Terminology (was: Charging Neo Freerunner via USB port)

Kevin Dean kevin at foreverdean.info
Sat Apr 19 18:37:54 CEST 2008


On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 11:46 AM, Erland Lewin <erland at lewin.nu> wrote:
> 2008/4/19, Michael 'Mickey' Lauer <mickey at openmoko.org>:
>
> > Feature phones only differ between talk time and standby time.
> > For us, it's a bit more complicated, since we have more modes.
> >
> > Can we agree on the following:
> >
> > usage time = CPU is powered on, lots of peripherals have power and you're
> > actually talking and doing lots of things.
> >
> > standby time = CPU is powered on, but the display and most peripherals are
> off
> > to save power. You are doing something that requires the CPU to be on
> though.
> >
> > suspend time = CPU is powered off. only gsm (and RTC and some other wakeup
> > sources) are listening for events.
>
> Why can't we keep the existing terminology?

As you're going to state here, not everyone agrees on what the
"existing terminology" means. You can call it whatever you want as
long as everyone using the term understands what the terms mean.
Mickey's terms clear up the ambiguity.

>
> I think what you refer to as 'suspend time' should really be called 'standby
> time', since it is how most people think of it - how long will the battery
> last when the phone is not being used.

That makes assumptions that we can't be sure of yet. We should work to
clear up those assumptions first.

>
> What you call 'usage time' I think we could keep calling 'talk time', since
> it seems to me to be the same thing, and is in common use.

Broadcasting a GSM signal uses more power than playing Sudoko so the
times will be different. I don't think either term here really clears
that up.

How much talk time does the Freerunner currently get? This means while
broadcasting GSM signal. How much usage time can the Freerunner get,
for instance playing sudoku? What is the frame in between? Could
someone expect 10 hours of "sit on my desk while I sleep and have the
phone do nothing"? Does this drop to 6 hours when playing music via a
bluetooth headset (since it's processing audio and broadcasting over
BT). What battery life could someone expect while making a call from
full charge to battery death while using a Bluetooth headset?

Perhaps a battery life FAQ might make more sense... I'll see if I
can't start one.

>
> What you call 'standby time' doesn't seem like a very important state to me,
> I would think that for most people the phone would either be used (what you
> call 'usage time'), or in your pocket or whatever, when you want maximum
> battery time, what you call 'suspend time'.

There's a critical difference, but exactly how requires more
information. The GTA01 currently can't accept incoming calls while in
suspend, so for the "average person" suspend is useless since
suspending does NOTHING except essentially decrease boot time - it has
the same functionality as turning the device off and uses more power.

Can the Freerunner resume on incoming call? If so, someone could
suspend the device and toss it in their pocket/purse, reap maximum
battery life AND keep the primary functionality intact. If it can't
resume on incoming call, I'd agree it's essentially useless.

> Maybe we could call it 'music
> playback time', since that seems to be one usage of this mode.
>
> /Erland
>
>
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