Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Hopefully, Google stops giving Qualcomm business after this

Assault

Assault

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 19, 2013
513
0
in the taint
For those that may or may not know, Qualcomm is notoriously secretive about letting any of their code out into the wild, and therefore make it impossible to create factory images for those that develop (think XDA forum AOSP ROM's) for Android. Specifically, the issue here has to do with Qualcomm's Adreno GPU and Qualcomm's stubborness to release code for that part of the SoC.

Qualcomm did the same thing with the Nexus One, Nexus 4 and now Nexus 7 (2013 model). As a result, Jean-Baptiste Queru (Google's Lead Developer for AOSP) is quitting the project.
He just posted on G+, "There's no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can't boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support..."
No one knows if this means he has quit Google or is just quitting AOSP and moving to another area within Google?

Big point is, if you flash ROM's or want to flash ROM's on your new Nexus 7, or even if you don't root your Nex7 all, it appears we will never have the full factory image. Imagine you have a stock brand new Nexus 7 and you get an OTA in a couple of months for Android Key Lime Pie. Something happens during the download and the image is corrupted, leaving you softbricked. Where do you suppose you can go to get a factory image? Normally, Google has them for download (see link below). Welp, to fracking bad for you in this case! Thanks to Qualcomm you are royally screwed.
If you flash ROM's or are developer, the situation is worse all around. Mainly, because the strongest advocate of AOSP has now quit.

This is unacceptable and I can only hope that Google gives Qualcomm the middle finger after this and goes back to using Samsung chips. Qualcomm yielded to pressure from Google regarding the original Nexus and the 4, so hopefully they do so again. Stupid software patent b.s. has gotten out of hand by every OEM and it's the consumer that gets shafted in the end.

By the way, all factory images for Nexus devices (save for the new Nexus 7 codenamed "Razor" ("flo" by XDA devs), can be found at: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

** End Rant
-Sad face-
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,600
37
I don't know why qualcomm won't at least let the factory images be posted since they don't contain the source code to the proprietary binaries. Its just the blobs. Anyway there are full system dumps of the stock images all over XDA and many other sites so its not a big issue. They can be flashed in fastboot just like official factory images.

Sounds like stupid lawyers causing more problems than they solve.
 
Last edited:
Sensamic

Sensamic

macrumors 68040
Mar 26, 2010
3,072
689
Agreed.

I hope the next Nexus phone doesn't have a Qualcomm chipset.

Factory images are one of the main reasons I want a Nexus phone and bought my Nexus 10.
 
A

asthamapheo

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2013
285
0
well atleast their processors are the fastest, most advanced, highly efficient, etc. and they also have the best GPU, the thing you're talking about is an issue, but not everyone faces it. if you want a nexus device sporting exynos chip, go for the GS4 GE.
 
2

2298754

Cancelled
Jun 21, 2010
4,890
941
There is no way to get away with not using Qualcomm Chips these days. They hold key LTE modem patents and their snapdragons run pretty much every smartphone out there.
 
E

Elit3

macrumors regular
Sep 17, 2012
177
0
Very ignorant comment! But the point stands the this hardly affect end users, only Google.
 
Last edited:
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,600
37
This has no effect on custom roms. Cyanogenmod is just as stable on 2013 nexus as on my 2012 nexus. It only affects google posting the factory images. You can also still restore to stock, there are factory image dumps on xda.
 
Last edited:
mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,738
6,109
blackhand1001 said:
This has no effect on custom roms. Cyanogenmod is just as stable on 2013 nexus as on my 2012 nexus. It only affects google posting the factory images. You can also still restore to stock, there are factory image dumps on xda.
Click to expand...

This. I don't think I have ever pulled a factory imagine from Google. I always get them off XDA or other trusted sites.
 
Z

zone23

macrumors 68000
May 10, 2012
1,986
793
Why can't you guys just pull the systems yourself? I mean isn't that what android is all about? Doing it yourself? Why do you need someone else to do it for you?

I understand what the OP is saying and he is right. The phone manufactures are slowing killing android development or at least making it more difficult. I think the manufactures are taking a lot of heat from the carriers which want devices locked down.
 
K

kasakka

macrumors 68020
Oct 25, 2008
2,389
1,083
The issue isn't that there are no drivers, the issue is that there are no open source ones and no source code available, just binary format drivers. This seems similar to how Nvidia and AMD haven't been particularly good at providing open source Linux drivers, just binaries available.
 
S

skratch77

macrumors 65816
Mar 20, 2013
1,241
5
Now you know why Samsung is going back to Mali GPU in the exynos advanced soc but knowing Samsung they won't release full drivers either.

Its funny as everyone was crapping on Samsung for doing this but they did put out stock images and tried to give out as much code as they could.

Now snapdragon is locking everything up also.
 
R

RoboWarriorSr

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2013
889
52
asthamapheo said:
well atleast their processors are the fastest, most advanced, highly efficient, etc. and they also have the best GPU, the thing you're talking about is an issue, but not everyone faces it. if you want a nexus device sporting exynos chip, go for the GS4 GE.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression PowerVR had the best mobile GPU especially with The new Rogue GPU coming out. But Qualcomm has some of the most efficient mobile processors.
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,600
37
RoboWarriorSr said:
Confirmed here some from Anandtech. The SGX trumps the adreno http://www.anandtech.com/show/6425/google-nexus-4-and-nexus-10-review/2
Click to expand...

The adreno 320 on my nexus 7 in Egypt HD and trex trumps the powervr. The power vr does good fill rate and the synthetic tests but it doesn't actually help in the real tests like egypt and T Rex and actual games. There was clearly something wrong with the nexus 4 used in this test as well.
Also keep in mind that adreno 320 can be used in phone applications while the iPad 4s GPU cannot. It has a much larger power requirement and thermal envelope. It also is paired with a much weaker CPU.

Here's how my nexus 7 2013 benchmarked. No overclock.
Screenshot_2013-08-07-21-26-01.png
 
Last edited:
R

RoboWarriorSr

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2013
889
52
blackhand1001 said:
The adreno 320 on my nexus 7 in Egypt HD and trex trumps the powervr. The power vr does good fill rate and the synthetic tests but it doesn't actually help in the real tests like egypt and T Rex and actual games. There was clearly something wrong with the nexus 4 used in this test as well.
Click to expand...

Anandtech did some more test on the Adreno 320 and I believe on the Nexus 7 review. Not too sure about the Adreno (wikia has no information except what most already know) but I'm under the impression PowerVR has the only true multicore GPU and Adreno still uses one core for its GPU.
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,600
37
RoboWarriorSr said:
Anandtech did some more test on the Adreno 320 and I believe on the Nexus 7 review. Not too sure about the Adreno (wikia has no information except what most already know) but I'm under the impression PowerVR has the only true multicore GPU and Adreno still uses one core for its GPU.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the adreno 320 has 4 cores as well. The die size on the adreno 320 is much smaller though hence why it can be used in phones. The powervr gpu in the ipad 4 is gigantic. The battery is also gigantic to compensate. I added a photo to my previous post with benchmarks from my nexus 7.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom