By Android is set to get a small performance bump that will make it faster and more efficient. Google is specifically striving to ensure that its operating system supports devices with 16KB page sizes.
Today, the firm announced on its Android Developer Blog that Android will soon be page-size agnostic. “page-size agnostic” refers to Android’s ability to support both 4KB and 16KB page devices. With Android 15 QPR1 Beta 1, developers can now choose between 4KB and 16KB for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
What does this mean for the typical user? Not much at the moment, but as more hardware supports it, performance and efficiency will improve. As Google notes, it should result in better-looking films, better-performing games, and more smoothly functioning apps:
Most CPUs have dedicated hardware known as memory management units (MMUs) that translate addresses from what a program is using to a physical location in memory. This translation is done based on page size. When a program requires extra memory, the operating system must intervene and create a “page table” entry, which assigns that memory to a process. When the page size is four times higher, the amount of bookkeeping decreases fourfold. As a result, the system can devote more time to ensuring that your films look amazing, games play well, and applications run efficiently, rather than filling out low-level operating system documentation.
The purpose of this release is to say that they are now allowing support so that OEMs can jump on board. According to Google, utilising higher page widths improved overall performance by 5-10%. However, there is a trade-off, as 9% more physical memory is used. We’ll have to wait a long before end consumers like you and me can feel the benefits of this.
Views: 87
