Today, we released the version 21.11 of the Genode OS Framework:

https://genode.org/news/genode-os-framework-release-21.11

During this release cycle, we focused on device drivers. Thanks to the new DDE-Linux approach featured by the previous release, we were able to transplant the display and touchscreen drivers for the Pinephone from the Linux kernel to Genode. The drivers are reused without modifications, but each one is sandboxed independently as a separate component.

The i.MX8 SoC family enjoys the most comprehensive Genode support among the 64-bit ARM platforms. The new version advances the driver coverage further by the means of a new USB host-controller driver that improves the performance of isochronous devices like webcams, and a new GPU driver for the Vivante GPU. Speaking of GPUs, we maintained the steady pace of our work on hardware-accelerated graphics and are proud the announce the support for Intel Gen9 and newer GPUs by our custom Intel GPU multiplexer.

The topics outlined above barely scratch the surface. For the whole picture, please enjoy skimming the release documentation linked below.

The major improvement at a glance:

- Modularization of Genode's board-support code base - Drivers - Interactive scenarios on the Pinephone (touch + graphics) - New USB driver for NXP i.MX8 - New Vivante GPU driver and etnaviv Mesa driver - New VirtIO input and framebuffer drivers - Hardware-accelerated graphics with Intel Gen9+ GPUs - New support for the Xilinx Zynq-based USRP E310 board - Feature completion of VirtualBox 6 - Sculpt OS for 64-bit ARM in addition to x86 - Audio and OpenGL support for libSDL2 - Automated boot-image creation for i.MX8, Zynq, Allwinner

The full documentation of the changes is available here:

https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.11

Enjoy the new version!

Norman