Android's new memory management promises faster apps, less power drain
Google is set to enhance the performance of Android devices by introducing support for a 16KB page size. This modification, related to memory management, is currently undergoing extensive testing. It could be implemented in future updates. The change aims to reduce the operating system's administrative tasks and improve user experience on applications, games, and videos.
Shift from 4KB to 16KB
Traditionally, Android has been designed and fine-tuned to operate with a 4KB page size. However, Google's research indicates that transitioning to a larger page size could result in an overall performance improvement of between 5-10% on smartphones. This enhancement comes at the cost of an approximately 9% increase in memory usage.
Performance improvements with bigger page size
The shift to a larger page size is expected to yield several benefits. These include reduced app launch times by an average of 3.16% when the system is under memory pressure, with some apps showing improvements up to 30%. Power consumption during app launch may decrease by an average of 4.56%. Camera launch times are projected to improve by 4.48% for hot starts and 6.60% for cold starts on average. It could also improve the system boot time by 1.5%.
Android 15: A step toward larger page size support
With the launch of Android 15, Google will restructure the operating system to support varying page sizes, making it page-size agnostic. Developers will need to recompile their apps for devices supporting a 16KB page size. However, these modified apps can run on both 4KB and 16KB devices. This change can be tested with Android 15 QPR1 Beta 1 on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.
Collaboration for wider adoption of larger page size
Google is collaborating with SoC and OEM partners to extend this option to more devices soon. An x86_64 emulator is also being offered as part of these efforts. Google says there are "no production Android devices available today or expected for the Android 15 release that support a 16 KB page size." The Android team anticipates that the adoption of a 16KB (and potentially larger) page size will align with OEMs making devices with larger amounts of physical memory (RAM).
