===================================================== Genode Labs Newsletter - December 2020 / January 2021 ===================================================== Content 1. Road map for 2021 2. Genode topics at virtual FOSDEM 2021 1. Road map for 2021 -------------------- In mid of December, we kicked off our annual brainstorming about Genode's road map on our public mailing list. The response was delightful. The topics revolved around new platforms like Rockchip SoCs and the PinePhone, system tracing, DDE Linux, self-healing, Sculpt OS, RISC-V, seL4, Go language, i.MX8, GPUs, Qt5/QML, Goa, multi-monitor support, build systems, Ada/SPARK, MNT Reform, and many more areas of interest. Of course, we cannot thoroughly pursue all of these directions. During the discussion, however, a clear picture emerged. https://genode.org/about/road-map First and most inspiring for many Genode developers, we envision the use of the PinePhone as a Genode-based feature phone by the end of the year. Since this will involve substantial device-driver-related developments, the team will take this line of work as an opportunity to advance the tooling and workflows for carrying out such tasks. This, in turn, will hopefully ease the on-boarding of new driver developers in the future. Closely related to the PinePhone scenario, the project will make optimizations a top priority this year. The opportunities are plenty, ranging from micro-optimizations, over API refinements, to architectural changes if needed. Another recurring topic is the request for GPU support, which is required by many modern workloads such as video conferencing or streaming on mobile device. Therefore, we will revamp our past developments of GPU multiplexing on Intel hardware while also starting the investigation of GPUs on ARM-based devices. It is safe to say that an exciting year 2021 is ahead of us. 2. Genode topics at virtual FOSDEM 2021 --------------------------------------- As mentioned in our previous newsletter, this year's FOSDEM will be different. Instead of gathering in Brussels, crowds of Free- Software and Open-Source enthusiasts will hold a virtual event. The FOSDEM organizers are restless with setting up virtual counterparts of important FOSDEM features like developer rooms and even hallway meetings. FOSDEM is free for everyone. FOSDEM 2021, February 6 and 7 https://fosdem.org/2021/ The microkernel developer room is shepherded by Martin Decky of the HelenOS project, who announced a call for participation in November. It goes without saying that we at Genode Labs urged to contribute. In the meantime, the schedule of the developer room has been decided. https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/track/microkernel/ The topic of our contribution is the presentation and demo of our recent developments of pluggable device drivers, which will be the basis for on-the-fly driver updates, self-healing, and power management. Saturday, February 2, 13:05 "Pluggable device drivers for Genode" Norman Feske https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/microkernel_pluggable_device_drivers_for_genode/ The developer room will close with a panel discussion among several participating projects including Genode and moderated by Martin Decky. Saturday, February 2, 15:05 "State of Microkernels in 2021" https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/event/microkernel_state_in_2021/ See you at virtual FOSDEM 2021! About the newsletter -------------------- If you have friends or colleagues who might be interested in our projects, we would appreciate you to forward this email. If you received this newsletter as a forwarded email, you may subscribe to the newsletter here: https://genode-labs.com/newsletter In the case of receiving this newsletter unintended, you can cancel your subscription at any time by replying to this email with the subject set to "unsubscribe". Best regards -- Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske Genode Labs https://www.genode-labs.com/ · https://genode.org/ https://twitter.com/GenodeLabs · /ˈdʒiː.nəʊd/ Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth
