from the cross-platform-action-in-hyperdrive dept.
LinuxGizmos reports:
Eltechs announced a virtual machine that runs 32-bit x86 Linux applications on ARMv7 SBCs and mini-PCs, and is claimed to be 4.5 times faster than QEMU.
The open source QEMU emulator has long been the go-to app for providing virtual machines (VMs) that mimic target hardware during development or otherwise run software in alien territory. Every now and then, someone comes up with software that claims to perform all or part of QEMU's feature-set more effectively. In this case, Eltechs has launched its "ExaGear Desktop," a VM that implements a virtual x86 Linux container on ARMv7 computers and is claimed to be 4.5 times faster than QEMU. Despite its "desktop" naming, we can imagine many non-desktop possibilities [for] ExaGear in embedded and IoT [Internet of Things] applications.
"After installing ExaGear you won't notice a difference between running x86 applications on ARM and running native ARM applications," claims Moscow, Russia based Eltechs, which is backed in part by ARM Holdings. The VM works with both Intel and AMD x86 ISAs, ExaGear CEO Vadim Gimpelson told us in an email.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @08:46PM
I want to run android apps on my PC. One per VM to isolate them from each other and maybe VNC/RDP them to an actual phone if needed.
I saw a developers tool that was basically an android emulator, but it wasn't friendly for my purposes. Is there something better out there?
(Score: 2) by zafiro17 on Monday August 25 2014, @08:57PM
Me, I want to run Linux apps on Android, especially some console apps like Mutt, slrn, and maybe irssi. I can use a terminal app to shell into a shell account somewhere, but meh. I was hoping for the Pengpod to take off - a Linux tablet that I'd hope to run Bodhi Linux [bodhilinux.org] on, but as usual, it's taking forever and Android keeps getting better.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Monday August 25 2014, @10:00PM
You can already do terminal apps no problem. Install a Debian Chroot and install whatever apps you want, and use VX ConnectBot as the terminal emulator.
Me, I want to run full Linux apps on Android. I've got a slide-out keyboard so typing is no problem. VX Connect Bot works pretty well, but not as well as XTerm or RXVT, and doesn't have all OpenSSH's options. And even more than that, I've long wanted to be able to use an Android tablet as an NX/x2go client to connect to my Linux box, without the horrible performance of VNC, and without having to buy Citrix's MetaFrame or whatever the hell they renamed it now, just because they've got an Android client, and NX does not.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @10:47PM
Go back ~3 years and there was a project to do that and a fork of that project.
Alien Dalvik -- IcedRobot [google.com]
IcedRobot [google.com]
IcedRobot -- An OpenJDK-based Fork of Android [infoq.com]
IcedRobot Logo [blogcdn.com]
.
Come forward 1 year and there's this:
Soon You Will Be Running Android On Your PCs [muktware.com]
Greg-KH[...]told us "The 3.3 kernel release will let you boot an Android userspace with no modifications, but not very good power management.
The 3.4 kernel release will hopefully have the power management hooks that Android needs in it, along with a few other minor missing infrastructure pieces that didn't make it into the 3.3 kernel release."
I lost track of those efforts after that.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by richtopia on Monday August 25 2014, @09:10PM
An improvement over the current solution is great, but I am curious how this compares to a similar native processor.
I can imagine how difficult answering that question is, as determining an equivalent chip of two different architectures is difficult.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @09:20PM
It works great! You just lose all the benefits of using a low-power RISC processor!
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @09:18PM
Some times I dream
That ARM is PC
You got to know
That's how I dream it be
I dream it moves
I dream it grooves
Just like my
Just like my PC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @10:10PM
This is for Linux applicatinos? Aren't most Linux applications available in source code? Why not just compile them for ARM?
(Score: 1) by Pseudonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @10:59PM
The software is non-free.
This is simply Soyvertising.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday August 25 2014, @11:31PM
As the emulator designer company is Russian and the code locked, it might be related to Russia plans to dump some American CPUs for homegrown technology [soylentnews.org]. So now they will have the possibility to control the gate level of the CPU, the OS and a x86 environment. Task complete!
Oh and if the x86 software behaves differently on the x86-on-ARM vs x86-on-x86 you know something is up..
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khedoros on Tuesday August 26 2014, @12:46AM
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 26 2014, @08:14AM
whow