Android NDK for MIPS

In case you didn’t know, you can build native Android code using the NDK for MIPS processors. It’s actually super straightforward.

From the Android Developer site:

To generate MIPS machine code, include mips in your Application.mk file’s APP_ABI definition. For example:

APP_ABI := mips

For more information about defining the APP_ABI variable, see Application.mk.

The build system places generated libraries into $PROJECT/libs/mips/, where $PROJECT represents your project’s root directory, and embeds them in your APK under the /lib/mips/ directory.

MIPS Creator CI20

For those who haven’t seen the MIPS Creator CI20 before, it’s pretty cool. It’s a little like a souped up Raspberry Pi can run Debian, Android and all kinds of other operating systems. Here’s how it’s described at eLinux.org:

The MIPS Creator CI20 platform is a feature laden MIPS/Imagination Linux and Android development system. It incorporates an Ingenic JZ4780 SoC which includes a 1.2GHz dual core MIPS32 processor and Imagination PowerVR SGX540 GPU. The CI20 board provides comprehensive connectivity, multimedia capabilities and substantial RAM and flash. CI20 is preloaded with Debian7, and other distros are being packaged to be available for download soon.

CI20 Board photo from eLinux (http://www.elinux.org/File:CI20_perspective.jpg) and licensed under CC-BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

Linux Distros + MIPS

Some people are surprised when they find out how many Linux distributions are supported on MIPS processors.

Alexandru Voica writes:

The nitty gritty of emulating Linux in Perl

I think the Linux kernel is amazing. Yes, it the community can be brutal and yes, things could be improved but in many ways, it’s an astounding engineering feat. That said, I never would have imagined emulating it in Perl would be so darn easy.

Emulate Linux MIPS in Perl? Please!

Every Perl programmer seems to think that you can do anything in Perl. If you can emulate MIPS in Perl and run Linux on top of it, the Perl programmers might be right!
The Emulating Linux MIPS in Perl series starts with a designing an ELF loader in Perl.