Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs), a provider of systems software and virtualization technology for mobile devices and other embedded systems, announced today that the company’s OKL4 embedded hypervisor is employed on the Qualcomm chipset inside the market’s first-ever commercial Android-powered handset.
Manufactured by HTC, the G1 introduced by T-Mobile in September 2008 is the first handset powered by the Android software platform developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. At the heart of the G1 is the Qualcomm MSM7201A, a dual-core ARM family device with hardware-accelerated multimedia, 3D graphics and integrated multi-mode 3G baseband processing.
Android is likely to attract significant attention from third-party developers as a competing platform for reaching a large number of mobile phone users. The combination of open source software, third-party applications, and internet connectivity represented by Android is indicative of next-generation mobile phone deployment environments in which the reliability and security benefits provided by microkernel-based OKL4 are essential.
OK Labs’ OKL4 open source embedded hypervisor helps developers deliver increasingly complex software for mobile devices—in less time and with less effort—without compromising the reliability and security of those devices. Focusing on the specific requirements of mobile phones, using proven high-performance microkernel technology, and building on an open source code base uniquely position OKL4 as the optimal software architecture for next generation mobile devices.
OKL4 is available from OK Labs under open source and commercial licenses.