On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 12:46 AM, Brian <[email protected]> wrote: > Why is the Browser (and YouTube and Market) cache stored in the > device's internal memory? This seems like an awfully poor choice, > considering the limited amount of internal memory most of the Android > phones have available. > > As I understand it, these caches are supposed to automatically clear > when low on memory, but I've noticed a decrease in speed even when > I've got ~30MB available, according to Settings -> SD card & phone > storage. Manually clearing these caches to free up a few extra MB > yields a noticeable improvement in overall responsiveness/speed. > > How about an option to set the cache size, automatic clearing interval > (at app relaunch, or phone restart?) or, better yet--just move the > cache to the SD card? > > You can't rely on the SD Card to always be there, or not be corrupted, or have sufficient room for the things you want to download, so a cache partition makes sense for the simple fact that we want to support off-the-air system updates reliably. In other words, you need to be able to safely download a new signed system image on the device at any time, even if there is no SD Card. Oh and the fact that other apps could try to sneak data into the downloaded content, or peek at it, on the SD Card.
The cache partition is also used to stored downloadable content from the browser or YouTube, but its content is automatically wiped out depending on needs. The performance issue is different and may be the result of a system bug. I know there is work performed to improve that by using kernel i/o scheduling facilities, but can't comment further. If you have a *reliable* way to reproduce this, please file a bug on b.android.com and give all details there. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Android Discuss" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<android-discuss%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
