Nikkei Electronics Asia -- January 2010
Features
Chrome OS Aiming at Google's Ideal Cloud Terminal

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Jan 1, 2010 00:00 Phil Keys

"It's just like a TV... turn on the PC and you can use your Web applications," said Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management at Google Inc. as Google unveiled its new "Chrome OS" operating system developed for small, inexpensive netbooks (Note 1). The company claims its aim is not to steal market share from Microsoft Windows. Rather, Google plans to provide the OS in netbooks specialized for using Web applications, with the goal of further promoting the use of these sorts of applications.

Note 1: Google has announced that Chrome OS will be disclosed as an open-source project named "Chromium OS," under BSD licensing.

In Chrome OS, all applications are run in the browser (Fig. 1). According to Google, five PC manufacturers including Acer Inc. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co., have already expressed support for Chrome OS. The first netbooks equipped with the new OS are expected to be available in time for the 2010 Holiday season.

Fig. 1 Chrome OS User Interface
The Chrome browser is the user interface. The OS menu, applications, web sites, etc. are accessed from tabs in the Chrome browser window (a). Clicking the "Chrome Menu" icon displays the application icons in the browser window (b).

Boot In Only 10 s after Power-On

Chrome OS has a very simple configuration, with Google's Chrome browser and other software running on top of a Linux kernel (Fig. 2). At the core is the Chrome browser, which provides the user interface.

Fig. 2 Simplified Chrome OS Configuration
The structure is very simple, with the Chrome browser and window manager implemented on top of the Linux kernel. Diagram by Nikkei Electronics based on material courtesy of Google.