Background agents will be limited to 10% CPU and 5 MB memory
1 min. read
Published on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more
One thing Microsoft emphasized over and over again at MIX 11 was the maintaining the user experience, despite the introduction of new features like multi-tasking.
As part of this initiative Microsoft will be managing the new Background Agents very closely. The agents will be able to consume only 10% of CPU processing resources and only 5 MB of memory.
In addition the OS will schedule the Agent processes, in an effort to preserve battery life. While on battery, most agents will only be able to run for 15 seconds every half an hour, for example, to keep checking in to a location-based social network. While charging, the process could run for a whole 10 minutes at a time, for example, to download a podcast.
Lastly, of course the user will be able to terminate background agents to gain even more control over power consumption, using the UI included in Mango.
All in all, it sounds like Microsoft is toeing the fine line between the iPhone model and the “everything goes” Android model very well, and certainly more sophisticatedly than was previously expected.
