[Rumor] Android Ice Cream Sandwich May be Built Around TI OMAP 4

[dgstorm]

There is rumor in the industry that Google may be looking toward Texas Instruments for developing the next Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. Apparently, even though NVIDIA has seen great success with the Tegra 2, there are still some problems with their chipsets that have made Google rethink their future partnerships. In fact, their is speculation in the industry that many of the problems with 4G networks are caused by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chip.

The source of this story also praised Texas Instruments for being timely and reliable. The source further commented that,

Nvidia seems to have run out of steam, lacks engineers and has come up against a bit of an innovation wall.

From what can be gleaned from the source, there has not been any kind of "falling out" between NVIDIA and Google, but Google is simply keeping their options open and going with the best competitor at the time. The same source further speculated that Google is considering Texas Instruments for the next iteration of Android after Ice Cream Sandwich, and that it will be called "Jello."

There may be some teeth to this rumor. Word on the street is that the "new" Motorola Droid Bionic has switched to the TI OMAP 4 CPU. Interesting... we will keep a close watch for any info that may corroborate these rumors.

Source: SlashGear and RCRWireless Part 1 & Part 2

 

[jroc]

Interesting news if it turns out to be true. I had my reasons for wanting to skip Tegra 2 phones anyway. This would make me not feel too anxious about that decision.

 

[DroidXDoes4G]

Ill wait for tegra 12.

 

[UNC]

This is great news for bionic buyers. I imagine if TI is the preferred chip manufacturer the phones with TI chips will be that much faster to get OS upgrades... Bionic launches with 2.3.4, then gets 2.5 and 2.6 in updates? That would be nice.

Is 2.4 still going to be called GB? I've seen that rumour floating... I guess that makes ICS 2.5 and Jello 2.6...

 

[EgooEspada]

This is great news for bionic buyers. I imagine if TI is the preferred chip manufacturer the phones with TI chips will be that much faster to get OS upgrades... Bionic launches with 2.3.4, then gets 2.5 and 2.6 in updates? That would be nice.

Is 2.4 still going to be called GB? I've seen that rumour floating... I guess that makes ICS 2.5 and Jello 2.6...

Somewhere like v3.5 or 4 depending how big the update is and it certainly seems big.

I'm really glad this is happening, not a fan of Nvidia, the only thing they have did that caught my eye was having the first and only commercial dual cores. Now that other chip set manufacturers have caught up, I once again do not care for Nvidia. I prefer Texas Instrument by a large margin.

 

[UNC]

This is great news for bionic buyers. I imagine if TI is the preferred chip manufacturer the phones with TI chips will be that much faster to get OS upgrades... Bionic launches with 2.3.4, then gets 2.5 and 2.6 in updates? That would be nice.

Is 2.4 still going to be called GB? I've seen that rumour floating... I guess that makes ICS 2.5 and Jello 2.6...

Somewhere like v3.5 or 4 depending how big the update is and it certainly seems big.

I'm really glad this is happening, not a fan of Nvidia, the only thing they have did that caught my eye was having the first and only commercial dual cores. Now that other chip set manufacturers have caught up, I once again do not care for Nvidia. I prefer Texas Instrument by a large margin.

Well said. TI makes great products.

<Runs to find TI-86 for a good game of Drugwars>

 

[Big Ry]

This is great news for bionic buyers. I imagine if TI is the preferred chip manufacturer the phones with TI chips will be that much faster to get OS upgrades... Bionic launches with 2.3.4, then gets 2.5 and 2.6 in updates? That would be nice.

Is 2.4 still going to be called GB? I've seen that rumour floating... I guess that makes ICS 2.5 and Jello 2.6...

Somewhere like v3.5 or 4 depending how big the update is and it certainly seems big.

I'm really glad this is happening, not a fan of Nvidia, the only thing they have did that caught my eye was having the first and only commercial dual cores. Now that other chip set manufacturers have caught up, I once again do not care for Nvidia. I prefer Texas Instrument by a large margin.

Well said. TI makes great products.

<Runs to find TI-86 for a good game of Drugwars>

Yup, i love my TI-89 titanium

Makes cumbersome summations and matrix algebra a breeze!

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[c0y0te]

I have been extremely impressed with the omap in my og droid. It's original performance with eclair @ 550 mhz, vs. the gingerbread @ 1200 mhz that it runs now is almost incomparable.

If TI continues to sell processors with that type of design specification, then I would be more than happy to continue buying them.

 

[jroc]

Just saw this article:
Texas Instruments announces multi-core, 1.8GHz OMAP4470 ARM processor for Windows 8 -- Engadget

I dont expect to see this in any phones this year but that gpu in there is nice. Whatever issues Nvidia is having with Tegra chips, there are other chips out there that are just as good or even better.

 

[sb1831]

Cool a whole new batch of phones with untested processors on an untested system... Can't wait

 

[kodiak799]

Whatever issues Nvidia is having with Tegra chips, there are other chips out there that are just as good or even better.

Of course, Intel's new mobile chip got pretty heavily criticized.

 

[Bullitt6996]

I don't think I saw this addressed directly so I'll just ask: Will the OG Droid, rooted or not, be able to hang with Sandwich? I'm hoping that Google isn't kidding with the "all Devices" part of their claim.

 

[jroc]

Seeing how GB doesnt play nice with my Droid 1....I doubt it....

I think Froyo is gonna be the last real update for the Droid 1. Putting GB on my Droid 1 was a step back from Froyo.

It happens. The older iPhones dont really play nice with iOS 4 from what I've read. I can see them not getting along with IOS 5.

 

[UNC]

Seeing how GB doesnt play nice with my Droid 1....I doubt it....

I think Froyo is gonna be the last real update for the Droid 1. Putting GB on my Droid 1 was a step back from Froyo.

It happens. The older iPhones dont really play nice with iOS 4 from what I've read. I can see them not getting along with IOS 5.

Not so fast my friend! Ics will be further optimized running new cleaner code than GB. In:motdroidvert: theory it could run better on the D1 than GB. GB netted me huge improvements on my d1, battery and speed wise. If the devs stick around and get new kernels out I think we will see ICS on the d1.

I'd be willing to bet on it.

 

[kodiak799]

Cracked me up when Google CEO said they would start requiring mfrs to update within 18 months of release. Comical since most phones are at their EOL by then (not to mention, it's likely more than 18 months since they normally launch with the latest Android release).