ANDROID for iMX25

[TakAsami]

Hi all:

Just joined this group, thank you.

I'm in the process of porting ANDROID to i.MX25 based platform (sorry, not Freescale PDK, but should be very similar) and try utilizing Freescale ANDROID R9.1 package. I realize it is built for i.MX51 and there is a slight difference between 25 and 51 in terms of CPU core (i.MX25 is arm926EJ-S core, and i.MX51 is Cortex A8). I came to realize there are a few potential incompatibility issues due to that:
- arm 9 core doesn't have TLS register and it is handled by software emulation, while Cortex A8

  has the real register.

- Cortex A8 has Neon co processor that arm9 does not.

I noticed the package use several precompiled libraries (.so) with names including "arm-11". Does this mean that these libraries may not work with i.MX25 and becomes problem?

Do I have to write all those media libraries myself (hope not)? 

If this is a problem, is there a relief for it (like source code available somewhere...)?

I appreciate if anyone has information on this.

Tak

[VincentChou1z]

Hi!  Tak,

Great explanation and clear some of my questions.  I talked to Martin recently but purely for .Net Microframework and WINCE.  I guess it is not the choice to put Android on TOPAZ after I read your response.  My partner, AllGo, has ported an Android 2.2 on i.MX233 which has ARM9 CPU and limited RAM.  I tested it and it runs ok.  I guess it requires extensive optimization work on ARM9. 

Vincent

[TakAsami]

Vincent:

No, unfortunately the project is (though still active) put on back burner, due to several circumstances 

below:

- OSO Tech got a contract on something totally separate from Android OS, so majority of resources

   has to go there for now. It's a living, you know.

- I personally had a bad misfortune that a HD with all Android resources died on my development system,

  and was not able to restore some of the latest work. So that part had to be redone.

- But most of all, I had contact with Martin Welford, the owner of Device Solutions, and according to him

  and Trygtech, who does OS support for Topaz, you need 128MB of RAM even just to boot, and very

  slow running at that."Normal" Topaz comes with 64MB which I thought was sufficient, but not. You can't

  get 128MB board from Device Solutions just by ordering, as they do not stock it (for low demand).

  So that's a double wammi.

What they tried was Eclair version of Android, and I was working on Froyo. Froyo is allegedly a faster version of Android, but they do so by utilizing more memory and faster processor(s). And much more so on Honeycomb and beyond.

Let me put it this way. I have another board from Freescale booting Froyo. The whole Froyo module does not fit on on-board Flash (256MB), so it has to be on SD card, and it takes forever to boot from SD. The board features Cortex A8 processor core running at 1GHz, with 1GB on-board memory.

So trying to boot Android on Topaz, while it is possible, may be futile and not so practical, IOW, application may be limited.

It IS a very competent Linux host, so I'll have to rethink the strategy.

Tak

[VincentChou1z]

Hi! Asami San, have you successfully ported Android to i.MX25?  I am using TOPAZ platform and wonder whether we could get Android ported by your help! Vincent

[TakAsami]

There are a few cases of Android boot on i.MX25 based systems though those who had haven't made the installation public so far and others still having problems. Most report "sluggish and slow" operation.

I have not had much success as yet, but still trying. There's a difference between the system running on $10 chip rather than $50 chip, and with i.MX25 I feel we are hitting right at the (low end) limit of possibility, and it's worth it.

Will let you guys know as things progress.

[VincentChou1z]

Hi!  Friends, have you had any updated info regarding Android on i.MX25?  We came across this a few  times when we started to play around i.MX25 PDK and shows to our customer.  Vincent

[TakAsami]

Yep.

I just contacted her.

Will let you and whoever listening know what happens.

[mnw]

I believe you have spoken to Julie and Ian before.  They are the ones to ask.

[TakAsami]

Martin:

What a small world.

I AM using Topaz i.MX25 platform, and did have some dialogue with Trygtech in the past.

Yes, I do appreciate that contact information, as they do not post the availability of Android. I do suspect the performance isn't great, but I am not trying to recreate an iPad either.

Thank you for your info in advance.

Tak

[mnw]

Trygtech ported Android to our Topaz i.MX25 platform, however it needed 128MBytes RAM to run, and they reported the performance wasn't great.  Let me know if you would like contact information for them.