Google’s mobile OS has come a long way from where it started and to take this further, the Android emulator has now been refreshed. Apart from performance upgrades, it includes a host of hardware support attributes such as multi-finger input and sensors.
This new version arrives with built-in GPU support and facilitates improved CPU functioning. Hardware floating point operation has been available right since the ICS update was rolled out. It allows for faster emulation of CPU operations, at almost twice the initial speed.
Moreover, the r17 tools will pack in x86 system host drivers and images which enable the software to feel out the host CPU natively. Considering the OS permits interaction with system components and apps, the emulator comes in with a full system image. The build is meant to render complete device virtualization including elements like app framework, kernel, hardware and low-level system libraries.
“The missing pieces were the completion of Android x86 and the GPU support in last week’s release of SDK Tools r17. This works by funneling the OpenGL ES 2.0 instructions from the emulator to the host OS, converted to standard OpenGL 2.0, and running natively on the host GPU,” reads a post on the official Android Developer blog.
As mentioned above, the major improvements include Android x86 compatibility and GPU support that was revealed with SDK Tools r17. This operates by primarily filtering the OpenGL ES 2.0 instructions from the emulator to the host OS.
The Android emulator update is basically designed to help developers test and build apps more efficiently.