Android's management of processes

Before starting my research I had assumed that the core of the Linux kernel was the same as the standard kernel (scheduler, PCB, etc).  I found an article that proved me wrong.  The scheduler google uses is not the scheduler that is in the current version of the Linux kernel.  In 2.6.26+ the kernel is using what they call a "completely fair scheduler".  This caused some pain for google, so they were forced to forward port the old 2.6 scheduler.  The interesting question to me is, was this for all google linux machines (including android)?

On another front I've began my research into user processes on the android platform.  There are many things that are interesting to me.  Android provides a way for applications to respond to events happening on the system and even launch components from another program.  I'm interested in how this is happening at a process/thread level.  How do these components communicate?

--Colt