Any chance of porting onto the Nokia N8?

[FreyGrimrod]

Hardware looks great.... honestly who will touch symbian?


(yes this assumes someone has hypothetically rooted the phone)

[qole]

I like the camera and video, but... the CPU looks puny... Same generation CPU as the old N800. Not sure how well Maemo 5 apps would run on it.

[FreyGrimrod]

Gah ARM11 had missed that *tear* another new phone falls to manufacturer cheaping out on the CPU just like the LG Ally.... alas... also I apparently am blind and missed the MASSIVE STICKY POST.... my apologies.... (wait that's the n800 *hides*)

[Deaconclgi]

The future of phones is NOT the CPU, its the GPU. Same as with computers. At one point, a 3Ghz cpu meant power but now your PC is as only as strong as its GPU. Add a highend GPU to a celeron and you are game, get a blazing fast celeron WITHOUT a GPU or weak GPU and it is game over.

The N8 has an excellent GPU and the UI is GPU accelerated, the games are GPU accelerated, the Media is GPU accelerated.

What else needs to be said?

Maybe the N9 series will have a faster CPU, maybe not, either way it is the GPU that has the muscle and flexes it well.

[Laughing Man]

Hopefully the applications that are developed and will be developed for the Nokia N8 are QT compatible..

[sevla]

In theory it should work since the N8 has an ARM CPU. When the Meego handset build is released I don't think there is anything stopping anyone from flashing the N8 and putting Meego on it.

[Mulder3]

In theory it should work since the N8 has an ARM CPU. When the Meego handset build is released I don't think there is anything stopping anyone from flashing the N8 and putting Meego on it.

Yes, there is... and it's called Nokia BB5 security...

[sevla]

Yes, there is... and it's called Nokia BB5 security...

and how does that work?

[mikec]

I understand that Symbian uses openVG vs OpenGL ES for Maemo and Meego. This probably implies binary blobs that would need cross licensing , APIs etc.

I would be interested if anyone has a better perspective on this.

[bandora]

I don't think the BB5 security will play a big role now, since Symbian has been open-sourced.. Also, there are a way around it..

[Nokia 5700]

I understand that Symbian uses openVG vs OpenGL ES for Maemo and Meego. This probably implies binary blobs that would need cross licensing , APIs etc.

I would be interested if anyone has a better perspective on this.

Doesnt OpenVG stand for Open Vector Graphics? That sounds more like a SVG-codec.
Symbian does have OpenGL ES 2.0, just like other mobile systems.
And as long the app is made with Qt SDK it should be possible to run on Maemo/MeeGo and Symbian if it gets compiled for the target system.
I believe that the Qt binaries on the phone handle most of the compatibility.

[attila77]

The future of phones is NOT the CPU, its the GPU. Same as with computers. At one point, a 3Ghz cpu meant power but now your PC is as only as strong as its GPU. Add a highend GPU to a celeron and you are game, get a blazing fast celeron WITHOUT a GPU or weak GPU and it is game over.

The N8 has an excellent GPU and the UI is GPU accelerated, the games are GPU accelerated, the Media is GPU accelerated.

What else needs to be said?


For some (surprisingly many, actually) people UI blitz, games and video are not the only thing they want to use their device for. If you take a peek at Extras, about 90%+ of apps would not be affected (except for generic workplace/window effects). Think about why, say, the OMAP3 platform members differ in CPU speeds and not GPU/DSP speeds. In essence, you're describing the console vs PC divide.

[Radicalz38]

BB5 security will still be the same on n8. Hope lets put in mind symbian is the open source not nokia. Open source means it is open for development on any platform/devices and thats just it. Also bb5 security is integrated on the device itself not on the OS.

[Jedibeeftrix]

The N8 has an excellent GPU and the UI is GPU accelerated, the games are GPU accelerated, the Media is GPU accelerated.



does it?

what generation of PowerVR core is it? is it GLES 2.0 compliant?

[Mulder3]

does it?

what generation of PowerVR core is it? is it GLES 2.0 compliant?

PowerVR SGX530 like all OMAP3 based hardware. (the same used on N900)

[Mulder3]

BB5 security will still be the same on n8. Hope lets put in mind symbian is the open source not nokia. Open source means it is open for development on any platform/devices and thats just it. Also bb5 security is integrated on the device itself not on the OS.

BB5 security is implemented inside the OMAP rom bootloader(and some parts on the CMT).
A few years back, when i was in the unlocking phone business, i think i saw some gsmcity thread talking about flashing unsigned symbian images, but it required a expensive BB5 unlocking/flashing box... But i don't know if that technique works with the latest BB5 SL3 security...

Anyway, something like HaRet(which is used to boot a linux kernel on windows mobile) which is basically a tool that loads linux kernel into memory under an already running OS and then jumps into kernel entry point, should work, however you have to use some tool like HelloOX2(i dont know if it works on n8) to give your app "manufacturer access" to symbian API...

[Chrome]

I thought N8's GPU is Broadcom BCM2727 chip. Not sure though, it's only a rumor.

[Mulder3]

I thought N8's GPU is Broadcom BCM2727 chip. Not sure though, it's only a rumor.

BCM2727 is just a video encoder/decoder chip, not a SoC...

[zimon]

N8 has 650 Mhz ARM11. Isn't it lil too slow for MeeGo and fluent multitasking with X11?

[attila77]

PowerVR SGX530 like all OMAP3 based hardware. (the same used on N900)

It’s not OMAP3, it’s an ARM11 chip at 680MHz, but it DOES have "2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support" according to the spec sheet (http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/N8/)

[godofwar424]

The future of phones is NOT the CPU, its the GPU. Same as with computers. At one point, a 3Ghz cpu meant power but now your PC is as only as strong as its GPU. Add a highend GPU to a celeron and you are game, get a blazing fast celeron WITHOUT a GPU or weak GPU and it is game over.

The N8 has an excellent GPU and the UI is GPU accelerated, the games are GPU accelerated, the Media is GPU accelerated.

What else needs to be said?

Maybe the N9 series will have a faster CPU, maybe not, either way it is the GPU that has the muscle and flexes it well.

Your believing way too much on what manufcaturers babble on about.


You are correct in saying tht GPU 's are the way forward. BUT

You dont seem to udnerstand that. If you stick a ATi HD5970 with a pentium 4 then its going to perform CRAP. The CPU is the brain, not the GPU! The CPU is what feed isntructions to the GPU and also what deals with commands through the motherboard, A fast GPU means squat if the cpu isn't fast enough to utilise the power without causing a MASSIVE bottleneck!

[Mulder3]

It’s not OMAP3, it’s an ARM11 chip at 680MHz, but it DOES have "2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support" according to the spec sheet (http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/N8/)

All modern Nokia handsets use OMAP has its APE, AFAIK, OMAP2 is based arround ARM11, so that's probably what they are using...

[wmarone]

All modern Nokia handsets use OMAP has its APE, AFAIK, OMAP2 is based arround ARM11, so that's probably what they are using...

We won't really know until someone gets one and does a teardown and analysis. I don't know of any OMAP2 chips that support GLES2 like the specs say.

It's either from a non-TI vendor, or is a custom spin.

[www.rzr.online.fr]

about BCM2727 it's in in the E7 , and I wish it can boot linux some day :
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=968386#post968386