Genode OS Framework release 15.08 Aug 31, 2015Version 15.08 marks the starting point of Genode used as day-to-day operating system, which underlines the maturity and scalability of the framework. A further highlight is the ability to execute Genode on top of the Muen separation kernel. Since the first release of Genode seven years ago, we dreamed of being able to use our OS technology as the underlying platform for our day-to-day computing needs. With the current version, the day has come: One of Genode's core developers has made the switch and others plan to follow soon. Hence, the use of Genode as day-to-day OS is the underlying theme of most improvements seen in the new version. It addresses long-standing deficiencies of the kernel-memory management of the NOVA kernel and Genode's custom kernel platform, extends the framework's system-monitoring and file-system abilities, and significantly improves the integration of VirtualBox with Genode. The second highlight of version 15.08 is the ability to execute Genode system scenarios on top of the Muen separation kernel. Compared to microkernels, Muen takes the ambition to reduce kernel complexity to an extreme. Written in the safe implementation language SPARK and with a code complexity of merely 5,000 lines, it lends itself to be high assuring about its correct behavior. From Genode's point of view, Muen represents an additional target architecture of the framework's custom base-hw kernel. The component isolation enforced by base-hw and the static isolation boundaries enforced by Muen represent two lines of defense for protecting security-critical system functions from untrusted components. More details about all the improvements are provided by the release documentation of version 15.08... |
