The just released version 12.08 of the Genode OS Framework comes with the ability to run Genode-based systems on ARM hardware without an underlying kernel, vastly improves the support for the NOVA hypervisor, and adds device drivers for the OMAP4 SoC. Further functional additions are a FFAT-based file system service, the port of the lighttpd web server, and support for on-target debugging via GDB.
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Member since:2009-05-27
Thanks for your encouraging words!
Regarding your question about supporting CPU architectures other than ARM for the base-hw platform, there is a rough plan to incorporate MicroBlaze support and thereby displacing the original base-mb platform. There was also a conversation on the mailing list about supporting OpenRISC via base-hw. But those lines of work are not definite. Even though the base-hw concept would principally be applicable to x86, there is currently no plan to pursue this direction. The current focus is certainly ARM.
Which architecture have you had in mind?
Member since:2011-10-17
I am concerned about the duplication of efforts to manage resources in the kernel and core when using the other platforms.
Consequently, we found several information replicated without a clear benefit. With this comes a seemingly significant redundancy of code for data structures, allocators, and utility functions. Furthermore, there exists a class of problems that must be solved by the kernel and core alike. In particular the resource management of dynamically allocated in-kernel objects respectively in-core objects. Whereas core uses Genode's resource-trading concept to solve this problem, most kernels lack a good solution for the management of in-kernel resources and are consequently prone to resource exhaustion problems.
Is there any plan to to address that problem base platforms other than base-hw?
Another area of concern is the supported base platforms. Some of the supported kernels do not seem to be developed anymore or are no longer open source. E.g. Codezero, Pistachio, OKL4 and the old Fiasco. Also, Codezero also seem to offer a subset of the features of Fiasco.OC.
From what I understand, the wide variety of kernels helps to produce ideal design decisions in genode that are applicable across platforms. Is there any other merit in continuing to develop genode on those platforms?
Congratulations on the new release and the detailed release notes. They are always interesting to read. Genode is an excellent project and I am looking forward to seeing it widely deployed in the future.
Regards.
Member since:2011-01-28
I think there'd be merit in having base-hw on x86 given the widespread availability of off the shelf hardware.. but of course you gotta focus with what matters to you.
System programming jobs have become rare here, I've always thought it would be so much fun to land a job working on an alternative operating system instead of just doing it as a hobby.
So anyway, back on topic, I read this in your release notes:
"We complemented our C runtime with support for the pread, pwrite, readv, and writev functions. The pread and pwrite functions are shortcuts for randomly accessing different parts of a file. Under the hood, the functions are implemented via lseek and read/write. To provide the atomicity of the functions, a lock guard prevents the parallel execution of either or both functions if called concurrently by multiple threads."
You are implementing these functions (pread/pwrite) with two system calls then? Is there one lock per process, per file descriptor, or something else? Is this lock held in the kernel or in user space? It seems to me like such locks could impose a major synchronization bottleneck on SMP architectures, is there a reason you wouldn't just add new syscalls for pread/pwrite?
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The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2007-08-20
It is really encouraging to see continual progress being made on this project. It's nice to see different OS concepts put into practice successfully.
The "base-hw" addition is very interesting. Are you planning on adding other CPU architectures also?
The NOVA hypervisor work is very intriguing as well. Especially this part:
Keep up the good work!
Edited 2012-08-23 20:04 UTC