Dual Boot vs Emulator

[Evil E.]

I think that you don’t understand the concept of “dual boot”. Dual boot does NOT mean that the total amount of RAM (or any other hardware resources, for that matter) is divided over the 2 OS’s that run simultaneously, it means that you make a choice of which of the 2 OS’s you want to run and boot up (the other OS simply isn’t executed at all).

As for an emulator : an emulator is software that “emulates” (hence the name “emulator“) a hardware computer system software-wise so that you can run a 2nd OS on your computer system. The 1st OS (host OS) is the one that you booted from and in which you executed the emulator software package. The 2nd OS (guest OS) is run within the emulator and isn’t aware that it is running within software in another (host) OS, the guest OS “thinks” that it is  actually running on the physical hardware computer system all by itself.
Because the emulator also requires a host OS to run in, the guest OS will have less resources available to run (the resources used by the emulator itself, as well as the resources used by the host OS), so running an OS within an emulator will always be slower than running that same OS natively on that same physical computer system.

[Andy Jenkinson]

Thanks, Evil E.
That’s what I thought but then read a couple of reviews (I think for the Teclast X98 Pro) that Android and Win 10 had 2GB each. (One place is http://techtablets.com/2015/12/mirek190s-teclast-x98-pro-v2-0-rom-released/
Where he states that only 2GB is currently available to Android. I wonder if tablets with a button to switch OSs might be set up differently from those where you go to a boot menu? Perhaps the reviewer was confusing it with the SD card, which I believe has to be partitioned and the data held separate. Can anyone shed light on this? Why should an SD card placed in an SD reader and connected via USB not have this constraint? Incidentally why did Google stop apps accessing other apps data on SD card but not if the card was connected via USB?

[Evil E.]

The reference to the available 2 GB RAM means that the rest of the physical RAM in the machine is used/taken up by the Android OS itself plus other software running inside Android.
I don’t know where you got the 2 GB in Windows 10 reference, though. The information in your link is related Android 5.1 only. You still seem to mix up a couple of things that are completely unrelated to eachother, and adding your own incorrect assumptions to the given information.

[Andy Jenkinson]

Thanks again for your response. Can yo explain how exactly 2GB of ram can be taken up by Android 5.1 plus other software running inside Android? That would mean that an Android 5.1 system with bloatware removed would not have space to run anything else on a 2GB system. Clearly it can. I assure you that I have read somewhere of a 2GB / 2GB split between Android and Win 10 even If cannot immediately put my finger on it. I have been looking at all the main Chinese brands and their different models, so finding the reference again would be time consuming. I have already accepted that that may have been a mistake on someone’s part. I am willing to learn. What exactly have I mixed up and what are my incorrect assumptions, please? Do please correct me.

[Evil E.]

OS’s allocate RAM memory for the core OS elements and tasks depending on how much RAM there is physically available and also on what & how many tasks the OS is running, so the exact same OS may allocate more RAM in a 4 GB system as opposed to less in a 1 GB system…
But I just realized that the 2 GB RAM thingy could also mean something else : it most likely means that this specific OS variation can only see/use 2 GB of RAM of the host system, even if there is more RAM physically available…

I would really like to see those web pages of the reviews where you claim you saw the split 2GB/2GB Android/Win10 system references.

The mix-ups/assumptions that you seem to be making are misinterpreting an advertised system on some web pages that you cannot seem to find any more, and having the idea that there exists a tablet that has a BIOS that can boot up 2 completely separated OS’s simultaneously when you switch it on, and split the tablet’s resources between these 2 OS’s.

AFAIK BIOS code isn’t designed to boot up 2 or more OS’s simultaneously and handle the dividing/splitting of all the available resources, it only loads 1 piece of code, hands over control to that code and then executes it, nothing more.
If the BIOS was able to boot up 2 completely separated OS’s simultaneously and split up the available resources then it would also mean that the other resources would have to be split/divided as well (CPU, I/O ports, storage, …) and that we wouldn’t need specialized software like VM’s, hypervisors or emulators that are written to do exactly that job…

[Andy Jenkinson]

Hi, Evil E. Your assumptions seem as bad as mine 🙂
My original question was effectively whether a 2Gb OS plus a 2GB OS would be better or worse than a 4GB OS running the other in emulation. I thought the emulator route MIGHT be better IF the 4GB was split. I did not imagine 2 OS running side by side. I thought it more likely that the manufacture might boot to separate partitions fuor each OS, claim the 4GB (technically true) then 6 months down the line bring out a true 4Gb dual boot. I know of nothing technically to stop a manufacture doing that and it would not be the first time a manufacturer has deliberately hobbled a machine.
Anyway, Teclast claim a 30400 mWh battery for the Pro which is obviously ridiculous. The resellers state 8000 mWh. Just goes to show you cannot trust what you read on the Internet!
If I do find that 2/2 split refence I’ll post it but web site do occasionally get corrected.
If I go ahead and buy one I’ll let you know what it really does 🙂
Cheers,
Andy

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