Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (Brew MP, Brew, or BREW) is an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party applications such as mobile games. It is offered in some feature phones (mostly with the similar specifications of a mid to high-end mobile phones) but not in smartphones. Developed in 1999, as a platform for wireless applications on CDMA-based mobile phones, it debuted in September 2001.

As a software platform that can download and run small programs for playing games, sending messages, and sharing photos, the main advantage of Brew MP is that the application developers can easily port their applications among all Brew MP devices by providing a standardized set of application programming interfaces. Software for Brew MP enabled handsets can be developed in C or C++ using the freely downloadable Brew MP software development kit (SDK). The Brew runtime library is part of the wireless device on-chip firmware or operating system to allow programmers to develop applications without needing to code for system interface or understand wireless applications. Brew is described as a pseudo operating system, but not a true mobile operating system. Brew is not a virtual machine such as Java ME, but runs native code.

For software developers, Brew MP is a full set of application programming interfaces (API) that enables making software and applications in C, C++, Java, and is supported (platform) by an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). It has a memory footprint of about 15,900 K (15.9 MB), From Brew 1.x until 2.x (before 2004), it has less memory footprint (around 60kb to a hundred/thousand megabytes). Brew also features direct hardware access. Versions before Brew MP ran/relied on REX OS (Qualcomm's own RTOS), while Brew MP uses Brew RTOS (another RTOS for advanced feature phones). Rather than using an interpreter-based code, Brew also relied on its own mobile hardware.

...
Wikipedia