When will Google implement GPU-acceleration in Android?

[runeks]

Correct me if I am wrong, but if it is JUST a licensing thing, couldn't the company acquire the license only for certain handsets? Seems to me like it would be within their best interest to have only their higher end models have hardware acceleration and leave the budget models without. The number one thing that people coming from the iPhone complain about is smoothness. Seems like a no brainer to me, as it would possibly get new adopters of android as well.

That's the thing, it's not just a licensing issue. As stated above, Google hasn't even added support for GPU acceleration of the 2D interface in Android until less than two weeks ago in the aforementioned commit to Skia. And it probably isn't functional yet.
So until now, and still to some extent, it is up to the individual phone maker to enable GPU acceleration. Something it seems they haven't been too concerned about doing (until the above update of the Galaxy S - this definitely looks GPU accelerated).

The thing is, the more Google ties in GPU acceleration with Android, the more hardware-specific Android becomes, and fewer phones would be able to run Android - but those that would would run it smoothly. Google has so far chosen not to do this, they make Android very little hardware-specific. This means it requires more from the individual manufacturer to enable GPU acceleration, but at the same time a greater amount of phones with more diverse hardware can run Android.

It's a bit like Mac OS vs. Windows/Linux. Mac OS is made to run only on Apple hardware, and it does so without a glitch. They have complete control over the hardware on which Mac OS runs, and nothing surprises them when it comes to strange hardware setups - they know all their hardware setups beforehand.
Linux and Windows, on the other hand, are meant to run on any hardware, which is a strength in itself, but they cannot guarantee that it will run 100% smoothly all the time, because they can't know about all the quirks and glitches in drivers and hardware of different hardware vendors. That's up to the individual manufacturers of Windows/Linux PC's to sort out (Dell, HP etc.).

The cool thing about Android is that it's open source, so anyone can at any time fork it, and make a new mobile OS out of it which requires GPU acceleration. This new Android version would be able to guarantee smooth scrolling, transitions etc., at the cost of being able to run on a fewer number of devices.

 

[lordofthereef]

The thing is, the more Google ties in GPU acceleration with Android, the more hardware-specific Android becomes, and fewer phones would be able to run Android - but those that would would run it smoothly.

Then I think, with this statement, we have our answer. Google wants their OS on the most handsets possible, and not only higher end ones. I am sure once we start seeing the "cheap" phones with robust gpus (well they won't be as nice as whatever the bleeding edge is, but I simply mean compared to what we have today in mod-low phones), I am sure we will see more of a tie-in.

 

[EarlyMon]

Well, well, well - what a coincidence.

Imagine me finding one user logging in from Denmark discussing this very same thing - refusing to answer my questions even tho he was online last night - and suddenly, we have a new user logging in through Sweden to discuss the same thing.

Except - finding a need to bring up the very same subject - with the very same vid as was posted already in this thread.

Except - instead of being able to find this thread that was only two days stale - this new poster just conveniently had to find the same thread with a nearly identical subject name that was basically stale since July.

So long, fella(s).

We'll be watching for your new anonymous registrations.

/thread