SYMBIAN OS

Embedded Operating system

Amonoy, Florante
Alonzo, Jan kasper
Cadag, Paul John
Nera, Carl Arwin
See, Michael Angelo

Prof. Antonette
Daligdig
 History/Origin
1980s
• In 1980, Psion was founded by David Potter.

• Psion begins development of its “SIBO”

(“Sixteen Bit Organizer”) family of devices and its
own new multitasking operating system called
EPOC to run its PDA(“personal digital assistant”)
products.
•
• EPOC16 was the operating system develop by
Psion in the late 80s and 90s for Psion “SIBO”
(“Sixteen Bit Organizer”).
1990s

• Series 3c with additional infrared capability.

•
• EPOC32 OS was developed in the mid 90s for the
ARM family processor.

• In June 1998, Psion software became Symbian a major

joint between Psion and Phone manufacturers Ericsson,
Motorola, and Nokia.
•
• EPOC OS became Symbian OS.
•
2000
• First phone: The ericsson R380 using ER5u(Symbian
OS v5.1) in November 2000. u in the name refers to the
fact that it supported Unicode.

2001
• Symbian OS became version 6 and 6.1.

• First “Open” Symbian OS phone, The Nokia 9210

communicator, Bluetooth support was added.
•
• Nokia s60 UI reached a market, a keypad based UI a
smartphones. One of them was Nokia 7650 smartphone
Symbian OS 6.1) w/ first built in camera, w/ VGA (0.3
Mpx) resolution.
•
2003
• Shipment of Symbian OS 7.0 and 7.0s.
•
• Important Symbian release which appeared of all
contemporary UI including UIQ(sony ericsson P800, P900, P
910, Motorola A925, A1000) series 80 (Nokia 9300, 9500),
Series 90 (Nokia 7710), Series 60 ( Nokia 3230, 6260, 6670,
7610.
•
• It also added EDGE(Enchaced Data Rates for Global
Evolution) support and IPv6 (Internet Protocol v.6)
2004
• Psion sold its stake in Symbian. Bluetooth spread itself to
nearby phones.
•
• Release of Symbian OS v8 with enhanced performanced
of realtime functions.
2005
• Substantial changes were needed for Symbian OS v9.0 in
terms of tools and security, but this should be a one-of event.
•
• Early release of Symbian OS v9.1. It includes many new
security related features.
•
• Support for Bluetooth 2.0
2006

• Released of Symbian OS v9.2. More Nokia phones w/

Symbian OS.
•
• Symbian OS v9.3. Improved memory management and
native support of Wifi
2008
• Applications launched up to 75% faster.

2009
• Becoming a “open source”.
 Processing Characteristics:
Threads
• Threads: Form the central unit of multi-tasking
• 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 Nanokernel and
Nanothreads.
•
Nanothreads
• Run in previledge mode and need a stack to store their
runtime evironment data.
• cannot run in user mode
• Nanothreads can be the following:
Suspended
Fast sephamore wait
DFC wait
Sleep
Other
•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
•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
•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
Memory Management characteristics :

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
•
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.
Input and Output characteristics :

Device Drivers
•Device driver in Symbian OS is split into two
levels:
•A logical device driver (LDD)
oPresents an interface to upper layers
of software
•A physical device driver (PDD)
oInteracts directly with hardware
Kernel Extensions
•Kernel extensions are device drivers that are
loaded by Symbian OS at boot time
•Provided for two reasons:
oFirst, it matches the object-oriented design
abstractions we have come to see as
characteristic of microkernel design
oSecond, 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
Input and Output characteristics :
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
•
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
Input and Output characteristics :
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
•
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
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
•
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
• 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
–
• 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
another’s address space. The kernel
also runs in a protected address space,
so that a bug in one application cannot
overwrite the kernel’s stack or heap.
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
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
•
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.
Weaknesses
• 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 smart
phones to higher level handheld devices, do
not support a demand paged virtual memory
•
Devices that used Symbian OS
On 16 November 2006, the 100 millionth smartphone running the OS
was shipped.
•Ericsson R380 (2000) was the first commercially available
phone based on Symbian OS. As with the modern "FOMA" phones, this
device was closed, and the user could not install new C++
applications. Unlike those, however, the R380 could not even run
Java applications, and for this reason, some have questioned
whether it can properly be termed a 'smartphone'.
•Nokia Series 80 interface:
•Nokia 9210 Communicator smartphone (32-bit 66 MHz ARM9-
based RISC CPU) (2001), 9300(2004), 9500 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), W950 (2006), M600 (2006), P1
(2007), W960 (2007), G700 (2008), G900 (2008), G702 (2008),
Motorola A920, A925, A1000, RIZR Z8, RIZR Z10, DoCoMo M1000,
BenQ P30, P31 and Nokia 6708 using this interface.
•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.
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 generation Nseries, 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 like Nokia 5320, Nokia 5700, Nokia 5630, Nokia
5800 and Nokia 5530 XpressMusic.
•Nokia Series 90 interface:
•Nokia 7710 (2004) using the Nokia Series 90
interface.
MOAP ( S ) interface:
•Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Sony Ericsson and Sharp
phones for NTT DoCoMo in Japan, using an interface
developed specifically for DoCoMo's FOMA "Freedom
of Mobile Access" network brand. This UI platform
is called MOAP "Mobile Oriented Applications
Platform" and is based on the UI from earlier
Fujitsu FOMA models.