Overview of mobile platforms (March 2013)

This article describes hardware and software division on the mobile platform market. “Mobile platform” means mass handheld devices with an autonomous power source designated for solving a large variety of general tasks: entertainment, communications and business. This article does not examine personal desktop computers and their portable versions (notebooks/netbooks/etc.) Information in the article was gathered from public sources available as of the beginning of 2013. Information in the article is indicated taking into consideration software developers’ demand for mobile devices. Processor architectures ARM ARM architecture was developed by ARM Holdings on 1983 as the foundation for a simple and effective processor. The set of instructions is based on the 32-bit RISC-architecture and allows one to operate 14 general registers. Also, the THUMB mode is supported which allows one to cut down on the amount of code needed due to a cut back on using part of the registers. It is....