Symbian OS is a proprietary mobile operating system designed for smartphones. It was developed by Symbian Ltd which was formed in 1998 by Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Psion who had previously developed the EPOC operating system. Symbian OS uses a microkernel design with a layered architecture including user interface, application services, Java ME, operating system services, base services, and kernel layers. It was widely used by smartphone manufacturers until 2010 when it was replaced by other modern smartphone platforms.

1. Symbian OS
Hatem Mahmoud
www.ExpressionLab.com

2. Agenda
Introduction
Symbian OS Design
Symbian OS Layers
Developing on Symbian OS
References

3. Introduction

4. What?
Symbian OS is:
A proprietary operating system
Designed for mobile devices
Developed by Symbian Ltd.

5. History
In 1980, the British company Psion (Potter
Scientific Instruments) was founded by
David Potter
In 1984, Psion launched Psion Organiser,
the world's first handheld computer

6. Psion Organiser II

7. History
In 1987, Psion released a preemptive
multitasking operating system, EPOC:
16-bit / written in C / Intel 8086 chip
In 1997, Psion Series 5 based on EPOC32:
32-bit / written in C++
EPOC = Electronic Piece Of Cheese :-)

8. Psion Series 5mx

9. History
On 24 June 1998:
Symbian Ltd. was formed as a partnership
between:
Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Psion
EPOC was renamed Symbian OS

10. First Symbian OS Phones
In 2000:
First Symbian OS phone:
Ericsson R380
First open Symbian OS phone:
Nokia 9210 Communicator

11. Ericsson R380

12. Ericsson R380
OS: EPOC Release 5u (Symbian OS 5.1)
ROM: 4 MB (1.2 MB accessible)
RAM: 2 MB EDO DRAM
Display: 3.5 ” monochrome touchscreen
Features: Unicode support, organizer, WAP,
SMS/email, infrared port

13. Nokia 9210 Communicator

14. Nokia 9210 Communicator

15. Nokia 9210 Communicator
OS: Symbian OS 6.0 (EPOC Release 6)
ROM: 16 MB (2MB user-accessible)
RAM: 8 MB SDRAM
Display: 4.5 ” color TFT
Features: Bluetooth, QWERTY keyboard, 16
MB MMC, Java, document viewer

16. History
2003: Symbian OS 7.0: IPv6 and Java ME
2004: Cabir, the first worm (Bluetooth)
2005: Symbian OS 8.1: EKA2, a real-time
kernel (API calls quick and time-bound)
2005: Symbian OS 9.1: digital signing

17. History
2007: Symbian OS 9.3 supports SQLite
2007: Symbian OS 9.5 supports real-time
multimedia and location-based services

18. History

19. History (2005)

20. History (2006)

21. History (2008)

22. 10 Years Later
On 24 June 2008:
Nokia acquired all shares
€264 million ($410 million)
Symbian Foundation, a non-profit
organization, established to create one
open source mobile operating system

23. History
Symbian Foundation established to unite:
Symbian OS
S60, Nokia
UIQ, Sony Ericsson and Motorola
MOAP(S), NTT DoCoMo

24. Today

25. Future

26. Future

27. Symbian OS Design

28. Design Rules
1)User data is sacred
2)User time is precious
3)All resources are scarce

29. Key Design Features
Microkernel: kernel responsibilities are
reduced to minimum
Client–server: resources are shared
between users (services and applications)
Plug-in Frameworks: used at all levels from
applications to device drivers

30. Key Design Features
GUI for all applications: only servers have
no user interface
Event-based: all user interaction is
captured as events to applications
Object-oriented design: Symbian OS and all
applications follow MVC

31. Key Design Features
FAT used as the internal file system for
compatibility with removable devices

32. Symbian OS Layers

33. 1) UI Framework Layer

34. 1) UI Framework Layer
UIKON framework controls overall GUI
TechView: a minimal test UI
Examples:
S60, Series 80, Series 90, UIQ, MOAP

35. 2) Application Services Layer

36. 2) Application Services Layer
Generic: text rendering, MIME content
handling, etc.
Technology-specific: vCard, vCal, etc.
Application-specific: plug-ins for contacts,
agenda, office, etc.

37. 3) Java ME

38. 3) Java ME
a)Configurations:
Java language + JVM + base class libraries
b)Profiles: Cell phones use MIDP which
includes APIs for GUI and 2D gaming
c)Optional packages: 3D graphics, web
services, file system access, etc.

39. 4) OS Services Layer

40. 4) OS Services Layer
a)Generic: certificate management, etc.
b)Communications: Bluetooth, Infrared,
USB, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, etc.
c)Multimedia and graphics: graphics,
sound, video recording and play, etc.
d)Connectivity: backup and restore, file
transfer, file browsing, etc.

41. 5) Base Services Layer

42. 5) Base Services Layer
The user-side of the microkernel
a)User Library: C++ classes, native types
b)File Server: file-system utilities
c)Store: storage framework, DBMS, etc.
d)Other frameworks: Plug-in framework,
power management, etc.

43. 6) Kernel Services Layer

44. 6) Kernel Services Layer
EKA2: The kernel-side of the microkernel
Manages processes, threads, scheduling,
interrupts, etc.
Provides device drivers
Not true microkernel

45. 6) Kernel Services Layer
Optimized for ROM-based systems:
Symbian OS executes in ROM without
loading into RAM
Optimized for low-power devices

46. Developing on
Symbian OS

47. Developing on Symbian OS
SDK for each platform (S60, UIQ, etc.)
Windows-based emulator: WINS
Eclipse plugin: Carbide.c++
Visual Studio plugin: Carbide.vs
Borland IDE for Linux and Mac OS
Other languages: Python, Perl, Java, etc.

48. References

49. Books
The Symbian OS Architecture Sourcebook
by Ben Morris
Smartphone Operating System Concepts
with Symbian OS
by Michael J. Jipping

50. Wesites
www.symbian.com
www.symbianfoundation.org
www.wikipedia.org

51. These slides can be found at:
ExpressionLab.com

52. Thank You!
Hatem Mahmoud
www.ExpressionLab.com