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Cinder Mobile OS Lets Users Send More Power To Slow Apps

Posted by timothy on from the would-like-something-like-that-in-my-laptop dept.

alphadogg writes with this excerpt from Network World: "Stanford University researchers are designing an operating system from the ground up to handle the power and security requirements of mobile devices. The Cinder operating system is already working on an Arm chip, and members of the team are working on making it run on the HTC G1 handset, according to Philip Levis, a Stanford assistant professor. Levis spoke about Cinder at the Stanford Computer Forum on Tuesday. If an application isn't running as fast as the user wants, a Cinder-based phone could include a button to boost the energy allocated to that application, Levis said. Cinder also could allow users to download any code and run it safely on their phones in a 'sandbox' mode."

7 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Umm by Jurily · · Score: 2, Insightful

    include a button to boost the energy allocated to that application

    I thought the chip gets the power, not the application. Am I reading this right?

    1. Re:Umm by Nutria · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I thought the chip gets the power, not the application. Am I reading this right?

      Remember that tech "journalists" are usually clueless fools, so reality may be way different than what's in the article.

      I'm thinking more that it might be like the Turbo button that PCs had in the semi-old days, when CPU speeds were in the 5-16MHz range. Of course, I haven't RTFA...

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  2. Geek Phone? by Manip · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... So you know what people say about academics being out-of-touch? ...

    This article is the perfect example of that. The fact that they think any real person will use or understand a "sandbox mode" is just laughable.

    The power boost button is just offloading what the OS should be doing behind the scenes onto the user to rarely get used by most of its users.

    Security is insanely easy to solve on a phone...
    1) Build a Java VM for 3rd party Apps
    2) Limit its API scope
    3) Win.

    1. Re:Geek Phone? by cigawoot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ain't this the apple approach? Build an OS, limit 3d party access to the API. Of course, minus the app store.

    2. Re:Geek Phone? by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Way to miss the point :-) The GP poster claimed that macs were the exclusive purview of geeks. My point was that non-geeks like them too, not that ONLY non-geeks like them.

      After my wife played with my computer for a few weeks, she wanted a Macbook. I'm pretty happy with it, too. She's dumb as a brick,

      Oh man, what a set-up line ... please check all that apply ...

      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she married ME!
      [_] I am SO dumb that I married someone dumb as a brick!
      [_] Blow-up dolls ARE as dumb as a brick, you ignorant clod!
      [_] In Soviet Russia, dumb wife bricks YOU!
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she's the CowboyNeal option!
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she once burned water.
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she lost the recipe for ice cubes.
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she chases after cars.
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she buried her father in a rented suit, and has been paying $50/month for years
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, she complains that when I die, she doesn't know HOW she's going to keep paying my life insurance policy.
      [_] My wife is SO dumb, when she won the lottery, she returned the ticket and insisted on another one because it didn't have "her" numbers on it.

      The real one ...

      [X] My wife is so smart, she conned me into buying her a mac.

      Have a nice day :-)

  3. Battery life? by jason4567 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems to me that running anything at a higher speed will kill the battery life. There are almost no reasons to do this anyway, since things are already fast enough on an iPhone or Android based systems already.

  4. Re:Only from the classroom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    btw: the 'gimmick' turbo button was not actually a gimmick. Some games programmed for early systems depended on the processor maintaining a particular speed (lets call it 'x') in order for it to run at the correct pace.

    So when new computers came out that were faster than 'x' they added a turbo button. No turbo button pressed and the computer goes 'x' speed. With it pressed it can then go full speed.

    Good job!