The open source OK:Android enables Android to be used as a guest operating system running in a secure hypercell (see diagram) on top of the OKL4 microvisor, the OK Labs mobile phone virtualization platform, alongside other operating systems.
This abstracts the complexity of multiple cores, hardware and security in the phone and gives handset manufacturers (OEMs) a short path to developing and delivering new designs with Android while keeping their existing software running effectively.
To date, Android-based handsets have been delivered by Taiwan-based HTC, with additional designs announced by Motorola, Samsung and other handset OEMs. Although Google and the Open Handset Aalliance have been successful in engaging device suppliers and building a developer community, semiconductor suppliers, mobile OEMs and mobile network operators (MNOs) still face the significant challenges involved in porting and hosting Android on current chipsets and on new mobile hardware. By providing a flexible framework for Android integration with specific handset hardware and a straightforward way to reuse legacy software in new Android devices, OK:Android helps reduce time to market for a new wave of Android devices.
One million Android-based handsets have shipped in 2008 as indicated by HTC; and research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics projects nine times that number in 2009.
“OK:Android builds on the strong synergies between the OKL4 microvisor and the Android mobile OS,” said Steve Subar, OK Labs CEO. “Both Android and OKL4 are based on dynamic open source projects, both are shipping in volume, and both streamline development through abstraction – Android at the applications level and OKL4 for system software, including Android itself. Together in OK:Android, they offer OEMs, MNOs and ISVs a flexible, portable and secure applications and services platform.”
In particular, OK:Android enables OEMs, MNOs and ISVs to:
• Offer new options for creating and prototyping Android-based devices and applications with embedded virtualization.
• Create more secure and robust mobile devices, applications and services with Android and OKL4.
• Run Android together with other mobile OSes and/or deploy multiple instances of Android on a single device.
• Consolidate hardware (e.g., base band and application CPU cores) for more aggressive price-points for Android-based handsets.
• Create new Android-based devices enabled for mobile-to-enterprise virtualization (M2E) from Citrix.
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