A new software developed by developed by US computer scientists will reportedly allow Android owners to run iOS apps on their device, according to a the BBC. The software referred to as – Cider, would let people use just one device (Android) to access both operating systems.
There’s the abstract of the study:
[su_quote cite=”Jeremy Andrus, et al. ” url=”http://systems.cs.columbia.edu/files/wpid-asplos2014-cider.pdf”]We present Cider, an operating system compatibility architecture that can run applications built for different mobile ecosystems, iOS or Android, together on the same smartphone or tablet. Cider enhances the domestic operating system, Android, of a device with kernel-managed, per-thread personas to mimic the application binary interface of a foreign operating system, iOS, enabling it to run unmodified foreign binaries. This is accomplished using a novel combination of binary compatibility techniques including two new mechanisms: compile-time code adaptation, and diplomatic functions. Compile-time code adaptation enables existing unmodified foreign source code to be reused in the domestic kernel, reducing implementation effort required to support multiple binary interfaces for executing domestic and foreign applications. Diplomatic functions leverage perthread personas, and allow foreign applications to use domestic libraries to access proprietary software and hardware interfaces.We have built a Cider prototype, and demonstrate that it imposes modest performance overhead and runs unmodified iOS and Android applications together on a Google Nexus tablet running the latest version of Android.[/su_quote]
It will be interesting to see the reaction of both Apple and Google if this software is release to the public.
Image Credit: MissionGeek
