AMD Helping Project to Bring Android to PCs

Advanced Micro Devices reportedly is backing an open-source project that is looking to port Google’s Android operating system onto PCs powered by x86-based processors.

Meanwhile, officials with AMD rival Intel are saying that the goal of their joint efforts with Google is not to bring Android to PCs, but to enable it to run on mobile computing devices–specifically smartphones and tablets–that are powered by Intel ‘s Atom platform.

The open-source project Android-x86, which AMD is backing with money, equipment and people, is being led by developer Chih-Wei Huang. Huang told The Register that AMD had donated two tablets and has a couple of engineers helping with the project. With that backing, the porting of Android to AMD’s x86-based Brazos platform is mostly complete and the source code is now available.

The project–which is not authorized by Google–is looking to port the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android to the x86 platform, according to Huang.

The Android-x86 project would enable PC users to run Android on their systems, which now are dominated by Microsoft’s Windows OS. The effort also is the latest illustration of the ongoing erosion of the once-dominant Wintel architecture that has reigned in the PC space but has seen pressure from such areas as Android and smaller, more energy-efficient mobile chips based on the architecture from ARM Holdings.

Both Microsoft and Intel have looked to expand their respective reaches into the booming mobile computing space of smartphones and tablets that is dominated by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems, and ARM-based chips from the likes of Nvidia, Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics. Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 OS will be designed to run not only on PCs, but also on tablets that run on either the x86 platform or system-on-a-chip (SoC) architectures, particularly ARM’s.

Meanwhile, Intel is looking to leverage its x86 technology–not only in its Core processors but also its Atom platform–to push its way into the tablet and smartphone markets. It s also working with Google to optimize Android to run on tablets and smartphones that are powered by Atom chips. Intel executives intend to have Atom-powered smartphones out on the market in 2012.

To read the original eWeek article, click here: AMD Supporting Project to Bring Android to PCs: Report