Good News: Microsoft Working On Dual-Core, LTE Windows Phones

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On Dual core

On the dual-core front, he said that the current crop of Windows Phones should hold up well even against dual-core Android models.

“They’re all single core, but I suspect that they will be faster in usage than any dual-core phone that you put against it, and that’s the point,”.

But, he insisted, Microsoft isn’t opposed to dual-core chips, but wanted to wait until the software was more ready to take advantage of multiple cores.

On LTE models,

Microsoft and its partners wanted to wait until the faster networks could be supported in a less power-hungry way.

“The first LTE phones were big and big (users) of the battery, and I think it’s possible to do it in a way that is far more efficient, and that’s what we will be doing,” Lees said. LTE models are on the way, he said, but declined to say whether the first models would arrive this year or next.

Next Major Update

Microsoft is already hard at work on the next major version of Windows Phone and the company may or may not do a minor update before that release.

from

http://allthingsd.co...ming/?mod=tweet

[Mouettus]

The battery excuse seems fair to me. That's the issue that has been plaguing the tech industry for a long time.

[Joshie]

Anybody who's used an LTE or Wimax device knows that these are currently pretty juice-hungry technologies. I think 4G drains faster than Wifi, even. Not sure how it compares to GPS. :/

So many things sucking down our already limited battery capacities. I think whoever puts out a 4G phone that can get 3G battery life (without turning 4G off, derp) will have some very real marketing muscle.

[spudtrooper]

And i care about dual core why? The largest performance increases measured to portable devices will always be perceived in GPU peformance. Dual core won't do anything since there isn't any apps that need nor use them.

[George P Global Moderator]

The only argument for dual core is for games or maybe media playback, like 1080p I suppose. The OS itself is fine on single core, and with the upgrade to 1.4Ghz single core the need for dual 1.2Ghz seems to not exist for WP7.5.

I agree with you, i'd like to see a better battery and better screens, with some more storage (where ae the 32GB models?) and so on.

[Roger H. Veteran]

I'm not really caring about LTE much for speed point, i'm more thinking of the tech involve (all IP based) and therefore voice (now VoIP) and other services should be cheaper - odds are it wont. I'm an IT person anyways so I love these anything involving those types of networks.

Dual-Core - eeh, don't really think WP needs it that badly, i loved the Samsung Focus i had, no performance issue there but I guess gotta make progress to sell phones. :)

[Motoko.]

MS would be behind if they weren't working on those technologies

[BajiRav]

And i care about dual core why? The largest performance increases measured to portable devices will always be perceived in GPU peformance. Dual core won't do anything since there isn't any apps that need nor use them.

I think it's mostly for competing with Android (and now iPhone 4S). They are just making sure they have enough checks on the chart.

[spudtrooper]

I think it's mostly for competing with Android (and now iPhone 4S). They are just making sure they have enough checks on the chart.

I understand that, but i would rather see HDMI out, faster GPU, more memory and more storage before we see dual core. Dual core hardly translates to user performance at all.

[pack34]

And i care about dual core why? The largest performance increases measured to portable devices will always be perceived in GPU peformance. Dual core won't do anything since there isn't any apps that need nor use them.

Multiple core processors can increase battery life. This is, however, dependent on how parallizable the software is and the clock speed. Think of it this way, with two cores you can process two instructions at once. If you can do that, then you can halve the clock speed to get the same performance and increase battery life.

If you aim for improved performance though, you won't really see any improvement on battery life.

[George P Global Moderator]

No one halved the clock speed when they went to dual core though. You see dual 1.2Ghz compared to 1Ghz single or 1.4Ghz single. I'd agree with you about actually saving battery life if they did something like dual 800Mhz, but they're not.

[pack34]

No one halved the clock speed when they went to dual core though. You see dual 1.2Ghz compared to 1Ghz single or 1.4Ghz single. I'd agree with you about actually saving battery life if they did something like dual 800Mhz, but they're not.

You could always take a 1.2Ghz dual core and underclock it. Isn't that what apple normally does with their stuff to improve battery life? They could always revise the spec to mandate that if a dual core processor is used that it has to be underclocked to improve battery life. Or even leave some settings for it in the OS.

[Mordkanin]

No one halved the clock speed when they went to dual core though. You see dual 1.2Ghz compared to 1Ghz single or 1.4Ghz single. I'd agree with you about actually saving battery life if they did something like dual 800Mhz, but they're not.

Modern processors incorporate a wide array of power reducing standby and clock lowering tricks. Even desktop computers don't run full clock speed all the time unless you actually configure them to explicitly.

Though that processor is rated 1.2GHz, you'll find it's usually running much, much slower. It can keep itself clocked down more often as a dual core processor, saving power.

Power dissipation in a processor is mostly FET switching losses, which scale as ~fCV^2, so you run lower voltage, lower frequency, despite increasing capacitance by having twice as many transistors, you save power.

[KingCrimson]

Funny I don't see Apple being criticized for releasing the dual-core A5 into their iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. But MSFT is being slammed for it!

[George P Global Moderator]

Ya you could, just saying they're not really taking it lower. Anyways, the dual 1.2Ghz itself might actually be clocked lower for all we know. Anyways, I'd like MS's approach to this, let them optimize the hell out of the OS so that it takes advantage of dual core fully and also extend that to the SDK so that a recompile adds dual core support to apps which would make devs super happy and is basically all it takes.

Modern processors incorporate a wide array of power reducing standby and clock lowering tricks. Even desktop computers don't run full clock speed all the time unless you actually configure them to explicitly.

Though that processor is rated 1.2GHz, you'll find it's usually running much, much slower. It can keep itself clocked down more often as a dual core processor, saving power.

Power dissipation in a processor is mostly FET switching losses, which scale as ~fCV^2, so you run lower voltage, lower frequency, despite increasing capacitance by having twice as many transistors, you save power.

I'm aware of the power saving, just saying that no one is marketing dual core lower, it's always faster faster faster. It's basically the old Mhz/Ghz clock wars we had on the desktop but on phones and tablets now. History likes to repeat itself at times.

[pack34]

Ya you could, just saying they're not really taking it lower. Anyways, the dual 1.2Ghz itself might actually be clocked lower for all we know. Anyways, I'd like MS's approach to this, let them optimize the hell out of the OS so that it takes advantage of dual core fully and also extend that to the SDK so that a recompile adds dual core support to apps which would make devs super happy and is basically all it takes.

I'm aware of the power saving, just saying that no one is marketing dual core lower, it's always faster faster faster. It's basically the old Mhz/Ghz clock wars we had on the desktop but on phones and tablets now. History likes to repeat itself at times.

Why should it matter how they are marketed?

[Digitalx]

Maybe it'll be out by 2013 if we're lucky.

[Mordkanin]

I'm aware of the power saving, just saying that no one is marketing dual core lower, it's always faster faster faster. It's basically the old Mhz/Ghz clock wars we had on the desktop but on phones and tablets now. History likes to repeat itself at times.

nVidia did, if memory serves me.

Either way, who cares? A dual core processor based on a similar architecture that can run even faster is even better. These processors are already really good at power saving tricks.