Genode OS Framework release 16.08

Genode 16.08 makes the entirety of the framework's drivers, protocol stacks, and libraries available on the seL4 kernel, brings VirtualBox 4 to the Muen separation kernel, and hosts VirtualBox 5 on top of the NOVA kernel. Further highlights are virtual networking and TOR, profound Zynq board support, and tools for statistical profiling.

With the current release, the interoperability of Genode with different OS kernels comes to a great effect. By completing the implementation of the framework's base mechanisms for seL4, literally hundreds of existing Genode components become suddenly available to the seL4 community. In a different arena, Genode serves as enabler to run commodity OSes like Windows via VirtualBox on top of the Muen separation kernel.

The cross-kernel portability of components is certainly a key feature of the framework and version 16.08 pushes this idea even further by attaining binary compatibility across the various supported kernels. In fact, compiled once, the same component can be executed on kernels as different as seL4 and Linux.

Speaking of components, the current release extends the framework's library of ready-to-use building blocks in several areas. Most prominently, there are new network-related components for routing traffic, using TOR, and for distributing Genode over the network. Other added components are concerned with improving the use of Genode as a general-purpose OS, or to aid the optimization of components by the means of statistical profiling. Version 16.08 is further complemented with added board support for devices based on Xilinx Zynq, including drivers for GPIO, video DMA, SD cards, and I2C.

These and many more topics are covered in detail by the release documentation of version 16.08...