However, this has now come at a cost to them, Oracle is suing them for copyright infringement. I shall attempt to outline and discuss the nuts and bolts with the little knowledge i have got and the vast knowledge of the internet. My opinions however do not reflect that of Google’s or Oracle but “my own 2 cents”.

Android uses the Dalvik Virtual machine. A virtual machine essentially a software implementation of a  machine that execute programs like a physical machine.

The Dalvik virtual machine is built on top of the Apache Harmony(latest version released about 2 months ago), an open source version of the Java programming language. This was embarked upon after SUN released its source code listings back in May 2007 and this means plus source code + know-how(Although the Harmony project was initiated before code was released). From November 2006 – September 2007, they(SUN Microsystem) released the compiler and VM as open source project thus making it freely available for everyone to use, adopt and change at will under the GNU Public license.

Since Apache Harmony is a complete rewrite of the JVM, hence Dalvik is equally a totally different rewrite of all portions of the JVM.

Also Dalvik VM employs a different approach from the traditional JVM. Dont want to get to the nitty gritty but in a nut shell, Dalvik employs the use of  register-based virtual machine as opposed to being a traditional JVM which employs stack-based virtual machines.

Because of it’s approach to VM design, the Dalvik VM is more efficient at running multiple instance of the VM. This again was made possible due to the fact that it was written from scratch with a different mindset, a different goal and also based on readily available source code listing from the Harmony project.

The following are now the various attacks that Android has violated Java’s VM and its patents:

All patents are “Google-able” via Google Patents available here

Before we step into this, Software patents are slippery and has been of intense debate over the years as written here so what ever i write here as my opinion can be interpreted in a billion ways. It has been of intense debate because:

• No one knows where the boundary between patentable and non-patentable software should lie;
• Whether the inventive step and non-obviousness requirement is applied too loosely to software;
• Whether patents covering software discourage, rather than encourage, innovation.

United States Patents Nos. 6,125,447:

“A method and apparatus are provided for maintaining and enforcing security rules using protection domains. As new code arrives at a computer, a determination is assigned to a protection domain based on the source from which the code is received.”

My take: Reading this, my immediate guess would probably be access modifiers (Public, Private, Protected). Which means being able to know how to handle variables or methods with varying degrees of protections based on the access modifiers. Since Java was open-sourced with codes freely available(except for the SWING source code which Dalvik doesnt even use), can this argument really hold water? Also do bear in mind that the entire code based for the Dalvik VM is entirely written from scratch with portions from the Java VM. If this is true, Oracle had better start suing other open implementation of the Java VM quick(e.g OpenJDK), or is Oracle simply exploiting a loophole in the software patent laws?

United States Patents Nos. 6,192,476:

“A method and system are provided for determining whether a principal (e.g. a thread) may access a particular resource. According to one aspect of the invention, the access authorization determination takes into account the sources of the code on the call stack of the principal at the time the…”

My take: Multithreaded Applications would utilise this approach. A thread is simply a path of execution of a computer program. So when we have multiple applications running on our PCs, we got multiple threads from an operating system perspective. This is from the perspective of a programming language doing that.  My “2 cents” again, this is really weak as the Dalvik is a completely rewritten and as originally mentioned optimized to run multiple VM more efficiently than the original JVM based on readily available Harmony code.

United States Patents Nos. 5,966,702

Reads: “A method and apparatus for pre-processing and packaging class files. Embodiments remove duplicate information elements from a set of class files to reduce the size of individual class files and to prevent redundant resolution of the information elements.”

My take:  Archiving the compiled classes in a jar file is how one distributes java source files. Same arguement as before, Dalvik is based on Harmony an open source implementation of the Java platform.

United States Patents Nos. 7,426,720: I couldnt find these on the Google Patent archives or any other place.

United States Patents Nos. RE38,104: Didnt find anything related to this patent attributable to SUN Microsystems

United States Patents Nos. 6,910,205

“Systems and methods for increasing the execution speed of virtual machine instructions for a function are provided. A portion of the virtual machine instructions of the function are compiled into native machine instructions so that the function includes both virtual and native machine instruction”

My Take: Lmao. This is a stab on Android 2.2 because of its newly introduced JIT compiler which makes it 2x – 5x faster than Android 2.1. This would naturally suit in such cases since JIT allow VMs to be sped up. As the former argument goes, since Dalvik is a total rewrite of the JVM using a different theoretical concept in its implementation, the JIT will essentially have to be written differently to ensure faster execution. Weak claim in my opinion.

United States Patents Nos. 6,061,520.

“The disclosed system represents an improvement over conventional systems for initializing static arrays by reducing the amount of code executed by the virtual machine to statically initialize an array. To realize this reduction, when consolidating class files, the preloader identifies all…”

My take: This was interesting and i had to research further on how register-based(Dalvik) VMs handle instructions and how stack-based VMs(Java) handle instructions. My search led me to a paper titled “Virtual Machine Showdown: Stack Versus Registers”(NOTE: I got a warning from the site that the certificate doesnt match the URL, i proceeded in my own case. I take no responsibility if you do on your own case.).

In the paper above, it states in its conclusion and i quote:

It can however be summarised here as:

Processor

Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system

Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity

512MB Flash

512MB RAM

4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location

Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver

Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning

Digital compass

Accelerometer

3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen

800 x 480 pixels

100,000:1 typical contrast ratio

1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash

5 megapixels

Autofocus from 6cm to infinity

2X digital zoom

LED flash

User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver

Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular & Wireless

UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)

HSDPA 7.2Mbps

HSUPA 2Mbps

GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

A2DP stereo Bluetooth

I intend to provide my own personal reviews when i get it shipped to Nigeria. Watch out for this space..

Happy new year..hope this brings more opportunities within the Nigerian market.

Been awhile since i blogged but here we go. Recently have decided to be a master within the ERP space and decided upon Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. Now in my history with computers, i have been known not to be a Microsoft fan but when it comes to business, i guess one has to have a strong product with good support when ( and something always.) something goes wrong.

Recently did a quick analysis of Microsoft Dynamics AX and SAP and i got my findings as an attachment within this blog entry. please go through it and do send in comments. Thanks. Click here to dowload paper

Let’s zoom in Nigeria for abit, we are blessed with oil and accounts for our major source of revenue, we are consumers of Technology, we dont build software for export or even for internal consumption but it is not our problems, the govt of the day is heavy to blame. One thing i would like to ask however is this: Did these listed American startups wait on the government to fund, or provide favourable conditions before they could operate? I believe that answer is NO. I am aware of lots of Nigerians who have cutting edge ideas but no one to encourage,transform or even give them a listening ear. We Nigerians are also looking for the quick fix to earn IT money, build inefficient websites, build untested softwares, no support given, no internalization, still in a state of “just getting the job” done.

For us to truly be like India, we need to transform our thinking. We need to take our time in building services and tools rather than be consumers of tools given to us. We have the cultures, the fantastic building ground for breathtaking innovations. Who will be the one to take us to this frontier? there are loads of people already doing so, I can say Koltron Nigeria has taken a slice of the entrepreneur spirit and going to higher grounds in terms of financial services and currently IT services. We need more, we need more people to take the driving seat of IT entrepreneurship and pool funds to develop other sectors aside Oil. Who will take this task up..i say now…I will…i will try…It is worth a try…i will give it a try..with faith and proper hands..we can truly make Nigeria a provider of IT services and tools…one day there shall be an IT delivery company on the Stock exchange….surely…one day…

I am so proud to have an identity..a pure identity: Nigerian. I have been to lots of interviews following the completion of the degree but to my utter surprise have had the most nasty rejections ever, but it brings me to the reason why i am writing on this particular topic, why do we ever bother to come study within the Western world, embrace their culture, embed ourselves within the “System” only to be spat out based on certain unmentionable criteria. The western world is picture perfect back home, sweet parties, big bootied girls etc, but on coming here, we find out some hidden pockets of secrets which are usually more gruesome than we expected. On getting here, there are homeless people on the streets, there are serious drug addicts, there are radical youths, there is a breakdown of barriers within the family, the government empowers the youth via laws etc.

Africa has an identity, we just have decided not to identify with them. We have talents which are slowly siphoned by the western world with the intent of giving them the perfect and admirable life. They do get the life, no excuses, but loose the identity and hence become “lost in translation” to their new lives. I have fallen into this little trap, the trap of the picture perfect life which to me now currently actually doesnt exist. We live in the “System”, i actually now reason with Neo in the Matrix now which showed he had to get unplugged, we are all moving happily on the outside but seriously dead within the inside. This system has currently crashed, the economies of the picture perfect world suddenly had a rejection from the people, or should i say became aware of the system. What has followed so far is a sudden breakdown of the very architecture that has made them picture perfect…CREDIT. In Africa, i simply dont think this exists and the reason why, we are realists in Africa while “others” are simply …well not realists. I will not try to make this a lecture of the credit system rather would want to simply awaken others..including myself, we need to fix Africa, we need to piece together each other identities slowly. There are a million ideas we could all work on as Africans, we have the required expertise and it is definitely do-able. I would like to make a change, a big change, something worth dying for. We dont need to fight the western world cause they keep “enslaving” us all with the policies and words while we try to adapt ourselves. This blog entry might be running around the place, but this can be summed up in one sentence: “Unplug yourselves from the SYSTEM, it is evidently not a perfect one, let us all as Nigerians and indeed as Africans..re-create our identity and be a part of this world rather than the part that gets to develop other areas…”