The latest version of Android emulator for Windows aims to improve performance when running on AMD processors or a Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor by supporting accelerated hardware enhancements that were previously only available for Intel processors.
While native AMD support has long been available on Mac and Linux, it was not on Windows, where the Android emulator was forced to use software emulation. By adding support for AMD and Hyper-V processors to the Windows Android emulator, Google has responded to two requests from longtime users of the developer community, writes Google product manager Jamal Eason.
This is made possible by a new, recently open-source Microsoft API, Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX). WHPX adds an extended user-mode API to create and manage hypervisor-level partitions, configure memory mappings for the partition, and create and control the execution of virtual processors. WHPX allows the creation of virtual processors that can emulate instructions by taking advantage of accelerators provided by the underlying hardware processor.
To enable the new features on a Windows operating system running on an AMD processor, you must enable the “Windows Hypervisor Platform” settings under Windows Features. The additional requirements are:
Hyper-V support means developers can benefit from hardware acceleration of Android emulator also when running it side by side with other programs using Hyper-V, such as Docker, l HoloLens emulator and others, or inside an Azure VM. Previously, using the Android emulator required disabling Hyper-V completely.
2>emulator: CPU Acceleration: DISABLED
2>emulator: CPU Acceleration status: Please disable Hyper-V before using the Android Emulator. Start a command prompt as Administrator, run 'bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off', reboot.
2>emulator: ERROR: x86_64 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration!
2>Please ensure Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) is properly installed and usable.
2>CPU acceleration status: Please disable Hyper-V before using the Android Emulator. Start a command prompt as Administrator, run 'bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off', reboot.
If you want to use Hyper-V at the same time as the Android emulator, you will need to enable the “Hyper-V” settings under Windows Features, available for Windows 10 Professional / Education / Enterprise. This is in addition to the usual requirements for running Hyper-V, which essentially uses an Intel Core processor that supports virtualization technology (VT-x), extended page tables (EPT), and functionality. unrestricted guest (UG). Additionally, VT-x must be enabled in BIOS.
Developers using Windows on Intel processors will not need to change the configuration of their environment, as the Android emulator will continue to use the default configuration. Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM).
