Stupid idea that *may* work?

[jtpetch]

Hi! So i had this stupid idea yesterday, but now that I think about it, it would actually be awesome. So, say you have a bad desktop/laptop computer (say, 2 core cpu and 2 gb of ram). But you have a top notch tablet/smartphone (2/4 gb of ram, 2/4 cores). Now, alone, they are both ok. But combined TOGETHER? They'd be REALLY GREAT. So my idea was a way to somehow connect your android smartphone/tablet to your pc via usb, and be able to use the phone/tablet as some sort of an extra cpu/ram. Is there any way this could be possible? (Is it already possible? )
I know, stupid idea, but i'm just wondering.
Thanks!

 

[Eduello]

It's not a stupid idea, but it hasn't been done yet; It's impossible (at the moment at least).

 

[Murissokah]

Hi! So i had this stupid idea yesterday, but now that I think about it, it would actually be awesome. So, say you have a bad desktop/laptop computer (say, 2 core cpu and 2 gb of ram). But you have a top notch tablet/smartphone (2/4 gb of ram, 2/4 cores). Now, alone, they are both ok. But combined TOGETHER? They'd be REALLY GREAT. So my idea was a way to somehow connect your android smartphone/tablet to your pc via usb, and be able to use the phone/tablet as some sort of an extra cpu/ram. Is there any way this could be possible? (Is it already possible? )
I know, stupid idea, but i'm just wondering.
Thanks!

There are way too many obstacles to get this working for it to be reasonable. The most feasible thing would be using the flash memory as readyboost, but that hardly helps anything. Readyboost is a windows feature that lets you use flash memory as a sort of disk cache, a mid ground between an ssd and a hdd. Still, you can use any flash drive for this, no need to have your phone stuck to your computer.

The rest is pretty much impossible to do. Almost all android phones use ARM processors, which have a specific instructions set and thus cannot run x86 code, thus they couldn't ever "help" computing code compiled for a desktop. Even if that was possible, tethering CPU power through an USB connection would completely defeat the purpose.

In the end, even if you have a very powerful smartphone, that is still not a computer. You can't properly compare smartphone hardware with PC hardware. An 8-core ARM processor is still orders of magnitude less capable than a desktop counterpart.

 

[jtpetch]

Hi! So i had this stupid idea yesterday, but now that I think about it, it would actually be awesome. So, say you have a bad desktop/laptop computer (say, 2 core cpu and 2 gb of ram). But you have a top notch tablet/smartphone (2/4 gb of ram, 2/4 cores). Now, alone, they are both ok. But combined TOGETHER? They'd be REALLY GREAT. So my idea was a way to somehow connect your android smartphone/tablet to your pc via usb, and be able to use the phone/tablet as some sort of an extra cpu/ram. Is there any way this could be possible? (Is it already possible? )
I know, stupid idea, but i'm just wondering.
Thanks!

There are way too many obstacles to get this working for it to be reasonable. The most feasible thing would be using the flash memory as readyboost, but that hardly helps anything. Readyboost is a windows feature that lets you use flash memory as a sort of disk cache, a mid ground between an ssd and a hdd. Still, you can use any flash drive for this, no need to have your phone stuck to your computer.

The rest is pretty much impossible to do. Almost all android phones use ARM processors, which have a specific instructions set and thus cannot run x86 code, thus they couldn't ever "help" computing code compiled for a desktop. Even if that was possible, tethering CPU power through an USB connection would completely defeat the purpose.

In the end, even if you have a very powerful smartphone, that is still not a computer. You can't properly compare smartphone hardware with PC hardware. An 8-core ARM processor is still orders of magnitude less capable than a desktop counterpart.

Did not know that! Ok, thanks!

 

[k1114]

Well besides different architectures, it would be like how supercomputers and renderfarms are done now. This is multiple pcs working on the same thing but you run into issues of why this isn't done on a consumer level.