Mizi Research is shipping a new version of its Linux software stack for mobile phones. Prizm 2.5 adds support for one-handed operation, support for new streaming media formats, and the option of a Flash-based dynamic user interface. It is based on a 2.4-series kernel.

Mizi says the new 2.5 release of Prizm has already reached market, in Samsung's SCH-i819 (shown at right), a “slider” form factor phone that supports both CDMA 1x and GSM operation.

According to Mizi's head of business planning, Michael Lee, the most significant new feature in Prizm 2.5 is support for one-handed operation, using a 3×4 keypad. “Supporting one-hand operation for the wide range of applications and features contained in SCH-i819 is regarded as a substantial improvement of our Linux smart phone user interface design,” Lee said.

Prizm 2.5 screen shots
(Click each image to enlarge)
Prizm 2.5 also adds support for more streamed and local multimedia file formats, including H.263/4, MPEG, WMA/WMV by Microsoft, and Real Video/Audio by Real Networks. And, it offers more customization options, including support for both conventional and “dynamic” user interfaces based on Macromedia Flash.

According to Lee, the Prizm stack includes a 2.4-series kernel, along with features back-ported from the 2.6-series kernel. The company maintains its own kernel patches, Lee says, rather than starting with a MontaVista or CELF kernel, because “one of our development strategies is to be technology-independent.”

Prizm's 2.5's graphics stack is based on TinyX, along with a Qt GUI toolkit. However, the company plans to move to an in-house GUI toolkit for a future Prizm release. Lee explains, “Qt has some advantages. It is good at multimedia support. But we are building own own GUI toolkit that will run on X Windows.”

Mizi hopes a new slimmed-down GUI will help its stack support single-core mobile phone designs in the future, it says. Other features under development include customization tools and documentation for solution partners, and “network convergence” features, including WiFi support. Lee says he expects to demonstrate an “interim version” of Prizm 3.0 during Q3 of 2006.

Mizi CEO Y.J. Seo stated, “Thanks to great efforts of the Linux community, mobile Linux today has become a major operating system in cellular phones.”

The previous 2.0 release of Mizi's Linux smartphone stack supported Samsung's SGH-i519 phone.

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