The Kaleido integrated development environment helps handset vendors to create and implement sophisticated man machine interfaces.
Mobile software specialist Digital Airways announces the availability of the Kaleido integrated development environment (KIDE), a fully integrated development solution enabling handset vendors to create and implement sophisticated man machine interfaces (MMI) with increased productivity and shorter time to market. In a market characterised by rapid fragmentation and evolution, handset vendors need to create an increasing number of specific MMI. This translates into an engineering challenge since traditional development approaches - designed for an era where change was slow and the same handset could be sold to all operators - are reaching their limits.

As a result, the industry is facing a bottleneck, threatening vendors’ profitability, with a sluggish handset design process compounded by raising costs and quality issues.

Two years ago, Digital Airways introduced Kaleido to address this issue.

By separating the MMI specification from its implementation, the MMI is fully specified with a configurable file, which is read and duly rendered by the MMI engine implemented on the handset.

Thanks to Kaleido, innovative handsets have already been designed and introduced in record time.

KIDE extends Kaleido by integrating its existing tools within one single, fully customisable environment based on Eclipse, the widely used open source development environment, and by adding new, productivity-improving tools.

A visual MMI authoring tool allows designers to create and modify a MMI in a user-friendly environment.

An MMI PC simulator allows designers to visualise and test the MMI in real time during the design phase.

An MMI generator automatically produces a flashable MMI file from the authoring tool adapted to a specific target.

The parameters of a hardware and software targets are defined by creating target profiles.

Profiles are already available for a number of hardware and software platforms, and new profiles are added regularly.

An MMI engine integrated on the target handset implements the MMI created by the MMI generator.

Largely OS-independent, the MMI engine allows the creation of generic handsets that can be easily customised.

KIDE also incorporates a number of other powerful tools, such as a high-level debugger, interactive documentation and wizards.

According to Philippe Silberzahn, CEO of Digital Airways: ‘By integrating the complete tool chain from the creation of the MMI design up to the automatic production of a flashable MMI file within a single environment, KIDE dramatically increases the productivity of mobile handset MMI development’.

From ultra-low-cost handsets to 3G and 4G models, KIDE allows vendors to design new handsets with sophisticated MMIs using high-end software components.

Adds Silberzahn: ‘KIDE allows vendors to easily manage the MMI designs for all their platforms, reducing integration costs and accelerating time to market’.

KIDE is available immediately.