64-bit Android May Not Arrive In

2023 Author: Gordon Kinson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 08:36

Six months after Apple's presentation of the latest 64-bit A7 processor, there is still no answer from competitors, and it is unlikely that it will be given at best by autumn. This is due to the fundamental difference between the two platforms and open Android in this respect turned out to be much more vulnerable than iOS with its strict rules.

And if you look at it, the problem looks extremely confusing at all, but we will try to understand what the problem is.

There is only one 64-bit processor for mobile gadgets on the planet in the current time period, and it is installed on the only smartphone model - the flagship iPhone 5S. Intel and Qualcomm laboratories already have their own versions of chips with an architecture of a similar bit depth, but they do not have a complete driver package, only the required minimum. Their development is the lot of a separate caste of professional programmers who have practically nothing in common with those who develop applications for the environment itself.

Adapting Linux solutions and tools for the new ARM architecture is a very time-consuming task and programmers just don't want to take on it. For example, the Linaro consortium says that they will slowly work in this direction until the situation clears up and there is an incentive to work 100%. Namely - until Google presents a new, already 64-bit version of Android OS. Because writing drivers at random, without knowing its specifics, is simply unreasonable. But there is no such version, at least the latest KitKat is still 32-bit. And it is not clear at what stage the work on the new version is and whether they are being carried out at all.

On the other hand, emulation of the environment allows you to run 64-bit applications on platforms with the old architecture at the very least. And the multi-faceted community of independent developers may well start writing a new type of program in large quantities, thereby putting pressure on Google and forcing the release of 64-bit Android. But this is also a risk and a considerable, at least, wasted time if all the pieces of the puzzle do not fit into a single picture at the same time.

There is a vicious circle - there is a working prototype of a 64-bit processor, driver developments, the ability to write applications for a new architecture, and the new OS itself is at some stage of readiness. But without progress in one, the next will not develop, and so far no one is in a hurry to take the first step. Everything is so confused that experts could not come to a consensus on what the world will see first - 64-bit Android or 64-bit processor for android smartphones. Inevitably, one should sympathize with fans of this environment and envy those who use Apple products. Even if the Cupertinians had similar problems, they more than successfully solved them last fall.

Last hope - the annual Google I / O conference will take place in July, if the company has a working build of 64-bit Android, then this is the best reason to demonstrate it. However, even in this case, it is not a fact that by the fall and the traditional wave of presentations they will have time to prepare both a full-fledged system, drivers, and even more or less a complete set of applications.

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