N900phoneaccelratorYou’ve probably heard about the Graphics Processor (GPU), a dedicated processor that offloads 3D or 2D graphics rendering from the central CPU. In the case if the N900 there’s a single ARM Cortex-A8 CPU that handles general tasks, while the PowerVR SGX (GPU) offloads 3D and 2D graphics.

Will future version of the N900 need a phone accelerator?

The N900 handless multi-tasking like a champ, being capable of running several application at the same time, without even breaking  a sweat. This multi-tasking power does seem to come at a cost. In certain situations there’s the need to quickly dial a number, while keeping programs running in the background. You can also imagine  receiving a phone call right in the middle of heavy multi-tasking. In these cases all of those background apps seem to take all of the processing power, leaving little or no juice to quickly open the phone dialer or handle incoming calls. The result? Both of these slow down to a crawl, sometimes requiring a few seconds before they react to button presses. The same thing can be said about the screen orientation: as it quickly needs to re-orient the screen, with little processing power left, it takes a while before it “settles” in the right position.

A dedicated processor, with the sole purpose of handling these “phone” features like outgoing, incoming calls, SMS and even the turning controls would do the trick. It wouldn’t add much to the overall price and won’t require much power, as it would require just a fraction of the processing power of the main CPU. There reason is simple: its only task would be to accelerate the phone features.

Another way to accomplish this, is by always leaving a certain percentage of the central CPU free for these kind of tasks.

We already have a GPU, CPU and even DSP, is there room for a phone processor? What do you think?