Android on x86

Android on x86: an Introduction to Optimizing for Intel® Architecture serves two main purposes.  First, it makes the case for adapting your applications onto Intel’s x86 architecture, including discussions of the business potential, the changing landscape of the Android marketplace, and the unique challenges and opportunities that arise from x86 devices.  The fundamental idea is that extending your applications to support x86 or creating new ones is not difficult, but it is imperative to know all of the technicalities. This book is dedicated to providing you with an awareness of these nuances and an understanding of how to tackle them.

Second, and most importantly, this book provides a one-stop detailed resource for best practices and procedures associated with the installation issues, hardware optimization issues, software requirements, programming tasks, and performance optimizations that emerge when developers consider the x86 Android devices. Optimization discussions dive into native code, hardware acceleration, and advanced profiling of multimedia applications. The authors have collected this information so that you can use the book as a guide for the specific requirements of each application project.

This book is not dedicated solely to code; instead it is filled with the information you need in order to take advantage of x86 architecture.  It will guide you through installing the Android SDK for Intel Architecture, help you understand the differences and similarities between processor architectures available in Android devices, teach you to create and port applications, debug existing x86 applications, offer solutions for NDK and C++ optimizations, and introduce the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager. This book provides the most useful information to help you get the job done quickly while utilizing best practices.

What you’ll learn

• The development-relevant differences between Android on ARM and Android on Intel x86
• How to set up the SDK for an emulated Intel Android device
• How to build the Android OS for the Intel Mobile Processor
• How to create new x86 based Android applications, set up testing and performance tuning, and port existing Android applications to work with the x86 processor
• How to debug problems they encounter when working on the x86 Android test platform
• Intricacies of the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager. The reader will also gain significant insight into the OpenGL Android support.

Who this book is for

• Android developers
• Hardware designers who need to understand how Android will work on their processors
• CIOs and CEOs of technology-based companies
• IT staff who may encounter or need to understand the issues
• New startup founders and entrepreneurs
• Computer science students

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: History and Evolution of the Android OS
Chapter 2: The Mobile Device and Operating System Landscape
Chapter 3: Beyond the Mobile App—A Technology Foundation
Chapter 4: Android Development— Business Overview and Considerations
Chapter 5: The Intel Mobile Processor
Chapter 6: Installing the Android SDK for Intel Application Development
Chapter 7: Creating and Porting NDK-Based Android Applications
Chapter 8: Debugging Android
Chapter 9: Performance Optimizations for Android Applications on x86
Chapter 10: x86 NDK and C/C++ Optimizations
Chapter 11: Using Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux to Speed Up Android on x86 Emu…
Chapter 12: Performance Testing and Profiling Apps with Platform Tuning