Why not for Verizon?

[WA_Bob]

I'm currently happy with my single core 4G LTE Thunderbolt and don't exactly have any need for a dual core phone. Still I'm curious as to why all of the other major carriers are jumping on the 4G/dual core phone bandwagon right away and Verizon seems to not be in a hurry to get one out. Is there some business strategy I'm missing or is it just not important to them yet?

As I said, I don't feel the need for one myself yet. I was just curious if there was a grand strategy to this that anyone knew of or if it's all just happening without a plan or a clue.

 

[John58543]

Looks like only dual core for a while is going to be Droid X2...and its not 4G...don't get it either. Seems like every other network now has the latest and greatest and Verizon has been left in the dust.

 

[butthead007]

Looks like only dual core for a while is going to be Droid X2...and its not 4G...don't get it either. Seems like every other network now has the latest and greatest and Verizon has been left in the dust.

I guess some people will never be satisfied.

Was thinking of getting thunderbolt, but after loading gingerbread on my droid x, I dont want to upgrade. And I can upgrade just about any time.

 

[WA_Bob]

I guess some people will never be satisfied.

Was thinking of getting thunderbolt, but after loading gingerbread on my droid x, I dont want to upgrade. And I can upgrade just about any time.

Yeah, not much out there you can do with more than one core yet. Just one of those "I wonder why" questions that pop into my head on occasion. :-/

 

[John Jason]

Yeah, not much out there you can do with more than one core yet. Just one of those "I wonder why" questions that pop into my head on occasion. :-/

There are currently two advantages to dual core CPUs.

First, dual core CPUs give you longer battery time. I don't understand this, but I have read it over and over on the forums.

Second, while there are currently few apps that are multithreaded (maybe none), the Android OS itself is multithreaded. That is, while an app is doing something the OS needs to be doing something at the same time. Android itself will use the other core, so you get some speed increase even if all your apps are single threaded.

 

[mpciii]

Yeah, not much out there you can do with more than one core yet. Just one of those "I wonder why" questions that pop into my head on occasion. :-/

I think part of the problem is the difference in 4Gs. The other providers' 4G networks aren't as advanced as LTE. It seems like they are having trouble getting the dual core processors (at least the Tegras) to play nice with the LTE radio. That's what seemed to hold up the Bionic and keep the Xooms from getting their upgrade to LTE. I wanted a dual core but decided to go with the Thunderbolt after I tried out my wife's. I can't imagine it being any faster, on 4G and off, and I've been able to do everything I want with it. I'm sure someone will come up with something to do with a dual core that I'll need to have but until then I'm happy.

 

[kyler13]

Plain and simple, you need dual core for 1080p video capture. A single core just can't keep up. Likewise, it's probably necessary for 1080p output (using HDMI out) but I'm not entirely certain about that. That's about the only "now" feature that it provides.

 

[WA_Bob]

There are currently two advantages to dual core CPUs.

First, dual core CPUs give you longer battery time. I don't understand this, but I have read it over and over on the forums.

Second, while there are currently few apps that are multithreaded (maybe none), the Android OS itself is multithreaded. That is, while an app is doing something the OS needs to be doing something at the same time. Android itself will use the other core, so you get some speed increase even if all your apps are single threaded.

The first one doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm not an engineer.

The second is good to know. I'd never heard that about the Android OS.

 

[jfoey22]

The first one doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm not an engineer.

The second is good to know. I'd never heard that about the Android OS.

For what ever reason, 1 CPU running at 800Mhz uses more battery than 2 CPU's using 400Mhz each. Also, lower clock speeds reduce heat. I am not an engineer but that is what I am told.

And as somebody else mentioned, I think the biggest hold up for a dual-core LTE device is the compatibility with the Tegra 3 Processor. It remains to be seen if the same issue will effect the TI Omap Dual-Core, The Samsung Exnoys or any other dual-core because none have been released, on a 3g device.

 

[kyler13]

The first one doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm not an engineer.

It's fairly complex in real life, but in general, power consumption scales exponentially with frequency. This is where you hear people quote that two cores running at 500MHz consume less power together than one core running at 1GHz. That's because 500MHz might use 1/4 the power (just as an example) meaning both cores consume half the power in total for the combined equivalent frequency. That's pretty simplified, mind you, but it works along those lines. Power consumption also relates to voltage, which can be reduced by going to a smaller technology node (ie. 45nm) which inherently is applied to dual core architectures such that the chip size doesn't actually double. Bottom line: If you go pedal to the floor, the single core will always win in power consumption (scaling aside), but under low load, throttled conditions, a dual core processor can be more power efficient.

 

[WA_Bob]

Thanks Kyler - Now it makes more sense!