============================================== Genode Labs Newsletter - February / March 2021 ============================================== Content 1. New Sculpt OS version 21.03 2. Genode OS Framework 21.02 released 3. FOSDEM recordings of our pluggable-device-drivers talk 1. New Sculpt OS version 21.03 ------------------------------ With our biannual releases of Sculpt OS, we make the most recent advances of Genode publicly available in the form of a general- purpose operating system that can be used on regular PC hardware. Just last week, we published Sculpt OS version 21.03: https://genode.org/news/sculpt-os-release-21.03 This version allows for the interactive assignment of real-time priorities to components, it comes with numerous performance and usability improvements, and bears the first fruits of our new architecture for pluggable device drivers. Thanks to the latter, the system becomes tolerant against classes of driver-related failures. For example, Sculpt OS can now even gracefully recover from a crashing graphics driver. An overview of these and further changes since the previous version is given the following article: https://genodians.org/nfeske/2021-03-24-sculpt-os 2. Genode OS Framework 21.02 released ------------------------------------- The user-visible features of Genode 21.02 that we released at the end of February are the addition of VirtualBox 6, mobile-data connectivity via LTE, pluggable network drivers, and initial support for the Pine-A64-LTS board. It also revives the support for RISC-V. Some of these topics have been in the works since a long time. For example, VirtualBox 6 is not merely an update of our existing port of VirtualBox 5 but a fresh re-take condensing years of experience. The LTE and Pine-A64 topics are primarily motivated by our goal to use Genode on the PinePhone by the end of the year, thereby attaining a device that is usable, affordable, and trustworthy. Other notable improvements range from added VirtIO-block device support for virtual machines on ARM, our revived developments for RISC-V, to VFS support for named pipes. You can find all the details presented in our comprehensive release documentation: https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.02 3. FOSDEM recordings of our pluggable-device-drivers talk --------------------------------------------------------- Among the variety of topics presented at this year's microkernel developer room at FOSDEM, we presented our recent work on pluggable device drivers. In the meantime, the recordings of the presentation have become available under the following link: https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/microkernel_pluggable_device_drivers_for_genode/ As explained and demonstrated during the talk, this architectural change paves the ground for a variety of desirable features such as resilience against flaky device drivers, self-healing systems, and rigid power management. Thanks to the organizers of FOSDEM for pulling off the online version of our beloved gathering, and in particular to Martin Decky for organizing the virtual microkernel developer room along with the panel session that nicely wrapped up the event! 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: https://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 https://www.genode-labs.com/ · https://genode.org/ https://twitter.com/GenodeLabs · /ˈdʒiː.nəʊd/ Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth
