A confession for 2023

[Michael Grunditz]

Hello Genodians!

I have something to confess, I am still in love with the traditional
desktop. Especially the one that can be found in RISC OS. RISC OS is a
*very* different system compared with Genode. It (RISC OS) is insecure
by design and the kernel is written in ARM assembly. It is a single
tasking os , but the WiMP system adds cooperative multitasking. The
system is driven around with SWI's (software interrupts). This might
sound archaic and to some extent it is. But it is probably the fastest
desktop system around. Most programs have the minimal RAM requirement
set to 4M, so a very low footprint. It is also tied to ARM32 cpus.
Acorn in England, which invented RISC OS also invented the ARM cpu. In
my opinion RISC OS is good as it is. When I say insecure, I mean that
there is no isolation between the components. I actually like that
because it gives me freedom as a coder to do whatever I like.

So.. Genode..

RISC OS will not work on future ARM cores because of end of line for
aarch32 compatible cores. It can't easily be ported because of its
design.

My vision is to make a hybrid system with Genode and RISC OS. In my
opinion both systems can gain from it. RISC OS gets modernised ways of
security and other things that probably never will work in a
traditional setup. Genode would gain a desktop as an alternative to
Sculpt.

This is a giant project that  involves just about  all aspects of an
operating system.

A little list of where I intend to begin:

* Make Genode running on a 64bit only core, Ihave chosen the Rockchip
RK3588 SoC because I have a board and that it features a lot of nice
things.
* Find a good way to run 32bit arm code. I am looking at the Unicorn
cpu emulator. I have done some tests with it and it seems to be ok.
The only drawback is the lack of *none* 1:1 mmu mappings. RISC OS
relies on mmu fully functional. I have no way of solving that at the
moment except to redevice it, a very difficult task.
* Establish ways of protocols for communication with the RISC OS layer
and core Genode.

I will start alone , but if the project takes off I will invite others.

I have no other coding projects planned for 2023, so this will be the one!

Happy Hacking!

Michael

(I am micken on irc , say hello if you want! )