BeIA (BeOS for Internet Appliances) is a discontinued

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

for

embedded system An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...

s, developed by

Be Inc. Be Inc. was an American computer company that created and developed the BeOS and BeIA operating systems, and the BeBox personal computer. It was founded in 1990 by former Apple Inc., Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée, who also served a ...

from 2000 to 2001. It was a minimized version of their

BeOS BeOS is a discontinued operating system for personal computers that was developed by Be Inc. It was conceived for the company's BeBox personal computer which was released in 1995. BeOS was designed for multitasking, multithreading, and a graph ...

operating system and was developed for the

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

and

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

architectures. The BeIA system presents a browser-based interface to the user. The browser was based on the

Opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

4.0 code base, but most of times it featured built-in dashboard (like Sony eVilla), and was named Wagner. Unlike the BeOS, which runs the Tracker and Deskbar at boot-up, the BeIA OS boots straight into the Opera browser interface (only on Compaq IA-1, similar as the later

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source operating system and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user ...

does with the

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

browser). While it is possible to boot BeIA into an interface similar to the standard BeOS, doing so involves special knowledge. During 2001, a

Zanussi Zanussi () is an Italian producer of home appliances that was bought by Electrolux in 1984. Zanussi has been exporting products from Italy since 1946. History The Zanussi Company began as the small workshop of Antonio Zanussi in 1916. The 2 ...

"internet fridge" toured the US with a BeIA powered DT-300 webpad docked in its door. BeIA was discontinued after Be Inc's assets were sold to Palm, Inc., with BeIA not able to help the company's financial situation and the failure of the Sony eVilla.

Compression techniques

The BeIA operating system employs a number of techniques to minimise the system footprint. These involve a number of pre processes which yield an installable file system image.BeIA compression patent
United States Patent: 6883087
/ref> The Compressed File System (CFS) was a file system created in house at Be Inc that aimed to compress the files within itself to save space. The filesystem had a similar set of properties to the native BeOS file system BFS, but some of the more advanced features (live queries and attributes) were either broken or non-functional in many of the Beta releases of the software. The BeOS uses

ELF An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

format executable files, much as many other operating systems. BeIA uses an extended version of ELF, the name of which is unknown but which has come to be known as CELF, from the ''CEL'' magic word within the executable header and the fact that it is derived from ELF format executables through a compression process. The CELF (Compressed ELF) files use a patented technique to compress the op codes within the executable and reduce the overall footprint of each executable file. The file was compressed by creating a set of dictionaries that contain the op codes and are read by the kernel at start up and mapped into the executable in memory at run time. This makes the file fast loading, but has an extreme disadvantage, in that the dictionary is not extendible by the user and adding extra executable was not possible when using CELF compression techniques unless the executable symbols existed within the dictionary already present. The creation of CELF executables is generally done in batch. The entire system will be compressed and a file system image created from the crushed files. Crushing was the term coined for the compression of the system using CELF format. BeIA can run either as CELF or ELF based. However, it can only use one or the other file formats.

Version history

The following BeIA versions were released to developers at stages of the development of the system:

List of BeIA devices

* Sony eVilla - sold as a home web terminal with BeIA preloaded *

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

IA-1 - sold with either BeIA or

MSN Companion The MSN Companion was a small-scale personal computer terminal that was designed for easy access to MSN services on the Internet, such as Hotmail, while still being cheap and easy to use. They were intended for use by people with little knowledge ...

. *

HARP The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

- not a computer, but a standard for audio streaming terminals, used by

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

in some of their stores *

Proview Proview International Holdings Ltd (; ) was a Hong Kong–based manufacturer of computer monitors and other media devices. The company marketed its products under its own and other brand name through its extensive distribution network over the wo ...

iPAD (PI-520B)
DT Research
DT-300 (NB. DT-325 was used with later 2.0 betas) * First International Computer Genesis 2000
Hardware known to run BeIA (official and unofficial)

References

External links

* (BeIA)
BeIA Demo
{{BeOS BeOS Embedded operating systems Information appliances Opera Software X86 operating systems

Compression techniques

Version history

List of BeIA devices

See also

References

External links