We are happy to announce the release of the version 11.02 of the Genode OS Framework.
The development is this version was primarily focused on further expanding the platform support of the framework. We are excited about the following three significant improvements in this area.
First, we introduced support for the Fiasco.OC kernel, which is a modern capability-based microkernel developed at the Dresden University of Technology and published under GPLv2. Fiasco.OC provides a rich set of features, most notably kernel support for user-level object capabilities (hence the suffix "OC"), multi-processor support, and comprehensive support for the x86_32, x86_64, and ARM architectures. For more information on Fiasco.OC visit
http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/fiasco
Second, we upgraded the support for the NOVA hypervisor to version 0.3, and thereby, promoted the NOVA version of Genode to cover the entire Genode API. So, NOVA can now be recommended as base platform for Genode without reservations. The project website of NOVA is:
Third, the Genode project reaches out to kernel land by adding a custom kernel platform for running Genode on the Xilinx MicroBlaze CPU architecture. Our design has a special twist that sets it apart from existing microkernels, namely that it is not a free-standing program but a part of Genode's core. By consolidating the kernel with the user-level core into one program, the TCB complexity of the Genode base systems gets quite dramatically reduced compared to the combination of a normal microkernel with core running as roottask.
The most prominent functional addition introduced with the new release, is the Noux execution environment, which facilitates the use of GNU userland software on top of Genode without requiring much manual porting labour. Albeit being in an early stage, Noux is already able to run many commands of the GNU coreutils.
In short, the release notes summary is:
- Fiasco.OC as new base platform - Running Genode natively on MicroBlaze CPUs - Support for version 0.3 of the NOVA hypervisor - Noux execution environment for GNU userland software - Base framework - Core resource accounting using guarded allocators - Protocol enhancements for upgrading session quotas - Qt4 updated to version 4.7.1 - New tool for automated integration and testing
Please find a more elaborative description of the changes accompanied with a lot of background information in the release notes of version 11.02:
http://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/11.02
The new version is ready for download at our download page at Sourceforge and our public SVN repository:
Best Regards
-
Norman Feske