From bea9feb3623c8405b72d20be2b61f5a9dd978b5c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Norman Feske Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 11:18:53 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] News item for Genode 14.02 --- doc/news.txt | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/news.txt b/doc/news.txt index 9fb495f4c..9283a0b99 100644 --- a/doc/news.txt +++ b/doc/news.txt @@ -3,6 +3,51 @@ Genode News =========== + +Genode OS Framework release 14.02 | 2014-02-28 +############################################## + +| The two highlights of the new release are VirtualBox running on +| top of the NOVA microhypervisor and the added support for NetBSD's file +| systems. Furthermore, the release comes with new or largely revised +| storage components such as a block cache. + +During the release cycle for version 14.02, the development was focused on the +topics storage and virtualization, both considered as fundamental for using +Genode as general-purpose OS. + +Concerning storage, we took the chance to redesign the existing block-level +components to work asynchronously. This way, block requests can be processed +in a pipelined fashion and even out of order, which is beneficial to hide +device latencies and to maximize throughput. Additionally, there are entirely +new storage components, most prominently a new block cache, FUSE-based +file-system services, and support for the file systems of the NetBSD kernel. +The latter was made possible by the use of so-called rump kernels, which allow +the execution of individual NetBSD kernel subsystems at user level. We use it +to execute NetBSD's file systems as Genode components. + +Virtualization has become a popular use case for microkernel technology. Until +now, however, none of Genode's existing virtualization options such as L4Linux +on top of Fiasco.OC or the Vancouver VMM on top of NOVA could be considered as +compelling alternatives to commodity virtualization products. With the added +support for running VirtualBox on top of the NOVA microhypervisor, we combine +the benefits of microkernel technology and capability-based security in +particular with a product-grade virtualization solution. Compared to the +traditional host operating systems supported by VirtualBox, using VirtualBox +on top of Genode/NOVA reduces the trusted computing base for the security of +virtual machines by more than three orders of magnitude. For existing Genode +users, VirtualBox opens up the ability to run a wide range of unmodified guest +operating systems such as GNU/Linux and MS Windows side by side with regular +Genode components. + +As is the case for every release, there are many additional improvements all +over the place, for example unified interfaces for graphics, support for POSIX +signals in the Noux runtime for Unix programs, and a new pseudo file system +for the interactive exploration and tracing of Genode's process tree. These +and more topics are covered by the detailed +[http:/documentation/release-notes/14.02 - release documentation of version 14.02...] + + Slides and videos of our FOSDEM talks | 2014-02-10 ##################################################