Operating systems used by mobile devices are designed to be unique to the device's hardware, which result in some fundamental differences in the way software applications, or apps, are executed. As such, apps designed for iOS cannot be run using Android devices, and vice versa. Users have to purchase their mobile devices based on which apps they prefer. Additionally, new, and possibly improved, platforms are prevented from being adopted because they do not have a large selection of apps. This technology, referred to as Cider, is a compatibility architecture that allows apps designed for iOS to be run together with the local apps on Android devices. To this end, the application binary interface of the Android system is enhanced, making it capable of running unmodified iOS apps.
While using virtual machines has proven to be effective for cross platform compatibility on desktop computers, mobile devices do not contain the necessary computational power to do so without resulting in a significant loss of system responsiveness. This technology directly compiles the iOS app on the Android's kernel without requiring any modification of the app. To execute functions that are designed for iOS hardware and not available on Android devices, this technology makes use of diplomatic functions, which replace calls to the foreign hardware with those to a domestic library. Background functions using a file system hierarchy are also implemented, which allows for the foreign iOS apps to be seamlessly launched from the home screen of the Android device.
A prototype of this technology has been developed, and has been found to only have modest performance overhead increases.
Patent Pending
Tech Ventures Reference: IR CU14229