Symbian Operating System: 1. Introduction About Symbian OS

Symbian Operating System
1. Introduction about Symbian OS

Symbian is an operating system (OS) targeted at mobile phones that offers a highlevel 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. Symbian itself grew out of Psion Software (hence many of the similarities -often under the hood- between Psion's EPOC operating system and modern Symbian software platforms). Recognizing that the future was a connected one, with messaging, email and web central, mobile phone giants Ericsson and Nokia (plus a few others) were involved in setting up the new consortium with the Psion staff. Today (2005), Psion itself has more or less ceased to exist, leaving Nokia and Sony Ericsson as the two dominant partners, at least in terms of investment and new products.
1.1 What is Symbian's significance in the wireless market?

Symbian plays a central role within the wireless market: Symbian's licensees represented over 80% of mobile phone sales in 2002. The importance of this role was underlined by JormaOllila, Chairman & CEO of Nokia, when he stated in May 2001, that ".by 2004, 50% of Nokia's 3G phones will be Symbian OS based" The wireless market is changing, driven by customers who want access to services and applications that will add value to their leisure and work, and by operators who need a return on their huge investments in 3G licenses and infrastructure. They will have invested something like 300bn in Europe. So we see fantastic opportunities. Opportunities for new services and applications, such as multi-user games, location based services for route planning or localized advertising, and soon wireless commerce. However this is a new world. Both handset A.G Patil Institute Of Technology, Solapur Page1

manufactures and operators are moving from closed systems to open systems, giving users the ability to download applications and services. This change isn't going to be painless; however Symbian is in a unique position to minimize the cost of change. Symbian OS is an advanced, open platform and Symbian is committed to supporting, implementing, and guiding the major wireless standards. But perhaps most importantly of all, Symbian understands the wireless market and the way it is changing. This includes the necessary security infrastructure, application and service provisioning and their business models, and rapid service development.
2. Need of Symbian OS 2.1 Addressing specific needs

Small devices come in many shapes and sizes, each addressing distinct target markets that have different requirements. The market segment we are interested in is that of the mobile phone. The primary requirement of this market segment is that all products are great phones. This segment spans voice-centric phones with information capability (such as Series 60 phones) to information-centric devices with voice capability (such as UIQ and Series 80 phones). These advanced mobile phones integrate fully-featured personal digital assistant (PDA) capabilities with those of a traditional mobile phone in a single unit. In this article well be looking at the critical factors for operating systems in this market. It is important to look at the mobile phone market in isolation. It has specific needs that make it unlike markets for PCs or fixed domestic appliances. Scaling down a PC operating system, or bolting communication capabilities onto a small and basic operating system, results in too many fundamental compromises. Symbian believes that the mobile phone market has five key characteristics that make it unique, and result in the need for a specifically designed operating system: mobile phones are both small and mobile
A.G Patil Institute Of Technology, Solapur
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mobile phones are ubiquitous they target a mass-market of consumer, enterprise and professional users mobile phones are occasionally connected they can be used when connected to the wireless phone network, locally to other devices, or on their own manufacturers need to differentiate their products in order to innovate and compete in a fast-evolving market the platform has to be open to enable independent technology and software vendors to develop third-party applications, technologies and services The way to grow the mobile phone market is to create good products and the only way to create good products is to address each of these characteristics and ensure that technology doesnt limit functionality. Meeting the impressive growth forecast by analysts in a reasonable time frame is only possible with the right operating system
2.2 Small and mobile, but always available

Mobile phones are both small and, by definition, mobile. This creates high user expectations. For instance, if you have your agenda on a phone that you also use to make calls and exchange data, you expect to be able to carry it with you at all times and to be instantly available whenever you want to use it. Fulfilling these expectations makes considerable demands on power management. The device needs to be responsive in all situations, and cannot afford to go through a long boot sequence when it is turned on. In fact, the device should never be powered down completely since it needs to activate timed alarms or handle incoming calls. At the same time, a mobile phone must provide many hours of operation on a single charge or set of batteries. Meeting these contradictory requirements can only be done if the whole operating system is designed for efficiency.
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2.3 Addressing the mass-market
Reliability is a major issue for mass-market phones. Data loss in a personal mobile phone causes a loss of trust between the user and the phone. A mobile phone therefore must be at least as resilient as paper diaries and agendas. Recalling phones to install service packs is a commercial and practical last resort a mobile phone should never lock up or come with a major software defect. In fact, to use a PC term, it should never ever need a reboot! This is a far cry from desktop computers where bugs, crashes and reboots are expected. However, reliability alone is not enough to make good products. Sound consumer design is also necessary, where:
product applications take advantage of the mobile phones unique characteristics as well as its environment
products should be designed to meet current usability and future developments in wireless technology Consistency of style is paramount if a feature is too complex to use, then it cannot justify either the time it took to develop or the space it takes in the device. An operating system targeted at mobile phones must support these design principles
by offering a high-level of integration with communication and personal information management (PIM) functionality. Symbian OS combines high functionality middleware with superior wireless communications through an integrated mailbox and the integration of Java and PIM functionality (agenda and contacts).
2.4 Handling occasional connectivity

Accessing remote data, sending email or synchronizing calendars requires some type of connection. Mobility constraints generally make a wireless connection preferable whether wide area (using wireless telephony) or personal area (such as infrared or Bluetooth links). A.G Patil Institute Of Technology, Solapur Page4
2.5 Product diversity

There is an apparent contradiction between software developers who want to develop for just one popular platform and manufacturers who each want to have a range of distinctive and innovative products. The circle can be squared by separating the user interface from the core operating system. Advanced mobile phones or smart phones come in all sorts of shapes from traditional designs resembling todays mobile phones with main input via the phone keypad, to a tablet form factor operated with a stylus, to phones with larger screens and small keyboards. This strategy ensures that Symbian OS phone manufacturers can create highly differentiated products while sharing a technology platform and keeping the learning curve to a minimum.
2.6 Open platform

An operating system for the mass-market must be open for third-party development by independent software vendors, enterprise IT departments, network operators and Symbian OS licensees. In turn, this implies a manageable learning curve, standard languages such as C++ and Java, along with SDKs, tools, documentation, books, technical support and training. Symbian OS has a rich set of APIs for independent software developers, partners and licensees to write their applications. Traditional standards such as Unicode for internationalization, a POSIX API, and Java are a must, but for an operating system to take its place in the connected world, open standards such as TCP/IP, POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, OBEX, WAP, i-mode, Java and SyncML should also be supported.
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Symbian has trusted leading partners in the mobile phone market and actively participates in standards organizations (such as the Open Mobile Alliance and the Java Community Process). Through these, Symbian has advance Furthermore, a user interface framework, data service enablers and application engines provide a solid base for application developers to target.
2.7 A different operating system?

To fit into the limited amount of memory a mobile phone may have, the operating system must be compact. However, as we have seen, it must still provide a rich set of functionality. What is needed to power a mobile phone is not a mini-operating system but a different operating system one that is tailored. Symbian is dedicated to mobile phones and Symbian OS has been designed to meet the sophisticated requirements of the mobile phone market that mini-operating systems cant. They simply run out of steam.
2.8 Why Symbian OS?

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 werent designed with all these key points in mind. Symbian is committed to open standards and 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
SymbianCompetenceCenters and SymbianTrainingCenters. These are specifically directed at enabling other organizations and developers to take part in this new economy.
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3. Specialties of Symbian OS
In June 1999, EPOC version 5 started shipping. It contained support for devices based on a 640x240 screen resolution, with pen and keyboard capabilities.
In 2000, Symbian OS 6.0 was released. Its design goal is to bring together various forms of communication protocols, such as TCP/IP, WAP, GSM, Bluetooth, IrDa, as well as serial connections.
In 2002, Symbian OS version 7.0 was released. This version is designed for the unique requirements of advanced 2G, 2.5G, and 3G mobile phones.
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4. What all Symbian base Cell-Phones can do?

It's early days for rolled out services, but we're seeing pilots and experimental services being created. For instance "Wireless for Symbian Devices" describes the Handheld Travel Assistant, developed by Telenor R&D. This uses Symbian and existing Internet services to provide users with location related information, including local maps, location of friends, transport routes, and information about local shops and restaurants. A GPS system was used for position information, but transmitter signal strength can also be used to locate the user. There's also the Simple Conference example from Digit. This allows users of different mobile phones to work on a shared whiteboard. Both drawings and textual information can be shared, with the whiteboard model being held on a server. In addition Cell-Telecom ( www.cell-telecom.com) has deployed a number of Symbian applications, which includes sales support and industrial QA.
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5. Symbian OS Architecture & Working Flow
Connectivity
The Palm Conduit Development Kit (CDK) allows Palm OS developers to write plug-ins (conduits) for the HotSync Manager application that synchronizes data between applications on the desktop and on the Palm PDA. Symbian OS provides a Connectivity Software Development Kit (CSDK), which allows developers to write add-in file format converters and plug-ins to synchronize between Symbian OS phones and desktop applications.
Color and Sound Support

Like Palm OS, Symbian OS provides full support for color and sound, which application programmers can access through convenient APIs. Symbian OS differs from Palm OS in the additional capabilities it offers. It has been designed with sophisticated memory management, event handling mechanisms, and multitasking, making it the best platform in its class for mobile phones.
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Operating System Reliability
A robust system is a key requirement for mobile phones and devices: they should be crash proof. Contrary to what PC users have come to expect, it is possible to design an operating system that does not require the user to reboot it on a regular basis. Symbian OS is such an operating system. First, each process runs in its own protected address space, thus it is not possible for any application to overwrite any other applications address space, causing the application to crash. Second, the kernel itself also runs in its own protected address space, so that a program bug cant accidentally overwrite the kernels stack or heap and cause the whole system to crash. If programs need to pass data to other programs, they do so using Symbian OS client/server architecture, which allows applications to exchange data using a robust, efficient message-passing system. This message passing system has been designed so that it uses as few system resources as possible: message overheads are small and data exchange is minimized.
Application Engines and Services

Symbian OS allows developers to build powerful applications quickly by providing a number of reusable application engines as well as a range of application services. Some of these engines and services include: A relational database manager Schedule and to-do list application engines Text-processing APIs Printing and zooming APIs Support for vCard, vCalendar standards, and IrOBEX protocol Clipboard support String-handling libraries, dynamic buffers, and math libraries A stream store API for efficient access to data Graphics and animation libraries A multimedia server supporting audio recording, playback, and image functionality Support for Unicode and internationalization
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Symbian OS Fully Multitasking
The multitasking nature of Symbian OS architecture makes it the ideal application platform for mobile phones. The single-tasking Palm OS is a much more challenging environment for developers of communications applications. Under Symbian OS, each program runs as a separate process, and applications can run concurrently. Each process under Symbian OS contains one or more threads, and the system scheduler allocates processor use to threads through prioritized pre-emptive multitasking.
Memory Leaks Avoided

As stated earlier, main memory on a Symbian OS phone is extremely limited. Developers have to limit application memory use, and, perhaps more important, release memory that the application no longer uses. If an application allocates dynamic memory on the heap, uses it, and then doesnt release it, that memory will be effectively lost to the rest of the system until the application closes a memory leak has occurred. Symbian OS provides a programming framework to assist developers in writing programs that dont leak memory. This framework includes a number of programming idioms that occur in all Symbian OS code, as well as development tools that allow developers to verify that the code they have written does not leak memory.
Reusable Code
Symbian OS is designed to reuse code wherever possible, enabling a device to achieve rich functionality with limited hardware resources. Code reuse is achieved two ways: 1. Code reuse at run time system components have been designed to maximize the use of Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) throughout the system, thereby minimizing the amount of code loaded into main memory. 2. When writing programs, Symbian OS API design allows code reuse. Add New Software and System Components . Symbian OS allows new software components, including new protocol stacks, Web plug-ins, and device drivers to be added, and existing software to be updated without rebooting even while the device is running through its use of frameworks and DLLs. The framework architecture allows a framework, such as a Web browser or server.
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6. Different Mobiles Supports for Symbian
Terms you'll see bandied around a lot include 'Series 60', 'Series 80', 'Series 90' and 'UIQ'. These are all Symbian platforms, but don't despair because it's all relatively simple. In many cases, once you've bought a device, you don't even have to remember much about its internals, as most developer web sites include photos of all the different hardware, you just click on the one you own to see what's available.
Q is stylus-based interface (heavily influenced by the easy-to-use Palm OS one). The best known examples of UIQ devices are the Sony Ericsson P800 and P900/P910i, although there are others, including the Motorola A920/925/1000. Look beyond the Palm-like interface and you'll see glimpses of stuff that's familiar from Psion days. But only glimpses. The biggest downside of UIQ is that some of the benefits of multitasking have been removed by the way programs to a neutral state when sent to the background. So you switch away to your calendar or answer the phone and then have to re-open your document and find your place all over again and again. revert check
Historically, Nokia have opted for Symbian devices which don't need a fragile touch-screen. The well-known Nokia 9210 effectively ran EPOC version 6 and is extremely similar to an old Psion Series 5mx in many, many ways, with the minor difference that the lack of a touch-screen necessitated a set of programmable command buttons to the right of the screen. Nokia refer to this interface as 'Series 80'. Series 80 is also used in slightly tweaked form in the new Nokia 9300 and 9500 communicators. If you want to get close to a Psion-on-steroids-with-a-colour-screen, then these are the ones to get. You get almost the full range of built-in applications (including Word, Sheet, etc.) and A.G Patil Institute Of Technology, Solapur Page12

there's full (and proper) multi-tasking, so you can have dozens of programs and documents open at once, switching between them as needed. The 9500 wins out for most people, with more useable keyboard, Wi-Fi and a good camera. And it's quite affordable with a sensible phone contract.
Down at the other size extreme, Nokia has been very successful with their small-screen 'Series 60' interface. Again this is recognizable Symbian under the hood, but again there's no touchscreen and this time Nokia has written many of its own dumbeddown applications from scratch, ditching the standard
Psion/Symbian ones presumably because they wouldn't suit the one-handed, button-driven interface and tiny (176 pixel-wide) screen. There's multi-tasking power here under the hood and many third party applications have been ported to Series 60, but everything's restricted to some degree by the screen size and keypad text input. Of course, this last problem can be solved with a Bluetooth keyboard... The best Series 60 device to go for at the moment is probably the Nokia 6630, because it's got a fairly recent OS (Symbian OS 7, meaning that it's compatible with most new software, e.g. TomTom MOBILE 5), plus the Multimedia Framework (MMF) and stereo electronics that let it to justice your music collection. And it's got a good, relatively large screen. And it's pretty cheap nowadays, free on quite a few phone contracts.
Hot off the press is 'Series 90', as seen in Nokia's new 7710. It uses much the same operating system and applications as Series 80, but tweaked to support a slightly larger, touch-sensitive screen. But there's no keyboard, of course, so input is via gesture recognition, virtual keyboard or Bluetooth keyboard. And I'm really, really not sure about the general appearance and form factor.
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Benefits
Operating system designed form scratch for mobile platforms Mobile phones are both small and mobile Multitasking PIM Multiple language support Event Management Fully Object oriented the platform has to be open to enable independent technology Best fitted for mobile Large market share Power consumption
Limitations
Dependency on Nokia Porting Symbian signed Steep learning curve for developers
Scope for Future Enhancement

The Leading Mobile OS Open Source Software Platform Implications to other OS Page14
7. Conclusion
We live in times of tumult and change. In the midst of this excitement, two strong trends are clear. First, software is spreading more widel y and more deepl y into all aspects of societ y. Second,
communication is becoming pervasive: more objects and gadgets talk to each other all the time, in ever -richer ways. The software that lies at the heart of these new phones is S ymbian OS. Endorsed by giants of the telecommunications Panasonic, Psion, industryFujitsu, Sanyo, Siemens Kenwood, Motorola, Noki a, OS SonyEricsson Symbian
and
enables a dramatic leap in the power and utilit y of mobile phones. Symbian OS is neither a cut -down desktop/server OS nor an extended embedded OS, but a one-of-a-kind mobile operating system. Like all disruptive technologies, it has a challenging learning curve. Thankfull y, it also has a flourishing communit y of software developers and trainers ready to help fellow travelers along this curve sharing S ymbian's motto of co-operate before competi ng.
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8. References
o http://www.symbian.com o http://www.symbianos.com o http://www.symbianone.com o http://www.nokia.forum.com o http://www.cell-telecom.com
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Symbian Operating System: 1. Introduction About Symbian OS

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Symbian Operating System

1. Introduction about Symbian OS

1.1 What is Symbian's significance in the wireless market?