL ES2.0
  • 2xWVGA (960×854) displays
  • Touch UI on 2 displays

 

The full details and discussion are over on the Symbian Foundation blog.

-- Ewan Spence, June 2009.


 

Filed: Home > News > Symbian OS Makes its Debut as a Symmetric Multiprocessor System

Platforms: General

Categories: Hardware, Links of Interest

News Discussion

neilhoskins
I believe you, I believe you, but will the UI and built-in apps still be shite?
Unregistered
Neil Hoskins, trolling wasn't big or clever in the 80's and 90's and it still isn't clever now.

The apps on Symbian/S60 I find are generally superb - and I'm a cross platform app developer and mobile industry consultant. You are judging a book by it's cover. The iPhone (for example) has a nice pretty shiny cover but is weak underneath, by contrast with Symbian which has a less attractive cover, but is a real powerhouse underneath.

iPhone (and Android's) weaknesses can't easily be corrected. Symbian's UI needing a slight speedup and perhaps slightly simpler organisation to some of the menu structure is relatively easy to fix. iPhone lacks fundamentals that S60 has enjoyed for years - copy/paste, MMS, etc etc. And that's without mentioning hardware, where Nokia hardware and others VASTLY outshines Apple hardware. And as for Android, the G1 is nothing more than a joke. Industry thinks so too - The SE Idou recently announced chose Symbian, not Android as people were expecting. Why? Symbian is WAY more robust and powerful.
neilhoskins
It's not trolling, "unregistered" (read "anonymous"). And I'm not an apple fanboi, far from it, but the UI and built-in apps of the average S60 phone are crap compared to the Psions we were using TEN years ago. It's become a bit of a joke and cliché to say it, but it doesn't stop it being TRUE. 5th edition did nothing to simplify things: if anything it's worse, why TF is there now this three-lines thing in addition to the "options" soft key? And what's this latest crap about folders looking as if they're application icons?

- Why do I have to leave the media player and go to a separate podcast app to delete a podcast? And why is internet radio a separate app?

- How do I set a calendar entry for "third Saturday of the month"?

- Why can I only have one calendar?

- Why can I only have one contacts list?
snoyt
Well, not being fan of Neil's wording. I do agree that more than 1 agenda, 1 adressbook and more than 1 sync option would be very useful. More and more internet and shared access rights requires multiple roles handling without developping schizofrenia and a hernia from a backpack stuffed with cellphones and organizers. And the palm pre seems the only one currently doing that out of the box!
Unregistered
"I don't like a couple UI aspects of S60, therefore the whole OS must be 'shite'!"

oh please, I even agree with you in some points, but watch your wording.
Unregistered
Been an on/off again developer for WinMo from it's inception.
Never enjoyed the sw restrictions but other mobile platforms were in fact closed regardless the solidity of the OS.
Symbian has always been attractive but the prospect of limitations for developing and sharing steered me away.
The direction now being pursued is excellent news indeed.

App veneer as with the iPhone and other platforms brings numerous eyes to the work but particle board substrates mark a dividing line between consumer flash and professional, solid applications.

Personally, with Symbian opening up, I will develop on the platform and current release limitations that bother me will be no more if in fact they annoy sufficiently to require the effort.
One can only imagine that I'll not be alone in this.
Neil Whingekins
The apps might not be as good as Psion ones but they are appropriate for phones.

If you need an app that suits your personal needs then buy one. Nokia are not in the business of customising phones to the requirements of Neil Hoskins.

It's like somebody buying a PC with windows on and then complaining that Wordpad hasn't got the same functionality as MS Office.
Unregistered
I don't see the 3 lines icon as a problem, it's been a huge benefit to S60 and simplifies the touch aspect by presenting large icons instead of small menu lines. Makes perfect sense.

Full thread: 8 Comments / Post New Comment

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