Symbian platform
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Company / developer | Symbian Foundation |
| Programmed in | C++[1] |
| OS family | Embedded operating systems |
| Working state | Ongoing |
| Source model | open source |
| Latest stable release | Symbian^3 platform / Q1 2010 |
| Latest unstable release | Symbian^3 platform / Q1 2010 |
| Marketing target | smartphones |
| Supported platforms | ARM, x86 [2] |
| Kernel type | Microkernel |
| Default user interface | Currently based on S60 platform, later to use Qt |
| License | EPL |
| Official Website | symbian.org |
The Symbian platform is an open source operating system (OS) and software platform designed for smartphones and maintained by the Symbian Foundation. The Symbian platform has been designated as the successor to Symbian OS. The Symbian platform was officially made available as open source code in February 2010.[3]
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[edit] History
The Symbian platform was created by merging and integrating software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Sony Ericsson and Symbian Ltd., including Symbian OS assets at its core, the S60 platform, and parts of the UIQ and MOAP(S) user interfaces. It is being actively developed by a community led by the Symbian Foundation, following the official launch of the Symbian Foundation in April 2009.
The Symbian Foundation was first announced in June 2008. Its objective was to publish the source for the entire Symbian platform under the OSI- and FSF-approved Eclipse Public License (EPL). However, components within Symbian OS were licensed from third parties which prevented the foundation from publishing the full source under EPL immediately, instead initially much of the source was published under a more restrictive Symbian Foundation License (SFL) and available to foundation member companies only.
Symbian Foundation announced the completion of releasing the entire Symbian platform as open source under EPL on 4 February 2010[4].
[edit] Architecture
[edit] Technology domains and packages
The Symbian platform is subdivided into technology domains[5], each of which comprises a number of software packages[6]. Each technology domain has its own roadmap, and Symbian Foundation has a team of technology managers who manage these technology domain roadmaps.
Every package is allocated to exactly one technology domain, based on the general functional area to which the package contributes and by which it may be influenced. By grouping related packages by themes, Symbian Foundation hopes to encourage a strong community to form around them and to generate discussion and review.
The Symbian System Model[7] illustrates the scope of each of the technology domains across the platform packages.
Packages are owned and maintained by a package owner, a named individual from an organization member of the Symbian Foundation, who accepts code contributions from the wider community of the Symbian Foundation and is responsible for the package.
[edit] Symbian kernel
The Symbian kernel (EKA2) supports sufficiently-fast real-time response to build a single-core phone around it—that is, a phone in which a single processor core executes both the user applications and the signalling stack[8]. This has allowed Symbian EKA2 phones to become smaller, cheaper and more power efficient than their predecessors[citation needed].
Symbian has a microkernel architecture, which means that the minimum necessary is within the kernel to maximise robustness, availability and responsiveness. It contains a scheduler, memory management and device drivers, but other services like networking, telephony and filesystem support are placed in the OS Services Layer or the Base Services Layer. The inclusion of device drivers means the kernel is not a true microkernel. The EKA2 real-time kernel, which has been termed a nanokernel, contains only the most basic primitives and requires an extended kernel to implement any other abstractions.
[edit] Versions of the Symbian platform
Symbian^1, as the first release, forms the basis for the platform. It incorporates Symbian OS and S60 5th Edition (which is built on Symbian OS 9.4) and thus it was not made available as open source.[9]
Symbian^2 was the first royalty free version of Symbian[10]. While portions of Symbian^2 are EPL licensed, most of the souce code is under the proprietary SFL license and available only to members of the Symbian Foundation and as of February 2010[update] there are no devices with this version announced.[11]
Symbian^3 was announced on 15 February 2010.[12] This is the first fully open source version of Symbian, following the completion of the release of the entire Symbian codebase earlier that month.[13] The Symbian^3 release introduced new features such as HDMI support, a new 2D and 3D graphics architecture, and UI improvements.[14]
Symbian^4 is expected to be released in the second half of 2010, with devices shipping in 2011.[15]
As Symbian^2 is largely an incremental release, Nokia have chosen to backport many Symbian^2 features (including as kinetic scrolling and widget homescreen) to Symbian^1 and provided them as software updates, focusing instead on getting Symbian^3 phones to market. The first phones running the open source version of the platform will be Symbian^3 phones, announced in the first half of 2010 and will start shipping in the second half of 2010.[16]
[edit] Devices based on the Symbian platform
| Symbian platform version | Devices |
|---|---|
| Symbian^1 (Corresponds to S60 5th Edition) |
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| Symbian^2 | None announced as of February 2010 |
| Symbian^3 | None announced as of February 2010 |
| Symbian^4 | None announced as of February 2010 |
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Lextrait, Vincent (January 2010). "The Programming Languages Beacon, v10.0". http://www.lextrait.com/Vincent/implementations.html. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
- ^ symbian on intel's atom architecture
- ^ http://www.watblog.com/2010/02/06/symbian-os-now-fully-open-source/
- ^ Symbian Foundation (2010-02-04), Symbian Completes Biggest Open Source Migration Project Ever, http://www.symbian.org/news-and-media/2010/02/04/symbian-completes-biggest-open-source-migration-project-ever, retrieved 2010-02-07
- ^ http://developer.symbian.org/main/source/technology_domains/index.php
- ^ http://developer.symbian.org/main/source/packages/index.php
- ^ http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian_System_Model
- ^ Introducing EKA2, by Jane Sales with Martin Tasker
- ^ "Symbian^1". Symbian Foundation. http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian%5E1. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
- ^ "Symbian^2". Symbian Foundation. http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian^2. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
- ^ "Devices using Symbian^2". Symbian Foundation. http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian_Devices#Devices_using_Symbian.5E2. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
- ^ Symbian announces Symbian^3 and immediately gives it away - Symbian press release, 15 February 2010
- ^ Symbian Completes Biggest Open Source Migration Project Ever
- ^ http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian^3
- ^ "Symbian^4". Symbian Foundation. http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/index.php/Symbian^4. Retrieved 2009-12-04.
- ^ "First look at Symbian^3 concept screenshots". All About Symbian. http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/10819_First_look_at_Symbian3_concept.php. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Symbian^1 devices". Symbian Foundation. http://www.symbian.org/devices. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
[edit] External links
- Symbian Foundation home page
- Symbian Developer website
- Symbian on ohloh
- Symbian platform at the Open Directory Project
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