Genode OS Framework version 11.05 released Jun 02, 2011

Version 11.05 features L4Linux executed on top of the Fiasco.OC kernel, experimental GDB support, and a new inter-process communication API.

In line with our three-months release cycle, we have published the version 11.05 of the Genode OS Framework. With this version, we pursued two goals, revisiting the framework's mechanisms inter-process communication and advancing the support for the base platforms that we introduced in February.

The reliance on inter-process communication is the most fundamental characteristic of microkernel-based operating systems. Because Genode is based on a microkernel-based architecture, we consider an efficient, robust, and easy-to-use programming interface for inter-process communication as crucial for the success of the Genode OS technology. When the Genode project was started in 2006, we dismissed the time-tested solutions of the day in favor of an original approach called dynamic RPC marshalling. Even though our custom solution served us well over the last five years, it had its own share of limitations and deficiencies, most importantly the lack of type safety and the need for manual maintenance of communication code. Now, we have taken the chance to create a new framework API that takes our long-year experience into full account and thereby resolves all of the known limitations of Genode's inter-process communication facility.

In February, we introduced the Fiasco.OC kernel as well as a custom kernel for the MicroBlaze architecture as new base platforms. These new platforms received a lot of attention. We are happy to report that the Fiasco.OC base platform has become capable of executing the entire Genode software stack including the dynamic linker, Qt4, lwIP, and the steadily growing number of device drivers. Furthermore, we have made the classical workload of Fiasco.OC, namely L4Linux, available on Genode.

For the complete story with further news such as experimental support for GDB, and ARM RealView device drivers, please have a look at our full release-notes documentation...