3 ms·

"Even with all those neural net advantages" On the other hand, without a neural net, it might be even slower. Android supports tons of different architectures

by kbart 10y ago

"Even with all those neural net advantages" On the other hand, without a neural net, it might be even slower. Android supports tons of different architectures and platforms, of course you can't optimize it like Apple can with a single platform.

BinaryIdiot 10y ago
> Android supports tons of different architectures and platforms, of course you can't optimize it like Apple can with a single platform. Not really. Sure Android can run on multiple architectures but 99% of the time it's mostly the same. Why couldn't they provide optimizations for multiple architectures anyway? Whenever something can run on more than 1 architecture I usually see the argument about how it can't be as optimized on any specific architecture but I don't see why not. Optimize for the 80% use case and you're probably covered. Go beyond that to get more performance out of other platforms but it's unlikely necessary.
- kbart 10y ago
  "Why couldn't they provide optimizations for multiple architectures anyway?" Because Android is usually developed by at least two companies: Google does generics and OEM which is responsible that Android runs smoothly on their hardware. Sure, given enough time and resources, you could do optimization for every hardware combination possible, but that is not how things work in real world, especially where release cycles are such insane as in smartphones market.
  - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
    > Sure, given enough time and resources, you could do optimization for every hardware combination possible, but that is not how things work in real world, especially where release cycles are such insane as in smartphones market You make it sound as if every version of CPU, GPU and chipset have to be optimized in every combination possible but typically you do optimizations based on various CPU targets, optimizations based on GPU targets, etc; the vast majority of smart phones use the same architecture and many end up targeting the same CPUs and GPUs (I mean how many phones ended up / still use the Snapdragon 820?). Yes they can't optimize for every combination but optimizing for the typical CPUs and GPUs seems like something they're likely already doing. If the stack was squished and Google made it from hardware to software I'm not sure that they would be necessarily doing optimizations any different on the hardware / driver level.

by kbart 10y ago

BinaryIdiot 10y ago

> Android supports tons of different architectures and platforms, of course you can't optimize it like Apple can with a single platform. Not really. Sure Android can run on multiple architectures but 99% of the time it's mostly the same. Why couldn't they provide optimizations for multiple architectures anyway? Whenever something can run on more than 1 architecture I usually see the argument about how it can't be as optimized on any specific architecture but I don't see why not. Optimize for the 80% use case and you're probably covered. Go beyond that to get more performance out of other platforms but it's unlikely necessary.

kbart 10y ago
"Why couldn't they provide optimizations for multiple architectures anyway?" Because Android is usually developed by at least two companies: Google does generics and OEM which is responsible that Android runs smoothly on their hardware. Sure, given enough time and resources, you could do optimization for every hardware combination possible, but that is not how things work in real world, especially where release cycles are such insane as in smartphones market.
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  > Sure, given enough time and resources, you could do optimization for every hardware combination possible, but that is not how things work in real world, especially where release cycles are such insane as in smartphones market You make it sound as if every version of CPU, GPU and chipset have to be optimized in every combination possible but typically you do optimizations based on various CPU targets, optimizations based on GPU targets, etc; the vast majority of smart phones use the same architecture and many end up targeting the same CPUs and GPUs (I mean how many phones ended up / still use the Snapdragon 820?). Yes they can't optimize for every combination but optimizing for the typical CPUs and GPUs seems like something they're likely already doing. If the stack was squished and Google made it from hardware to software I'm not sure that they would be necessarily doing optimizations any different on the hardware / driver level.