AMD Zen CPUs get Android Emulator support from Hyper-V

[The Benjamins]

Quote

Today, you can download the latest Android Emulator release, which is enabled to run x86 based Android Virtual Devices (AVD) on computers that use AMD processors. This exciting update makes the Android Emulator more accessible to a new set of Android app developers that were previously limited to software emulation, but can now have hardware accelerated performance. Moreover, for those of you who use Hyper-V to run your local app backend, the Android Emulator can now also coexist with other Hyper-V-backed applications on Windows® 10.

 

It is nice to see Android Emulator get Hyper-V support to get better AMD support. Hyper-V support should help a lot in the Server space that uses Windows Server.

 

40 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

You're reading it wrong. Hyper-V support for AMD was already a thing, it's just that you can now run the Android Emulator on AMD CPUs and also on AMD based Hyper-V environments.

Im stupid now fixed

 

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2018/07/android-emulator-amd-processor-hyper-v.html?m=1

[NelizMastr]

You're reading it wrong. Hyper-V support for AMD was already a thing, it's just that you can now run the Android Emulator on AMD CPUs and also on AMD based Hyper-V environments.

[rcmaehl]

2 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

I... can I... does this mean I could use android without ever buying an android phone? O_O

Yes,

 

Android X86 has been a thing as well if you want to completely replace your Operating System with Android or run it from a VM. There also BlueStacks which used to be good but is now filled with Adware and a had ton of features removed.

[rcmaehl]

5 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

SWEET HONEYBALLS i have to look into this. not sure what the EULA says about casual use of the emulator but AAA virtual Android phone in my PC

HowToGeek has a guide on how to install:

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/164570/how-to-install-android-in-virtualbox/

[AskTJ]

Android on Windows? I'm doing this tomorrow. Tired of using Bluestacks for all these years.

[Doobeedoo]

That's neat.

Maybe one day we'll see super efficient x86 APU in smartphones, that'd be amazing. 

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, Doobeedoo said:

That's neat.

Maybe one day we'll see super efficient x86 APU in smartphones, that'd be amazing. 

I doubt that.

The Acorn Risc Machine was developed to be efficient from the Beginning - x86 was not.

 

And there are no real good lowest power Designs, the last ones (AMD Beema, Mullins & co) weren't that successful although rather low power but not low power enough for a real mobile device like a smartphone.

We are talking about a couple of Milliwatts here...

Both, x86 and ARM, have their strong points. And their place in the world.

And right now it seems that the Acorn designs are better for lower power devices but x86/AMD64 is better for higher power machines, where you want efficiency but also as much calculating performance as possible.

[schwellmo92]

Now they just need to ship Ryzen workstationy laptops and I’ll be sold  

[Trixanity]

7 minutes ago, schwellmo92 said:

Now they just need to ship Ryzen workstationy laptops and I’ll be sold  

Does this help? Or is it power you need?

[Doobeedoo]

42 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

I doubt that.

The Acorn Risc Machine was developed to be efficient from the Beginning - x86 was not.

 

And there are no real good lowest power Designs, the last ones (AMD Beema, Mullins & co) weren't that successful although rather low power but not low power enough for a real mobile device like a smartphone.

We are talking about a couple of Milliwatts here...

Both, x86 and ARM, have their strong points. And their place in the world.

And right now it seems that the Acorn designs are better for lower power devices but x86/AMD64 is better for higher power machines, where you want efficiency but also as much calculating performance as possible.

Yeah. Though, with Zen and lower node it would be exciting to see a low power part.

[Stefan Payne]

19 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Yeah. Though, with Zen and lower node it would be exciting to see a low power part.

Yes, that would be great.

And maybe we will see something like that. A 2-4 Core Part with SMT and like 256 Shaders and HBM Interface (like 4-8GiB) would be nice and clockrates also on the lower side.

 

And it is IMO possible that we might see something like that with the Playstation Mobile Device that might come again...

[LAwLz]

3 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

And there are no real good lowest power Designs, the last ones (AMD Beema, Mullins & co) weren't that successful although rather low power but not low power enough for a real mobile device like a smartphone.

We are talking about a couple of Milliwatts here...

Ehm... What? What do you think uses a couple of miliwatts? If you think ARM SoCs uses that little power you're very off the mark. The Snapdragon 845 runs at like 4-4.5 watts on the upper end (for example during mobile gaming). 

[yian88]

6 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

I... can I... does this mean I could use android without ever buying an android phone? O_O

 

6 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Yes,

 

Android X86 has been a thing as well if you want to completely replace your Operating System with Android or run it from a VM. There also BlueStacks which used to be good but is now filled with Adware and a had ton of features removed.

 

6 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

SWEET HONEYBALLS i have to look into this. not sure what the EULA says about casual use of the emulator but AAA virtual Android phone in my PC

 

 

GUYS this is android Emulator for developers using Android SDK, which previously only worked on Intel CPU's, as far as i know when i tried developing for android on my fx8300 my app wouldnt run with hardware emulation only software, it was really slow and seemed broken to me.

 

At the same time they are getting support for running in Hyper-V so you can run multiple emulations on same machine ithink.

[NumLock21]

In other news you can also run Android on a VM

[-rascal-]

4 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

I doubt that.

The Acorn Risc Machine was developed to be efficient from the Beginning - x86 was not.

 

And there are no real good lowest power Designs, the last ones (AMD Beema, Mullins & co) weren't that successful although rather low power but not low power enough for a real mobile device like a smartphone.

We are talking about a couple of Milliwatts here...

Both, x86 and ARM, have their strong points. And their place in the world.

And right now it seems that the Acorn designs are better for lower power devices but x86/AMD64 is better for higher power machines, where you want efficiency but also as much calculating performance as possible.

 

I remember the ASUS Zenfone 2 (various flavors?) used an Intel Atom CPU, instead of an Qualcomm / ARM chip.

 

I remembering thinking it would be something neat to mess around with, something different, to experiment with.

You don't often see smartphones running on Intel hardware -- or anything other then ARM for that matter.

 

[schwellmo92]

12 hours ago, Trixanity said:

Does this help? Or is it power you need?

Not enough power. They really need to put the 2700X in a laptop for me to not go with Intel. I’m an AMD fanboy but in the mobile space there is no contest between an AMD solution versus an Intel/Nvidia solution.

 

im actually looking to upgrade my work laptop in the next few months and if AMD don’t come out with some serious power I’ll be unfortunately going with another Intel/Nvidia combo. Most likely another Dell XPS with the 8950HK/1050ti

[Trixanity]

2 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

Not enough power. They really need to put the 2700X in a laptop for me to not go with Intel. I’m an AMD fanboy but in the mobile space there is no contest between an AMD solution versus an Intel/Nvidia solution.

 

im actually looking to upgrade my work laptop in the next few months and if AMD don’t come out with some serious power I’ll be unfortunately going with another Intel/Nvidia combo. Most likely another Dell XPS with the 8950HK/1050ti

This is the most power I can give you but it's a gaming laptop and not workstation-ish like a Latitude or ThinkPad. Still, it's more powerful than the setup you're considering.

 

The next batch of laptop processors from AMD will be 45W quad cores (or basically the existing chips I showed you but with a bigger TDP) and the Pro version will probably come even later anyway. So if you need all those cores your only option is the gaming machines because they're more likely to take risks and make the money back through price gouging.

 

The selection of AMD laptops is still quite small. I hope Zen2 on 7nm will help broaden the selection. I suspect many OEMs are still convinced AMD will fumble like always and therefore it's not worth investing too much in the ecosystem when they have perfectly good and reliable Intel whom they have partnered with for decades. A good 7nm launch would mean they'd have executed successfully for three years in a row. That might help.

[Crunchy Dragon]

16 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

SWEET HONEYBALLS i have to look into this. not sure what the EULA says about casual use of the emulator but AAA virtual Android phone in my PC

Gonna give this a try as well, maybe PUBG Mobile will run better than PC

[Crunchy Dragon]

10 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

In other news you can also run Android on a VM

Isn't this essentially what this is, though?

 

PC emulators are technically virtual machines, just designated for one specific operating system.

[schwellmo92]

1 hour ago, Trixanity said:

This is the most power I can give you but it's a gaming laptop and not workstation-ish like a Latitude or ThinkPad. Still, it's more powerful than the setup you're considering.

 

The next batch of laptop processors from AMD will be 45W quad cores (or basically the existing chips I showed you but with a bigger TDP) and the Pro version will probably come even later anyway. So if you need all those cores your only option is the gaming machines because they're more likely to take risks and make the money back through price gouging.

 

The selection of AMD laptops is still quite small. I hope Zen2 on 7nm will help broaden the selection. I suspect many OEMs are still convinced AMD will fumble like always and therefore it's not worth investing too much in the ecosystem when they have perfectly good and reliable Intel whom they have partnered with for decades. A good 7nm launch would mean they'd have executed successfully for three years in a row. That might help.

A bit to much gamer and chunky to use around the office unfortunately, and the single-core speeds aren't quite up to scratch on the 2700. It's another Intel/Nvidia laptop for me this year I think, maybe next year when we have 7nm Zen/Vega I can get an all AMD laptop

[Castdeath97]

23 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

SWEET HONEYBALLS i have to look into this. not sure what the EULA says about casual use of the emulator but AAA virtual Android phone in my PC

 

22 hours ago, AskTJ said:

Android on Windows? I'm doing this tomorrow. Tired of using Bluestacks for all these years.

 

6 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Gonna give this a try as well, maybe PUBG Mobile will run better than PC

As someone who did Android Development, AVD is kinda meh at best.

[Orcblood]

Holy cow yes!!! I'm actually currently updating an existing Android app howbeit with an Intel CPU but nice to know my main rig at home which is a Ryzen 2700x can now run it. Too bad the FX cpu's never got the support back when I needed it. This was my biggest concern when updating to another AMD cpu again.

[Crunchy Dragon]

4 hours ago, Castdeath97 said:

As someone who did Android Development, AVD is kinda meh at best.

Better or worse than Bluestacks, though?

[rcmaehl]

28 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Better or worse than Bluestacks, though?

It's VERY hard to be worse than Bluestacks nowadays