Researchers from Columbia University’s Department of Computer Science have developed a new software called Cider which could allow Android users run iOS apps in their devices.
The researchers said Cider has an operating system compatible architecture which can run iOS and Android applications in a same device.
The application claimed to enhance the domestic Android application to allow running foreign binaries mimicking the application binary interface of the foreign operating system.
Researchers achieved this breakthrough a combination of binary compatibility techniques which include: compile time code application and diplomatic functions.
Compile-time code technique allows existing unmodified foreign source code to be reused in the domestic kernel, reducing implementation effort required to support multiple binary interfaces for executing domestic and foreign applications.
Diplomatic functions use per-thread personas, and facilitate foreign applications to use domestic libraries to access software and hardware interfaces.
The prototype software developed by the six researchers from the university claimed to run unmodified iOS and Android apps together in a Nexus device powered by a latest Android OS. The researchers said they don’t have any plan to develop a commercial product out of the prototype.
