An article that helps you understand the historical origins of iOS and Android, iosandroid

An article that helps you understand the historical origins of iOS and Android, iosandroid

Although smartphones are mobile phones, we can use them as smaller computers. This will also display the high performance of the Smartphone OS. Let's first review the history of the Smartphone OS.

　　Dawn of OS

As a matter of fact, the idea has been long before, that is, running OS on a small computer terminal that can be conveniently carried like a smartphone. About 20 years ago, the world's largest computer-related product exhibition "COMDEX" was held in Las Vegas, USA, the portable information terminal developed by Sony Corporation of Japan, known as MagicjLink, attracted a lot of attention (figure 1 ). This terminal is not just an electronic book that uses notes and schedules. At that time, it was able to send and receive emails and search for information.

Figure 1: The MagidLink device is on the top of the image, and the following part is the keyboard. The LCD is also monochrome.

MagicLink is a product of Sony, but the essence of the terminal is the OS that can run on this terminal. This is the OS called "MagicCap" developed by Apple engineers in the United States (figure 2 ). In that age, "Operating System business transactions were a big deal", so various operating systems were released. Windows 95 was also published that year.

Figure 2: displays the MagicCap OS. After the terminal is started, the page shown in the figure is displayed. Including telephone and accounting and note-taking functions. You can start each APP with a pen touch. "In and Out" indicates the mailbox.

This OS is developed by Apple engineers and Japanese manufacturers are responsible for terminal production.

Apple engineers are only responsible for developing OS, and the hardware is developed by Japanese manufacturers and other external companies. Apple also established a subsidiary like General Magic. The company is mainly responsible for promoting the development of MagicCap and helping Japanese manufacturers. Sony and Panasonic, as well as Mitsubishi, have created the original MagicLink product, known as the MagicCap terminal.

MagicCap developed by Apple engineers is epoch-making as a "mobile OS. However, MagicCap eventually fails. Because this terminal cannot be sold. Hardware processing capabilities, weights, prices, and so on were all problems at the time. You need to know that networks in that era are not generally usable.

The Network envisaged for MagicCap is the same as that used by computers in that age, that is, 1980. However, the explosive popularity of networks and Windows 95 began in the next year.

　　Father of Android

In fact, one of General Magic's engineers responsible for MagicCap development is Andy Rubin.

One year after the dissolution of General Magic, the young man founded a startup company for OS development for mobile terminals. Like General Magic, hardware is developed by external companies, which focus on OS development. However, unlike General Magic, which only provides OS to its partners, Andy Rubin provides OS and APP development environments to other companies for free.

The company founded by Andy Rubin is now "Android ". Later, the company was acquired by Google in the United States, and the name of Android can only be preserved as the OS name. Andy Rubin, now known as the father of Android, stayed at Google after the company was acquired and was responsible for Android business (now responsible for robot development ).

　　Father of iOS

If the father of Android is Andy Rubin, the developer of MagicCap, who is the father of iOS?

In fact, Apple sold a small terminal called "Newton" a few years ago when it launched the MagicCap terminal. However, unfortunately, both devices and development environments were very expensive and were not popularized at the time.

The ancestor of the current iPhone OS "iOS" is not from Apple's developed Newton, nor from the MagicCap developed by Apple's subsidiary, but from another source. Steve Jobs, founder of apple.

General Magic is developing the age of MagicCap. Steve Jobs, the founder of apple, left Apple and founded the NeXT Computer company, A high-performance computer called "NeXT" was developed. At the same time, an OS called NeXTSTEP was developed.

NeXTSTEP is an OS developed through a new method called "ObjectOriented. The NeXTSTEP APP is developed through the new programming language "Objective-C. Objective-C not only makes APP development more fun, but also has high performance. It is an epoch-making programming language.

Although technically superior, the NeXT computer was not commercially successful, just like MagicCap. However, NeXT has not disappeared, but is retained by Apple's acquisition of Apple's technology.

　　OS in that age

In those days, computers were still unstable for both Macintosh and Windows, and suddenly restarted during use. The computer suddenly experienced problems. It was not uncommon for a disk or hard disk to fail to read or write data. Both Microsoft and Apple have a headache.

The biggest cause of the failure is the operating structure of the application on the OS. At that time, the OS used by the computer was still in a primitive state. All software running on a computer can only use the CPU one by one. The CPU can only execute one program command at a time.

You can imagine that customers in supermarkets with only one cashier are queuing up. Imagine the guest as an APP and OS, and the cashier can understand it well as a CPU. When an application is running, other software, including OS, must be stopped, waiting for the CPU to be idle.

At that time, the OS was already in front of the receiver, but those uncontrolled apps could not be stopped. These uncontrolled apps keep occupying the CPU, so the OS itself cannot use the CPU, and the OS naturally cannot run.

Microsoft plans to handle this fault by developing a new OS called Windows NT. Specifically, the "preemptive multitasking" structure is used to make the system jump and stable.

Simply put, "preemptive multitasking" is a structure that forces all apps to stop and other apps to run in a short period of time. In the example of a supermarket just now, "the period of staying in front of the cashier is set to one person for 10 seconds. You can switch to another person immediately in a short time ."

That is to say, people who need to spend more than one minute at the cashier must arrange more than six times at the cashier's place. In this way, although it takes a long time for a person to become troublesome, but it will no longer be due to a person does not comply with the rules and the phenomenon of a dead machine. Windows NT adopts such a structure.

On the other hand, Apple wants to use NeXTSTEP technology to enhance the Macintosh OS. Like Windows NT, NeXTSTEP also uses the "preemptive multitasking" technology. NeXTSTEP is developed based on "UNIX", while UNIX can respond to "preemptive multitasking ". Like Windows NT, NeXTSTEP can run stably, Which is why Apple acquired NeXT. In this way, Steve Jobs will return to Apple again.

The OS developed based on NeXTSTEP is called Mac OS X (Figure 3 ). The "Objective-C" is also reserved for APP development. "Mac OS x" is also used as the basis of the iPhone OS, so that "iOS" is generated ".

Figure 3: The iPhone "iOS" is generated based on Mac OS X. Mac OS X is based on the "NeXTSTEP" of the NeXT Computer Created by Jobs.

Now, when we use the iPhone, we can see what we can see on the screen. For example, the "Settings" and "Home" pictures are added again on the basis of Mac OS X, it's just software on the iPhone's surface.

The essence of iOS is the NeXTSTEP and Objective-C that are still being developed by jobs. With the popularity of iPhone, Objective-C has become increasingly popular. If you go to the bookstore to view programming books, you will surely see a lot of Objective-C books.

　　The technical staff of Apple's subsidiary created Android, and the technology of Steve Jobs after leaving Apple became the source base of iOS. This is somewhat ironic. This is why Apple has always listed android as an infringing product. Apple said that Andy Rubin, the founder of Android, was born when he worked for Apple. In addition, Schmidt, then CEO of Google, was a member of Apple's board of directors. Steve Jobs believed that android systems had plagiarized Apple's technology. HTC and Samsung have also become the target of Apple's lawsuit.