What is the difference between Hongmeng system and Android?

Difference: 1. The Android system is based on the macro kernel design of Linux, and the macro kernel contains most of the functions and modules of the operating system. As long as one module fails, the entire system will collapse; Hongmeng operating system is With the microkernel design, problems with modules other than the necessary functional modules of the operating system will not hinder the operation of the entire system. 2. The Android system is suitable for mobile phones, while the Hongmeng system is more compatible with devices and supports multiple devices such as mobile phones, computers, and TVs. 3. The software ecosystem of Android system is very complete, while the ecosystem of Hongmeng system is not as good as Android.

The operating environment of this tutorial: HarmonyOS 2 system, HONOR V30 mobile phone.

What is Hongmeng System

Huawei HarmonyOS (English: huaweiHarmonyOS, HongmengOS). On August 9, 2019, Huawei held the Huawei Developer Conference in Dongguan and officially released the operating system Hongmeng OS.

Hongmeng OS is a "future-oriented" operating system, a microkernel-based operating system for all scenarios (mobile office, sports and health, social communication, media entertainment, etc. ) distributed operating system, which can be expanded on demand to achieve wider system security. It is mainly used in the Internet of Things and is characterized by low latency, even to the millisecond level or even sub-millisecond level. It realizes modular coupling and can be flexibly deployed corresponding to different devices. Hongmeng OS has a three-layer architecture. The first layer is the kernel, the second layer is basic services, and the third layer is the program framework. It is now adapted to smart screens, and in the future it will be adapted to multiple terminal devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, smart cars, and wearable devices.

Hongmeng OS On September 10, 2020, Huawei Hongmeng system was upgraded to Huawei Hongmeng system version 2.0. On the 16th of this month, Huawei will hold a beta event for Hongmeng 2.0 system mobile phone developers (the previous article has a detailed introduction, if you want to know more, you can click on the article link below)

Hongmeng system and The difference between the Android system

What is the difference between the Hongmeng system and the Android system? Is it also created based on a virtual machine like Android?

1. Android and Hongmeng mobile operating systems are basically developed based on Linux, but their architectures are different:

The Android system is based on Linux macro Kernel design: The macro kernel contains most of the functions and modules of the operating system, and these functions and modules have the highest permissions. As long as one module fails, the entire system will crash. This is why the Android system is prone to crashes. The advantage is that system development is easy. (Now, Huawei's newly developed Ark compiler is to solve this problem. Any Android software compiled by the compiler can directly communicate with the bottom layer of the system. Hongmeng system plus compiler will replace the virtual machine.) Android uses Java Written in a language that is easy to learn. But it has a disadvantage: it cannot communicate directly with the bottom layer of the system and must be run through a virtual machine. To put it directly, the virtual machine is equivalent to the transmitter: first, the Android application is installed on the virtual machine, and then transferred from the virtual machine to the bottom of the machine. If there is a problem with the virtual machine, the system will be stuck. And the Ark compiler in Hongmeng system is to solve this problem. Any android software compiled by the compiler can directly communicate with the bottom layer of the system. Hongmeng system plus compiler will replace the virtual machine.

Android system architecture diagram

Hongmeng operating system is a microkernel design: the microkernel only includes the necessary functional modules of the operating system (task management, memory allocation, etc.) It has the highest authority in the core position, and other modules do not have the highest authority. That is to say, if there is a problem in other modules, there will be no hindrance to the operation of the entire system. The development of microkernel is very difficult, but the stability of the system is very high. According to some information released by Huawei, we can infer that the Hongmeng system is written in C and C languages, that is, directly using machine language to write apps, canceling the ART virtual machine of the Android system, and directly compiling it into binary machine code. The advantage of this is No transfer is required and the execution speed is fast; however, such an operation also has some disadvantages, that is, it requires a large number of static solutions and requires higher memory space.

Hongmeng system configuration diagram

It is reported that Hongmeng system runs 60% faster than Google’s Android system. Why is it so much faster? There are two reasons:

First; Google's Android system is developed based on Linux, and Huawei's "Hongmeng" system is also developed based on Linux, and a lot of optimizations have been made to Linux. Previously, Huawei launched its self-developed EROFS super file system, which was only compiled based on Huawei Ark. Applications developed with the compiler can improve the performance of the Android system several times. Huawei's Hongmeng system, which integrates EROFS and the Ark compiler at the bottom, is naturally much faster than the Android system.

Second: Android system programmers The APP is written using the JAVA high-level language and packaged into an APK to the Android system. Since the Android system cannot read JAVA high-level language, it must use real-time translation (JAVA virtual machine) to understand (convert into machine language). Because of the additional step of "translation", the smoothness of the Android system has always been inferior to that of Apple's iOS. The Ark compiler, before packaging the APK, uniformly changes the instructions into machine language that the Android system can understand, which means that the "translation" step is omitted, and the efficiency is naturally higher.

2. The scope of use of Hongmeng system and Android system are different:

First: Android system is suitable for mobile phones, while Hongmeng system is more compatible with devices. It supports smart home devices such as smartphones, smart wearable devices, computers, and TVs, forming a seamless and unified operating system that is compatible with all Android applications and adapts to the current 5G and IoT era.

3. After years of development of the Android system, the software ecosystem is very complete. Hongmeng system is not yet ecological.

It is not difficult for Huawei to launch Hongmeng operating system. Compared with launching an operating system, what is more difficult is how to gather developers to continue to develop various high-quality applications for this operating system, so that this operation The system can acquire real value and then develop and grow, forming a virtuous positive cycle between system developers, hardware manufacturers, developers and users. To allow developers to develop applications for the Hongmeng operating system, what is needed is real policy incentives, profit guidance, relying on feelings, etc. cannot be solved and is unsustainable. This is a major problem that Huawei needs to solve after launching the Hongmeng system!

How is the security of Hongmeng system? Can it change the privacy issues of domestic Android software?

Above we talked about the difference between Hongmeng and Android systems and mentioned two concepts: microkernel (Hongmeng) and macro kernel (Android). Hongmeng operating system uses a microkernel, which is naturally root-free, and fine-grained permission control improves system security from the source. The Android system has Root permissions, and users can fully control the Android system after rooting. Hongmeng does not have the Root option. At the same time, according to the official Weibo of Huawei Terminal Company, Hongmeng’s trusted execution environment based on microkernel technology has significantly improved the kernel security level through formal methods and comprehensively improved the security capabilities of terminal equipment in all scenarios. In this regard, Yu Chengdong once said: Microkernel can lock each one individually, and it is impossible for one key to break into all places. The mutual isolation of the outer core is safer and more efficient. Judging from the evaluation of the world's most authoritative security agencies, current operating systems outside can only reach level 2 or 3, while our system can reach levels 5 and 5, the highest level. This is the highest level of security OS. Therefore, the security of Hongmeng system is much higher than that of Android system.

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