Steve Kroop at Flytec <<info>>
writes:

In my presumption of a new instrument, I mentioned that it surely
will have an actual established operating system. Having an operating system
opens up the possibility to run the current advanced, powerful and battery
sipping CPUs like the ARM chips found in smart phones and tablets. I suggested
Linux because of its openness, prevalence and compatibility with these CPUs and
the fact that it also opens the door better multitasking and many other advanced
features requested by pilots over the years.

As I understand it, Android is a Java implementation of the Linux kernel and is
not necessary (or even desirable) when running a singular purpose device like a
flight instrument. As I mentioned Flytec prefers to design their own
purpose-built hardware to optimize performance, battery life and the use of
ideally suited sensors. For this reason I expect that in order to maximize
performance, the next instrument will run the actual Linux kernel rather than
Android. Each of the components and sensors found in a flight instrument needs a
Linux kernel driver for the same reason your laptop needs drivers for graphics
cards, printers, etc. If it is the case that the instrument runs Linux, then I
suppose it could be hacked to run Android (but there would of course be no point
since the goal is to have a reliable flight instrument not a game console).

As mentioned previously, I expect the same or very similar sensor package found
in the SensBox, assuming Linux is the OS, it would be possible to have an API to
allow third party developers to write their own programming to take advantage of
the instrument's advanced sensor package in new and different ways.