MIPS simplifies Android application development with tools for MIPS architecture

SUNNYVALE, USA: MIPS Technologies Inc. has announced availability of advanced debug and development tools that simplify Android application development.

These tools are free-of-charge through the Android on MIPS community. MIPS Technologies is making available the QEMU open source emulator, and through its partnership with Viosoft Corp., offering industry-leading Arriba development tools for QEMU to make development even easier.

MIPS Technologies has also enhanced the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) for the MIPS architecture to include a compiler and a rich GUI that streamlines the entire build process to a simple point-and-click for fast native development.

"Android development is gaining increasing popularity among MIPS developers. We already have more than 3,000 members of the Android on MIPS community, with upwards of 40 new registrants each day," said Art Swift, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies. "MIPS Technologies is leading the industry not only in bringing Android to a broad range of consumer devices, but also in making development fast and easy. The tools that MIPS Technologies offers for Android development go far beyond solutions for other architectures, driving application development and growing the ecosystem around Android on MIPS."

QEMU offers a virtualized emulation platform to speed development of Android applications on the MIPS architecture. The fully-integrated set of Arriba development tools for QEMU support native and Java development, and provide unprecedented visibility into code development. Tools include the time-tested Arriba Linux debug and profiling technologies and a comprehensive set of plug-in modules that offer valuable insight into the Android software stack, including the Android System Level Event Analyzer.

With the Android NDK for the MIPS architecture, developers can use native libraries with Android applications—allowing these applications to access existing software libraries supported for devices such as set-top boxes, digital TVs and consumer electronics. In addition, developers of performance-intensive applications such as gaming can create optimized code to deliver an enhanced user experience. One of the key improvements to the Android NDK – unavailable on other CPU architectures – is a rich and simplified GUI environment for the building of native Android applications that would otherwise be a manually-driven and cumbersome process.

QEMU and the Android NDK for the MIPS architecture are available now, and the Arriba tools for QEMU will be available this month. All components are free-of-charge.