THIRD PARTY DEVELOPMENT
FOR
SYMBIAN OS (Open Source Technology)
B.OBULIRAJ
CSE
8124395522
ABSTRACT:-
Symbian
OS is designed for the mobile phone environment. It addresses constraints of
mobile phones by providing a framework to handle low memory situations, a power
management model, and a rich software layer implementing industry standards for
communications, telephony and data rendering. Even with these abundant features,
Symbian OS puts no constraints on the integration of other peripheral hardware.
This flexibility allows handset manufacturers to pursue innovative and original
designs.
Symbian OS is proven on
several platforms. It started life as the operating system for the Psion series
of consumer PDA products (including Series 5mx, Revo and
netBook),
and various adaptations by Diamond, Oregon Scientific and Ericsson. The first
dedicated mobile phone incorporating Symbian OS was the Ericsson R380 Smartphone,
which incorporated a flip-open keypad to reveal a touch screen display and
several connected applications. Most recently available is the Nokia 9210
Communicator, a mobile phone that has a QWERTY keyboard and color display, and
is fully open to third-party applications written in Java or C++.The five key points - small mobile devices, mass-market,
intermittent wireless connectivity, diversity of products and an open platform
for independent software developers - are the premises on which Symbian OS was
designed and developed. This makes it distinct from any desktop, workstation or
server operating system. This also makes Symbian OS different from embedded
operating systems, or any of its competitors, which weren’t designed with all
these key points in mind.
Symbian is
committed to open standards. Symbian OS has a POSIX-compliant interface and a
Sun-approved JVM, and the company is actively working with emerging standards,
such as J2ME, Bluetooth, MMS, SyncML, IPv6 and WCDMA. As well as its own developer
support organization, books, papers and courses, Symbian delivers a global
network of third-party competency and training centers - the Symbian Competence
Centers and Symbian Training Centers. These are specifically directed at
enabling other organizations and developers to take part in this new economy.
Symbian has announced and implemented a strategy that will see Symbian OS
running on many advanced open mobile phones.
INTRODUTION AND
HISTORY:-
Symbian
is a mobile operating system
(OS) targeted at mobile phones that offers a high-level of integration with
communication and personal information management
(PIM) functionality. Symbian OS combines middleware
with wireless communications
through an integrated mailbox and the integration of Java
and PIM functionality (agenda and contacts). The Symbian OS is open for
third-party development by independent software vendors, enterprise IT
departments, network operators and Symbian OS licensees
History:-
Psion
In
1980, Psion was founded by David Potter.
EPOC16
After
the failure of the MC400 Psion released its Series 3 devices from 1991 to 1998
which also used the EPOC16 OS, also known as SIBO, which supported a simple
programming language called OPL and an IDE called OVAL.
EPOC OS Releases 1–3
Work
started on the from-scratch 32 bit version in late 1994. The Series 5 device,
released in June 1997, used the first iterations of the EPOC32 OS, codenamed
'Protea' and developed from scratch in 3.5 years, and the 'Eikon' GUI.
EPOC Release 4
Internal
only release.
EPOC Release 5
The
Psion Series 5mx, Series 7, Psion Revo, Diamond Mako, Psion Netbook, netPad,
GeoFox One, Oregon's Osaris, and Ericsson MC218 were released in 1999 using
ER5. A phone project was announced at CeBIT, the Phillips Illium/Accent, but
did not achieve a commercial release. This release has been retrospectively
dubbed Symbian OS 5, it was never called that at the time.
ER5u
The
first phone, the Ericsson R380 was released using ER5u in November 2000. It was
not an 'open' phone – software could not be installed. Notably, a number of
never-released Psion prototypes for next generation PDAs, including a Bluetooth
Revo successor codenamed Conan were using ER5u. The 'u' in the name refers to
the fact that it supported Unicode.
Symbian OS v6.0 and 6.1
Sometimes
called ER6. The first 'open' Symbian OS phone, the Nokia 9210 Communicator, was
released in June 2001. Bluetooth support added. Almost 500,000 Symbian phones
were shipped in 2001, rising to 2.1 million the following year.
Development
of different UIs was made generic with a "reference design strategy"
for either 'smart phone' or 'communicator' devices, subdivided further into
keyboard- or tablet-based designs. Two reference UIs (DFRDs) were shipped -
Quartz and Crystal. The former was merged with Ericsson's 'Ronneby' design and
became the basis for the UIQ interface, the latter reached the market as the
Nokia Series 80 UI.
Later
DFRDs were Sapphire, Ruby, and Emerald. Only Sapphire came to market, evolving
into the Pearl DFRD and finally the Nokia Series 60 UI, a keypad-based 'square'
UI for the first true smart phones. The first one of them was the Nokia 7650
smart phone (featuring Symbian OS 6.1), which was also the first with a built in
camera, with VGA (0.3 Mpx = 640*480) resolution.
Despite
these efforts to be generic the UI was clearly split between competing
companies, Crystal or Sapphire was Nokia, Quartz was Ericsson. DFRD was
abandoned by Symbian in late 2002, as part of an active retreat from UI
development in favour of 'headless' delivery. Pearl was given to Nokia, Quartz
development was spun-off as UIQ Technology AB, and work with Japanese firms was
quickly folded into the MOAP standard.
Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s
First
shipped in 2003. This is an important Symbian release which appeared with all
contemporary user interfaces including UIQ (Sony Ericsson P800, P900, P910,
Motorola A925, A1000), Series 80 (Nokia 9300, 9500), Series 90 (Nokia 7710),
Series 60 (Nokia 3230, 6600, 7310) as well as several FOMA phones in Japan. It
also added EDGE support and IPv6. Java support was changed from pJava and
JavaPhone to one based on the Java ME standard.
One
million Symbian phones were shipped in Q1 2003, with the rate increasing to one
million a month by the end of 2003.
Symbian
OS 7.0s was a version of 7.0 special adapted to have greater backwards
compatibility with Symbian OS 6.x, partly for compatibility between the
Communicator 9500 and its predecessor the Communicator 9210.
In
2004, Psion sold its stake in Symbian. The same year, the first worm for mobile
phones using Symbian OS, Cabir, was developed, which used Bluetooth to spread
itself to nearby phones. See Cabir and Symbian OS threats.
Symbian OS 8.0
First
shipped in 2004, one of its advantages would have been a choice of two
different kernels (EKA1 or EKA2). However, the EKA2 kernel version did not ship
until Symbian OS 8.1b. The kernels behave more or less identically from
user-side, but are internally very different. EKA1 was chosen by some
manufacturers to maintain compatibility with old device drivers, while EKA2 was
a real-time kernel. 8.0b was deproductized in 2003.
Also
included were new APIs to support CDMA, 3G, two-way data streaming, DVB-H, and
OpenGL ES with vector graphics and direct screen access.
Symbian OS 8.1
Basically
a cleaned-up version of 8.0, this was available in 8.1a and 8.1b versions, with
EKA1 and EKA2 kernels respectively. The 8.1b version, with EKA2's single-chip
phone support but no additional security layer, was popular among Japanese
phone companies desiring the real-time support but not allowing open
application installation. The first and maybe the most famous smartphone
featuring Symbian OS 8.1a was Nokia N90 in 2005, Nokia's first in Nseries. It
comes with Carl-Zeiss Tessar optics and a 2 Mpx (1600*1200) camera with video
capabilities to take VHS quality (352*288) videos and a huge screen resolution
(at the time) of 352*416 pixels.
Symbian OS 9.0
This
version was used for internal Symbian purposes only. It was deproductised in
2004. 9.0 marked the end of the road for EKA1. 8.1a is the final EKA1 version
of Symbian OS.
Symbian
OS has generally maintained reasonable binary compatibility. In theory the OS
was BC from ER1-ER5, then from 6.0 to 8.1b. Substantial changes were needed for
9.0, related to tools and security, but this should be a one-off event. The
move from requiring ARMv4 to requiring ARMv5 did not break backwards
compatibility.
A
Symbian developer proclaims that porting from Symbian 8.x to Symbian 9.x is a
more daunting process than Symbian says.[2]
Symbian OS 9.1
Released
early 2005. It includes many new security related features, particularly a
controversial platform security module facilitating mandatory code signing.
Symbian argues that applications and content, and therefore a developers
investment, are better protected than ever, however others contend that the
requirement that every application be signed (and thus approved) violates the
rights of the end-user, the owner of the phone, and limits the amount of free
software available. The new ARM EABI binary model means developers need to
retool and the security changes mean they may have to recode. S60 platform 3rd
Edition phones have Symbian OS 9.1. Sony Ericsson is shipping the M600 and P990
based on Symbian OS 9.1. The earlier versions had a fatal defect where the
phone hangs temporarily after the owner sent hundreds of SMS'es. However, on 13
September 2006, Nokia released a small program to fix this defect.Support for
Bluetooth 2.0 (was 1.2)
Symbian OS 9.2
Released
Q1 2006. Support for OMA Device Management 1.2 (was 1.1.2). S60 3rd Edition
Feature Pack 1 phones have Symbian OS 9.2. Nokia phones with Symbian OS 9.2 OS:
Nokia E90, Nokia N95,Nokia E51, Nokia 5700, Nokia N81, Nokia 6290, Nokia 6120
classic, Nokia N82.
Symbian OS 9.3
Released
on 12 July 2006. Upgrades include improved memory management and native support
for Wifi 802.11, HSDPA, Vietnamese language support. The Nokia N96 as well as
the Nokia N78 will feature Symbian OS 9.3.
Symbian OS 9.5
Announced
in March 2007. Provides the concept of demand paging which is available from
v9.3 onwards. Applications should launch up to 75% faster. Native support for
mobile digital television broadcasts in DVB-H and ISDB-T formats and also
location services. Additionally, SQL support is provided by SQLite.
PROCESS:-
Symbian Os: Architecture
Symbian
OS architecture is designed to meet a number of requirements. It must be
hardware independent so it can be used on a variety of phone types, it must be
extendable so it can cope with future developments, and it must be open to all
to develop for.
1)Core
- Symbian OS core is common to all
devices, i.e. kernel, file server, memory management and device drivers. Above
this core, components can be added or removed depending on the product
requirements.
2)System
Layer - The system layer provides
communication and computing services such as TCP/IP, IMAP4, SMS and database
management.
3)Application
Engines - Above the System Layer sits the
Application Engines, enabling software developers (be they either employed by
the phone manufacturer or independent) to create user interface to data.
4)User
Interface Software - USI can be made or
licensed by manufacturers.
5)Applications
- Applications are slotted in above the user interface
AN OPEN OPERATING SYSTEM:-
Symbian
OS is an open OS. The different aspects of this statement is explained
below.
1) Open to anyone to license:
below.
1) Open to anyone to license:
All
manufacturers are treated equally - licensing Symbian OS is open to all on fair
and equal terms.
2) Open to anyone to develop applications:
The even-handed
approach adopted towards manufacturers extends towards
developers. API's are made available as a matter of course. Support for 3rdparty
developers is a key tenet of Symbian OS so full of SDKs and support are available
for all products. Anyone can build an application for Symbian OS and again there is fair and equal access for all.
developers. API's are made available as a matter of course. Support for 3rdparty
developers is a key tenet of Symbian OS so full of SDKs and support are available
for all products. Anyone can build an application for Symbian OS and again there is fair and equal access for all.
3) Based on open standards:
Symbian
focuses on one clear part of the value chain - providing a platform
for all to build upon. Consequently Symbian avoids proprietary standards. It is an active participant in many standards forums - often drawing on the expertise of
its shareholders and licensees. The components of Symbian OS are based on agreed open standards.
for all to build upon. Consequently Symbian avoids proprietary standards. It is an active participant in many standards forums - often drawing on the expertise of
its shareholders and licensees. The components of Symbian OS are based on agreed open standards.
4) Owned by the industry:
Symbian
has steadily increased the number of shareholders since it was
inaugurated. With the addition of Siemens as the latest shareholder, Symbian
shareholders now make over 70% of the phones sold globally. This breadth of
ownership ensures that Symbian acts in the interests of the whole industry, driving open standards and promoting interoperability.
inaugurated. With the addition of Siemens as the latest shareholder, Symbian
shareholders now make over 70% of the phones sold globally. This breadth of
ownership ensures that Symbian acts in the interests of the whole industry, driving open standards and promoting interoperability.
Security:-
The
security subsystem enables data confidentiality, integrity and authentication
by providing underlying support for secure communications protocols such as
TLS/SSL, WTLS and IPSec. It also supports the authentication of installable
software using digital signatures.
Cryptography
module:-
The
cryptography module includes the following significant components:
Ø Cryptography
algorithms allowing data to be encrypted and decrypted and supporting symmetric
ciphers: des, 3des, rc2, rc4 and rc5, and asymmetric ciphers: rsa, dsa and dh
Ø Hash
functions: md5, sha1 and hmac
Ø Pseudo-random
number generator for generating cryptographic keys.
Cryptography
token framework:-
The
cryptographic token framework enables licensees to integrate support for
removable hardware devices, such as WIM modules, in a flexible manner. It
consists of two parts:
Ø A
framework which enables application code to query the system for the
availability of implementations of specific cryptographic interfaces and their
attributes (e.g., whether they are implemented in hardware, whether they are
removable, whether they implement their own access control mechanism)
Ø The
definition of a set of cryptographic interfaces. Licensees may supply their own
implementations of any of the defined interfaces and these will be picked up by
applications using the framework (so for example they may provide a WIM
implementation which implements the certificate storage interface, and then
certificates stored on the WIM will be visible in the certificate management
application and available to the certificate validation module).
Certificate Management module:-
The
certificate management module is used for authentication of other entities
(e.g. third-party developers, web servers) to the user of the phone, and for
authentication of the user of the phone. This module provides the following
services:
Ø Storage
and retrieval of certificates using the cryptographic token framework
Ø Assignment
of trust status to a certificate on an application-by-application basis
Ø Certificate
chain construction and validation
Ø Verification
of trust of a certificate
Ø Certificate
revocation checking using the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP).
ADVANTAGE:-
Ø The
huge advantage is the elegant design, created from the start for embedded
systems, with limited resources and therefore with fine grained control over
them. Teal time kernel, modular and extensible architecture.
DISADVANTAGE:-
Ø One
disadvantage is that currently the UI framework is fragmented (UIQ vs S60) but
this will be solved by the new Symbian Foundation initiative which will only
support one UI framework
Ø Another
disadvantage is that the OS is not available for PCs too. This has many
implications, in areas like: development in native environment not possible,
students are not learning to develop Symbian OS in the university since mobile
software development is seen as a niche area, there are no easy to port
applications from the PC world, there are no PC developers that can switch
without effort from a PC project to a mobile one and back, or undertake an
end-to-end PC to mobile project.
CONCLUSION:-
Symbian
OS is a robust multi-tasking operating system, designed specifically
for real-world wireless environments and the constraints of mobile phones (including
limited amount of memory). Symbian OS is natively IP-based, with fully integrated
communications and messaging. It supports all the leading industry standards that will
be essential for this generation of data-enabled mobile phones. Symbian OS enables a
large community of developers. The open platform allows the installation of third
party software to further enhance the platform.
for real-world wireless environments and the constraints of mobile phones (including
limited amount of memory). Symbian OS is natively IP-based, with fully integrated
communications and messaging. It supports all the leading industry standards that will
be essential for this generation of data-enabled mobile phones. Symbian OS enables a
large community of developers. The open platform allows the installation of third
party software to further enhance the platform.
REFERENCE:-
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