The Android OS has evolved drastically over the past several years in order to address user and industry feedback, making it more stable, fast, and reliable. In this section, we will explore how the file execution process was implemented and progressed. In addition, we will dig into various original and newer file formats and learn how the Android executables are actually working.
Understanding Dalvik and ART
Dalvik VM (DVM)
Dalvik was an open source process virtual machine up to Android version 4.4 (KitKat). It got its name from the Dalvík village in Iceland. Dalvik VM implements register-based architecture, which differs from stack-based architecture VMs such as Java VMs. The difference here is that stack...