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64-bit/ARMv8 support

NullaVisus

Newbie
Mar 3, 2016
20
17
So out of curiosity, since the main CPU in the Stylo is 64-bit, why the stock ROM uses a 32-bit/ARMv7 kernel. Or why someone else hasn't compiled an ARMv8 kernel for it yet... Is there any real technical reasons for this? It just feels like the extra instructions are just sitting there being unused, and it would be nice to be able to test some 64-bit apps like Dolphin Emulator even if it would be slow:D There's also solving the 2038 problem, not that I'd still have this phone in 20 years but future proofing is important

Will the upcoming Marshmallow update for T-mobile use 64-bits?
 
My guess? At least for the 1GB ROM/8GB RAM models, the amount of memory would have something to do with it. 64 bit OSs require more memory to run. It's also a software issue, possibly. There still might not be enough 64 bit software to run, so the devs for the stock ROM have likely decided on leaving the system at 32 bit. I'd guess if one owns the higher spec Stylo in an unlocked GSM version, that might have a 64 bit version of the OS.

For me, it's not a big deal. My VM Stylo is easily the best Android phone I've owned to date. I actually like it unrooted, but decided to root it anyway so I could run a few extra apps, and adjust a few details like disk cache size. Hopefully someone else can answer your question about the T-mobile MM update.
 
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My guess? At least for the 1GB ROM/8GB RAM models, the amount of memory would have something to do with it. 64 bit OSs require more memory to run. It's also a software issue, possibly. There still might not be enough 64 bit software to run, so the devs for the stock ROM have likely decided on leaving the system at 32 bit. I'd guess if one owns the higher spec Stylo in an unlocked GSM version, that might have a 64 bit version of the OS.

For me, it's not a big deal. My VM Stylo is easily the best Android phone I've owned to date. I actually like it unrooted, but decided to root it anyway so I could run a few extra apps, and adjust a few details like disk cache size. Hopefully someone else can answer your question about the T-mobile MM update.

I wasn't considering extra memory usage, although I have the 2GB variant

Also looking, there are Stylo variants with pure 32-bit Mediatek SoCs so maybe it's done this way for convenience

Realistically, how hard would it be to compile an armv8 kernel for this? I imagine it's just a matter of taking kernel sources and merging in some code from an ARMv8 AOSP kernel but I'm no dev by any means:D
 
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