GOOGLE PROJECT ARA

WHO IS DOING

THIS…??

THE PROJECT ARA IS LEAD BY PAUL EREMENKO

The project was originally headed by the Advanced Technologies and Projects team within Motorola Mobility while it was a subsidiary of Google.

WHAT IS IT … ???

PROJECT ARA IS THE CODENAME FOR AN INITIATIVE BY GOOGLETHAT AIMS TO DEVELOP A FREE , OPEN HARDWARE PLATFORM FOR CREATING HIGHLY MODULAR SMARTPHONES .

It is made up of swappable and replaceable parts. The phone is designed to be a long-term sustainable product tailored to customers’ changing needs .

WHAT WAS THE NEED OFSUCH A SMARTPHONE ??

WHAT HISTORY IT BEHOLDS …

It's a philosophy that's imported from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),where Eremenko and his boss, Regina Dugan, once worked. Dugan came to Google in 2012,where she was put in charge of ATAP , which was then meant to help reinvigorate the Motorola division. When Motorola was sold off to Lenovo in January 2014 Google kept ATAP and Project Ara, which became Google Ara.

HOW STUFF WORKS …

PROJECT ARA HAS TWO CORE COMPONENTS :

1. THE ENDOSKELETON AND

2. THE MODULE

The ENDOSKELETON is made of aluminium to provide strength . Also it means different sizes and different types of components can be added and permits ‘growth of device’ from, for example, phone to phablet, according to Google. ‘The framework of the endoskeleton and interchangeable modules promise to democratize hardware in the same way that the app opened up the world of software.

MODULES CAN BE ANYTHING THAT USERS CAN THINK OF BATTERY , SPEAKER , CAMERA , ETC . THEY CAN BE DEVELOPED BY ANYONE; 3D-PRINTED ON DEMAND, USED, REPLACED AND EVEN RE-SOLD ENSURING YOUR PHONE IS COMPLETELY MADE FOR EACH USER. MODULE DEVELOPMENT IS OPEN-SOURCE AND THERE IS A TOOLKIT PROVIDED TO HELP DEVELOPERS UNDERSTAND THE HIERARCHY OF FUNCTIONS AND HOW COMPONENTS CAN BE INTEGRATED.

PROJECT ARA'S PROTOTYPE APPLICATION PROCESSOR MODULE, WHICH HOUSE THE CPU, MEMORY, SD CARD SLOT, AND OTHER

THINGS.

http://files.tested.com/photos/2014/04/15/60081-ara_diagram.jpg

Three new technologies that make Project Ara work –

1.UniPro

2.Capacitive M-PHY

3.ElectroPermanent Magnets

THE FIRST IS UNIPRO, WHICH IS A HIGH - SPEED INTERFACE PROTOCOL THAT PROJECT ARA USES TO ALLOW ITS MODULES TO SPEAK TO EACH OTHER,THOUGH THE HARDWARE OF THE ENDO.THEY SHAREA COMMON LOW-LEVEL LANGUAGE FOR COMMUNICATING AND BUILDING A NETWORK. THE UNIPRO PROTOCOL HAS BEEN IN DEVELOPMENT FOR SEVERAL YEARSAS A WAY TO BUILD A STANDARD FOR MOBILE PHONE ACCESSORIES--THINK OF IT LIKE THE USB PROTOCOL, BUT OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE . ITS DEVELOPMENT IS OVERSEEN BY THE MIPI ALLIANCE,AN ORGANIZATION COMPOSED OF OVER 250 MOBILE COMPANIES, AND PROJECT ARA IS TAPPING INTO THE LATEST UNIPRO 1.6 SPEC, WHICH OFFER HIGH-BANDWIDTH AND LOW POWER CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE MODULES.

EVEN THOUGH THE MODULES KNOW HOW TO SPEAK TO EACH OTHER, THEY NEED A WAY TO PHYSICALLY CONNECT TO THE ENDO. THE SECOND TECHNOLOGY PROJECT ARA USES IS CAPACITIVE M-PHY, A PHYSICAL LAYER SPEC ALSO DEVELOPED BY THE MIPI ALLIANCE AND MADE TO WORK WITH UNIPRO. FOR PROJECT ARA, M-PHY IS A CAPACITIVE INTERFACE, WHICH MEANS THAT THE CONNECTION POINTS WON'T BE WORN DOWN OVER TIME FROM SWAPPING MODULES IN AND OUT OF THE PHONE.

THE FINAL TECHNOLOGY IN PROJECT ARA'S MODULE DESIGN IS THE USE OF ELECTROPERMANENT MAGNETS FOR AFFIXING THE MODULES IN PLACE IN THE ENDO. NORMAL ELECTROMAGNETS MAGNETIZE DEPENDING ON IF CURRENT IS RUNNING THROUGH THEM - THAT WOULD BE A BATTERY DRAIN, BUT ELECTROPERMANENT MAGNETS ONLY USE CURRENT TO FLIP MAGNETIZATION ON AND OFF; IT'S ABLE TO RETAIN ITS MAGNETIZED STATE WITHOUT DRAINING ADDITIONAL POWER.

ELECTROPERMANENT MAGNET

WHAT MAKES IT

AWAITED …

1.SIZE2.INBUILT BATTERY ALONG

WITH EXTERNAL ONE3.BUYING MODULES ON AN

E-COMMERCE SITE WHICH WOULD LOOK LIKE GOOGLE PLAY STORE

4.MODULES CAN HAVE MULTIPLE FUNCTIONS

5.LONG LIFE

MODELS OF

GOOGLE ARA

PHONES

ADVANTAGES

1.PHONE IS VERY CHEAP

2.YOU ONLY BUY THE FEATURES THAT YOU WANT

3.YOUR PHONE COULD LAST INDEFINITELY

4.REPAIRS ARE EASIER AND CHEAPER

DISADVANTAGES

1.IT WILL BE BIGGER AND HEAVIER THAN THE STANDARD PHONE

2.THE CONNECTORS ARE BOUND TO CAUSE PROBLEMS

3.CERTAIN COMBINATIONS WON’T WORK

4.IT WON’T BE OPTIMISED

FUTURE SCOPE …

THE BENEFITS OF A MODULAR PHONE WILL BECOME COMPELLING TO CONSUMERS ONCE ATAP CAN GET ISSUES OF WEIGHT, BATTERY LIFE, AND SIZE REDUCED DOWN TO A CERTAIN POINT . ALSO CUSTOM ENCLOSURES AND SUPER-CHARGED BATTERIES MAY APPEAL TO THE HIGH END OF THE MARKET .

REFERENCES1. ARTICLE ON www.files.tested.com BY NORMAN CHAN ON APRIL 15, 2014 AT 5:53 P.M.

2. www.marketwatch.com

3. www.phonearena.com

4. www.projectara.com

5. www.techtimes.com

QUERIES …

THANK YOU