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Road map for 2022

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===========
Road Map for 2022 | 2022-01-18
##############################
| Our plans for 2022 envision the use of Genode for advanced mobile
| use cases such as video chat.
Following Genode's major technical breakthroughs in the areas of reusing Linux
drivers, hardware-accelerated graphics, and the native execution of Chromium
during 2021, we will pursue _mobile usability_ as overarching theme in 2022.
Specifically, we aspire the routine use of Genode on the Pinephone as a
platform for video chat, using WireGuard to protect the communications.
This vision motivates a large variety of challenging technical topics.
To name a few, we have to squeeze good performance out of the
resource-constrained Pinephone hardware, focus on UI latency and the quality
of service of audio streaming, come up with a somewhat usable touch-based
user interface, and get to the guts of power management.
Aside this guiding theme, we put a broad update of our PC drivers on our
agenda so that Sculpt OS remains a suitable basis for our day-to-day
computing needs on recent generations of Intel hardware.
As an additional line of development, we are excited to intensify the
combination of Genode with reconfigurable hardware.
More information about our review of the past year, this year's focus, and a
rough schedule are presented at our official
[https:/about/road-map - road-map page].
Genode OS Framework release 21.11 | 2021-11-30
##############################################

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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.
[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 2020
Review of 2021
##############
The overarching theme of our road map for 2020 was "Dwarfing the barrier of
entry", which expressed the ambition to reach a wider audience. On that
account, we identified four promising directions: First, making Sculpt OS
palatable for a wider circle. Second, fostering the public perception of the
high quality of Genode to reinforce the confidence of people who are sceptical
towards novel operating-system technology. Third, lowering the barrier of
entry by providing frictionless tooling. And fourth, publicly presenting use
cases that prove the fitness and flexibility of Genode. These directions
certainly did a good job of motivating the working topics of last year's four
releases
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/20.02 - 20.02],
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/20.05 - 20.05],
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/20.08 - 20.08], and
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/20.11 - 20.11].
Genode's year 2021 was defined by three extremely challenging lines of work.
The UI improvements of Sculpt OS in version 20.02 largely eliminated the need
to use the command line as presented
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmgWgzeKAjU - here].
The second direction - software quality - motivated the steady improvements of
our POSIX runtime, ultimately enabling highly sophisticated workloads like the
Chromium web engine on Genode. Regarding our stated commitment to 64-bit ARM
hardware, in particular supporting the NXP i.MX8 SoC, we covered 64-bit
multi-core virtualization, HDMI, touch input, OLED, networking, LTE, USB,
clock and power management, VirtIO, up to running Sculpt OS on this platform.
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.
Granted, Genode's audience hasn't increased by a large margin as a direct
result of these efforts. But as illustrated by the fruitful road-map
discussion for 2021 on the
[https://genode.org/community/mailing-lists - mailing list],
our community is more engaged and enthusiastic than ever before.
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.
2021 - Optimization and Platform diversity
##########################################
2022 - Mobile Usability
#######################
For the initial conquering of 64-bit ARM territory, restraining our focus to
one particular SoC - namely NXP i.MX8 - was a healthy approach. Now it is the
right time to optimize and to branch out the development to further
platforms. The following key aspects of our road map for 2021 reflect that.
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.
:Pinephone:
By the end of the year, we want be able to use Genode on the
[https://pine64.com/product-category/pinephone/ - Pinephone]
as a feature phone, covering basic web-browsing needs, placing calls, and
SMS.
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.
:Linux-device-driver environment re-imagined:
We are convinced that we have to dramatically reduce the engineering
effort needed to port device drivers from the Linux kernel to Genode. With
many years of driver-porting experience under our belts, we plan to condense
the lessons learned in the form of new tooling and documentation. This, in
turn, will hopefully pave the ground for more and more developers
contributing to Genode's device-driver coverage in the future.
:Developer experience:
Speaking of new developers, we see Genode's existing tool set as a barrier
because it requires a rather steep learning curve. Hence, this year, we will
have a fresh take on tooling and workflows. The starting point will be the
experimental [https://github.com/nfeske/goa - Goa] tool, which in principle
allows developers to use familiar build systems for Genode development. We
plan to extend Goa to cover more build systems, and shape the tool towards
system-integration tasks and quick compile-test cycles targeting embedded
devices.
:Optimization:
Motivated by usage scenarios like the Pinephone, we are eager to tap into
plenty of opportunities for optimization. Based on data gathered by improved
system tracing, we consider interface refinements to improve the batching of
I/O (file-system access, networking), micro-optimizations of hot code paths
(like TLS lookup, parsers, and allocators), as well as structural changes
(like the consolidation of low-level services).
:GPU support:
Distantly related to optimization, GPU support is an increasingly requested
feature. We already
[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/17.08#Hardware-accelerated_graphics_for_Intel_Gen-8_GPUs - wetted our toes]
in the past. But GPU support has not yet become routinely supported in
system scenarios like Sculpt OS. In 2021, we want to change that, making GPU
support a feature that can be relied on. We will primarily address Intel
graphics first but also explore GPUs on ARM-based devices.
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 2021
Milestones for 2022
###################
In the following, we present a rough schedule of the planned work. As usual,
@ -107,65 +97,45 @@ it is not set in stone. If you are interested in a particular line of work,
please get in touch.
February - Release 21.02
February - Release 22.02
========================
* Pluggable device drivers (NIC, WLAN, framebuffer, input)
* VirtualBox 6
* Sculpt: basic UI for the consistent block encrypter (CBE)
* 64-bit ARM
* VirtIO block-device support for virtual machines
* Base platform support for the Pine A64 board (kernel base framework)
* 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 21.05
May - Release 22.05
===================
* Annual documentation update, including the "Genode Foundations" book
* GPU support
* MESA update
* Experiments on ARM (e.g., Vivante on i.MX8, or Mali-400 on A64)
* Sculpt OS on Pine A64 (USB, input, framebuffer, SD-card, networking)
* 64-bit ARM
* Platform-driver consolidation between ARM and x86
* PCI-express support for MNT Reform (i.MX8)
* Tool-chain update (e.g., switching to hard-float on ARM)
* Modernized client-side NIC and uplink APIs
* Goa
* Broadened architecture support and testing workflow
* API projects
* Inter-project dependencies
* 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 21.08
August - Release 22.08
======================
* Linux DDE re-imagined
* Improved tooling
* Exploring Goa-based development workflow
* GPU support
* GPU multiplexer for Intel Gen9 graphics
* Harmonization of GPU driver with Intel framebuffer driver
* Initial version of a custom kernel (Spunky) implemented in Ada/SPARK
* System-level tracing infrastructure for guiding and validating optimizations
* Pinephone
* Touchscreen and display
* Mobile web browser
* Goa
* CMake-based Qt5 applications
* QML-based applications
* 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 21.11
November - Release 22.11
========================
* Pinephone
* Mobile data connectivity (LTE)
* Phone calls (audio)
* SMS
* seL4
* Update to current kernel version, MCS scheduling
* Combining CAmkES with Genode
* SMMU (I/O-MMU for ARM) support for our custom (base-hw) kernel
* Multi-monitor support
* 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