February 14th, 2006 by Justin Oberman
Today at their 3GSM Press Conference, ACCESS and PalmSource talked about, not a new barrage Treo’s, but an ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP). A new commercial-grade Linux-based platform designed for smartphones and mobile devices is the latest evolution of PALM OS for Linux.
Trying to move beyond their Treo Success, the duo’s goal is to make ALP the platform of choice for the development of high volume, feature rich smartphones and mobile devices for high performance networks such as 2.5G and 3G around the world.
ALP will replace Palm OS and there will be no OS 6. The look and feel may no longer be “Palmy” as well. In other words, the Palm system is going to have a major overhaul, if, that is, you (or they) can still call it Palm when its all done and released in 2007.
The transformation of Palms OS to the Linux based ALP system comes after almost two years of zero upgrades on the current Palm OS. Palm is also leading mobile Linux out of its fragmented existence and into the real time practicality lime light. They are, of course, also the founding member of the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) forum.
The ALP software Developer Kit (due to be released and available for licenses by the end of 2006, “combines best-in-class open source Linux components with proven mobile technologies developed by PalmSource and ACCESS’ Linux expertise,” said Toru Arakawa, president and CEO of ACCESS. “As a commercial-grade, flexible, open, robust and standards-based mobile Linux based platform, ALP is designed to provide handset manufacturers with faster time-to-market while supporting the goal of operators to offer revenue-generating services, applications and content.”
Here is the geek stuff…
The major make up of ALP consists of a standard, commercial-grade Linux kernel (version 2.6.12 and above), an optimized, implantation of GIMP ToolKit (GTK+) which provides popular open source libraries for the creation of graphical interfaces, GStreamer (an open source, modular and multi-threaded streaming media framework) and SQLite (a high performance database engine commonly used in embedded devices).
ACCESS and PalmSource technologies incorporated into ALP include the ACCESS NetFront Browser, PalmSource’s messaging and Telephony middleware as well as their various mobile applications including PIM’s, multimedia, messaging, HotSYnc and Palm Desktop.
ALP features MAX, a new application framework that will deliver the new user interface for the new OS as well as the ability to run the plethora of already existing Palm Powered applications via an emulator (so you wont have to get another version of the Palmasutra :-)) ALP will also have built in J2ME and open source support, which is a major leap to what they have now.
One important fact to pull from that is that the new OS will be able to run your already existing Palm Powered applications on a powerful emulator.
The move serves to benefit developers, handset vendors and mobile operators alike by providing a much broader open source range of new technologies that is also commonly understood while, at the same time, building a foundation that allows for continuos improvement and enhancement.
The open source platform also allows a lot more flexibility to accommodate unique operator requirements.
It was not made clear if the new operating system would also apply to Palm’s standard PDA’s like the Tungsten and Zire, or even if they would continue to make them.
Technorati Tags: 3gsm, access, Access Linux Platform, linux, palm, palm os, palm source
