============================================== Genode Labs Newsletter - February / March 2013 ============================================== Content 1. I/O Protection and Virtualization via the NOVA Hypervisor 2. Genode OS Framework 13.02 released 3. Emerging support for ARM Cortex-A15-based Exynos 5 1. I/O Protection and Virtualization via the NOVA Hypervisor ------------------------------------------------------------ Since Alexander Böttcher joined our team last summer, we have significantly ramped up our engagement with the NOVA hypervisor, which we regard as the most sophisticated Open-Source microkernel for the x86 architecture as it supports advanced processor features such as I/O MMUs and hardware virtualization. To leverage those features for Genode, we are closely cooperating with the NOVA mainline development, in particular with Udo Steinberg. Hereby we succeeded to enhance both the kernel and Genode to promote NOVA to a fully supported base platform for the Genode OS Framework. In addition to enabling to use the entity of our highly dynamic software stack on this kernel platform, we revisited Genode's user-level device-driver architecture to accommodate the use of I/O protection facilities offered by modern x86-based hardware. Thanks to NOVA, Genode has become able to strictly isolate user- level device drivers from each other and from other components of the system. When used as Genode base platform, one of the most prominent features of NOVA remained largely unused, namely its high- performance virtualization support. With the remarkable work of Markus Partheymüller, this has changed now. Thanks to his vast improvements regarding the integration of the Vancouver virtual machine monitor, Genode has gained the ability to host unmodified guest operating systems such as Linux as user-level subsystems. This includes the support of networking, graphics, RTC, input, and block devices. We are particularly excited about this line of work because it represents the first substantial contribution to Genode by Intel Labs. 2. Genode OS Framework 13.02 released ------------------------------------- The advancements of the NOVA base platform outlined above are just a few of the manifold improvements that are part of Genode version 13.02, which was released at the end of February. Other highlights are a new concept for audio output, the addition of notifications to the file-system infrastructure, and enhanced support for dynamic system reconfiguration. To learn more about those topics and the many further improvements of Genode 13.02, please refer to the release documentation: http://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/13.02 3. Emerging support for ARM Cortex-A15-based Exynos 5 ----------------------------------------------------- The ARM Cortex-A15-based Exynos 5 SoC is the heart of modern ARM-based mobile devices such as Chromebooks or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone. There exists a low-cost development platform for this SoC, called Arndale, which we started to investigate in January. In the meanwhile, we are happy to present the first fruits of our investigation in the form of principal platform support via either the Fiasco.OC microkernel, or alternatively our custom kernel platform called base-hw. Currently, support for UART, eMMC, USB HID, and networking is in place, and we are planning to successively extend the device-driver coverage of this platform. If you like to stay in the loop of this development, we recommend to keep an eye on our project page at GitHub: https://github.com/genodelabs/genode/commits/master About the newsletter -------------------- If you have friends or colleagues who might be interested in our projects, we would appreciate you to forward this email. If you received this newsletter as a forwarded email, you may subscribe to the newsletter here: http://genode-labs.com/newsletter In the case of receiving this newsletter unintended, you can cancel your subscription at any time by replying to this email with the subject set to "unsubscribe". Best regards -- Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske Genode Labs http://www.genode-labs.com · http://genode.org Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth
