Android emulation with Surface Phone

bulls96

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I just reinstalled amiDUOs on my surface to run android on my sp4.

Got me thinking, with x86 on ARM coming, will it not be possible to run android on the Surface phone now?
 

a5cent

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Don't know. Theoretically it would not even require emulation however. It's an ARM device, exactly the kind of device Android typically runs on. There are a number of ways this could be achieved. Running an ARM emulator, within an x86 emulator, on an ARM device, would be the worst of all possible options. Would probably be close to unusable.
 

anthonyng

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I laughed this off because I figured it be super slow. Just installed amiduos on my surface 3 and it's not horrible! going to have to give this more of a run, would a surface phone have a more powerful chip than the surface 3?

All I need would be a non clunky implementation and then I can use it when I find I do need a stupid app like setting up belkin wireless electric outlets.

Cheaper than buying an actual android device if most of what I would occasionally need is accessible from my surface 3
 

a5cent

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would a surface phone have a more powerful chip than the surface 3?
The Surface 3 (not Pro) has an Intel Z8700 Atom Chip. So yes, In both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance disciplines (the most important performance metrics of a general purpose CPU), a Snapdragon 835 would be more powerful.
However, that comparison is completely irrelevant, as amiduos is an x86 based compilation of Android for Windows, which includes the Java runtime environment. For most apps this amiduos scenario requires little (more likely none) of the instruction set translation technology that W10oA does.
Completely different thing...
 
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anthonyng

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For most apps this amiduos scenario requires little (more likely none) of the instruction set translation technology that W10oA does.
Completely different thing...

To me, it's just software, and finding solutions for it. That's not my domain, however, if there's a will there's a way and Microsoft is a software company first :) Also lots of other software companies out there and surprisingly so many options for android emulators.

The interesting thing for me is that it's tolerable on a surface 3. Ok I tried a hangout and it sucked but it worked!

I'm in the android full screen and all my windows notifications keep working and I can just flip over to it. It's really awesome how seamless it is.

I likely don't need to buy an android device just to be able to run certain apps once in a while. I can pay $15 for amiduos and still just have one device!
 

a5cent

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To me, it's just software, and finding solutions for it. That's not my domain, however, if there's a will there's a way and

Yes, where there is a will there is a way. It's hard to argue with that. 😉

Where I disagree is that this is "just software". There is, with 100% certainty, some circuitry in ARM's newer CPU designs that helps MS accelerate x86 ISA translation.

My point is only that it's very hard to estimate performance of W10oA running a Win32 app based on anything else we currently have at our disposal. The only thing we have to go on is a somewhat fishy demo performed MS.
 

a5cent

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@a5cent

Woooooshhhhhh.... lol ;)


Darn it, sorry, didn't want that to go over anyone's head.

ISA = the set of instructions a CPU understands.
ISA translation = converting one or more CPU instructions (like 'add a + b') from the format one CPU understands to what another CPU understands (where there typically aren't always 1:1 translations to be found).
 

TechFreak1

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Originally posted by a5cent



Darn it, sorry, didn't want that to go over anyone's head.

ISA = the set of instructions a CPU understands.
ISA translation = converting one or more CPU instructions (like 'add a + b') from the format one CPU understands to what another CPU understands (where there typically aren't always 1:1 translations to be found).


Not many will remember the old PC days of the ISA Bus either lol.
 

a5cent

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Not many will remember the old PC days of the ISA Bus either lol.
lol, hell, I'm not even sure if I remember that... for those who don't know... same three letters, but completely different things:

ISA = instruction set architecture
ISA (bus) = industry standard architecture
 
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