Qualcomm, the real MSM7227 replacement and the slow death of ArmV5 and ArmV6

[Guest hecatae]

In 2007, Qualcomm produced the MSM7225, and in 2008 the MSM7227 was produced. Both chipsets have been extensively used in Android, most notably ZTE's entire handset range has been based on MSM7227, but are there now replacements available for both chipsets?

I must admit, I'm a Qualcomm fan. I can be found enthusing on several forums about CAF, Qualcomm's optimised AOSP source, and the new chipsets available.

Both had replacement ArmV7 chipsets announced in September 2011, the MSM7225A and MSM7227A respectively.

The MSM7225A improved on the previous chipset by bumping up the chipset from ArmV5 to ArmV7 and including a dedicated Adreno 200 GPU.

The MSM7227A improvements on the previous chipset was very incremental by bumping up the chipset to ArmV7, but kept the Adreno 200 GPU.

Neither chipsets are the actual replacements for the MSM7225 or MSM7227, they are just incremental updates to simplify Qualcomm chipset support to ArmV7. This had the side effect of stopping official ArmV5 and V6 support with Gingerbread. Luckily we have some very talented MoDaco Developers producing some incredible custom roms for MSM7225 and MSM7227 owners.

The MSM7225A is limited to a max resolution of HVGA, and the MSM7227A is limited to a WVGA resolution, neither is a selling point to me, more an artificial restriction to support the production costs.

Both above chipsets have already had some interesting handsets released, the Huawei Ascend G300, and the LG Optimus L3 come to mind. Qualcomm offers a standard chipset for the MSM7227A with 4GB ROM and 512MB RAM plus optional NFC, which has been seen on several devices.

This year, 2012, Qualcomm finally announced the real replacements, the MSM8225 and the MSM8227.

The MSM8225 features:

• 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A5
  
• Adreno 203 GPU
  Yes dual-core finally arrives in the budget chipset range! I'm hoping to see this used by the likes of HTC by next year.
  
  The MSM8227 features:
  
• 1 GHz dual-core Krait
  
• Adreno 305
  
• BT 4.0
  
• 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4/5 GHz)
  
• UMTS (DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA)

Bluetooth 4.0 and Dual Channel HSPA+...!

So, if you can hold on to your ZTE (insert name here) for a little longer as MSM7227 is not yet dead, you'll be looking at a dual-core upgrade next year.

Alternatively, if you want to experience Android 4.0 ICS or Android 4.1 JB now on an ArmV7 device and would like to use flash officially before it is removed from the Google Play Store on the 15th August, the MSM7225A and MSM7227A handsets listed above are this year's budget range and MoDaCo's developers will support them for as long as there is an active community for the devices.

[Via: Wikipedia]

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[Guest tilal6991]

Woop. Dual core FTW - love to see it in a £150 device.

[Guest t0mm13b]

nice! let the armv6 foad.... :D \o/

[Guest tilal6991]

I suppose you were right even back then. I just refused to acknowledge it until now because it meant getting a new phone lol. I apologize.

[Guest t0mm13b]

nah no worries yer grand ;) hope to see what you come up with next ;)

[Guest Victor von Zeppelin]

Great article Hecatae. Interesting stuff as well. Now I can see why you've been so into this recent low-end Qualcomm stuff :)

One thing that strikes me - is MSM8225 basically the "LITTLE" chip that ARM announced as part of big.LITTLE? Because I haven't heard of the Cortex A5 before. Thought it had something to do with that family

Ooootherwise. That MSM8227 is almost definitely going to be faster than any of the Snapdragon S3 chips.

[Guest gwebb]

Good timing. Huawei Ascend G330, MSM8225 and ICS.

http://www.gsmarena.com/midrange_huawei_g330_leaks_to_come_with_ics-news-4506.php

AFAIK big.LITTLE referes to the A7 and A15. I don't know if mixed A5 and A9 designs were supported.

[Guest hecatae]

Great article Hecatae. Interesting stuff as well. Now I can see why you've been so into this recent low-end Qualcomm stuff :)

One thing that strikes me - is MSM8225 basically the "LITTLE" chip that ARM announced as part of big.LITTLE? Because I haven't heard of the Cortex A5 before. Thought it had something to do with that family

Ooootherwise. That MSM8227 is almost definitely going to be faster than any of the Snapdragon S3 chips.

Hi Victor, Cortex A5 is the general name used for the budget line, MSM7225A and MSM7227A are also Cortex A5.

[Guest hecatae]

Good timing. Huawei Ascend G330, MSM8225 and ICS.

http://www.gsmarena.com/midrange_huawei_g330_leaks_to_come_with_ics-news-4506.php

AFAIK big.LITTLE referes to the A7 and A15. I don't know if mixed A5 and A9 designs were supported.

that G330 is an interesting device, MSM8225 already out there then.

[Guest unrandomsam]

I don't know why Qualcomm is bothering with the Cortex A5 unless it is just because it is easier to make it pin compatible with the older stuff. Cannot imagine why they care for new designs they don't use any of the full OABI support (Or jazelle) or the other things that the A5 is for (i.e legacy projects).

MSM7225 is still ARM11 (i.e armv6 ABI) there is only one minor extra feature that is used as you can see in the armv6 original dalvik patch (Cannot remember that well but I think it is something extra to do with TLS).

"The Cortex-A5 processor also maintains backwards application compatibility with Classic ARM processors including the ARM926EJ-S, ARM1176JZ-S, and ARM7TDMI®" cannot really see why having that compatiblity is of any real use to Qualcomm.

[Guest unrandomsam]

G330 looks interesting I dunno whether dual core is more useful than 1GB ram though. (I know ICS or JB is great on my Xoom but that has both dual core and 1GB ram).

There is also the issue of ZTE / Huawei not caring one bit about sip which is annoying. (Whereas the bigger names seem to impliment it properly).

[Guest hecatae]

Hi Unrandomsam, think the backwards compatibility is for any apps written for the old architecture.

if you want to see what the G330 would be like the Sony Xperia U is the equivalent ST-Ericsson chipset, dual core 1ghz, 512mb ram, 4gb rom, and currently £180 sim free.

[Guest unrandomsam]

It is for the old original arm linux abi (Plus the other bits like jazelle that are only used by Symbian or the Old Windows Mobile). i.e the arm Debian arch (As opposed to armel which is the current soft float EABI one or armhf which is the newest armv7 EABI one).

There is no stuff that is for OABI that Android uses and EABI is backwards compatible to armv4te

I can see why some people might need the backwards compatible but not Android manufacturers. (And seen as they are always new designs even the pin compatiblity doesn't seem that useful. You could swap the SoC on a blade for the 7227a and not change anything else in the design but don't think that has happened either or anything like it)

Dunno about the Adreno 203 (Is it worse than 205 for example).

[Guest unrandomsam]

These links are somewhat interesting :

http://wiki.debian.org/ArmHardFloatPort

http://wiki.debian.org/ArmHardFloatPort/VfpComparison

http://www.bdti.com/InsideDSP/2009/10/21/Arm

(This implies the A5 is significantly worse performance wise than the A8 or A9). But somehow it has all the cruft and also uses less area and has better power consumption.

[Guest gwebb]

Yeah the A5 is a simpler ARMv7 core than the A8 or A9. It's main goal was to deliver binary compatibility with the A9 for cheaper and lower power chips. It's not that fast but it is tiny and energy efficient. A pair of them is quite a decent all round design, when you consider die area, cost, performance and power consumption.

The A7 has a similar goal to support the A15, but this time around also support heterogenous CMP SoCs. i.e. big.LITTLE

Although ARM haven't disclosed their plans it is possible they will have a something to pair with the A20.

[Guest avira.tank]

ZTE Blade

Orange San Fracinsco. I wanna a ARM v7 on this smarphones )