SYMBIAN OS Embedded Operating System

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SYMBIAN OSEmbedded Operating System
Operating Systems Prof. Antonette Daligdig
Atienza, Lemuel Jay Bacarra, Dan Paolo Dulatre,
Michael Angelo Jimenez, John Edward Llorca,
Bryalle
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Origin/History

• 1980
• Psion founded by David Potter
• Handheld devices evolved
• 1984
• Psion Organizer the worlds first handheld
  computer launched
• 1986
• Vastly improved Psion Organizer II launches, with
  a simple-to-use database programming language,
  OPL (Open Programming Language)

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Origin/History

• 1987
• Psion begins development of its SIBO (SIxteen Bit
  Organiser) family of devices and its own new
  multitasking operating system called EPOC to run
  its PDA products
• 1989
• First EPOC16 devices, the MC400 and MC200, ship
  with a primarily 1-bit, keyboard-operated graphica
  l interface

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Origin/History

• 1990
• Dramatic increase in use of mobile phones
• Psion Computers manufactured devices that were
  PDAs
• 1991
• Psion produced the Series 3 a small computer
  with a half-VGA, monochrome screen that could fit
  into a pocket

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Origin/History

• 1996
• Series 3c with additional infrared capability
• Psion started to design a new 32-bit operating
  system that supported pointing devices on a touch
  screen, used multimedia and was more
  communication rich
• Introduction of the system as EPOC Release 1
• 1997
• The first version of EPOC32 Release 1 appeared on
  the Psion Series 5 ROM v1.0

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Origin/History

• 1997
• EPOC32 operating system, at the time simply
  referred to as EPOC, was later renamed Symbian OS
• 1998
• In June, Psion Software became Symbian a major
  joint venture between Psion and phone
  manufacturers Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia.
• EPOC became known simply as Symbian OS

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Origin/History

• 1999
• The Psion Series 5mx, Psion Series 7, Psion Revo,
  Diamond Mako, Psion netBook, netPad, GeoFox One,
  and Ericsson MC218 were released using EPOC
  Release 5
• 2000
• The first phone the Ericsson R380 was released
  using ER5u (Symbian OS v5.1. u Unicode) in
  November

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Origin/History

• 2000
• Manufacturers were searching for a new advanced
  operating system for its next generation of
  devices
• Psion and the leaders in the mobile phone
  industry including Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola,
  and Matsushita (Panasonic), formed a joint
  venture, called Symbian
• Develop the EPOC operating system core, new core
  design was called Symbian OS

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Origin/History

• 2001
• The first open Symbian OS phone the Nokia 9210
  Communicator, was released in June and Bluetooth
  support was added
• Almost 500,000 Symbian phones were shipped in
  2001, rising to 2.1 million the following year
• Symbian OS debuted at version 6

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Origin/History

• 2003
• First shipment of Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s, 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, 6260, 6600, 6670,
  7610) as well as several FOMA phones in Japan
• It also added EDGE support and IPv6
• One million Symbian phones were shipped with the
  rate increasing to one million a month by the end
  of 2003

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Origin/History

• 2004
• Psion sells its stake in Symbian
• Symbian OS version 8, enhanced the performance of
  Symbian OS, particularly for its real-time
  functions
• 2005
• Symbian OS version 9, added concepts of
  capability-based security and gatekeeping
  installation
• Symbian OS version 9 also added the flexibility
  for hardware that Symbian OS version 7 added for
  software

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Origin/History

• 2006
• Symbian helped bring forth the explosion of
  mobile device innovationwith Symbian software at
  the base of more than 100 million phones
• 2008
• The next step of Symbian evolution took place,
  with Nokia purchasing all Symbian assets and
  starting the software down the path to open
  source
• Symbian acquired by Nokia Symbian Foundation
  formed

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Characteristics Processing

• Threads
• Threads form the central unit of multitasking
• Process is simply seen by the operating system as
  a collection of threads with a process control
  block and some memory space
• Thread support in Symbian OS is based in the
  nanokernel with nanothreads

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Characteristics Processing

• Nanothreads
• Run in privileged mode and need a stack to store
  their runtime environment data
• Cannot run in user mode
• Nanothreads can be in the following states
• Suspended
• Fast Semaphore Wait
• DFC Wait
• Sleep
• Other

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Characteristics Processing

• Processes
• Concepts of process state and process scheduling
  have already been defined by Symbian OS threads
  and nanothreads
• Scheduling a process, then, is really implemented
  by scheduling a thread and initializing the right
  process control block to use for its data needs

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Characteristics Processing

• Processes
• Symbian OS threads organized under a single
  process work together in several ways
• First, there is a single main thread that is
  marked as the starting point for the process
• Second, threads share scheduling parameters.
  Changing parameters, that is, the method of
  scheduling, for the process changes the
  parameters for all threads

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Characteristics Processing

• Processes
• Symbian OS threads organized under a single
  process work together in several ways
• Third, threads share memory space objects,
  including device and other object descriptors
• Finally, when a process is terminated, the kernel
  terminates all threads in the process

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Characteristics Memory Management

• Systems with No Virtual Memory
• Only storage available to the operating system on
  these platforms is memory they do not come with
  a disk drive
• Do not support a demand paged virtual memory
• Memory space used in most small platform devices.
  Typically, have two types of storage RAM and
  flash memory

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Characteristics Memory Management

• Systems with No Virtual Memory
• RAM
• Stores the operating system code (to be used when
  the system boots)
• flash memory
• used for both operating memory and permanent
  (file) storage
• it is possible to add extra flash memory to a
  device (such as a SD Secure Digital card), and
  this memory is used exclusively for permanent
  storage.

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Characteristics Memory Management

• Systems with No Virtual Memory
• Absence of demand-paged virtual memory does not
  mean the absence of memory management
• Smaller platforms are built on hardware that
  includes many of the management features of
  larger systems includes features such as
• Paging
• Address Translation
• Virtual /Physical Address Abstraction

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Characteristics Memory Management

• Systems with No Virtual Memory
• Memory management consists of the following
  tasks
• Management of application size
• Heap management
• Execution in-place
• Loading DLLs
• Offload memory management to hardware

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Characteristics Memory Management

• How Symbian OS Addresses Memory
• Symbian OS is a 32-bit operating system,
  addresses can range up to 4 GB
• Symbian OS divides memory into virtual pages and
  physical frames
• Symbian OS adopts a two-level page table strategy
  (shown in next slide)

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Characteristics Memory Management

• How Symbian OS Addresses Memory

Symbian OS uses a two-level page table to reduce
table access time and storage
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Characteristics Input/Output

• Device Drivers
• Device driver in Symbian OS is split into two
  levels
• A logical device driver (LDD)
• Presents an interface to upper layers of software
• A physical device driver (PDD)
• Interacts directly with hardware

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Characteristics Input/Output

• Kernel Extensions
• Kernel extensions are device drivers that are
  loaded by Symbian OS at boot time
• Provided for two reasons
• First, it matches the object-oriented design
  abstractions we have come to see as
  characteristic of microkernel design
• Second, it allows the separate platforms that
  Symbian OS runs on to run specialized device
  drivers that enable the hardware for each
  platform without recompiling the kernel

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Characteristics Input/Output

• Direct Memory Access
• Device drivers frequently make use of DMA and
  Symbian OS supports the use of DMA hardware
• DMA hardware consists of a controller that
  controls a set of DMA channels

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Characteristics Input/Output

• Special Case Storage Media
• Media drivers are a special form of PDD in
  Symbian OS that are used exclusively by the file
  server to implement access to storage media
  devices
• The file server in Symbian OS can support up to
  26 different drives at the same time
• Local drives are distinguished by their drive
  letter, as in Windows

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Characteristics Input/Output

• Blocking I/O
• Symbian OS deals with blocking I/O through active
  objects
• The weight of all threads waiting on I/O event
  affects the other threads in the system
• Active objects allow blocking I/O calls to be
  handled by the operating system rather than the
  process itself
• Active objects are coordinated by a single
  scheduler and implemented in a single thread

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Characteristics Input/Output

• Removable Media
• Removable media needs a controller, a driver, a
  bus structure, and will probably communicate to
  the CPU through DMA
• Symbian OS provides software controllers that
  control each supported card
• Symbian OS provides a series of events that occur
  when state changes happen

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Features

• Client-Server Architecture
• In Symbian OS, clients are programs that have
  user interfaces, and servers are programs that
  can only be accessed via a well defined interface
  from other programs
• Event Management
• Event management has long been considered core
  strength of Symbian OS - reflecting the fact that
  Symbian OS was designed from the start to have
  event based time sharing in a single thread

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Features

• Object Oriented Design
• Because Symbian OS has an object oriented design,
  it is easy to configure for different sorts of
  hardware, and being component based, it allows
  manufacturers to add or remove components
• This will provide a stable base as the
  telecommunications industry moves from 2G to 2.5G
  to 3G to 4G, with the further introduction of new
  technologies such as SyncML, BlueTooth, and
  Multimedia Messaging amongst many

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Features

• Power Management
• Symbian OS users are used to the performance of
  mobile phones - and so demand similar performance
  in terms of weight and operating times when they
  adopt new devices
• Power management is built into the kernel of
  Symbian OS and is designed to make efficient use
  of the processors and peripherals and so minimize
  power usage

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Features

• Robust and Dependable
• Devices should not lose user data, crash or
  require rebooting
• Symbian achieves this in two ways
• Each process runs in a protected address space,
  thus it is not possible for one application to
  overwrite anothers address space. The kernel
  also runs in a protected address space, so that a
  bug in one application cannot overwrite the
  kernels stack or heap.

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Features

• Robust and Dependable
• Symbian achieves this in two ways
• The client-server architecture of Symbian OS
  allows applications to exchange data without
  compromising overall system integrity. This meets
  the requirement to work on stand alone portable
  devices, even though Symbian devices offer
  greatly enhanced functionality over standard
  mobile phones.

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Features

• Memory Management
• For stand alone portable devices, memory
  management is important
• The need to minimize weight, device size and cost
  means the amount of memory available on a Symbian
  OS device is often quite limited
• Symbian OS always assumes that the memory
  available is limited, and minimizes consumption
  at every turn
• Consequently, less memory is actually required by
  the system also having less memory helps to keep
  down power consumption

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Features

• Full Multitasking
• Symbian OS runs each application as a separate
  process, allowing multiple applications to run
  concurrently
• An Open Operating System
• Symbian OS is an open OS
• Open to anyone to license
• Open to anyone to develop application
• Based on open standards
• Owned by the industry

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Strengths

• Memory Management
• The absence of demand-paged virtual memory does
  not mean the absence of memory management,
  smaller platforms are built on hardware that
  includes many of the management features of
  larger systems
• Execution in-place
• Platforms with no disk drives usually support
  execution in-place
• Flash memory is mapped into the virtual address
  space and programs can be executed directly from
  flash memory, without copying them into RAM first

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Weakness

• No Virtual Memory
• The only storage available to the operating
  system on these platforms is memory they do not
  come with a disk drive
• Smaller systems, from PDAs to smartphones to
  higher level handheld devices, do not support a
  demand paged virtual memory

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Example of Applications where the Symbian OS is
being used

• Nokia Series 80 interface
• Nokia 9210 Communicator smartphone (32-bit
  66 MHz ARM9-based RISC CPU) (2001), 9300(2004), 95
  00 Communicator (2004) using the Nokia Series
  80 interface
• UIQ interface
• Used for PDAs such as Sony Ericsson P800
  (2002), P900 (2003), P910 (2004), P990 (2005), W95
  0 (2006), M600 (2006), P1 (2007),W960 (2007), G700
   (2008), G90 (2008), G702 (2008), Motorola
  A920, A925, A1000, RIZR Z8, RIZR Z10, DoCoMo
  M1000, BenQ P30, P31 and Nokia 6708 using this
  interface

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Example of Applications where the Symbian OS is
being used

• Nokia S60 (2002) interface
• Nokia S60 is used in various phones, the first
  being the Nokia 7650, then the Nokia 3650,
  followed by the Nokia 3620/3660, Nokia 6600,Nokia
  7610, Nokia 6670 and Nokia 3230
• The Nokia N-Gage and Nokia N-Gage
  QD gaming/smartphone combos are also S60 platform
  devices
• It was also used on other manufacturers' phones
  such as the Siemens SX1, Sendo X, Panasonic
  X700, Panasonic X800,Samsung SGH-D730, SGH-D720
  and the Samsung SGH-Z600

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Example of Applications where the Symbian OS is
being used

• Nokia S60 (2002) interface
• Recent, more advanced devices using S60 include
  the Nokia 6620,Nokia 6630, the Nokia 6680, Nokia
  6681 and Nokia 6682, Nokia 6120 classic, Nokia
  6121 classic, Nokia 6220,a next
  generationNseries, including the Nokia N70, Nokia
  N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N73, Nokia N75, Nokia
  N76, Nokia N77, Nokia N78, Nokia N79, Nokia
  N80, Nokia N81, Nokia N82, Nokia N85, Nokia
  N90, Nokia N91, Nokia N92, Nokia N93, Nokia
  N95, Nokia N96 and Nokia N97
• The enterprise (i.e. business) model Eseries,
  including the Nokia E50, Nokia E51, Nokia
  E60, Nokia E61, Nokia E62, Nokia E63, Nokia
  E65,Nokia E66, Nokia E70, Nokia E71, Nokia
  E71x, Nokia E78, and Nokia E90 and some of the
  models of Nokia Xpress music mobiles likeNokia
  5320, Nokia 5700, Nokia 5800 and Nokia 5530
  XpressMusic
• Nokia Series 90 interface
• Nokia 7710 (2004) using the Nokia Series
  90 interface

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Screenshots
Symbian OS Logo
Historic Formation of Industry for Symbian
A screenshot of the UIQ 3 pen-based interface on
the P990
Screenshot of a typical Nokia S60 user interface