Long mathematical computations in android app

Question

I'm an amateur developer and I'm creating an Android app that will perform long mathematical calculation (involving multiple for-loops for example). I've read on the Android Developer website that Renderscript is a possible way of reducing computational time and memory. However, I have no readability (or writability for that matter) in C, so I was wondering if there's any more effective (time/memory) ways of carrying out the computations.

Otherwise, if there's really no other ways, are there helpful resources for me to look besides the Renderscript section on the Android website?

Answer 1

You have two choices to compute directly on device:

Renderscript:

• (+) Supports different types of current and future architectures.
• (+) It will enable computations on GPU in future.
• (+) It is easily scalable to run on multiple cores.
• (-) Minimal API level 11.

Android NDK:

• (+) cross-platform code
• (-) Application have to be compiled for each available architecture by developer.
• (-) If new architecture emerge then new build is needed.

Answer 2

What about doing the computations on a server and sending back the results to the Android device?

You can implement a RESTful service server side and call it via http from Android.