[LMZR]

I think 2GB of RAM was added to help with the Camera apps Nokia most likely will be bundling.

[psudotechzealot]

For this phone, I agree.

[TechAbstract]

Pureview 808 41MP only has 512MB RAM, so I don't know.

[MAERSK]

OMG @ 64GB version!!!

I might have to import this >_>

[a5cent]

The image processor on the 808 certainly has its own generous helping of dedicated memory. Only when it was done would it transfer the results to those 512 MB of system RAM.

Unless the 1020 has the Snap 800, and that alone is enough for the oversampling and the mpix count.. I think they might have done the same thing again and have that extra custom GPU built into the camera module.

Hey vlad.

In regard to how Nokia went about processing those high resolution images, it seems none of us guessed correctly! The L1020 doesn't use a Snapdragon 800 (which never was realistic), nor did Nokia integrate a separate image processor as they did for the 808, nor did they scale back to a 20 MP sensor which the SoC could have handled.

Brian Klug from Anandtech asked the same question we've been asking, but he's got an answer:

"Obviously the MSM8960 is only specced for up to 20 MP camera support, Nokia’s secret sauce is making this silicon support 41 MP and the PureView features (oversampling, subsampling, lossless on the fly zoom) through collaboration with Qualcomm and rewriting the entire imaging stack themselves."

Basically, Nokia was able to circumvent Qualcomm's hardware ISP and replaced it with their own software based solution (likely heavily DSP and GPU based).

That also explains how that extra GB of RAM fits in with all of this. If it is the SoC that processes the raw data coming off the image sensor, then the extra memory capacity required to hold all that raw image data must be accessible by the SoC, meaning RAM expansion is the only option. At least I was correct with that prediction.

[MAERSK]

Wow, like they always say:

"The only way to get something done... is to do it yourself."

Impressive Nokia

[willysocks2222]

just need better coding for apps, to me that's what makes an OS more enjoyable

the 2gb RAM imo is mostly for the camera to capture a 38 and 5mp photo at the same time.