"Huawei has been doing operating system research for almost ten years. This project of HarmonyOS System was officially launched two years ago. Its investment is very large, and nearly 5,000 people have invested in research and development. " Yu Chengdong said.
So, what is unique about HarmonyOS system, and what will it do in the 5G era?
Why build HarmonyOS system?
In the internet of things device
Android can't run.
In China's classical works, "HarmonyOS system" refers to the chaotic state or mythical ancient times before the formation of the universe. In Zhuangzi Zaiqi, there was a saying that "the cloud will travel eastward, and it will be suitable for the HarmonyOS system".
The "Universe" of the Internet of Things is also in the "HarmonyOS System". The rotation of old and new operating systems has entered the window period, a trillion-dollar market is taking shape, and the era of Internet of Everything is accelerating.
The last two technological waves were triggered by personal computers and smart phones. Although terminal products are in full bloom, the underlying OS (operating system) is still dominated by a few core enterprises, such as Microsoft in the PC era, Apple and Google in the mobile Internet era.
At present, Android accounts for more than 80% of the global smartphone operating system, but it is not perfect, and its shortcomings such as fragmentation, inefficiency and ecological chaos have been criticized. For this reason, entering the desktop market, AR/VR, and the Internet of Things, Android seems to be "more than enough" and has not shown enough dominance.
"Android can't run on smart devices with less than 2G memory." Yu Chengdong said. However, the memory of many Internet of Things (IoT) devices is very small, which leads to the mismatch between operating systems and devices.
Android has 654.38 billion lines of code, of which the kernel alone has more than 20 million lines of code, and the actual use is less than 8%. With such a huge and redundant kernel design, it is difficult to ensure the fluency of the operating system. The problem of Android device "stuck" is prominent, and the Internet of Things market with huge data volume is also insufficient.
For this reason, in order to break the ecological wall of the existing mainstream OS, "we must not be restricted by a certain company, but also make our country's science and technology more self-reliant." HarmonyOS, an Internet of Things operating system developed by Huawei, came into being.
For a long time, the domestic IT industry has been facing the situation of "lack of core (chip) and lack of soul (operating system)". As a giant in the technology industry, Huawei holds two "trump cards" of chips and operating systems. Once it has established a leading position in the future field of Internet of Things, its influence may last for more than ten years.
What's the difference between the same operating system?
"Core+Module"
Faster and safer
What's the difference between HarmonyOS and the same operating system?
Yu Chengdong said that the starting point of HarmonyOS system is different from Android and iOS, and it is a distributed operating system based on microkernel and facing the whole scene. Take Android as an example. The system follows the Linux kernel scheduling mechanism. "All resources are allocated equally," Yu Chengdong said. It's just like on the highway, trucks, cars, motorcycles and bicycles * * * use four lanes to "grab the road" with each other, and the final result is that no one can walk fast.
The micronucleus adopted by HarmonyOS system is equivalent to that on the expressway, and the lanes are divided into overtaking lane, fast lane, slow lane and bicycle lane. Vehicles have "exclusive lanes" for precise scheduling, which greatly improves the efficiency and realizes ultra-low delay. With the help of deterministic delay engine, the ultra-low latency advantage of HarmonyOS system has been fully demonstrated, the response delay will be reduced by 25.7%, the delay fluctuation will be reduced by 55.6%, and the user experience will be greatly improved.
"Simply put, it is the way to change the original large and complete kernel into core+module." According to insiders, the core is unchanged, the function is pure, and the module is used for expansion and flexible combination. "It's like the same engine, different training and different matching contents, which will become different levels of cars."
Different ways also make HarmonyOS more secure than Android. It is understood that once the macro kernel used by Android system illegally obtains ROOT permission, the whole system will be broken. "It is equivalent to opening every door as long as you get the door key." The microkernel scheme of HarmonyOS system makes it unnecessary for the system to obtain root privileges. "The external kernel services are isolated from each other, which can improve the security of the system." Yu Chengdong quoted the evaluation results of authoritative evaluation institutions as saying that in theory, the security of micro-kernel is more than twice that of macro-kernel. This means that the security level of Huawei's "HarmonyOS system" OS will be far superior to Android.
For IOT devices that need less independent computing, microkernel has more obvious advantages. "In Huawei's view, the AI world based on ultra-wideband and cloud computing is the future. In other words, Huawei believes that in the future, most of the performance requirements of mobile phones, notebooks and other devices will be obtained by connecting 5G and optical fiber to the cloud server. The performance of the terminal device itself does not need to be particularly powerful, and the microkernel is enough. " The above-mentioned insiders said.
What is the difference in experience?
At the same time carrying HarmonyOS system.
Devices can be interconnected.
Huawei's self-developed operating system "HarmonyOS System" has unique advantages such as high security, ultra-low latency and wide connection. So when can users use smart terminal products equipped with this system at the earliest?
On August 10, Glory held a new product launch conference in Dongguan, officially releasing the world's first terminal product equipped with "HarmonyOS System" operating system-Glory Smart Screen. Through the distributed architecture of the system, the smart screen will be able to break the limitation of the hardware capability of a single physical device and realize a seamless collaboration experience across terminals. For example, an existing voice or video call on a mobile phone can be seamlessly switched to a smart screen. At the same time, the mobile phone can also be an extension of the TV screen. Just touch the "projection screen", the mobile phone can become the touch screen, speaker, remote control and keyboard of the smart screen.
Zhao Ming, president of Glory, said that the future is not only the integration of mobile phones and smart screens, but also all smart devices equipped with HarmonyOS system can be "terminals" and "peripherals" to achieve seamless cooperation with each other. "Only when HarmonyOS system is installed at the same time can all terminal devices be interconnected," Zhao Ming pointed out. "This is the core capability of HarmonyOS system based on distributed architecture, and it is also the key to distinguish glory smart screen from traditional TV and smart TV."
Then, after the smart screen, which smart terminal fields will HarmonyOS enter? According to reports, by 2020, some domestic PCs, watches/bracelets and car machines will be equipped with version 2.0 of the system; In 20021year, the ability of HarmonyOS system in software and hardware collaborative optimization will be greatly improved, and version 3.0 will be introduced into the smart speaker and earphone market. "After 2020, VR glasses and more devices will also join the HarmonyOS system ecology."
In other words, in the future, HarmonyOS system will fully blossom in the Internet of Things market. It is understood that HarmonyOS's operating system has the advantages of lightweight, compact and powerful functions. The application in the field of Internet of Things will help to open up the interactive channels between terminal devices, gradually build a new experience of * * * and enjoy the ecology, and create a full-scene smart life for consumers.
Will it be used in mobile phones?
In the short term,
not yet
Previously, Huawei executives, including Huawei founder Ren and Huawei chairman, said on many occasions that if industrial chain suppliers can continue to supply Huawei with permission, Huawei will still take Android system and ecology as the "first choice", but if Android system can't be used, "Huawei can start the operating system at any time". Yu Chengdong said that for applications in the Android ecosystem, if they migrate from this ecosystem to Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system, "the development workload is very small. The docking with the Ark compiler and Huawei Ecology may be completed in a day or two. "
In fact, Huawei is the mobile phone brand of Anzhuo camp, and Google is not willing to lose Huawei as a customer easily. According to industry insiders, domestic mobile phone manufacturers, including Huawei, have made great contributions to the optimization of the underlying Android system. For this reason, the Android system also needs Huawei's patent authorization in some core technologies.
However, it is not easy to encourage Android developers to join the HarmonyOS ecosystem. Earlier, Liang Hua, chairman of Huawei, said at the first half of Huawei's 20 19 performance conference that there were still many loopholes in Huawei's consumer business, the biggest of which was "ecology". He said that this will be one of the most important tasks of consumer business in the second half of this year.
"It will take some time to build the ecology of the HarmonyOS system, and the short-term benefits may be damaged, but it will be good in the long run." Yu Chengdong announced at the Huawei Developers Conference that he would increase the number of "Yaoxing Project" and "open source" HarmonyOS systems for global developers. In the future, he will continue to promote the establishment of open source foundations and open source communities, and work with developers to promote the ecological construction of HarmonyOS system.
What does 5G mean for HarmonyOS system?
Previously, regarding the positioning of the system, Ren Zeng, the founder of Huawei, said: "The HarmonyOS system itself is not used for making mobile phones, but for the Internet of Things, such as autonomous driving and industrial automation, because it can accurately control the delay below 5 milliseconds, even reaching the millisecond to sub-millisecond level."
In June this year, China issued a 5G commercial license, officially entering the first year of 5G commercial. For 5G, Fan Ji 'an, chief scientist of big data of China Unicom Group, said in an interview with this newspaper that compared with consumer applications, 5G will be of great use in enterprise applications such as industrial Internet.
This means that, as Ren said, the first target is enterprise-level applications such as autonomous driving and industrial automation in the 5G era, and low latency is one of its advantages.
Just in the middle of the year, Google's new operating system Fuchsia has been quietly launched, and developers can search any technical documents about Fuchsia OS. Different from the positioning of Android system, Fuchsia is a multifunctional operating system, which can run mobile phones, computers and smart home devices and is compatible with Android system.
Insiders pointed out that the 5G era is the era of the Internet of Everything. The operating system of this era will be the fourth generation operating system-event operating system. Based on the high speed and low latency of 5G, the fourth generation operating system has the conditions to realize the internet of everything, and get through computers, notebooks, tablets, mobile phones, smart homes, smart wear, cars and so on. , and connect all the hardware that can be integrated. On the one hand, it uses all available computing resources, on the other hand, it constantly generates the basic resources of artificial intelligence-big data. From this point of view, compared with the popular application of HarmonyOS system on mobile phones, the essence of this system is to become the underlying system in the 5G era, with the goal of Google Fuchsia operating system.
Planning and Coordination: Zhang Zhichao, Li Jiang and Cheng Peng.