Android 4.4: important turning point run smoother and increase smartphone battery life

Throughout history, rapid growth and prolong choppy 5 years, compared with operating system version first, almost every aspect or feature of Android 4.4 has been changed. Every time Google releases a new version of Android, which are updated or upgraded fairly comprehensive, but everything except the most important: Dalvik. Accordingly, the virtual machine is responsible for running most Android apps remain like this since the first day. And to this point, Dalvik has revealed signs of age, slowness is visible. To keep pace and meet the demand for higher levels of users, Google has decided to use ART (short for Android Runtime) on the Android operating system version 4.4 to replace Dalvik KitKat. ART first version integrates with Android 4.4 can accelerate applications by 100%, while the complete version will be even better.



When you run the software on electronic devices, such as PC or smartphone, almost always your machine to run the compiler "compiled code". The compiler is responsible for shifting the source code written in a high level language into object code or machine language which can be executed directly by a computer or by a virtual machine. For example, if you open an EXE file, you will see the compiler "gobbledegook" help CPU can perform load cycle to start the application. Windows, web browser, Crysis 3, Linux, iOS apps are all examples that use the compiler.

Next, we are a different kind of code interpreter called "interpreted code" with many different types, but have one thing in common is that they can not be done directly by the CPU load. First, the interpreter must be decoded into machine code by a process called translation system JIT (Just-in-time). For example, the most popular of the JavaScript interpreter, according to which, the web browser will compile / interpreter code when a user visits a web page using JavaScript.

In addition, a typical example of the Java and Dalvik interpreter is essentially a "Google version" of Java. With Java, developers can write applications once only, and then convert it into the language of the hardware platform through an "interpreter" named Java Virtual Machine.Explains a lot, but we can generally shortened to the point that Google has decided to use the Dalvik virtual machine for Android app. This way, a developer can write a single application Dalvik and be assured that it will run on smartphones, tablets, TVs or other devices.


The chart shows the performance of JavaScript (red / green) than when compiling the source code (orange).

But now, the shortcomings of the interpreter "interpreted code" is it really slow. For example, JavaScript can be up to 20 times slower than the same code compiled with C or C + +. Java / Dalvik is not too slow, but can not compare with the speed of the original compiler. In many cases, especially with the processor's advanced 4, the speed difference is very clear. We can not be blamed entirely for the cause Dalvik Android devices lag or battery power, but this is certainly an important factor causing this. Basically, the Dalvik interpreter takes longer to decode and to calculate more CPU, so it directly reduces the battery life and smoother overall mobile device.

Android Runtime - ART

While using session Dalvik JIT (Just-in-time) to decode, ART on Android 4.4 using process AOT (Ahead-Of-Time). First visible effect of shortening the time it is decoded meaning shorten boot time, help applications launch time 2 times faster than the old Dalvik process. By activating ART, each Android application will be compiled into native code when you install it. Then, when you launch the application, it will act as a root application installed on your computer.



Currently, ART is still in the experimental stage, but you can still activate it on the machine running KitKat Nexus by going to Settings> Developer options> Select runtime, then just wait for the machine to reboot. This change also accounts for part of the machine capacity (increased about 10% to 20%) because your code is still being finalized. Maybe you will not notice the change of AOT for small applications, but for larger applications, the delay will be remedied. In addition, the main advantages of ART is to allow Android developers continue to write code and run on multiple handsets with different hardware configurations.



ART has been tested and Vietnam expressed its advantages: increased battery life, smoother handling and speed up application open. Once ART is fully developed, the current Android OS can be "disappeared", but instead is a new operating system faster, more powerful and more Vietnamese priority. Benefits are more easily seen when you run compute-intensive applications such as photo editing or video editing. At the same time we can hope for a smooth run Android as what iOS or Windows Phone has done.