Introduction

This document will guide you through installing the Intel® Atom™ x86 image for Android* Gingerbread, which can be used for development on Intel’s x86 architecture. The steps presented below are the same, regardless of the OS.

Prerequisites

The Android x86 Emulator Image requires the Android SDK to be installed. For instructions on installing and configuring the Android SDK, refer to the Android developer website ( http://developer.android.com/sdk/ ).

The x86 Emulator Image for Android can be accelerated using Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM). For more information, refer to the “Optimization” section of this document.

Installation

Downloading through Android SDK Manager

Start the Android SDK Manager program.

Under Android 2.3.3 (API 10), select “Intel x86 Atom System Image”:

Once selected, click on the "Install package" button.

Review the Intel Corporation license agreement. If you accept the terms, select the "Accept" option and click on the "Install" button.

At this point, the Android SDK Manager will download and install the system image to your Android SDK folder (<sdk>/system-images/android-10/default/x86/). The download and install will take several minutes, depending on your connection speed.

Verify that the Intel x86 Atom System Image is shown as "Installed" under the Status column, as shown below:

Using the System Image

Start the Android AVD Manager

Create a new AVD, setting “Target” to “Android 2.3.3 – API Level 10”, and “CPU/ABI” to “Intel Atom (x86)”:

Once you select your configuration settings, click on the "OK" button.

The new virtual device should appear on the Android Virtual Device Manager. Select the new device and click on the "Start..." button, as shown below:

The Launch Options window should appear. Select the screen size and dpi for your system. Otherwise, the emulator might exceed the dimensions of your viewing screen. Click on the "Launch" button, as shown below:

After a few moments, the emulator should launch and you should see the screen below:



Optimization

CPU Acceleration

The performance of the x86 Image for Android GingerBread can be improved with hardware-based virtualization using Intel VT-x technology. If your computer has an Intel processor with VT-x support, it is recommended that Intel Hardware Acceleration Execution Manager (HAXM) be used in conjunction with this system image. For more information about Intel HAXM, visit http://www.intel.com/software/android.

Note: Intel HAXM is for Windows and OS X operating systems only. For Linux hosts, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) can be used to accelerate emulation performance. For information on installing and configuring KVM on Ubuntu, refer to this guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation

GPU Acceleration

The Intel Atom x86 Image for Android Gingerbread can make use of hardware GPU features to increase the performance of games, graphics-intensive programs, and user interface elements.

Note: The functionality and performance of GPU acceleration is highly dependent on your computer’s graphics card and graphics drivers.

To use hardware GPU acceleration, perform these steps:

Open the Android AVD Manager. Select the AVD and click the “Edit” button. The AVD editor window will appear. In the Emulator Options section, check the “Use Host GPU” option:





Click the “OK” button to save the AVD. After the AVD has been modified, a dialog box will appear confirming the AVD settings:





In the confirmation dialog, the “hw.gpu.enabled=yes” line indicates that GPU acceleration is enabled for that particular AVD.

Note: The GPU acceleration must be enabled on a per-AVD basis. Copyright (C) 2012 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, Atom, and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All products, computer systems, dates, and figures specified are preliminary based on current expectations, and are subject to change without notice. * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

For further instructions on how to use the Android Emulator, visit: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/devices/emulator.html