Android developers definitely know just how important the Android emulator in the course of their work, where it will enable them to build and test their apps in an environment that is as close to the actual Android-powered device as possible. Unfortunately, the pace at which Android-powered devices have grown has more or less made it difficult for the emulator to keep up. Good news then, as Google just announced a bunch of “significant improvements” to the emulator, where among them include a dramatic performance upgrade and as well as support for a broader range of hardware features.
The latest Android emulator shipped will feature integrated GPU support (Android 4.0.4), which makes sense Android does seem to be moving in that direction, using the GPU of a mobile processor to further improve performance on the go. You can watch a video of this in action below to be more intimately acquainted with what we are talking about here.