At the Developers Conference, Huawei was officially OS Hongmeng (Harmony), which according to the representatives of the company is faster and more secure than Android. The new OS is mainly designed for wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) products such as displays, wearables, smart speakers and car info systems.
HarmonyOS has been in development since 2017 and is a microkernel OS suitable for all application scenarios and all kinds of devices, but seen more as a competitor to Fuchsia/Zircon. Platform published in source code as an open source project (Huawei already open for IoT devices) for which it is planned to create a separate non-profit foundation and form a community. Huawei believes that Android is not as good for mobile devices due to excessive code, an outdated process scheduler, and platform fragmentation issues.
HarmonyOS does not provide root user access, and the microkernel is isolated from external devices. The system core is verified at the level of formal logic/mathematics to minimize the risk of vulnerabilities. It claims to use methods that are commonly used in mission-critical systems development in areas such as aviation and aerospace to achieve EAL 5+.
The microkernel implements only the scheduler and IPC, and everything else is rendered into system services, most of which run in user space. As a task scheduler, a deterministic resource allocation engine (Deterministic Latency Engine), which analyzes the load in real time and uses methods for predicting application behavior, is proposed to minimize delays. Compared to other systems, the scheduler achieves a 25.7% reduction in delays and a 55.6% reduction in delay jitter.
Communication between the microkernel and external kernel services such as the filesystem, network stack, drivers, and application launcher uses IPC, which the company claims is five times faster than Zircon's IPC and three times faster than Zircon's IPC. QNX.
Instead of the usual four-layer protocol stack, to reduce overhead, Harmony uses a simplified one-layer model based on a distributed virtual bus that provides interaction with equipment such as screens, cameras, sound cards, etc.
The application is built using Arc's own compiler, which supports code in C, C++, Java, JavaScript, and Kotlin.
The system is separated from the hardware and allows developers to create applications that can be used on various categories of devices without creating separate packages. In the future, it is planned to provide an integrated development environment for creating applications for various classes of devices, such as TVs, smartphones, smart watches, automotive information systems, etc. The environment will automatically adapt applications for different screens, controls, and user interactions.
Harmony is not directly compatible with Android, but according to Huawei representatives, it will require minimal changes to adapt existing Android applications. Huawei also promises that, in the future, Android app support will be built into Harmony OS and support for HTML5 apps will be provided. Regarding the use of the Android platform, the company said that for the time being it will continue to use it for smartphones and tablets, but if access to the Android license is lost, Harmony will begin immediately (it is alleged that the migration will take 1-2 days). In addition, Huawei is developing AppGallery and Huawei Mobile Services products, which are positioned as an alternative to Google Play and Google services/apps.
Source: opennet.ru