Dalvik is dead! ART to replace Dalvik in next Android iteration

ART made its presence felt with Android 4.4 KitKat where it was available right alongside Dalvik. If you don't know what these are, lets talk about them then.

Dalvik is the virtual machine which runs apps on Android using Just In Time compilation. But its been aging and has higher memory requirement. It only compiles apps when required. Now, ART uses Ahead of Time compilation which results in faster app launch times, but with a caveat that apps may occupy slightly larger install space. The commits made last night to AOSP Master branch confirm that Dalvik is getting the axe with ART taking its place as the default runtime.

If you are running Android 4.4 KitKat or above you can switch to ART (Android Runtime) by selecting ART from Developer Options. 

Source: XDA Developers