genode/doc/road_map.txt

                             ========
                             Road Map
                             ========


Herein, we lay out our plans for evolving Genode. Progress in addition to this
planning will very much depend on the degree of community support the project
will receive. The
[https://genode.org/about/challenges - Challenges] page collects some of our
ideas to advance Genode in various further directions.

The road map is not fixed. If there is commercial interest of pushing the
Genode technology to a certain direction, we are willing to revisit our plans.


Review of 2021
##############

Genode's year 2021 was defined by three extremely challenging lines of work.

First, we conquered the territory of GPU support that was ridden with
uncertainties and seemed almost impenetrable when we started. But at the end
of the year, our custom Intel-GPU multiplexer has landed in Sculpt OS like it
always belonged there. In tandem with the Intel-GPU work, we explored the
Vivante GPU as a representative of an ARM platform. The work required a deep
dive into the respective GPU architectures and the Mesa software stack. It
eventually led us to the design of Genode's device-agnostic GPU interfaces.

The second line of work was concerned with the reuse of Linux drivers as
Genode components. Over the year, the puzzle pieces of our new Linux
device-driver environment come together, replacing former confusion and chaos
with knowledge and order, ultimately uncovering the treasure of Linux drivers
for Genode with very little friction. On the way, we created new methodology
and tooling, as well as extensive documentation in the form of the "Genode
Platforms" document. Thanks to the new drivers ported from the Linux kernel,
we were able to witness interactive Genode scenarios becoming alive on the
Pinephone by the end of the year.

The third major topic was the growing sophistication of Genode-native
workloads, with the media features of the Chromium-based browser on 64-bit ARM
being the most impressive example. Apart from the apparent functional benefits
for Genode and Sculpt OS, this is the long outstanding validation of some bold
design decisions we took years ago, in particular the role and architecture of
the VFS and its interplay with the libc.

When reviewing the road map for 2021, some items remained uncovered. In
particular the seL4-related topics became stale. At the end of 2020 - when we
assembled the road map for the past year - there was a tangible prospect of
pursuing this topic as funded work. However, those plans were repeatedly
deferred and remained uncertain. Also, there are some items that have seen
healthy doses of progress - like the topics related to Ada/SPARK or Goa - but
received less attention than anticipated. On the other hand, the four releases
([https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.02 - 21.02],
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.05 - 21.05],
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.08 - 21.08],
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.11 - 21.11])
of 2021 covered quite a few topics not advertised at the road
map, e.g., webcam support, Xilinx Zynq, or RISC-V.

It is fair to say that the level of technical risks we took in 2021 had been
unprecedented in Genode's development history. We are more than proud of the
outcome, which will hopefully propel Genode to new heights in 2022.


2022 - Mobile Usability
#######################

After having enabled the first interactive Genode scenarios on the Pinephone
last year, we plan to take Genode on the Pinephone to a level where we can
routinely use it for advanced applications, in particular video chat. This
vision confronts us with a multitude of hard technical nuts to crack such as
power efficiency, UI latency, quality-of-service of audio processing, drivers
for multi-media devices, WebRTC performance, and usability. This grand theme
will not only address the Pinephone specifically. The efficiency gains will
benefit all Genode use cases large and small.

Our theme of the Genode-based video chat on the Pinephone fuels several
ambitions in closely related areas. In particular, we aspire using WireGuard
to secure private communication, and experiment with the operation of
hardware-based trust anchors as the basis for encrypted storage and
communication.

Besides the Pinephone, we will steadily nurture the quality and scope of
driver support on PC hardware, which remains the primary platform for the
day-to-day use of Sculpt OS. So you can expect us to keep up with recent
generations of Intel-based hardware. In this area, we plan to make IOMMU
support available with kernels beyond NOVA, and explore the use of
power-management features like suspend-resume with Sculpt OS.


Milestones for 2022
###################

In the following, we present a rough schedule of the planned work. As usual,
it is not set in stone. If you are interested in a particular line of work,
please get in touch.


February - Release 22.02
========================

* OpenGL in VirtualBox 6
* Sculpt OS as tool kit for special-purpose OS images
* Pinephone
  * Modem access
  * Touch-screen compatibility of Sculpt OS


May - Release 22.05
===================

* Annual update of the "Genode Foundations" book
* Second edition of the "Genode Platforms" documentation
* WireGuard VPN
* Updated drivers for PC hardware (Wifi, Intel framebuffer, USB)
* New tracing tool with support for CTF and PCAP
* Pinephone telephony


August - Release 22.08
======================

* Pinephone
  * Morph browser
  * Media record and playback capabilities
* FPGA-powered DMA protection for the Zynq-7000 SoC
* Kernel-agnostic IOMMU support for PC hardware
* Optimized GUI latency and synchronization


November - Release 22.11
========================

* Pinephone
  * WebRTC-based video chat
  * Power management
* Base mechanism for suspend-resume on PC hardware
* Support for hardware-based trust anchor for CBE and WireGuard
* Software-hardware co-design example for the Zynq-7000 SoC