Smartphone Architecture

Evan McDonough - Ke vin We lch

Smartphones
• 182 million active smartphone users in the US
• That’s 74.6% of the total population
• Apple has the largest market share
• 41.6% of total subscribers
• Gaming
• Worldwide mobile gaming revenues are expected to overtake console games in 2015
• North America and Western Europe mobile gaming is growing at ~50% year after year
• Average Mobile digital media time is greater than Desktop digital media time
in the US
Cellphone vs PDA vs Smartphone
Cellphone:
- Calling and te xting fe ature s
- Ve ry fe w othe r fe ature s
PDAs (Pe rsonal Digital Assistants):
- We b browsing, pe rsonal organize r
- Traditionally did not include calling / faxing / e mails
Smartphone s:
- Combine d the PDA and Ce llphone functionality
Many Similar De vice s:
- Pocke t PC, Table t, “smartphone ” vs. “Smartphone ”
Challenges for Mobile Devices
Power Consumption:
- Batte ry life and de vice e fficie ncy must be optimize d
- De vice must conse rve powe r whe n idle or suspe nde d
Ne tworking:
- Most mobile de vice s de signe d for on-the -go computing
- Ne e d to handle inte rne t / calls / SMS re liably
Se curity:
- De vice s can be e asily lost or stole n
- Important pe rsonal information must be prote cte d
Anatomy of a smartphone
System on Chip (SOC)
• Single chip solution for application processor
• Processors (CPUs and GPUs)
• On-chip memory
• Accelerating function hardware
• All analog components

• Coordinated software and hardware

• Smartphones use SoC instead of connecting separate chips on a PCB
because:
• Reduces cost, power, and size
• Increases performance
The iPhone
• Design features
• One of the first phones with a GPU
• Accelerometer (automatically rotates screen)
• 2 megapixel camera
• Proximity sensor (dims screen during calls)
• Ambient light sensor to automatically change brightness
• Problems:
• exclusive to AT&T
• low battery life (due to GPU and new sensors)
• No removable battery or SD card…did not please power-users
• Resulted in more “Average” users entering smartphone market
SoC design challenges
• Very complex designs

• Much more expensive than alternatives

• Performance requirements: (must do well for all)

• Size limitations

• Power usage (affects battery life)

• Heat dissipation is more difficult

• Performance with images, sound, video of all varieties

• Performance with networks of all varieties (Wifi, cellular, etc.)

• Smartphone sales can drop if even one aspect is sub-par

Solutions to SoC problems
• Multi-core processing and Hyperthreading
• Run task in parallel for more speed

• Rotate between cores for temperature management (sort of like minigun)

• Non-linear increase in performance when adding cores

• Rely more upon GPUs

• Better performance for specialized tasks

• Move analog functionality do digital domain

• Analog tech growth rate doesn’t follow Moore’s law

• Use ARM processors (over 95% of market share)

Baseband Processors
- Se condary proce ssors functioning as mode ms
- Originally use d in ce llphone ne tworks
- Have since e volve d to handle Digital, 3G, LTE, e tc.

- Most e mploy an ARM de sign for ve ry low powe r usage

- Proce ssors contain the ir own micro OS and me mory
- Allows the proce ssor to function on its own
- Incre ase s re liability by isolating functions from main syste m

- Handle s de vice functions whe n de vice is idle

Baseband Processor Design
Power Usage - Idle vs Suspended
A device is considered IDLE when:

- The de vice is fully awake , with the SoC running

- SoC is powe re d but not pe rforming tasks
- Powe r consumption is fairly stable and can be be nchmarke d

A de vice is conside re d SUSPENDED whe n:

- The SoC of the de vice is in low-powe r mode

- Android de vice s powe r off main SoC by saving curre nt state to RAM

- Only the low powe r base band proce ssor is active

- Most of a de vice ’s time is spe nt in the suspe nde d state
Power Consumption: SPEC2000 Benchmarks
- Pe rforme d on an Ope nmoko Ne o Fre e runne r with Android (20 0 8)
- Similar to the Google Ne xus One (20 10 ) and HTC Dre am (20 0 8)

Powe r consumption in Suspe nde d State Powe r consumption in Idle State

Power Consumption: SPEC2000 Benchmarks

Power consumption playing a 5 minute video Powe r consumption during a 77 se cond

with no sound
phone call

● Notice the powe r consumption bottle ne ck

 Power Consumption: SPEC2000 Benchmarks

Power consumption handling emails with wifi and Powe r consumption handling we b browsing with
GPRS (2G and “old” 3G) wifi and GPRS
Future Challenges
- Use rs de sire e ve r-incre ase d computing powe r
- Re sults in highe r powe r consumption
- Will re quire a more aggre ssive powe r conse rvation me thod
- Base band Proce ssor De signs
- Ve ry close d source hardware
- Unknown se curity risks
- Powe r consumption bottle ne ck during de vice suspe nsion
- Batte ry te chnology
- Not advancing fast e nough to re lie ve powe r consumption issue s
- Consiste nt incre ase in smartphone costs until major batte ry te ch bre akthrough
Links
Baseband and SIM Card Secondary Processors on smartphones:
http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s4-att-update -317818/
http://www.bapre ss.ca/ccc/ccc20 13-1/3_130 5270 1_Final%20 Draft.pdf

Ne twork Challe nge s and Archite cture for Smartphone s (look at page s 9+):
http://online library.wile y.com/doi/10 .10 0 2/wcm.120 3/e pdf

Smartphone Powe r Usage Analysis (pe rforme d on Ope nmoko Fre e runne r):
https://www.use nix.org/le gacy/e ve nt/use nix10 /te ch/full_pape rs/Carroll.pdf

Mobile game re ve nue s se t to ove rtake console game s in 20 15

http://fortune .com/20 15/0 1/15/mobile -console -game -re ve nue s-20 15/

Mobile Marke ting Statistics 20 15

http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile -marke ting/mobile -marke ting-analytics/mobile -marke ting-statistics/

Syste m on chip (SoC) for mobile phone s

http://www.slide share .ne t/Funk98/syste m-on-chip-soc-for-mobile -phone s

iPhone original
http://www.imore .com/history-iphone -original