German firm claims huge boost in Android app performance, battery life with new virtual machine -- Engadget
At the core of Anrdoid lies a little bundle of code known as the Dalvik virtual machine, a runtime environment for Java apps that's specifically optimized for hardware with limited memory and processor power -- you know, the kind of situation you find in your average smartphone. The relative success of the Android Market suggests that Dalvik's getting the job done on some level (as long as you're not looking for a texture-intense FPS), but the fact that Google bothered to create a separate native development kit to speed up intensive operations certainly serves as a damning counterpoint. Enter German firm Myriad -- a founding and code-contributing member of the OHA, coincidentally -- which is touting this week that it's crafted a much higher-performance replacement for Dalvik, appropriately known as "Dalvik Turbo." Just how much higher-performance are we talking? Myriad claims apps run in Dalvik Turbo "up to three times" faster, all while reducing battery drain and giving devs the power they need to create graphically intense games. Even better, it apparently maintains complete compatibility with existing Android apps and is available for all the key mobile platforms -- ARM, Atom, and MIPS included -- and is virtually guaranteed to make you sob uncontrollably to learn that your Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, or 2.1-based device isn't using it. It'll be on display at MWC next week, so we're looking forward to finally seeing Gang Wars humming along at 60fps on a G1.
At the core of Anrdoid lies a little bundle of code known as the Dalvik virtual machine, a runtime environment for Java apps that's specifically optimized for hardware with limited memory and processor power -- you know, the kind of situation you find in your average smartphone. The relative success of the Android Market suggests that Dalvik's getting the job done on some level (as long as you're not looking for a texture-intense FPS), but the fact that Google bothered to create a separate native development kit to speed up intensive operations certainly serves as a damning counterpoint. Enter German firm Myriad -- a founding and code-contributing member of the OHA, coincidentally -- which is touting this week that it's crafted a much higher-performance replacement for Dalvik, appropriately known as "Dalvik Turbo." Just how much higher-performance are we talking? Myriad claims apps run in Dalvik Turbo "up to three times" faster, all while reducing battery drain and giving devs the power they need to create graphically intense games. Even better, it apparently maintains complete compatibility with existing Android apps and is available for all the key mobile platforms -- ARM, Atom, and MIPS included -- and is virtually guaranteed to make you sob uncontrollably to learn that your Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, or 2.1-based device isn't using it. It'll be on display at MWC next week, so we're looking forward to finally seeing Gang Wars humming along at 60fps on a G1.
