Difference between Google API (x86 system image) and Google API (ARM system image) in Android 4.4.2

Question

I followed this ( http://developer.android.com/google/play-services/setup.html#Install ). He asked me to install the Google API for Android API 17 (or higher), but when I opened the SDK manager, it looked like this:

So my question is: what are these two Google APIs? And what is the difference between the two?

Answer 1

In the beginning, the only available Android system images were executed in the ARM command set. The system image is used to create various Android virtual devices (AVDs) and emulate the various Android devices that are commonly used.

Since developer workstations are typically based on Intel x86 processors, you must also emulate the ARM instruction set. This led to poor performance from AVD, mainly due to the amount of translation performed by the x86 processor to emulate the ARM instruction set.

In Android 4.0.3 (API 15), Intel provided its own x86-based system image. This could then be used to create AVDs that would not need an ARM translation. Combined with the Intel Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM) x86 AVM, they were 10 times faster than equivalent ARM emulators.

Support for certain Google APIs for Android, such as the Google Maps Google APIs, is not provided with standard Android system images. They need to be installed separately using the Android SDK Manager. To use these APIs with the x86 system image, you also need to install the Google API (x86 system image) for the same API level.