Symbian^x Platform Overview: How to achieve

HW abstraction and Faster Device Creation

Daniel A. Rubio
Chief Architect
Symbian Foundation
Motivation…

Facilitating a dynamic and agile yet predictable portfolio

Facilitate HW migration (towards innovative HW)

Product innovation is intimately tied to change, and often the need
for change appears midstream in a project.

The ability to make changes during development without being too
disruptive can be valuable

Satisfy customers: could be achieved by adjusting product
requirements during development in response to customer
feedback.

TTM could be measured from the last change in requirements until
the product is delivered.

Scope (HW/SW integration) Lead Product and
subsequent products
Why do products flop?

Fail to deliver expected performance

Too late – Competitors got the upper hand

Wrong positioning/price point

Not attractive to consumers – even if fulfilling

requirements

Even if it sales well doesn’t pay for itself  Development

cost was too high

…
Does this sound familiar?

Traditional Dev Cycle – Common problems

Requirements Lockdown – Always late and fuzzy

Dev teams scattered around the world

Lead Product/Follow-ups are two different platforms

Early HW no SW – Baseport availability?

Too little test, too late, wrong focus System test and field
tests early

Big Bang SW integration

Full UI is last, hence any compelling UI related apps have
little time to adapt

Team Motivation
Wouldn’t it be better if…

Bring to the start what causes problems in the end

UI/Apps dev starts while finalizing requirements  Simulator

Kernel/basic drivers (FlashMem/Keyboard/LCD/USB/SD Card)
up and running ASAP Minimal dev effort, off the shelf
components available

Fast vertical bring up  tried and tested (but representative)
UI/App frameworks on new or phone form factor

Transition UI dev from Simulator to HW

Horizontal Bring-up  Sequentially hook peripherals (minimum
integration effort)

Integration Tests driven from UI (Smoke, Stability,
Interoperability)

Minimal effort to spin-off HW variants
How can the SF and community help?

Kernel Open Source  Adoption, porting effort

Vertical bring-up

SHAI – HW Abstraction

TTM Operational Programmes

Pre Validation of HW/SW

Productization Task Force

Supporting new projects
Kernel is open now…

Development kit available – low adoption barrier

Kernel EPL is available through PDK as well

Will Provide Starting Point and Off-the-shelf

components

Better system knowledge

Symbian Architecture

Application Layer

Middleware

OS Layer

HW
Vertical bring-up
1- Bring-up a basic UI to enable app development

2- Continue system bring-up horizontally

Stubbed Components

Homescreen
Apps Final UI Apps
+ Basic Apps

Basic MW Complete MW

Kernel +
Basic Complete OS/BASE
Drivers
HW HW
What is SHAI?

Symbian Hardware Abstraction Interface

A standard for HW abstraction for Symbian OS –based devices

New definition of Symbian/S60 Adaptation

Based on S60 Chipset API's, expands also to area of peripheral

component abstraction

Common HW adaptation standard across Symbian Foundation

member companies

Future evolution managed through Symbian Foundation in
collaborative ”OSS” –mode

Most of the initial adaptation provided by Nokia through package

owners
 Architectural Vision
Symbian
Foundation Symbian Device SW
Asset
Symbian

Device Specific Differentiation

Applications
SHAI

and Configuration
Symbian Middleware
Hardware
Abstraction
OS services
Interface
HW Adaptation Middleware

SHAI Device
DCD DCD
Class DCD4 DCD n
compliant Driver 2 3
modules
from HW
module HW DeviceDriver DD2 DD3 DD4 DD n
providers
Why SHAI?

We need to secure our future access to most compelling HW
technologies

Industry commitment to Symbian Foundation will increase available
HW options for Symbian -powered devices

Quicker productisation of new HW offering and more options for HW
component sourcing

Lower barrier for extending the SHAI compliancy to wider range of
HW modules

Technical soundness and productivity increase (for OEM’s and HW
vendors)

Active and healthy ecosystem -> will ensure overall HW
competitivness of Symbian powered devices
Drivers and benefits of SHAI

Lower costs, better productivity

Less effort and shorter TTM in porting SW to new HW

Remove unneccessary duplicate investments in non-
differentiating areas in Symbian Foundation Ecosystem

Enable HW vendors to supply one standard solution to all
customers

Clear worksplit

HW vendors to supply Adaptation SW specific to their HW

Industry best HW Abstraction Interface and Architecture for Symbian

Key Areas

Telephony

MM (Audio, Video, Capture, HW Acceleration)

GFX (Composition, Gaming)

Power Mgt (Centralisation, Product Optimisation)

Peripherals (Interfaces, HW Enablers…)

Security
The SHAI story so far…

Nokia contributed major parts of S60 Chipset APIs to Symbian
Foundation (June -09)

Established SHAI WG, chaired by Daniel Rubio

Other members (as of today) from: Nokia, Samsung,
Broadcomm, Fujitsu, STE, NTT-DoCoMo, TI, SEMC

WG Members are currently reviewing and providing comments on

the API proposals

Community feedback is very positive so far

High anticipation for the initiative

Considered as a significant development proposal to Symbian
Foundation