KitKat: the most evolved and leaner version of Android - Tecmundo

(Image Source: Playback / TechCrunch)

Android seems to have matured as an operating system. With the proposal called “Project Butter”, which originated Jelly Bean (4.1), the OS has gained greater reliability in its user interface, earning what Google stands to be a parity with the competition – iOS, of course. What would be the next step? Lose some extra “pounds” acquired during the process in order to achieve better performance.

There are, of course, a fancy name to identify the new focus of attention of Google. This is the “Project Svelte”, whose result was the KitKat hyped Android 4.4. “When I started, we played that the goal of Project Butter was leaving the system more responsive,” said the chief engineer for the Android, Dave Burke, in an interview with ReadWrite.

“occurs, however, that butter [butter] causes weight gain. So I came up with Project Svelte [slim] to lose weight. Thus, my contribution to the Android was basically zero, “joked the subject.

Svelte and Project Nexus 4

(Image Source: Reproduction / Wikimedia Commons)

Trazudido in more practical terms, the Svelte Project aimed to make design solutions affordable operating system built to practically any device. In fact, the KitKat Android can run on gadgets with just 512 MB of RAM, reducing the fragmentation of the OS and reducing the need for Gingerbread (2.3) in more modest smartphones.

But the whole thing was made more practical by the team of Burke. “The goal of Project Svelte was basically reduce memory utilization, limited to 512 MB,” he told the publication said. “The way we got it was … Picking up a Nexus 4 and adapting it to run on 512 MB. “

“Let’s take it home and see what happens”

Then KitKat team forced to work at a lower resolution and also run with only two processors instead of four. Even the processing frequency was lowered before each of the engineers took home a “stripped-down” the copy machine, ensuring a closer experience.

(Image Source: Press Release / Google)

“We adapt to the qHD resolution, which is 960×540, since it is a kind of ideal for smartphones more modest point,” said the man. “We reduced the number of CPUs from four to two. Reduced the clock and additional. Literally, many of us have used it as a primary phone, “Burke assured, enhancing the experience” painful “, at least initially.

Four goals

Once configured the Nexus 4, the group of Google engineers has identified four goals for the “reduced fat” that would lead to the Android 4.4 KitKat:

Reduce the memory usage of the system;

Reduce the memory usage of applications that run on the Google Experience devices (Nexus);

Repair how applications react to crashes in low-memory available, and

Provide instrumentation to better measure of how the apps are running on Android in order to provide developers with a perspective on how much memory your application consumes.

(Image Source: Press Release / Google)

The last guideline was embodied in “ProcStats” mode, which allows Google to monitor utlização RAM by the apps, dividing those with moderate those processes that eat up system resources. As a result, finally, it must be devoted KitKat as the most practical and streamlined Android -. New natural step needed after intake of fat, of course