Blackberry Playbook

C

codedivine

Regular
In before anybody else :p
So which SoC do people think Playbook is using? Only announced spec AFAIK is dual-core 1GHz ARM. Tegra 2? Dual-core Snapdragon? Some Marvell chip? OMAP4? Something else?
 
I'd bet quite confidently on a Marvell ARMADA 600/610.
EDIT: And I lost, wee! (that'll teach me for posting so quickly, hadn't even noticed dual-core ;))
 
Some juicy technical details (amidst plenty of PR) about PlayBook from the DevCon unveiling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izMU64F_9sM

At 13:44 "This is going to be an incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players, of which I am one!" Dan Dodge (founder of QNX) gets so excited his voice breaks. :)
 
Cortex A9 confirmed

The QNX guy clearly said it is shipping with a dual-core Cortex A9. ARMADA isnt a A9 is it?
edit: In the video phat linked to I mean. Thanks phat!
 
Correct, Marvell doesn't make a Cortex-A9 SoC, neither does Qualcomm. So that leaves OMAP4 or Tegra 2. Unfortunately, Tegra 2 is more likely, but the lack of 3D on the specs would make that a bit peculiar. If it really doesn't have 3D it'd have to be an OMAP4 variant without the SGX.

... does anyone else think "PlayBook" is a really dumb name for a "professional" tablet?

EDIT: Never mind what I said about 3D, QNX dude said it at the end.

I also found that presentation kind of.. not very good.. The first guy was dry and not very good at speaking (GHz of RAM, heh). As for the second half.. hyping up QNX by showing how widely used it is in real time embedded platforms that couldn't be further removed from a user tablet does not seem impressive to me. And I kind of doubt it's reaching any of the non-technically oriented crowd that comprises most of their buyers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Exophase said:
Correct, Marvell doesn't make a Cortex-A9 SoC, neither does Qualcomm. So that leaves OMAP4 or Tegra 2. Unfortunately, Tegra 2 is more likely, but the lack of 3D on the specs would make that a bit peculiar. If it really doesn't have 3D it'd have to be an OMAP4 variant without the SGX.

... does anyone else think "PlayBook" is a really dumb name for a "professional" tablet?
Click to expand...


They clearly mention OpenGL is supported but a OpenGL ES logo is painted on the wall, so I assume they mean ES. They called it a great gaming platform so I am hoping it does have a good GPU. Version was not mentioned. OpenVG logo was also painted behind the wall.
 
For native English speakers, a "playbook" is a book of strategies, so the name makes sense there, but I can see that it might not have tested well internationally.
 
Yeah I get the sports analogy, although I don't think that really screams professional either... but what first comes to my mind when "PlayBook" is mentioned in the context of an electronic device is something you play with.
 
Hey, the QNX tablet is finally out - nice! Now HP need to hurry up with the WebOS one and we'll have again the entire gang.

Exophase said:
Correct, Marvell doesn't make a Cortex-A9 SoC, neither does Qualcomm. So that leaves OMAP4 or Tegra 2. Unfortunately, Tegra 2 is more likely, but the lack of 3D on the specs would make that a bit peculiar. If it really doesn't have 3D it'd have to be an OMAP4 variant without the SGX.
Click to expand...
The A9 mentioning is really key here, having in mind RIM's long history with Marvel. Tegra is most definitely an interesting possibility, and RIM might be the rumored 'secret big client' that indirectly brought to the platform's delays on the Linux/Android fronts. People have been wondereding what else NV might have been focusing their resources on, if not Linux/Android, and QNX might be the answer.
 
Could it be the new 3-core Armade 628. Clearly they don't want to give the details, and saying it had 3-cores would have gave the game away immediately. The PR for the 628 does refer to "quad unified shaders ", the QNX boss talked about "multiple shader arrays", which is not terminolgy you normally hear licencees/ end users of IMG-ed products use, specifcally TI doesn't use that term in the Omap4 materials.
 
Depends how exact the RIM press department were being I suppose, given they were deliberately ensuring that the AP can NOT be identified by being vague on the graphics core.

I'm sure they *could* argue later if they wanted to that something that is v7MP compatible is in effect at least an A9MP equivalent.

the playbook is however looking more like tegra2
 
Laurent06 said:
You forgot ST and Samsung SoC all of which are said to reach mass production 1H'10.
Click to expand...

Undestand you meant 1H'11, however QNX have come out and specifically stated the Rim playbook does NOT use Mali. (strange thing to say, why specifically go there, unless there was some bad relationships between samsung/Rim or Arm-Mali/Rim).

So assuming the samsung dual core-A9 is mali, which is looking likely, then thats excluded.

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...ok-what-you-need-to-know-719623#ixzz10oUcRqPn
 
I'm a big fan of QNX, so I have high hopes for the OS. Lots of features in this one that were lacking in the iPad that turned me away from it.

HDMI out (1080p)
Good video codec support
USB (mini)
A good browser (standards + flash)
Good size (smaller and lighter than iPad)

If it has a good price, I'd be interested. It would be a nice little device to bring back and forth from other people's houses etc.
 
1080p H.264 is fine on Tegra2, the problem is the bitrate is very limited if you use CABAC, and Boxee realised based on customer feedback that they needed to support Bluray, which NO handheld-centric SoC supports today (OMAP4 is 20Mbps max), but many will in the next-gen, including at least the Armada 628 and (afaik) Tegra3. Which is why Boxee claim they'll evaluate Tegra3.

This is apparently T2 or OMAP4, with a very low probability of Qualcomm too.
 
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