[xaueious]

I am a ROM cook for the Apad iRobot, with contacts to Shenzhen. I also know how to read Chinese. This is how I uncovered the story. In case you don't want to read 20 pages (which is filled with spam posts from scammers, by the way), here's the summary: What happenedThe Zenithink tablet was originally advertised as a 10" tablet with an A8 Cortex CPU. The A8 Cortex CPU would have allowed for Adobe Flash playback if the device was ever upgraded to Android 2.2. Previous CPU versions are not only incapable of using Adobe Flash, they are also 30-40% slower and less efficient overall. It was revealed that the CPU specification was in fact faked, and the CPU is the older and slower ARM11 variant. What we have done here is uncovered faked specifications and an attempt to cover up the situation, both evidenced by the firmware implementation to artificially boost benchmark scores (which inherently leads to instability), and by the manufacturer's passive stance on the false specifications being spread. What's the big dealOnline retailers were selling the device for as much as $300US, which would have been a fair price provided that the device had a real A8 Cortex CPU. However, since this is an ARM11 device, $300US is a rip off pricing. A good reference for a device with similar specifications is the Augen Gentouch, which is around $150, but with a 7" screen and warranty support. The device retails for the equivalent of $155US (1050RMB/Yuan) in China. Assuming $50 shipping, you should be paying no more than $200 for the device to be shipped. Why there is so much confusion in this threadThere was sabotage by scammers and resellers in an attempt to conceal information. Resellers included enso-now (see his posts here, rebranding the tablet as Enso. Seems to go by Alberto Armandi. He has retracted his original stance and has admitted that the device is ARM11 after spreading misinformation on his own. At least his pricing is not atrocious)There were also spammers Leonathome (banned. See his posts here), and fabulousdroid (keeps spamming links from Apad.tv and has been spreading false information on Orphan M16 also banned now, posts here)And although Flatcomputing was quick to say that they did not know that they had the wrong specifications, they are non-apologetic and still selling the device at $285:

IT is not a big deal. The ZT-180 is the ARMv6 CPU (Rev 5) ZT-180 - 1GHz+-Jason

* * *Technical Details BelowPart 1It has been confirmed in China that the Zenithink ZT180 / Wiipad does NOT have ARMv7 A8 Cortex CPUs. Also Flatpad, Orphan M16 are all the same thing. append: Even though Zenithink claims that they never made any official statements about the tablet being A8 Cortex, their silence on the topic when their product was being misrepresented internationally is no better than an active role in false advertising. There's no way resellers didn't have a clue about this with their sample products. I find it hard to believe that they didn't suspect anything. Instead, they jacked their prices to obscene numbers, cashing in on the false advertising and misleading customers. In addition to hardware quality control issues, the CPU has been suspected to be an ARM 11 variant, with the Android OS running with the highly unstable JIT Dalvik engine (stable only in Android 2.2). This also means this device is NOT flash capable.Original source: Unofficial User Discussion Forums, RefundMirror: 1 - Fullscreen

虎翼商城作为国内比较早的专业销售山寨笔记本电脑，山寨平板的直销网站。目前针对卓尼斯CE版、android 2.1版的软硬件问题：包括CPU质疑造假、电池、WIFI模块、系统经常死机、软件不兼容等问题；由于作为销售商同样的不知情，为维护商城信誉和品质，我们已经在2010年7月31日停止销售此款机型。前期购机的用户凭借收据或者淘宝交易记录凭证可以在商城退款退货（非本站购机客户请自行联系购买商家）。针对此款不成熟的产品对广大客户造成的影响深表歉意。

This is a large retailer of Shanzhai products announcing on the Zenithink forums, declaring a full refund for all Zenithink ZT180 products. Hardware issues include allegations of CPU specification faking, system instability, wifi module failures, software incompatibilities. I did some digging for myself and found benchmarks of the ZT180: JT's Digital World ? Zenithink 10 inches Cortex-A8 Ipad Clone ZT180Linpack:

MFLOPS : 9.878Time: 0.55 SecondsNorm Res: 3.36Precision : 2.220446049250313E-16

Also, Softweg CPU info

unknown p7901a p7901a/p7901a/p7901a/:2.1-update1/ERE27/eng.root.20100704.171303:eng/test-keysProcessor ARMv6-compatible processor rev 5 (v6l) Linux BogoMIPS 1005.97

The combination of the CPU benchmark and the Linpack score means one thing: it is an ARM 11 (ARM v6) CPU with JIT enabled. * * *Part 2Here's more info if you guys aren't going to do more digging for yourself.?????б?׿??˹???*???û??Ĺ?????!????Ҫ???˻?!?˻?!?˻?!?˻?! - MID????̳ - iMP3????Ӱ?? MP3|MP4|MP3??̳|MP4??̳|MP3????|MP4????|??????̳| - Powered by Discuz!Google translate really sucks, so I'll just translate bits of it. This is an 11 page thread on imp3.net of China buyers of the Flatpad/ZT180/Wiipad asking for full refunds on this scam.Zenithink is a Shanzhai laptop company with a focus on the Anyka AK88 chipset. From2009, then started selling Windows CE microtablets for 3xx Yuan, and reaped good profits. Since they wanted to enter the higher-end MID (mobile internet device) product sector, but did not have chipset manufacturing capabilities, they resorted to Remark chips, purchasing Shanghai Tsinghuaic IX2X0 series CPUs, and proceeded to stamp their own logos on the CPUs to be shipped. However, these chips, did not contain A8 Cortex, but ARM11 with a coreclock of 800MHz and supporting 1080p hardware decoding. Right now the chipset only supports MP4 1080p hardware decoding, and does not actually support any other formats! Since ARM Cortex A8 processors process data at an efficiency of double of ARM11, this is clearly an act of trickery and deception in advertising.* * *Part 3For any shops who are sneaking in here to dispute the fact that their tablets have fake specifications: JIT ARTIFICALLY INFLATES BENCHMARK SCORES. An ARM11 CPU with JIT results in scores 2-3 times higher in Dalvik based benchmarks. The i5700, an ARM11 800MHz CPU, reaches up to 8MFLOPs on Linpack with JIT enabled. With the CPU at 1GHz, it falls right into the range of 9-10 MFLOPs seen in every Zenithink benchmark. This makes it very likely that it is an ARM 11 based CPUTypical clock-per-clock benchmarks for A8Cortex are at least 20-30% higher compared to ARM11 cores, for both OMAP 3430 and Snapdragon CPUs. THe Samsung Galaxy S CPU, the most efficient A8Cortex on the market, has a Linpack of 8.5 MFLOPs. A benchmark score at 1GHz at 9-10 MFLOPs without JIT enabled is IMPOSSIBLE for an A8Cortex CPU or any CPU on the market today. The Nexus One scores a maximum of 7 MFLOPs at 1 GHz without JIT on Android 2.1. 9MFLOPs would indicate that the CPU has to be at least 20-30% more efficient (impossible for the same architecture), or has a clockspeed faster by that same percentage. From this it is obvious that it is NOT A8 Cortex. * * *Part 4Update 9amET, Aug 2On the same thread where a poster has issued an official update for Android 2.1 on Zenithink tablets, the same poster, who claims to be a representative from Zenithink, claims that the ZT180 was never listed as an A8 Cortex processor. Clearly playing games here. This is not a verified poster, but we'll continue to get more information on this.

你好，对于cpu不是ARM V7 而是ARM V6 架构 的质疑，如何看待卓尼斯公司从来没有过官方的书面或者官方网站上公布过所用的芯片是ARM V7的架构。

* * *Part 5On the Orphan M16, I have yet to see what is inside it, but I have no reason to believe in them or Chinagrabber whatsoever. I can ask my Shanzhai contacts about Orphan, but from what I've seen of these guys I wouldn't trust them at all.* * *Part 6Update Aug 2 5pm ETI was reading xda developers and stumbled upon more specifications: Zenithink ZT-180 1GHz 10" tablet - Page 2 - Android Forums

Specs update.CPU - IMAPX200 r5 (over 1000 bogoMIPS) But this is odd, because it is identified as ARMv6TEJ - This may be closely related to the Shouying PID1110. I'm confused by this as it would indicate that we have an ARM11 and not a CortexA8 as described. Can anyone confirm the CortexA8 is there?GPU - Vivante GC600 :: Vivante Corporation I Products/Mobile Visual Reality ::

nice specsCurrent driver is OpenGL 1.1 so that's why some OpenGL apps are failing.Frame buffer and crossbar combiner is not supported, but DOT3 and cube maps are there.Confirmed 256MB RAM, but only about 90MB is available after boot.uses a zenithink 2 axis accelerometer.

* * *Part 7I analyzed the system dump here: http://www.slatedroid.com/f27/zenit...t-armv7-a8-cortex-3787/index19.html#post28916The device boots with the string '#<4>CPU: ARMv6-compatible processor [4117b365] revision 5 (ARMv6TEJ), cr=00c5387f'

 

[focusedone]

this is correct, only the Orphan M16 has been confirmed to have the Cortex A8 and Android 2.1 system.

 

[focusedone]

the first review of the 10.2" Android Tablet was done here, with benchmarks: http://www.apad.tv/apadforum/entry....-Computer-released-(sub-300-USD-Super-Tablet)

 

[xaueious]

You need to stop selling it. That's false advertisement. It does not have the A8 Cortex!

 

[Willo]

You need to stop selling it. That's false advertisement. It does not have the A8 Cortex!

It is Zenthinks fault, no retailers if the CPU was falsely labelled and sold. And i can confirm the Flatpad atleast runs at 1ghz , the fact the cpu was falsely sold means little too the end user, they still get over 8 times the speed of the eken M001.

 

[JamesH]

to be an ARM 11 variant, with the Android OS running with the highly unstable JIT Dalvik engine (stable only in Android 2.2). [/B]

WTF IS THIS IS STABLE ON ANDROID 2.2 WHY IN THE HELL THEY DON'T GIVE US THE DAMN ANDROID 2.2 INSTEAD OF THE FRIGGIN 2.1 ???If it does support 2.2 it should support flash as only 2.2 has official flash support....

 

[tkoluncher]

looks like zt-180 and flatpad sellers on this forum are dead... http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/ma...ink-epad-follows-kmarts-gentouch-to-us-marketthey are the same..also, the factory is refunding all orders!!! http://www.zenithink.com.nu/forum.ph...extra=page=1

 

[cutterjohn]

http://www.zenithink.com.nu/forum.ph...extra=page%3D1[/url]

They must've had to hack in kernel strings(or mess with the CPU IDs) to hide the CPU type, as even if you can't access /proc/cpuinfo there should've been some initial CPU init line in the ring buffer accessible via dmesg... I wonder if they messed with the CPU IDs and there were Cortex-A8 specific things in the kernel that were causing stability problems... also might be why they were reluctant to release source...

 

[hiphop101]

OMG... ya, they probably hacked the kernel strings... man, first fake mp4's with hacked memory, now tablet pcs with fake cpus... if there could be a reliable maker of quality droid tablets with TRUE Specs and upgraded ones at that, then someone could strike it rich. All people really want is what they paid for.

 

[ateist75]

This is really bad, i have a ZT-180 on the way! is this really correct information???

 

[marcjacobs]

i wanna refund on my flatpad zt-180 a.s.a.p. first the stalled the release to show us their "branded" epad A10 boxes, now this. thanks for doing the test and proving this unit was really flat xaueious

 

[xaueious]

Chinese suppliers are refunding all purchases, what are you waiting for?On BBS imp3 and even on the official Zenithink forums, this is CONFIRMED. There is no ARMv7 in this at all! They are using JIT to artificially boost benchmark scores. You end up getting what you pay for, which is an ARM 11 based Android tablet for around $200. This is an act of CPU remarking

 

[i2Paq]

Wauw, I was just about to buy a lot of these.

 

[JamesH]

Yeah the problem is that it's a buggy mess...i mean, if this tablet where working right it would have been a good deal for 200$...so only the orhpan m16 is the real deal ???

 

[marcjacobs]

[quote name='JamesH;27286]Yeah the problem is that it's a buggy mess...i mean' date=' if this tablet where working right it would have been a good deal for 200$...so only the orhpan m16 is the real deal ???[/QUOTE'] that's what it looks like.

 

[wickedkortex]

what you think about this device?zenpad4 (http://enso-now.com/zenpad4also Fake CPU or ok like Orphan

 

[enso-now]

what you think about this device?zenpad4 (http://enso-now.com/zenpad4also Fake CPU or ok like Orphan

After having learned this, we are switching immediately to orphan m16 chipset for our zenPad 4. Thanks for the head up !Alberto ArmandiEnso LimitedCEO

 

[focusedone]

[quote name='enso-now;27355]After having learned this' date=' we are switching immediately to orphan m16 chipset for our zenPad 4. Thanks for the head up !Alberto ArmandiEnso LimitedCEO[/QUOTE'] Smart Move.

 

[MapleLeaf Tablets]

Can someone confirm or deny.... it makes no difference what unit board/cpu you use because there are NO Cortex suppliers ? including Orphan.this seems to be what is being said. Is it so? Sellers and buyers need to know.

 

[focusedone]

Orphan M16 is confirmed. Not sure what you want to do with your ZT-180 / Flatpad now... I think zenithink will refund you your money if you are in China.