Myriad Turns Android into a Beast

Myriad, Europe’s largest mobile software company, aims to radically transform Android and the way applications run on the OS.

Today it announces Dalvik Turbo, a virtual machine that replaces the standard Dalvik engine currently powering apps on Android.

The company says Dalvik Turbo increases application execution speed by up to three times – allowing OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and operators to bring smoother delivery and more complex applications to Android phones, while also providing substantial battery life improvements when running resource intensive tasks.

Games developers are also reported to benefit from the virtual machine, by developing games for Android with improvement greatly improved graphics and gameplay.

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“By bringing together Myriad’s heritage in virtual machines and Linux platforms we have been able to significantly improve the performance of Android handsets, leading to a greatly enhanced user experience with richer applications and games and improved responsiveness.” said Simon Wilkinson, CEO of Myriad Group.

So where do we go from here? With the its virtual machine entirely replacing Android’s current standard Dalvik machine, the process needs to be completed by manufacturers themselves rather than any single developer or user.

OEM’s will be required to buy Dalvik Turbo and install it instead of the existing Dalvik Virtual Machine when they design the handset and create their build of Android for it. Therefore much of the success of the VM lies in the hands of international handset manufacturers.

While it would be technically possible for a user to install Dalvik Turbo on their handset, this would only really be possible if they were an Android developer. The backwards compatibility is important as it means that operators and handset manufacturers can drop it straight in to new handsets without having to re-design or modify the existing software and for developers it means that their apps will continue to work the same, only faster and more efficiently.

Established from the combination of two industry-leading companies, Esmertec and Purple Labs is headquartered in Germany with offices across Europe. The company is heavily involved in several key mobile software sectors, including Mobile Browser, Messaging and Java Engines, having shipped software on more than 2 billion phones.