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Can someone tell me why they're using a full Android stack for Android Wear?? To me its doing nothing that small (read very power efficient) micro such as an ST
by TickleSteve 12y ago
Can someone tell me why they're using a full Android stack for Android Wear??
To me its doing nothing that small (read very power efficient) micro such as an STM32 or an MSP430 could do with much more efficiency.
There is no reason whatsoever to run Linux/Android/Dalvik/etc on a device that just needs to run a Bluetooth stack & LCD.
Doing this using an STM32 would give you an order of magnitude (guess) improvement in power efficiency with no difference to the user.
- dmethvin 12y agoIt reminds me of Microsoft's early attempts at portable devices, where they seemed to think they needed a huge chunk of the Windows desktop API and its conventions in a phone or tablet. Watches are not phones, they're peripherals, and they don't need such a bulky software stack. Maybe Apple will handle this differently.
- Someone1234 12y agoApple already have a more efficient software stack. However Apple are also targeting fewer hardware differences (which, I suspect, is why Google is sticking with a bytecode-based language, to target "everything"). Google's ART (Dalvik "replacement") initiative might help with power usage a little (as well as loading times). But unless there is a massive shift in the way Android works, I cannot see Google making enough changes to make Android a really great watch OS.