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What Is Android Architecture: Things You Don’t Know

Android architecture is mainly a software stack of components so that it can support mobile devices in need. A Linux Kernel, a collection of C/C++ libraries, is contained by the Android software stack, and it is exposed through application framework services, runtime, and application.

The main components of the android architecture are:

  • Applications
  • Android Framework
  • Android Runtime
  • Platform Libraries
  • Linux Kernel

The Linux Kernel is the main component in android for providing its operating system functions to mobile and Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM) in the Android Architecture, which is responsible for running a mobile application.

Applications

For an android architecture, applications are the top layer. Home, contacts, camera, gallery, etc., are the pre-installed applications, chat applications, games, etc., are the third-party applications that can be downloaded from the google play store. These pre-installed applications and third-party applications will be installed on this layer only.

Android Framework

Some important classes are used to create an Android application, and the Application Framework provides these several classes. A generic abstraction for hardware access is also provided by it and helps manage the user interface with application resources. The activity manager, notification manager, view system, package manager, etc., are some different types of included services that help develop our application according to the prerequisite.

Android Runtime

One of the most important parts of Android is the Android Runtime environment. Core libraries and the Dalvik virtual machine(DVM) components are contained by it. The base for the application framework and powers our application with the core libraries’ help is mainly provided. Java Virtual Machine (JVM), Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM), is currently known as a register-based virtual machine specially designed and optimized for android to ensure that a device can efficiently run multiple instances.

Platform Libraries

Various C/C++ core libraries and Java-based libraries such as Media, Graphics, Surface Manager, OpenGL, etc., are included in the Platform Libraries to support Android development. For playing and recording audio and video formats, media library supports. For managing access to the display subsystem, the Surface manager is responsible.

SGL and OpenGL cross-language, cross-platform application program interface (API) are used for 2D and 3D computer graphics. FreeType provides font support, and SQLite provides database support. Web-Kit is an open-source web browser engine that provides all the functionality to display web content and simplify page loading. The full form of SSL is Secure Sockets Layer, a security technology to establish an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser.

Linux Kernel

The heart of the android architecture is Linux Kernel. It manages all the available drivers, such as display drivers, camera drivers, Bluetooth drivers, audio drivers, memory drivers, etc., which are required during the runtime. The Linux kernel’s five features are Security, Memory Management, Process Management, Network Stack, and Driver Model.

The works of these several features are handling the security between the application and the system. Memory management, thereby providing the freedom to develop our apps, allocates resources to processes whenever they need them, handling the network communication, etc.

Here is all the important information about Android Architecture. I have made this article by taking some valuable data from a trusted source. However, all the information that I added may not be 100% accurate. If there is any wrong information, please inform us of the right one by adding your comment in the following comment section. Stay linked with our site, and don’t miss another update.