Talk about mobile GPU driver upgrade

       The GPU driver can be upgraded independently, which is undoubtedly a good thing for the user experience. Through independent driver updates, the phone can obtain performance improvements and problem fixes brought by the new driver more quickly and conveniently. Will such a good thing also be available on other Android devices? Is this a unique technology or a general trend? Let's talk about it.

　　Why can't Android upgrade drivers separately?

　　The reason why Android has not been able to upgrade drivers as flexibly as Windows for a long time is closely related to the system architecture. Android is based on Linux, and Linux uses a macro kernel, with the system kernel and driver modules tightly integrated. The architecture of Windows is closer to a micro kernel, with a high degree of separation between the system modules.

　　The characteristics of macro kernels and micro kernels (micro kernel-like) will be reflected in the experience of driver update push. Since the macro kernel couples the driver and the system kernel together, if you want to upgrade the driver, you often need to upgrade the system; while micro kernel-like systems such as Windows can upgrade the driver independently. In order to be compatible with more hardware, Microsoft has also designed standard models for drivers, such as WDDM for graphics drivers and UAA for audio architectures. As long as the driver is written in accordance with WDDM, UAA and other architectures, it can be installed and upgraded by itself without changing the system kernel.

In the traditional Android system architecture, the display driver, camera driver, etc. are all packaged in the Linux kernel.

　　Although the macro kernel is not flexible enough in terms of driver upgrades, the design of Linux in this way makes sense - the macro kernel has a high degree of coupling, which can bring higher inter-process IPC communication efficiency and better performance. Therefore, we can see that Linux is widely used in various devices with different performances. Supercomputers can make better use of Linux, and small items such as smart bracelets can bring a smoother experience with Linux.

　　Android’s changes: Is installing drivers becoming more and more like Windows?

　　However, macro kernels have encountered some challenges in the era of mobile Internet/Internet of Things. The rapid emergence of various smart devices has made hardware adaptation an issue that must be faced.

　　Take Android phones as an example. Android phones on the market use different CPUs, GPUs, basebands, CODECs, etc. Due to the high degree of coupling of the macro kernel, it is difficult for Android phones to upgrade the operating system and hardware drivers separately. Whether they want to upgrade the system or the driver, manufacturers need to make a separate system image for each Android model. Not every manufacturer will choose to invest a lot of energy in system maintenance, which makes it difficult to upgrade the Android system and drivers. The final result is the fragmentation of Android system versions.

　　To this end, Google changed the form of Android and implemented the Project Treble mechanism in Android 8.0, which partitioned the system (Android OS framework) and separated it from the hardware driver (Vendor implementation). After that, manufacturers can push new versions of Android to devices separately without having to re-adapt the driver. Project Treble greatly simplifies the upgrade process of the Android system. We can also observe that the speed of upgrading Android major versions of devices after Android 8.0 is faster than before.

　　But this is not enough. In Android 10, Google has implemented Project Mainline, which further subdivides and modularizes the system. In Android 10, 14 system components have been Mainlined, and system components such as media decoders, permission controllers, and network components can all be updated through the app store like ordinary apps - thanks to this, the GPU driver can be updated independently.

　　It can be said that Android is becoming more and more "microkernel" through Project Treble and Project Mainline. In Android 11, which has not yet been officially released, Android's component modules have reached as many as 20. Android's system maintenance will become unprecedentedly flexible and become more and more like a PC.

　　Is GPU driver upgrade a black technology?

　　It can be seen that the reason why MIUI can update the GPU driver independently through the App Store is mainly due to the features of Android Project Treble and Project Mainline. As the hardware served by this update, the contribution of Qualcomm chips is also indispensable.

　　At the end of last year, Qualcomm announced that its latest SoC Snapdragon 865 can update drivers independently through the app store, and the update operation is as simple as updating the APP. However, Qualcomm said at the time that it would update through the Google Play Store. Due to well-known reasons, Google Play cannot be used in China, so MIUI uses its own channel to update the GPU driver, which is still very good.

       If nothing unexpected happens, Qualcomm will continue to release new drivers for its chips in the future, but will all Android phones receive updates? This ultimately depends on the mobile phone OEM manufacturers. After the driver is released, the OEM manufacturers need to test it and then push it to users. In any case, the work that OEM manufacturers need to do is much less than before, so it is unreasonable not to provide users with driver upgrades.

　　At present, Qualcomm seems to have not yet clarified which chips, besides Snapdragon 865, will receive independent driver updates. But in any case, the future of Project Mainline is bright. From now on, we can expect to get benefits such as GPU driver upgrades on more and more mobile phones. This "black technology" brought by Google will become the hope to solve the fragmentation of Android.

　　Summarize

　　With the development of mobile Internet and the Internet of Things, in order to adapt to hardware more flexibly, the "microkernelization" of the system seems to have become a trend, which can be confirmed by the changes in the Android system architecture. I hope that more hardware manufacturers will follow Android's new mechanism and push independent drivers for various hardware in a timely manner to bring better experience to users!