Tango to optimise Windows Phone 7 for low RAM usage

January 20, 2012 | By Surur

The current Chassis 1 specs as per April 2011.

According to the Verge the Windows Phone Tango update will allow OEMs to ship devices with only 256 MB of RAM, unlike the standard 512 MB that is standard for current devices.

The goal is likely to to further reduce the cost of a low-end Windows Phone. While Tom Warren from the Verge claims 512 MB was a requirement the Windows Phone Chassis has always specified 256 MB or more, but presumably OEMs have not found that Windows Phone runs well with those specs. If the Verge is right this situation is likely to change.

While we all know Windows Phone Tango will enable low-end handsets, it is still not clear if it will include features which users with higher end handsets will also find desirable.

Read more of our Windows Phone Tango coverage here.

Thanks Simon for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged rumour, tango, windows phone 7.75

http://www.facebook.com/cjeong Chris Jeong

MSFT, you are doing it wrong!!! Ppl don’t want optimization! They want pos software to run smooth on 16 cores of CPU and 1TB of RAM… judging from sales of Android phones and fanboys

https://profiles.google.com/christopher.gull/ CG

I hope MS can beat some sense into the Fandroids.. I thought the world was going bonkers from inefficiency already as it was.. 16 cores to run Facebook app, kill me.

Anonymous

If Tango is optimized for lower memory, then, current high end devices will run much faster with it…no?

Anonymous

They should allow for more apps in the multitasking area.
Anonymous

No. In engineering you always deal with tradeoffs. Optimizing one thing (i.e. memory usage) always comes at the cost of something else. At the very least, that benefit comes at the cost of more engineering time, which means the system left a lot of room for improvement (wasn’t optimal to begin with). Assuming the OS is already rather well optimized, memory usage is traditionally traded for CPU cycles, meaning the OS get slower… the trick is to make sure it isn’t noticeably slower.

http://twitter.com/danrivhor Daniel Rivero Horie

never mind
Anonymous

Best option to gain market-share easily: Nokia should release quad-core Windows Phone, which has qHD display. But it should offer fantastic battery life. 12 or 16MP camera with awesome lens and picture quality, best sound quality and design, that blows everyone away. Simply brilliant. Although, this should be done before any Android manufacturer could achieve this. If not, Windows Phone won’t be popular in 2012. Maybe in low-end market, but not high-end. I undestand Microsoft tactic, but it is not the best plan to gain marketshare.

Anonymous

Except it isn’t the power users who make up the majority of marketshare. The casuals do, and the casuals don’t give a damn about 10 cores, 1TB of space, 50MP cameras and 1440p displays. What’s making android popular is not the flagship devices. It’s the cheap devices you can get for $100 or less. They are selling a boatload of those phones to people who don’t care about specs, they just want a smartphone

Anonymous

Exactly! And if it was that easy to have quad-core, QHD and fantastic battery life, you’d expect Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, HTC and Nokia to engineer just that.

http://twitter.com/l0rdOdin Tishawn Fahie

This is dumb.. From a Developers standpoint. How can a decent 3D game run properly at 60fps?

Out of Memory Exception here we come!

Anonymous

If Tango introduces lower resolutions, then the GPU will work less and would be able to match higher end devices, even outperform them. e.g. the iPhone 3GS uses the same GPU as the iPhone 4, yet the 3GS’ graphics benchmark is higher than the 4 due to less strain on the GPU.

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

good grief these specs suck. third world country or not, do you really want to scrape the bottom of the barrel like this?

anyone notice how it says 8Gb of flash or more as standard? How is ZTE getting away with 4 and will that preclude them from future updates?
Anonymous

I think Tango will just be a stripped down version of Mango, only software changes I can think of is:* Less multitasking tabs (maybe 2-3 instead of the current 5) to keep performance high, even on less RAM?* Support for lower resolution, for use of cheaper screens and lower clocked SoC’s?
Peter Iwaniw

is tango expected to incease battery life? lumia is still pretty laclusre here.