A crucial advancement for the technology is the porting of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) to the RISC-V processor architecture.
The AOSP has begun enabling RISC-V upstream, which will promote the use of RISC-V CPUs in wearables, the Internet of Things, and eventually smartphones and laptops.
In an effort to open up the ecosystem, engineers and software developers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ PLCT Lab started porting Android 10 to the RISC-V architecture in 2020. Together, Alibaba’s Cloud division and T-Head chip subsidiary have worked hard to maintain the development up to date with the latest Android releases.
“We are glad to see more support from Google for building AOSP targeting RISC-V! Alibaba Cloud has been committed to supporting the RISC-V community through a series of innovations, such as progressing the porting of basic Android functions onto RISC-V, which proves the feasibility of using RISC-V based devices in scenarios ranging from multimedia to signal processing, device interconnection, and artificial intelligence. We look forward to engaging with the Android team to contribute to the thriving RISC-V community down the road,” said Dr. David Chen, Director of Ecosystem from Alibaba Cloud and Vice Chair of the Applications & Tools Horizontal Committee at RISC-V International.
By enhancing the fundamental capabilities of Android on RISC-V, experts at Alibaba Cloud made a significant effort to actively assist the software ecosystem throughout 2021. The RISC-V Android Working Group and the software repository are where the RISC-V on Android efforts are concentrated.
