CNET reports a new interface dubbed Renderscript purposed for the upcoming Honeycomb will enable programmers to manage hardware functionalities for their applications. Honeycomb-running hardware will be unlocked using low-level programming, according to a blog post by Google Android performance and graphics programmer R. Jason Sams.

“The target audience is the set of developers looking to maximize the performance of their applications and are comfortable working closer to the metal to achieve this,” Sams said in a blog post yesterday. “The target use is for performance-critical code segments where the needs exceed the abilities of the existing APIs.”

Renderscript is designed to improve Android-running game quality, and will also be used in the Honeycomb YouTube and Books apps. Renderscript enables 3D graphics rendering and power consumption management as well as automatic regular/graphic processor balancing by relying on the C99 C language version. However, and the actual innovation regarding itis cross-device support. This means the interface automatically supports more than specific chip by compiling numerous scripts into an intermediate format.

Going back to another recent Honeycomb update, the 3.0-running Motorola Xoom tablet’s availability and price were, among others, officially released. We also discussed Android’s close and somewhat uncertain race with Symbian. Reuters earlier reported Android surpassed Symbian in Q4, but shortly afterwards research firm Gartner published a report contradicting that very information.