HARMONY OS: One OS many devices
Huawei has been building an in-house operating system date back as far as 2012. In May 2019 United States government subjected Huawei to export restriction. It was originally expected to be a mobile operating system that could replace Android in future. Still, by July 2019, some Huawei executives were describing Harmony as being an “industrial” embedded operating system designed for IoT hardware, discarding the previous statements for it to be a mobile operating system. Huawei formally unveiled this operating system as “Harmony OS” in August 2019.
Harmony OS is an open-source, microkernel-based, distributed operating system currently developing Huawei. They declared “Harmony” as the company’s cross-platform operating system so that it can run on smartphones and IoT devices. And developers can code just one app which can seamlessly run on different devices such as smartphone, smartwatch, or smart tv etc.
Microkernels are selective about what runs in kernel mode and effectively limits the basics. Only the most basic services like IPC, thread scheduling etc. can be done. But, usually, kernels aren’t selective. As because this type of kernel designs are limited, the developer doesn’t require to work with the kernel essentially.
Besides, Huawei will provide developers with a multi-device IDE, ARK compiler and a distributed architecture kit. Huawei’s ARK Compiler will allow developers to write code using different languages like Java, Kotlin, C, C++. The operating system can adapt to different screens, controls etc. All these facilities will allow developers to build apps just once and then can run on various platforms and devices without any issues.
Better Security is another benefit of micro-kernel based OS. This design was made so that Kernel functions can be simplified. As a result, most of the system services can be implemented in the user services rather than kernel. Which adds not only less work with kernel but also security protection as microkernel has much less code, there is less probability of attack.
Formal verification methods are used for Security so that the TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) can be secured. By contrast, Traditional verification methods are confined to limited scenarios. Formal methods can use data models to verify all software running paths.
Performance in Harmony OS is better than Android and other Linux based operating systems, according to Huawei. Harmony uses a distributed virtual bus with a simplified protocol. Rather than four layers, there is only one layer in the protocol stack to boost payload efficiency. Because of this change, discovery and connections of hardware like camera, sensors etc. are faster.
With a Deterministic Latency Engine and High-Performance Inter-Process Communication (IPC), Harmony OS can address underperformance challenges. The Deterministic Latency Engine sets goals for the execution of tasks and setting time limits in advance. Assets would gravitate to higher-priority activities, reducing device response latency by 25.7%. Also, the microkernel can make IPC performance up to five times more efficient than existing systems.
Though this OS is still in the development process, Huawei recently released a smart tv with Harmony Operating System. And Huawei will soon finish building the fully functional OS. And, when it’s finished, we’ll get an OS which is runnable in multiple smart devices, which will be more secure and have better performance. And that will be a revolutionary operating system!
All informations were collected from various sites, and gathered in a order.
References:
Harmony OS | New Operating System Harmony OS. (2020). Retrieved 20 August 2020, from https://harmonyosofficial.com/
What Is Harmony OS? Huawei’s New Operating System Explained. (2020). Retrieved 20 August 2020, from https://www.howtogeek.com/675793/what-is-harmony-os-huaweis-new-operating-system-explained/
Harmony OS. (2020). Retrieved 20 August 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_OS
