The increasingly important role that smart devices play in our lives is placing more and more demands on their ability to deliver consistently smooth and reliable experiences. Despite exponential increases to the amount of RAM and ROM on smartphones over the past ten years, slow app opening and switching speeds, phone overheating, and high-power consumption are still regular concerns for users. This leads to the question, if today’s smartphone hardware is so powerful, why do we still experience such fundamental issues in user experience?
Powerful hardware only works if used right
When it comes to using powerful hardware in the most effective way, there are two mistakes - to allocate too many computing resources to a process that doesn’t need them, ultimately leading to unnecessary power consumption, and memory scheduling conflicts. These are what cause the phone to lag or freeze.
To solve these problems and ensure that the hardware on its latest smart devices is put to the best use, OPPO has developed a system level computing hub — the Dynamic Computing Engine — that can be found in the latest version of its mobile operating system, ColorOS 13.
The Dynamic Computing Engine: OPPO’s system level computing hub for ColorOS
ColorOS’s Dynamic Computing Engine uses a Computing Power Model to schedule hardware resources effectively and accurately. By optimizing through four computing technologies (Parallel Computing, High-Performance Computing, Device-Cloud Collaborative Computing, and Intelligent Computing), the Dynamic Computing Engine helps deliver an all-round smoother and more stable user experience over the long-term on OPPO devices.
For the platforms’ first edition on ColorOS 13, the Computing Power Model and the Parallel Computing Engine have been implemented to help solve performance issues related to inefficient resource allocation and memory scheduling conflicts.
The Computing Power Model: striking a balance between high performance and low power consumption
The ColorOS’s engineers underwent a three-year process to find the best method of allocating computing power that could achieve the optimal balance between high performance and low power consumption. With the support of the Computing Power Model, the system can avoid excessive resource requests and the need to repeatedly test resource allocation efficiency, reducing power consumption and extending battery life in the process.
Parallel Computing: ensuring a smooth experience under heavy loads and multitasking
Parallel computing is a valuable tool in solving memory allocation conflicts. Android uses a serial memory allocation system that works on a first come, first served basis. Research undertaken on ColorOS has shown that “lock contention” is responsible for as many as 30 percent of the lag or freezing issues encountered when using a smartphone. To get around this, ColorOS adopts an advanced microkernel design that executes key operations such as memory allocation and memory reclaim in parallel so that high priority tasks do not have to wait in line to have access to these resources, resulting in less lag or pause time.
A smoother experience in ColorOS 13
Thanks to the foundations provided by the Dynamic Computing Engine, ColorOS 13 delivers a whole variety of smoother and smarter experiences. When it comes to productivity, ColorOS 13 features an upgraded Multi-Screen Connect that now supports seamless connection between smartphones and OPPO Pad Air, and between smartphones and PCs. With the OPPO Share function, the upgraded Multi-Screen Connect also makes file transfer between devices faster and more convenient, without using any mobile data. In terms of interactive experience, ColorOS’s Quantum Animation Engine improves the realism of animated effects by adding extra details and an advanced physical motion model.
Another feature in ColorOS 13 that minimizes power consumption through close integration of hardware and software is LTPO 2.0 technology. LTPO 2.0 can reduce the refresh rate of the Always-On Display to only 1Hz, leading to a reduction in power consumption of up to 30 percent in certain applications.
In terms of privacy and security, ColorOS 13’s Auto Pixelate can automatically blur profile pictures and usernames in chat screenshots using a device-side algorithm, allowing users to conveniently share screenshots of their conversations without worrying about their privacy. ColorOS 13 also includes an updated Private Safe feature that employs industry-standard AES file encryption to store files in a local private directory for enhanced security and privacy.
OPPO will continue to evolve the Dynamic Computing Engine in future iterations of ColorOS to provide even more powerful support for other features and content. This includes the addition of the High-Performance Computing, Device-Cloud Collaborative Computing, and Intelligent Computing engines.