In a recent blog post, Google unwrapped some exciting achievements of the Android Runtime (ART) compiler. It detailed every bit of the ART journey, and how it improved the Android performance since the launch of Android 12. The developers shared some insights about the present system and even shared some glimpses of the future possibilities with ART 14.
Must See: Google to turn ART into Mainline module with Android 12 for quicker system updates
Android Runtime improves the updates and enhances the ability of manufacturers and Google developers to publish new compiler optimization through Google Play System updates rather than the OTA updates. Further, it improves the ability to push out upstream OpenJDL fixes more swiftly. It even helps to deliver faster updates to OpenJDK core language and fixes runtime and compiler security issues rapidly.
Apart from the above developer-based improvements, the ART results in faster app startup times, execution, and improved memory usage. In statistics, the app startup time is improved by up to 30% on some devices.
The ART Apex module further magnifies the ART benefits. “The ART APEX module is a complex piece of software with an order of magnitude more APIs than any other APEX module. It also backs a quarter of the developer APIs available in the Android SDK. In addition, ART has a compiler that aims to make the most of the underlying hardware by generating chipset-specific instructions, such as Arm SVE.”
It offers quite a strict testing process, that involves “compiling over 18 million APKs and running app compatibility tests, and startup, performance, and memory benchmarks on a variety of Android devices that replicate the diversity of our ecosystem as closely as possible.”
Following such a success with the ART 13 compiler, Google is inching towards the launch of ART 14 which is expected to carry some big improvements. It will bring “new compiler and runtime optimizations that improve performance while reducing code size,” and will support OpenJDK 17.
Related: Android 14 Beta 5.1 fixes minor bugs, stable release imminent
Some other changes are also making debut with the Android 14. “Recently, for Android 14, we refactored the interface between the Package Manager, the service that determines how to install and update apps, and ART. This moves the OS boundary from the ART dex2oat command line to a well-defined interface that enables future optimizations, such as finer-grained control over the compilation mode.“
Such large scale changes will definately further enhance the performance and stability of the system and the apps on Android.
