Qualcomm Petition: Final?

Exactly a month ago, I started a petition to Qualcomm with a request to release updated codecs with ICS support for devices based on ARMv6 . The inspiration for her was the previous petition requesting the release of updated drivers for the Adreno 200 graphics accelerator , created by sweetnsour from the xda-developers forum. As you may have heard, she was successful.

So, I created a petition, told the people, what happened in the end?

Result

I will not pull the rubber, I will say right away that at the moment the result is negative. (Semi) The official answer from Qualcomm is:
Unfortunately we are not able to support video codecs for ARMv6 OMX IL libs for Qualcomm's QDSP5 on MSM7x27. The architecture of MSM7x27 cannot support OpenMax video codecs for ARMv6 OMX IL on QDSP5 running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).
In short:
Sorry, the codecs for ICS will not take off on MSM7x27, so we won’t release anything.

But how did we come to this and why does this answer not satisfy many, and I in particular?

History

Let me remind you, for the first time, with the problem of porting ICS to ARMv6, we ran into this earlier this year. At first, the problem was with 3D hardware acceleration. The Adreno driver from GB did not quite fit, although it worked with some hacks. Then the first petition was created, which was successful for 5 days. So, we now have full hardware acceleration of the interface and working 3D applications, including games. For doubters, I can only notice that at least the performance is not worse than on GB.

Further, almost all developers ran into a problem with the camera and codecs. If the camera doesn’t really bother me, then the lack of multimedia capabilities is somehow not very good.

If anyone does not know, then Android uses the standard as a layer of multimedia abstractions.OpenMAX . It includes both a hardware-dependent part (drivers, codecs, call it what you want), and client libraries with a unified API. I want to note that GB also uses it and there are libraries on ARMv6. But ICS requires a few additional features that are simply missing from them. I turned to the developers of CyanogenMod , as people more knowledgeable, is it possible to replace these functions with stubs? .. They say that no, we need some additional functionality that you cannot implement with stubs.

Petitions

As a result, due to the insolubility of this situation, as many as 2 petitions were created. The first , most common at the moment, unfortunately practically does not contain technical information and it is worth recognizing that it is directed more likely "to the village, to the grandfather". However, she has already collected more than 12 thousand signatures . Next, I started my petition, which at the moment has collected more than 4.5 thousand signatures . Those. In total, about 17 thousand signatures were collected .

Interestingly, after about two weeks we received an answer on the Qualcomm forum: “we have seen your feedback on this and we are looking into the matter for any possible solutions”, i.e. “We understood how important this is for you, we’ll try to find some solution.” Even more willingly they answered on Twitter , though in the same phrase. But in the end it all ended as it ended.

Hexagon QDSP5

And here the fun begins. All sorts of tricky things from multimedia algorithms, like fast conversions, etc. Qualcomm runs the Hexagon QDSP signal processor . In most ARMv6 chips, this is QDSP5 . Processor specifications are closed, codecs are closed. However, some code for it is present in the Linux kernel, apparently for access as a block-device or the like.

So, if we look at official specs on modern Qualcomm chips , then we immediately notice that QDSP5 is present in almost half of the solutions, including new ones!

And now, we have a whole bunch of devices on the MSM7225 / MSM7227, and these are almost all popular devices of the 2010th year of release. And Qualcomm tells us that it is impossible to write codecs for them, and the devices themselves have almost reached the end of their life cycle. And this despite the fact that most of them are still in stores!

We go further, look at the "state employees" of this year, the same LG Optimus L , Sony Tapioca (ST21i) , etc. They are built on ... MSM7227A ! We look at specs: the same S1, the same modules Adreno 200 , Hexagon QDSP5 , the core updated to Cortex-A5. This thing can already launch ICS out of the box ?! NO WAY!What about “MSM7x27 cannot support OpenMax video codecs for ARMv6 OMX IL on QDSP5 running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)”? In fact, they sell us the same thing, but with a tuned core.
Maybe they are fooling us, and in fact, QDSP5 here and there are completely different QDSP5? I did not find information on this subject. Adreno 200 turned out to be the same.

You can say, "what you wanted is marketing." Well, you know, I did not expect, buying the device at the end of 2011, to find out that it is already really dead, although it still lies in all stores. Yes, I expected this to happen in the end, but I still feel cheated.

As for the ICS port itself, I can say that at the moment almost everything works, all sensors, a camera, hardware acceleration of the interface, most applications. Recently, even Linaro assemblies have begun to appear, which really make the device a little more responsive. However, in the field of multimedia we have a complete bummer. Any decoding operation takes place purely in software mode, very much loading and heating the processor. And there seems to be nothing to do. But we are so close ...

Solutions?

What can be the solutions in this situation:

1. Score, buy a new device, do not buy Qualcomm products, etc.
2. Continue to put pressure on Qualcomm, write to them on Twitter, on the forum, etc. The probability of success is nearing zero.
3. Try to make plugs to take off with GB. So far, no one has succeeded.
4. Write the necessary libraries from scratch yourself. I'm afraid the release will be in a few years, when everyone will certainly not give a damn about ARMv6, and maybe already on ARMv7.

I would like to hear your opinion on this issue.

In conclusion, I will give ATOM_UA comments to the previous topic:

Yeah, I remember such petitions to HTC and Qualcomm in the days of win mobile. They let out a bunch of devices for a couple, and it doesn’t matter that there wasn’t even 2d firewood, they sold it and scored it. Asked asked the community, but such cool companies are not up to you.
For myself, I made a choice, no longer take products from HTC, and devices on qualcomm.

I say that the situation is repeated, the same problems from the same company. Only before there was no android, because there were petitions for Vinmo, but the problems are the same.

Dripping deep into no
www.petitiononline.com/petitions/tytn2vid/signatures?page=1

There was even a whole site created, where the problem was discussed, all the info was collected and the actions on nutrition were coordinated, but
www.htcclassaction.org didn’t wait

until a handful of
ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_TyTN_II#.D0.9F.D1 .80.D0.BE.D0.B1.D0.BB.D0.B5.D0.BC.D1.8B_.D1.81_.D0.B2.D0.B8.D0.B4.D0.B5.D0.BE .D0.B4.D1.80.D0.B0.D0.B9.D0.B2.D0.B5.D1.80.D0.BE.D0.BC

At the moment, I have to agree.

PS Topic on the Qualcomm Developer Forum . A well-formulated phi is welcome.