Android SDK over cross platform

Question

I am trying to install Android on Beagleboard (TI's OMAP35x chip). They have provided toolchain to build the OS and port it on the chip. Now the next question is developing Android apps. I am interested in knowing about the Java SDK for android. So can I use the standard SDK provided by google, so far I cannot find any SDK provided by TI for Java.

Putting it in simple terms, will an application developed on standard Android SDK work on beagleboard.

Answer 1

For embedded the development with Android in general the standard SDK should work, that is the beauty of Android and having a well defined set of API:s. This requires that the port you are using is relatively complete but for the Beagle Board that should be the case. You can run the compatibility test suite from the open source project in order to find out the compliance with the standard SDK but to get started that should not be necessary.

It is often a little more tricky to setup adb with a dev board compared to phone but once you get the communication channel working then Android development can be done in the same way as with a regular phone, that is using the standard SDK and adb tools.

The only caveats may be for API:s that require hardware that is not supported by your dev board such as a modem etc. It is also possible to support custom API:s for a specific piece of hardware by using an SDK add-on instead of having companies like TI distribute entire SDK:s. I have not seen this used very much so far and the standard API:s covers a lot of what one may need. But I think we will see more of it as Android is adopted for use cases outside the smartphone space.

Answer 2

Yes it will. I'm not sure about remote debugging tho (ADB).