AMD, BlueStacks Working on Dual-OS Android Solution

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

This week during Mobile World Congress 2014, AMD announced that some AMD-based machines from select retail stores will have the BlueStacks software offered as an added option. This version will be optimized for AMD APUs and Windows 8.1, and be based on the full version of Android 4.3 "Jelly Bean."

This is actually BlueStacks' third product, following the BlueStacks GamePop "console," and the BlueStacks App Player, the latter of which can be downloaded for free from the BlueStacks website. The "Player" version doesn't provide the full Android experience, but lets users play a few games and run a number of apps. This version is also based on the "Ice Cream Sandwich" build, and doesn't provide optimizations for AMD hardware or compatibility with Windows 8.1.

This third new "Premium" product announced this week is a full-blown version of Android on a Windows desktop. This approach enables PCs to run both Windows and Android applications at the same time, and enables users to share files between Windows and Android. OEMs won't need to run separate driver tests and support processes for the two operating systems.

"Not only can you run the latest apps, but through the familiar Android UI you can customize your settings, background, preferences, and alerts," writes AMD's Clarice Simmons. "Virtually everything you do on your Android device can now be done on your PC. You also get full support for the peripherals that are typically leveraged in mobile apps. That means you can take advantage of camera, GPS, accelerometer, and other components in your PC device, just as you would their equivalents in an Android phone or tablet."

Basically, this new offering brings the full Android UI and apps experience to Windows PC, she adds. Simmons goes on to highlight the AMD-specific optimizations of the new BlueStacks Premium product, revealing that the software leverages AMD's Unified Video Decode (UVD) silicon, a fixed-function logic block designed to improve performance when playing videos.

The premium BlueStacks product will also have many low-level microarchitecture-specific performance optimizations designed to leverage APUs. These include zero-copy optimizations for shared memory, floating point unit code tuning, optimizations for faster context switching and more. The new premium product will also have support for AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology.

"The premium product has a multi-OS runtime at its heart, with innovative BlueStacks virtualization technology that leverages AMD's specific hardware extensions designed to perform repetitive tasks normally performed by the CPU and therefore improve resource use and virtual machine (VM) performance," she writes. "This boils down to enabling minimal overhead for a great user performance experience, even on small, low power APUs."

This new BlueStacks solution will first be made available with several key retail partners across EMEA later this year, including Elkjop Group. A North American release is unknown at this point, so stay tuned.

Kevin Parrish
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • JD88
    This would be pretty cool on something like the Dell Venue 8. Run Android when using it in tablet mode, then use Windows when docked at a desktop.
    Reply
  • rokit
    12773222 said:
    This would be pretty cool on something like the Dell Venue 8. Run Android when using it in tablet mode, then use Windows when docked at a desktop.
    Both Ubuntu and KDE teams thought about that long time ago(3+ years ago) and even had some basic things to show. Smartphone/tablet has UI suited for touch devices and when docked to pc has regular desktop UI + you can run the same programs since they're opsensource(just compiled for ARM). However neither project is alive today because of lack of money :/
    Reply
  • Grandmastersexsay
    Android as an OS really is garbage. Its only positive is that it is leaps and bounds ahead of iOS. From programs that crash 10 times more than a PC program would, to not being able to do simple tasks like print to a shared windows printer, Android is a joke. I can't help but feel much of the instability stems from Android's heavy reliance on Java. Maybe when we get an x86 phone we will start to see real operating systems.
    Reply
  • house70
    Android as an OS really is garbage. Its only positive is that it is leaps and bounds ahead of iOS. From programs that crash 10 times more than a PC program would, to not being able to do simple tasks like print to a shared windows printer, Android is a joke. I can't help but feel much of the instability stems from Android's heavy reliance on Java. Maybe when we get an x86 phone we will start to see real operating systems.
    I could suggest Printershare as an app for printing. I use it at home, at work and even for cloud printing without a problem. The biggest snag was to select the proper drivers for the printer. As far as instability, it is once in a blue moon that I have an app crash on me; I know which app is causing it, and I avoid it. Some apps are not optimized for ART, but for Dalvik. Once ART becomes mainstream I expect even better stability. As a suggestion, maybe you could pick alternative apps to the ones that keep crashing your phone.
    Reply
  • digitalvampire
    Both Ubuntu and KDE teams thought about that long time ago(3+ years ago) and even had some basic things to show. Smartphone/tablet has UI suited for touch devices and when docked to pc has regular desktop UI + you can run the same programs since they're opsensource(just compiled for ARM). However neither project is alive today because of lack of money :/
    It wasn't the lack of funding that prevented Canonical/Ubuntu from doing this, it was the lack of in-house LOW LEVEL TECHNICAL talent. They pretty much only have cosmetic guys. Just look at their kernel contributions. There are next to zero, if not zero. That's why they are often referred to as "Apple of the Linux world". Not a lot of original contributions, just lots of cleanup and presentation, which they do fairly well.
    Reply
  • koolkei
    well we've been seeing some really aggresive marketing from AMD these few months.they've been partnering with a lot of developers recently
    Reply
  • JD88
    12773974 said:
    Android as an OS really is garbage. Its only positive is that it is leaps and bounds ahead of iOS. From programs that crash 10 times more than a PC program would, to not being able to do simple tasks like print to a shared windows printer, Android is a joke. I can't help but feel much of the instability stems from Android's heavy reliance on Java. Maybe when we get an x86 phone we will start to see real operating systems.

    Blatant troll, but I'll bite.

    I've had an application crash once on an Android device in the past 6 months. Once. It's generally flawless in terms of stability, especially on KitKat, and that should only improve with ART. Also, you can print to a Windows shared printer, there are many applications out there designed for just that purpose. I think maybe you should do a little research before you spout off nonsense like this, or maybe just move to Windows Phone and see how that walled garden treats you in terms of functionality. How much is MS paying you to shill for them again?

    Reply
  • Grandmastersexsay
    Well I have never found a printer app that prints to a shared windows printer. I have found them for network printers, but not a printer hooked up to a windows 7 PC. Even if there is one out there that I missed during my several hour search, this should be a basic function provided by the OS itself.

    As for one crash in 6 months, you are either full of crap or don't use your phone at all. All of the browsers crash frequently. They do this on iOS too. I have never used a windows phone, but I would assume it is no better.
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    Well I have never found a printer app that prints to a shared windows printer. I have found them for network printers, but not a printer hooked up to a windows 7 PC. Even if there is one out there that I missed during my several hour search, this should be a basic function provided by the OS itself.As for one crash in 6 months, you are either full of crap or don't use your phone at all. All of the browsers crash frequently. They do this on iOS too. I have never used a windows phone, but I would assume it is no better.
    Do you think Microsoft cares if your Dell PC is crashing every 6 hours? Do you blame Windows when your ATI video card drivers crash? Do you blame Windows when your power supply browns out and BSOD's your system? Do you blame Windows for java memory leaks that cause their apps to crash?If you have problems with your android phone, then maybe you should buy one from Google instead of AT&T/Sprint/Verizon. After purchasing a nexus device, if your built in google apps start crashing every 6 hours then feel free to blame google/android. I would still call this an EBKAC as your phone is obviously broken if this happens, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.Troll on..
    Reply
  • JD88
    12779812 said:
    Well I have never found a printer app that prints to a shared windows printer. I have found them for network printers, but not a printer hooked up to a windows 7 PC. Even if there is one out there that I missed during my several hour search, this should be a basic function provided by the OS itself.

    As for one crash in 6 months, you are either full of crap or don't use your phone at all. All of the browsers crash frequently. They do this on iOS too. I have never used a windows phone, but I would assume it is no better.

    Using Chrome and Chrome Beta and I've never had an issue. One time I was in the middle of a Hangout call and I got the message "Unfortunately Hangouts has stopped." I had never seen that before and I remember laughing at the time about how I thought I had escaped that sort of nonsense when I completely left Windows behind over a year ago. I haven't seen it again since.

    I haven't turned my phone off since I got the upgrade to 4.3 last fall and it's still running like butter. I invite anyone to try that on Windows.
    Reply