What for do we need ARM EABI v7a System image in Android development? What is the purpose of that particular image?
The system image is used by the emulator to virtualize the Android OS so Apps can be tested/debugged on a PC without the need to upload the App to a phone whenever a change in the code is made. This speeds up the development process and allows testing for phones that aren't physically available.
That's the emulator image supporting ARMv7-A
profile hardware, which is true for all new Android phones.
Since ARMv7-a is backward compatible with ARMv5, it is the only supported image with later system images.
The only line I know,
I believe you need to use the Android SDK Manager, ARM EABI v7a System image to add that ARM EABI processor support to your local SDK.
It is the kernel image. You must install it, otherwise the image won't start, failing with
ERROR: This AVD's configuration is missing a kernel file
if you work with the NativeDK, without that image the emulator is not able to simulate the execution of ARMv7 code (like multicore-instructions and NEON floating-point-unit)
This package is responsible for faster floating point operations