AMD and BlueStacks Bring Full Android OS Experience to Windows PC

AMD today announced a new milestone in their collaboration with BlueStacks, a joint solution that brings the complete Google Android OS experience to Microsoft Windows-based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops. Optimizations for the fourth generation AMD APU in BlueStacks provide a complete, Android user interface and extensive support for Android apps for entertainment and productivity.

"Windows and Android are both mature operating systems, each satisfying the needs of millions of users," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Product Management, at AMD. "Users whose devices and preferences span the two ecosystems no longer have to face device-specific restrictions on the benefits of one ecosystem or the other because AMD and BlueStacks have created a seamless user experience between the operating systems. Now users have access to all the apps -- games, communications and content consumption -- they love on their Android mobile devices right at their fingertips, while getting important productivity tasks or high-end PC gaming accomplished on their Windows PC."

The new version of BlueStacks running on a Windows PC powered by fourth generation AMD APUs offers:

• A familiar Android user interface, including settings, configuration and customization controls;
• The ability to run Android apps within a window or at full-screen resolution leveraging direct access to AMD graphics processing power;
• Support for hundreds of thousands of Android apps direct from various Android app stores, as well as synchronization between the same apps being run on the user's stand-alone Android devices; and
• Seamless interoperability through direct file sharing that enables Android apps to access files stored within the Windows file system.

"We're working with AMD to build the next great PC and AMD's industry-leading hardware allows for a more flexible experience with Android apps on the PC for end-users," said Rosen Sharma, CEO, BlueStacks. "AMD shares our vision of Mobile Plus in providing users with easy access to their favorite Android games, mobile apps and productivity tools from all their devices and moving towards a more open/shared ecosystem."

Unlike traditional "dual-OS" systems, which require the user to disengage from one OS before using another, the AMD and BlueStacks solution runs Android virtually within Windows. AMD APUs are designed to deliver far greater processing power than the smart phones for which Android apps are generally developed, and should provide more than enough performance to support the typical Android app's requirements, providing a very satisfying user experience.

The latest version of BlueStacks allows consumers to sync Android apps from a mobile device to a PC with FoneLink, a cloud-based service that enables an AMD Windows-based PCs to become an extension of Android mobile devices and vice versa. BlueStacks also adds support for AMD virtualization hardware so that multiple operating systems and their applications can run simultaneously on the same computer.