Google announces that it will actively develop Android for RISC-V



It turns out that Google is developing Android optimized for the instruction set architecture 'RISC-V'. Google, who took the stage at the ``RISC-V Summit'' held in December 2022, hopes to consider RISC-V as a ``Tier 1 (top priority) platform'', but the view that it will take several years to realize is shown.

Google announces official Android support for RISC-V | Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-official-android-support-for-risc-v/

Keynote: The Android Open Source Project and RISC-V - Lars Bergstrom, Google Director of Engineering - YouTube


According to Ars Technica, who reported on this matter, Google last mentioned RISC-V at the annual developer conference `` Google I / O '' in May 2022. At this time, Google was reluctant to answer, 'We are paying attention, but it will be a big change for us.' I made a strong declaration.'

According to slides presented by Android's Director of Engineering Lars Bergstrom, the next goal is to develop the Android Runtime, optimizations and the Cuttlefish emulator . Bergstrom promised to improve the quality of RISC-V and aim for a 'best-in-class processor', but a lot of work is required to achieve an optimized Android build on RISC-V, and it will not be realized. said it would take several years.



According to the roadmap, it will support an initial emulator by early 2023 and support Android RunTime for Java workloads during the first quarter.

Regarding Google's RISC-V development, Ars Technica speculates that the 'instability' of Arm's architectural design is boosting. SoftBank-owned Arm has been talking about acquiring NVIDIA since 2020, but the deal has been suspended by regulators around the world. After the deal fell through, Arm turned to suing one of its biggest customers, Qualcomm, over its acquisition of chip designer Nuvia.

Both Qualcomm and Nuvia have top-of-the-line licenses for the Arm architecture, allowing them to design custom chips based on the Arm architecture. Arm claims that the two companies are in breach of contract, but Qualcomm argues that everything is fine. Arm is reportedly asking Qualcomm to scrap Nuvia's chip design and start over.

In addition to such unstable trends, Chinese high-tech companies are gathering on RISC-V as the chip architecture of the future, Ars Technica said, ``It makes sense for Google to open the door to official support. It can be said that it is fulfilled,” he concluded.

in Software, Posted by log1p_kr