The original loader service was primarily motivated by the
browser-plugin scenario presented on our live CD. The new version
implements a more general session interface, which widens the
application scope of the service and, at the same time, reduces its
implementation complexity.
The complexity reduction is achieved by removing the original limitation
of supplying the new sub system as a single binary blob only. The server
used to implement heuristics and functionality for dealing with
different kinds of blobs such as ELF images or TAR archives. This has
been replaced by a session-local ROM service, which can be equipped with
an arbitrary number of ROM modules supplied by the loader client prior
starting the new sub system. Even though the TAR support has been
removed, a separate instance of the 'tar_rom' service can be used within
the subsystem to provide the formerly built-in functionality.
Stefan Kalkowski
Norman Feske