A few months ago Myriad Group introduced a new way to speed up Android’s Dalvik Virtual Machine to drastically improve the speed of the system. Since then there hasn’t been much information on the progress of this project until now. This system works on the MIPS architecture and could potentially replace the Dalvik VM completely.

With Dalvik Turbo VM, MIPS licensees can create SoCs with faster, more complex applications and richer game graphics optimized for Android smartphones and other high-performance consumer devices without requiring significant increases in device memory. The VM also provides substantial battery life improvements when running resource intensive tasks, all while retaining full compatibility with existing software. Myriad’s Dalvik Turbo VM is operational on all current versions of Android up to and including versions 2.1 (Éclair) and soon to be available for 2.2 (Froyo).

This new system promises speed increases up to 5 times faster than stock. It does a similar job as JIT which is responsible for the speed increases that is found in Android 2.2. It is said that this technology is compatible with every version of Android. If this is the case imagining how fast a phone would be with Froyo and this laid on top of it. That would be either a blazing fast phone or it will crash due to incompatibility. Guess we’ll have to wait to see if it can work in conjunction with JIT. If you would like to help develop the MIPS system you could head over to MIPSAndroid.org and get started.

[via intomobile]