187 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
187 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
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========
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Road Map
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========
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Herein, we lay out our plans for evolving Genode. Progress in addition to this
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planning will very much depend on the degree of community support the project
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will receive. The
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[http:/about/challenges - Challenges] page collects some of our ideas to
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advance Genode in various further directions.
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The road map is not fixed. If there is commercial interest of pushing the
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Genode technology to a certain direction, we are willing to revisit our plans.
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Review of 2017
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##############
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The technical topics of 2017 ranged from hardware-accelerated graphics, over
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UEFI, greatly improved seL4 support, user-level networking, file-system
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infrastructure, to an consolidated framework API. However, one topic stood out
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the most, which is the practical use of Genode as day-to-day OS.
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Whereas the so-called "Turmvilla" system scenario enabled a few enthusiasts to
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work on a Genode-based system since mid of 2015, the scenario was quite rigid
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and required significant manual labour for any customization. Although it was
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not really inviting for potential users, it illustrated well that all the
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basic building blocks - in particular the driver stacks - were in place. But
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it would have been be quite a stretch to call Turmvilla a general-purpose OS
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at that point. The year 2017 introduced two pivotal features that allowed us to
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break free from the limitations of Turmvilla-like scenarios, namely the new
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/17.05#Package_management - package-management concept]
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and the ability to
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/17.02#Dynamically_reconfigurable_init_component - compose and modify subsystems dynamically].
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Inspired by these new features, a new system scenario called "Sculpt" emerged
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in Autumn 2017. The combination of Genode's recursive architecture with the
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dynamic reconfigurability of the init component allows the user to
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interactively shape the running Genode system including any subsystem or even
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configurations of individual components. The system structure is always at the
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user's fingertips and can by modified instantly using a text editor. At the
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same time, the new package management greatly helps to keep the complexity at
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a manageable level. Whereas Turmvilla users rarely updated their installation
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out of hesitance to break their work environment, Sculpt is routinely updated
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on a weekly basis. The switch of the entire Genode-Labs team to Genode full
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time by the end of year was certainly our biggest milestone so far.
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2018 - The year of Sculpt
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#########################
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The "Turmvilla" era lies behind us. So let the "Sculpt" era begin!
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Having used Sculpt over the past few months, we feel confident to make the
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system scenario available to a larger audience. In 2018, we will take four
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steps:
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# Sculpt for Early Adopters (EA)
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The current version of Sculpt accompanied with plain-text documentation
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that explains the concept and use. It is intended for people who are
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already familiar with Genode, in particular users that experimented with
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Turmvilla-like scenarios in the past. Sculpt EA expects basic Vim skills
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from the user.
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# Sculpt for The Curious (TC)
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A polished version of Sculpt that is more welcoming to the user and
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accompanied with example subsystems that loosely resemble a traditional
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notion of an operating system (like basic menus and window borders).
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There will be a ready-to-use ISO image for Sculpt TC. So users won't need
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to be familiar with Genode's source code and build system. As with Sculpt
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EA, Sculpt TC will still rely on the user's ability to use Vim.
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# Sculpt by Visual Composition (VC)
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Whereas the earlier versions rely on text editing for sculpting the system,
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Sculpt VC will feature an interactive graphical user interface, which will
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hopefully make the system tangible for users who live outside the terminal.
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# Sculpt as a Community Experience (CE)
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Sculpt CE will allow anyone to play the role of a component provider.
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Each user should be able to pick individual components or entire component
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compositions provided by others while maintaining complete control over the
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system.
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In addition to working on Sculpt as the overall theme of the year, we will
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focus on the following topics:
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:Gentle transition from NOVA to our custom kernel and seL4:
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NOVA used to be our kernel of choice on x86 platforms. However, since the
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kernel is no longer actively developed, we had to take over the
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responsibility to maintain it. Whereas we feel confident in developing the
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kernel in an evolutionary way, the kernel has long-standing architectural
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limitations (i.e. kernel-memory management) that would require invasive
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changes. Instead of ramping up our engagement with NOVA, we'd like to focus
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on our custom kernel (base-hw) and the seL4 kernel. In 2018, we set out to
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enable Sculpt on base-hw. This involves the support for SMP, VT-x, and VT-d
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on x86.
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:Freescale i.MX:
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Based on the feedback from our community, Freescale i.MX support is of
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great interest, specifically i.MX6. Hence, we plan to improve the driver
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support for this SoC.
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:seL4:
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We will try to apply all improvements of Genode on seL4 whenever feasible.
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It also goes without saying that we will track seL4's upstream development.
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:Software quality and resilience:
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The modernized framework API introduced last year is an important stepping
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stone. But there is much more we can (and should) do, I.e., learning from
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the high-integrity computing community (e.g., implementing critical
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components in SPARK), leveling-up the scope and intensity of our automated
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tests, facilitating static code analysis, and employing software-hardening
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techniques. Of course, this scope goes far beyond the time frame of one
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year. The immediate prioritization of these topics will largely depend on
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the focus of commercial users funding the work.
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:System monitoring, tracing, profiling:
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The interactive use of Sculpt along with the prospects enabled by Genode's
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GPU support motivate us to optimize Genode towards low-latency multimedia
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applications. We will ultimately need to gain a deep understanding on
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inter-component interactions, in particular along time-critical data paths.
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Therefore, we plan to improve the tooling and cultivate the use of our
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existing but underused tracing support.
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:Java:
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By the end of 2018, we want to enable Genode to leverage the ecosystem
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around Java, which is - according to the TIOBE index - the most popular
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programming language.
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Milestones for 2018
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###################
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In the following, we present a rough schedule of the planned work. As usual,
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it is not set in stone. If you are interested in a particular line of work,
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please get in touch.
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February - Release 18.02
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========================
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* Sculpt for Early Adopters (EA)
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* Dynamic on-target package installation and deployment
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* i.MX6 networking
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May - Release 18.05
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===================
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* Sculpt for The Curious (TC)
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* Update of the Genode Foundations book
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* Consistent use of the depot tools for automated tests
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* Qt5-based applications based on packages
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* SMP support for the base-hw kernel on x86
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August - Release 18.08
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======================
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* Sculpt by Visual Composition (VC)
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* Ability to (cleanly) restart device drivers
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* Updated PC hardware support
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* i.MX6 USB
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* Multi-component user mail agent
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* IOMMU support for the base-hw kernel on x86
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November - Release 18.11
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========================
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* Sculpt as a Community Experience (CE)
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* Automated tests hosted on top of Sculpt
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* Sculpt-like scenario for network appliances
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* Virtualization support for the base-hw kernel on x86
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