ELC + ABS

The Android stack is fairly deep, with several key components impacting applications: the framework API, the system services, the virtual machine (be it Dalvik or ART), the native layer and the Linux kernel. Each of these components has an impact on the system's memory usage. Beside rules of thumb, there isn't much in terms of documentation on how the Android's internals manage and deal with memory.

This presentation will examine the Android OS' memory management, from the Linux kernel all the way up to the app layer. We'll discuss the features and limitations of every key component, how platform developers can navigate around those limitations and what to watch out for, and present the tools and methods available to understand each components' memory usage.