Google, Linaro Develop Custom Android Edition For Project Ara

rtoz writes with this excerpt from an IDG story about the creation of an Android fork made just for Google's modular cell-phone project : A special edition of Android had to be created for the unique customizable design of Project Ara, said George Grey, CEO of Linaro. ... Android can already plug and play SD cards. But Grey said additional OS functionality is needed for storage, cameras and other modules that are typically inside smartphones, but can now be externally added to Project Ara. A lot of work is also being done on UniPro transport drivers, which connect modules and components in Project Ara. UniPro protocol drivers in Android will function much like the USB protocol, where modules will be recognized based on different driver "classes," such as those for networking, sensor, imaging, input and others. Some attachable parts may not be recognized by Android. For those parts, separate drivers need to be developed by module makers through emulators. "That will be need to be done in a secure system so the device can't do damage to the system," Grey said. Project Ara is a very disruptive concept, and it turns around conventional thinking on how to build phones, Grey said.

Comments

im happy google took this on

[ganjadude]

Was watching this from the time it was just a theory and renderings and I love the idea, why dish out hundreds for an entire new phone when all you want is more storage? Or a better camera? I would love to upgrade individual parts a la desktop computers, and it has a real shot of becoming a reality with backing by any of the big guys

Re:im happy google took this on

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I think this kind of thinking is pretty detrimental to mobile.

When you put a "better" camera on, will it have new optics? Will it jut out of the case like a sore thumb? What about new SoCs? Will heat and battery become problems?

I'm pretty skeptical. I think mobile has been a huge hit because of the trend away from desktop modes of thinking. Holistic integrated things are more than the sums of their parts than generic gizmos that are just a random slathering of parts.

Take for example the iPhone 5s. The finger print sensor has been amazing, but it wouldn't work with out the A7's secure enclave. To do that in Ara you'd have to ship a replacement button or have a sensor on the module itself.

Re:im happy google took this on

[ArcadeMan]

If this catches on, I hope we'll see bigger-than-Ara but still compatible modules based on the same A-size-paper-style specifications for bigger devices such as tablets and laptops. Buy a new camera, put it on your cellphone, put your old cellphone camera on your laptop and sell your old laptop camera.

Re:im happy google took this on

[ArcadeMan]

Just think different a little bit. Integrate the secure enclave into the button/sensor module.

Re:Will modular cellphones be one of the flops...

[lister king of smeg]

Just like modular laptops did? That didn't seem to have gone anywhere.

You mean like the laptop I have that I swapped out the RAM the hard drive and others where I swapped out optical drives or wifi cards? laptops are modular just not easy like desktop.