EKA2 (EPOC Kernel Architecture 2) is the second-generation Symbian platform real-time operating system kernel, which originated in the earlier operating system EPOC. EKA2 began with a proprietary software license. In October 2009, it was released as free and open-source software under an Eclipse Public License. In April 2011, it was reverted to a proprietary license. Like its predecessor, EKA1, it has preemptive multithreading and full memory protection. The main differences are: