Understanding the Android Software Stack

So far I have discussed Android’s history and its optimization features. In this section, I would like to cover the development aspect of Android. 

At the core of the Android Platform is Linux kernel version 2.6, responsible for device drivers, resource access, power management, and other OS duties. The supplied device drivers include Display, Camera, Keypad, WiFi, Flash Memory, Audio, and IPC (interprocess communication).

Sitting at the next level, on top of the kernel, are a number of C/C++ libraries such as OpenGL, WebKit, FreeType, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the C runtime library (libc), SQLite, and Media.

The WebKit library is responsible for browser support.