Sophia Cradle Upgrades Development Environment SophiaFramework for BREW applications

Overcoming speed and memory constraints to provide practical development environment for BREW applications

Abstract

KYOTO — October 3, 2005 — Sophia Cradle Incorporated (Headquarter: Kyoto; CEO: Kazunori Sugiyama), an innovative developer of mobile phone software, today announced the release of an upgraded version of SophiaFramework [*1], a framework which enables the development of BREW [*2] applications in the C++ [*3] programming language. Sophia Cradle has revised the whole C++ library in the product to further improve runtime speed, size and reliability of a BREW application so that the development becomes more practical. A free Trial of SophiaFramework Beta is now available at the Sophia Cradle web site.

Note: SophiaFramework and SophiaFramework Free Trial are currently in Japanese only.

Development Window using SophiaFramework 3.0 Beta 1

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Full Story

While BREW applications increase in size, quality and complexity, the actual time allowed for application development is limited. Therefore, the improvement of developer productivity is the industry's biggest challenge today. When developing an application for personal computers, a development method called object-oriented approach, which combines reusable modules or classes, can be used to solve such problem.

Although using object-oriented approach makes the development more productive, there is also a strong possibility that the runtime speed and size of the application increase. This was the bottleneck that made the object-oriented approach unfeasible in the development of mobile phone applications. This was largely due to the severe hardware memory constraints mobile applications must face.

Sophia Cradle upgraded SophiaFramework, a development environment for BREW applications, to improve the functions relating to C++ which is one of the major object-oriented programming languages. For the first time in the world, SophiaFramework enables practical development of BREW applications in C++ object-oriented programming without deteriorating runtime speed, size and reliability of the application. Use can also be made of developers' original libraries that accumulate as they continue to use SophiaFramework for better productive development. Maintenance is also made easier because the codes are easy to understand which even helps the developer with less bugs.

Pricing and Availability
A free Trial of SophiaFramework Beta is available at the Sophia Cradle web site. The full-featured version is 300,000 JPY (without tax) per license. Sophia Cradle expects to sell more than 500 licenses in a year.

Note: SophiaFramework and SophiaFramework Free Trial are currently in Japanese only.

Free Trial of SophiaFramework: /english/form/trial_sf.html

SophiaFramework: /english/products/sophiaframework/

This Press Release: /english/news/pressrelease/2005/20051003.html

Features of SophiaFramework Ver.3.0

1. Newly added classes and functions

Random class
Date class
DNS resolver class
Heap management that supports block-allocation
Sending / Receiving mails using POP3 / SMTP
Functions for using ARM-embedded libraries

2. Revision of existing libraries and enhancements to developer support

Size and speed of codes are optimized.
Tracking memory allocation and release on the simulator is redesigned and enhanced.

3. Support for BREW 3.1

4. Support for Visual Studio.NET and RealView Compilation Tools for BREW

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Terms

[*1] SophiaFramework

Object-oriented development environment for BREW applications released by Sophia Cradle Incorporated in August 2002. It includes various program modules called classes that are needed to develop any kind of BREW applications, such as user interface, communication, graphic drawing and string processing. The technology of SophiaFramework is now being used in many of the business BREW applications and official KDDI applications that are top-sellers in Japan.

To learn more about SophiaFramework, please visit /english/products/sophiaframework/.

[*2] BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless)

The standard of mobile phone software developed by QUALCOMM Incorporated, released in January 2001. BREW applications work fast no matter what the underlying system software in the handset is. A user can download a compiled BREW application from the Internet and use it with any BREW-enabled handset. The worldwide spread of BREW is remarkable, and there are many network operators that provide BREW services, including Japan's KDDI which started offering them in February 2003. Recently, another Japanese network operator NTT DoCoMo has also started BREW services with particular handsets.

[*3] C++

An object-oriented version of the C programming language, which has been widely used to develop enterprise and commercial applications. The advantage of programming in C++ is that the classes can be recycled for better developer productivity and maintainability. However, the runtime speed may be slower and the application size may be bigger than the applications that are developed in C.

About Sophia Cradle

Sophia Cradle Incorporated is a mobile phone software developer which currently specializes in BREW C++, GUI middleware and mobile Java. Founded in 2002, Sophia Cradle aims to render services to the improvement of everyone's quality of life by creating innovative mobile Internet technology. For more information about Sophia Cradle, please visit www.s-cradle.com/english/.