Intel have sided with Nokia and Microsoft in the multi-core Android debate, stating that they see little benefit to pairing Google's operating system with a handset packing a processor with dual-core or quad-core power.
Using their own research as an example Mike Bell, Vice President Intel Architecture Group, stated there was little obvious benefit to bumping up the number of cores with the Android OS as it stands today:
"We ran our own numbers and in some of the use cases we've seen, having a second core is actually a detriment."
"As we move to multiple cores over time, we're actually putting a lot of investment into the software to fix the schedulerand the threading, so if we do multiple core products [in the future] it actually takes advantage of it," continued Bell.
"In the meantime, we get enough performance out of our single core that we actually don't need to turn on a second core."
The claims echo similar sentiments from Nokia boss Stephen Elop, who stated back in April that, "the so-called dual-core, quad-core mobile phones can only waste batteries, but not be useful for consumers all the time."
Of course, these are statements coming from two firms on the fringes of the smartphone party right now, with Nokia still struggling to shift their line of Windows Phone 7 handsets and Intel only just getting into the game with theOrange San Diego handset recently.
But with plenty of the big Android players using the dual or quad core allure to market their handsets, it'll be interesting to see how the likes of HTC, Samsung and LG respond to the claims. And equally interesting to see how they back up their own claimed multi-core benefits.
Using their own research as an example Mike Bell, Vice President Intel Architecture Group, stated there was little obvious benefit to bumping up the number of cores with the Android OS as it stands today:
"We ran our own numbers and in some of the use cases we've seen, having a second core is actually a detriment."
"As we move to multiple cores over time, we're actually putting a lot of investment into the software to fix the schedulerand the threading, so if we do multiple core products [in the future] it actually takes advantage of it," continued Bell.
"In the meantime, we get enough performance out of our single core that we actually don't need to turn on a second core."
The claims echo similar sentiments from Nokia boss Stephen Elop, who stated back in April that, "the so-called dual-core, quad-core mobile phones can only waste batteries, but not be useful for consumers all the time."
Of course, these are statements coming from two firms on the fringes of the smartphone party right now, with Nokia still struggling to shift their line of Windows Phone 7 handsets and Intel only just getting into the game with theOrange San Diego handset recently.
But with plenty of the big Android players using the dual or quad core allure to market their handsets, it'll be interesting to see how the likes of HTC, Samsung and LG respond to the claims. And equally interesting to see how they back up their own claimed multi-core benefits.
