OS News Archive

The concern for efficient and easy-to-use inter-process communication is prevalent among microkernel-based operating systems. Genode has always taken an unorthodox stance on this subject by disregarding the time-tested standard solution of using an IDL compiler in favour of sticking to raw C++ mechanisms. The new version 11.05 of the OS framework takes another leap by introducing a brand new API for implementing procedure calls across process boundaries, facilitating type safety and ease of use, yet still not relying on external tools. Furthermore, the platform support for the Fiasco.OC kernel has been extended to the complete feature set of the framework. The most significant new features are L4Linux (on Fiasco.OC), an experimental integration of GDB, ARM RealView PBX device drivers, and device I/O support for the MicroBlaze platform.

There comes a time in a Linux-loving geek’s life when he or she needs a new challenge. Making desktop apps isn’t hacking it anymore and building yet-another-website seems passe. If you want to jump into the world of mobile, here are a few reasons why HP webOS is the platform for you.

BareMetal Node is a HPC platform based off of BareMetal OS. The kernel binary on the nodes is 6KiB and mainly contains the network and disk drivers. A C or Assembly program can make use of all available CPU cores via the Orchestrator program that controls what the nodes are working on.

B Labs demonstrates Codezero Embedded Hypervisor virtualizing an Android instance on Pandaboard with a dual-core Cortex-A9 based TI OMAP4 SoC. Codezero Embedded Hypervisor is a hybrid L4 microkernel that also acts as a Linux virtualization solution (currently version 0.4.4 in the demo). Earlier versions of Codezero are open source B Labs also releases open API toolkits for the hypervisor enabling operating systems and baremetal software development on multicore ARM processors.

Ah yes, why not? The last time we did this, it was March 2009, so it's been two years since we offered a little insight into what kind of operating systems and browsers you, dear readers, are using. In those two years, a lot has changed. I will also explain why in the few cases that OSNews does host video, I will host it in WebM.

HelenOS is a modern microkernel-based multiserver operating system running on a large variety of processor architectures. Version 0.4.3 thereof has been just released. The new release fixes many bugs and brings a lot of improvements in areas so diverse such as new hardware platform support, userspace device driver framework, device drivers, observability and robustness, programming languages, file systems and networking. For the complete list of user-visible changes, see the release notes. The released files can be downloaded from the project's download page.

It's not the return of the OSNews comic, but it was too good to let pass. Our coverage of the Apple event was minimal this week, so I decided to round the key points up in an illustration...

Oh. My. God. When I read this, and browsed the website, my face went like this. Do you remember the Amiga? That fun little computer that was miles ahead of its competition, but in recent years has been dragged through the mud by one shady figure after the next? Here's a new one: Amiga, Inc., the one 'run' by Bill McEwen, has partnered with a company called IContain to slap the Amiga logo on a bunch of low-end, incredibly sad products. Whether this is another shady deal I don't know, but worthy of the Amiga? I don't think so. I'm not putting this in the Amiga category, by the way. I refuse to. Forget it. It's going into our generic category. Fitting. Update: As was pointed out over at AmigaWorld.net, not only are these nothing more than brandless OEM products with Photoshopped logos, the website itself is just a standard, unmodified WordPress theme. Oi. Doesn't instil a lot of confidence, now, does it?

A list of intriguing rumours from the week that was... Firstly: Dell looking to buy AMD. Having one of its best financial years with revenue of $6.49 billion and net profit $471 million, the 'AMD in crisis' reports just won't go away. While news of execs leaving the company, and the almost total rebranding of its processor line-up won't help to quell this, the company sure looks healthy, at least in the short term. Although demand for its products is rising with demand exceeding supply in some cases. I can't help but think this has all to do with the Windows/ARM announcement.

Now that you have an idea of where your OS project is heading as a whole, it's time to go into specifics. The first component of your OS which you'll have to design, if you're building it from the ground up, is its kernel, so this article aims at being a quick guide to kernel design, describing the major areas which you'll have to think about and guiding you to places where you can find more information on the subject.

We have a new operating system! Well, no - we have a new operating environment, since it's technically not an operating system. Pyxis 2 is an operating environment written in C# on the .NET Micro Framework. The goal of the project is to make it easier for developers to develop robust NETMF applications, while providing users with a common environment to launch applications in. It is open source (Apache 2.0).

So you have taken the test and you think you are ready to get started with OS development? At this point, many OS-deving hobbyists are tempted to go looking for a simple step-by-step tutorial which would guide them into making a binary boot, do some text I/O, and other "simple" stuff. The implicit plan is more or less as follow: any time they'll think about something which in their opinion would be cool to implement, they'll implement it. Gradually, feature after feature, their OS would supposedly build up, slowly getting superior to anything out there. This is, in my opinion, not the best way to get somewhere (if getting somewhere is your goal). In this article, I'll try to explain why, and what you should be doing at this stage instead in my opinion.

ChibiOS/RT 2.2.0 has been released. The new release of this open source embedded Real Time Operating System (RTOS) includes support for multiple compilers (Cosmic, GCC, IAR, Keil, Raisonance), drivers and demos for new hardware, internal optimizations and documentation improvements.

RT-Thread RTOS is an open source real-time operating system for embedded system or microcontrollers, with components which include a hard real-time kernel, a command line shell, a device virtual file system, and a graphic user interface.