Squeezing Java into Smartphones
Symbian's David Wood talks about the EPOC operating system and developing software for wireless devices
by Jim Fawcette

March 2001

With Ericsson's R380, the first cellular phone based on Symbian's EPOC operating system, promised for release in the United States in early 2001 (it's already available in Europe), FTP President Jim Fawcette interviewed Symbian's Executive Vice President David Wood about developing software for smart wireless devices during Symbian's developer conference in London, England.

This interview is edited for space and clarity. Click here for the audio of the full interview.

David Wood is Symbian's Executive Vice President of Technical Consulting. The Technical Consultancy division provides training, support, technical communications, and technical consultancy to all users of the Symbian platform. David pioneered the use of object-oriented technology within Psion in the late 1980s, was the system architect for the User Interface libraries and application framework libraries for the MC and Series 3 ranges of computers in the early 1990s, and oversaw the architectural development of the Symbian platform. Together with Bill Batchelor, David has recruited and built a world-class software development team that will continue to ensure that the Symbian platform remains the operating system of choice for all major mobile computing and telecommunication device manufacturers. Before joining the Psion Group, David was the head of the math department at a leading London tutorial college. Prior to that, he spent eight years studying math and philosophy of science at Cambridge University (UK).

Fawcette: Last July, EPOC 5, the first release of Symbian's operating system, shipped with support for Java 1.1.4. This month (October) we see the first commercial phone based on EPOC—the Ericsson R380—in the market. There are a variety of SDKs and versions. Let's start by bringing our readers up to date on the versions and their timing.

Wood: We've released four SDKs to date, two each for Crystal and for Quartz. These are our two reference platforms. Crystal is the reference design for a keyboarded wireless device; Quartz is the reference design for a portrait-oriented quarter-VGA size. For each of these devices, we have Java and C++ SDKs. They support Personal Java 1.1.8 and also contain JavaPhone.

In due course, we'll have SDKs for our Pearl smart-phone reference design. Next, we'll have releases 6.1 and 6.2 of our OS, which are mainly about enabling packet-based communications, such as GPRS, where the device doesn't have to make a circuit-switched call—the device doesn't have to dial up; it is always connected. With 6.1, we support GSM/GPRS. Release 6.2 does that on a global basis, with support for CDMA and wideband CDMA. There will also be optimizations to improve Java performance.

Java Support for EPOC
Fawcette: Java is not supported on all devices that will ship with EPOC, correct?

Wood: That's correct. We have a commitment to put Java into every device where it fits the purpose. With the smartphones, that may take a little longer. Not every licensee will include Java with the earliest releases of the smartphones.