Interviu cu liderul proiectului iDroid care ne va aduce Android pe iPhone 3GS/4 in curand

Multi utilizatori de iDevices sunt tentati sa testeze Android pe propriul terminal chiar daca sistemul de operare a celor de la Google este in multe privinte diferit. In aceasta idee unii dezvoltatori s-au apucat sa porteze sistemul de operare Android pe iPhone si au reusit sa il faca sa ruleze pe iPhone 2G/3G si iPod Touch 1G/2G. Din pacate pentru iPhone 3GS/4, iPad si iPod Touch 3G/4G nu exista inca o metoda de a instala Android OS insa exista proiectul iDroid care ne va aduce aceasta posibilitate in curand.

Cei de la iDroid lucreaza de anul trecut la aceasta portare pe iPhone 3GS/4 si deocamdata au ajuns abia la 60% din ceea ce trebuie sa faca iar asta se datoreaza faptului ca nu exista dezvoltatori priceputi interesati de proiect. Munca lor avanseaza greu si nu se stie cand vom avea posibilitatea de a instala Android OS pe iPhone 3GS/4 insa speranta moare ultima.

Mai jos avem un interviu facut de cei de la ModMyi cu Nick Pack, liderul proiectului iDroid.

JOSH: How many members are on the current team working on the 3GS and A4 Android port?
NICK: There are presently 4 people working on the A4 & 3GS ports.

JOSH: What coding experience and expertise is required to work on the Android port?
NICK: A strong knowledge of: C, ARM Assembler and general hardware knowledge for OpeniBoot and the kernel, Java & C knowledge for Android.

JOSH: In terms of percentage, how far along are you in the port development? Is there any current hurdles that are making the process more complicated? If so, can you elaborate?
NICK: Both the A4 and 3GS OpeniBoot ports are somewhere in the region of 60% complete. Currently the team is working on the FTL which is one of the most complex parts of OpeniBoot, then we’ll move on to the kernel. And finally after that, we’ll start on libraries for Android (the radio interface layer, sensors library etc.).

JOSH: Have you been able to emulate the Android platform at all on the 3Gs or A4 yet?
NICK: At the present time, both the OpeniBoot ports for 3GS and A4 devices aren’t far enough along for there to be any userland yet. Once the bootloader is ported then kernel drivers need to be written and various userland libraries written to accompany them. The team are working on one of the most complex parts of the bootloader at the present time; the FTL and filesystem drivers. This is a painstakingly slow and complex task, but once completed, we’ll be able to boot a linux kernel from the NAND flash.

JOSH: How long has the team been working on the Android port for the respective devices? Do you have any tentative ETA at this point or are you just “done when you’re done?”
NICK: Work on the A4 port started late last year, but progress was slow due to there being a lack of skilled developers on the team to work on it. In the recent few weeks, the port has accelerated drastically. The 3GS port was started a couple of months back but lessons learned from the A4 port helped to bring it inline quickly. Due to the nature of the project, it is completly impossible to estimate just how long these things take. This is mainly due to the sheer volume of reverse engineering that has to be done, but we are working with largely undocumented and uncommon hardware so it comes with the territory.