A Finnish company's Android-benchmarking tools impressed Google so much that the search giant tendered an eight-figure sum to absorb the Helsinki-based startup and the firm's 3D utilities.
DrawElements offers three products, but it appears the drawElements Quality Program (dEQP), and the software's battery of tests, were what caught Google's eye. The dEQP software looks beyond merely benchmarking graphics for performance as it pries into the architecture of graphical processing units (GPU) and their driver software to test for conformance and stability.
DEQP may serve as an invaluable tool for Google who, unlike Apple, makes its operating system available to third-party hardware manufacturers. DEQP can help Google and other hardware developers implement designs that maximize device compatibility with Android apps and games, making the equipment more agreeable for software developers.
Each version of the Android OS has its own set of hardware requirements, but drawElements stated that its dEQP can help Google and hardware manufacturers minimize the fragmentation that often occurs in the form of bugs and compatibility issues when a mobile device doesn't fully conform with Google's recommendations.
"With its extensive test suites and powerful analysis features, dEQP is an ideal tool for testing and improving the quality of a GPU platform or for making sure that a specific GPU fulfills your feature requirements," stated drawElements. "By providing high quality API implementations, hardware vendors can ensure a stronger and less-fragmented market for application developers and consumers."
Some of dEQP's other benefits include the ability to emulate games and apps for stress tests, push memory and processing power to the edge, play out both common and rare cases, log errors and trim development costs. By using dEQP, hardware developers will have an extensive series of tests on their hands and they won't have to create their own.
Details of drawElement's agreement with Google have yet to be released, but one estimate indicated that the deal was worth at least $10 million. The Finnish startup was said to have been launched in 2008 and found work in delivering its services to chip manufacturers before the deal with Google.
The entire drawElement's team will reportedly fold into Google, though the only official word on the agreement came in the form of a message of the benchmarking firm's website.
"We're excited to announce that we're joining Google," said drawElements "Thanks to everyone who has helped us along the way; we're grateful for your support. Over the next few months, we'll be working with our colleagues on the Android team to incorporate some of our technology into the compatibility test suite."
