The Linaro Digital Home Group has released a sample build of Android TV that is compatible with 96Boards. This uses the open source version of Android TV, without requiring Google services.

, a working group of companies who build software for ARM processors, has continued to forward the advances and possibilities of applications on those processors. ARM core processors are a type of computer architecture which appears in many different chips. 96Boards is one type of reference board which can be used to demonstrate to various companies how a board can be built and run. This board can now run Android TV.

This build includes such features like the TV Input Framework (Live Channels) and Leanback APIs. It is entirely open though, not requiring certification by Google. This means devices running this will not have to comply “with the Android Compatibility Test Suite (CTS), the Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), ‘and stringent audio/video performance criteria'”. So you shouldn’t assume it will work exactly as expected.

Still, this could help OEMs produce better devices running Android TV instead of some in-house OS or random variant of Linux. For those running it on a HiKey board, you can check out the .

More information should be announced next month at the Linaro Connect conference in Budapest.