Google Android Boss Sundar Pichai Announcing The Android L Emulator

Since its release at the Google I/O 2014 event  at the end of June, it has been possible for developers to get their hands on Android “L”, the newest version of the operating system from Mountain View. 64-bit is one of the core features of Android L, but without any previous optimization of apps, the extra-bits advantage does not come naturally.

At the time of this unveiling, Android boss Sundar Pichai said that the platform will be optimized for 64-bit applications, but since then not much information have been released. But that could soon change, now that Google has released a 64-bit developer preview emulator image of Android L.

According to the Google blog post, the advantages of the official 64-bit support by Android L will be much larger addressable memory area, an enhanced instruction set for a greater efficiency of the code and a generally better performance.

More concentration on hardware

Google’s first Android emulator image for 64-bit chips currently only supports x86 processors such as Intel’s Bay Trail, Moorefield, and Merrifield chips. It’s possible that ARM support will come later.

The applications developed in Java automatically enjoy the novelty, without requiring any changes to the existing code. The software developed in other languages with the Android NDK can be compiled for the 64-bit architecture to access all the new features. Google also warns that some applications may not work in the emulator, and the performance gains will be noticeable only in the resource-intensive applications, and heavy games.

This release targets app developers to test and optimize their existing and upcoming apps for the 64bit architecture. A 64 bit environment will allow developers to recognize devices with more than 4 GB of RAM thus allowing manufacturers to include higher RAMs on future devices. This development kit will help developers make better 64 bit optimized apps so when Android L rolls out, there will be plenty of apps ready to take the hardware advantage.

The package is aimed at developers who want to test their app, so you can start to introduce the benefits offered by the architecture. This is a step forward for the green robot, although it remains to know when Google will release the emulator for ARMv8, so developers can take advantage of the computing power of new CPUs produced by Qualcomm and NVIDIA.

Developers can head over to the Android Developers website to download NDK revision 10b to get started testing their 64-bit focused apps.