Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Libraries
The next layer in the Android architecture consists of Android's native libraries. The librar-
ies are written in the C or C++ language and help the device to handle different kinds of
data. For example, the SQLite libraries are useful for storing and retrieving the data from a
database. Other libraries include Media Framework, WebKit, Surface Manager, SSL, and
so on. The Media Framework library acts as the main interface to provide a service to the
other underlying libraries. The WebKit library provides web pages in web browsers and the
surface manager maintains the graphics. In the same layer, we have Android Runtime,
which consists of Dalvik virtual machine (DVM) and core libraries. The Android runtime
is responsible for running applications on Android devices. The term "runtime" refers to
the lapse in time from when an application is launched until it is shut down.
