From b51c1a0fe3111dc109f2c50fa8d59d41fbae2b5a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Norman Feske Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2021 16:56:22 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] News item for Sculpt 21.03 --- doc/news.txt | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 50 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/news.txt b/doc/news.txt index a1f9238f9b..86ff0525c4 100644 --- a/doc/news.txt +++ b/doc/news.txt @@ -4,6 +4,56 @@ =========== +Sculpt OS release 21.03 | 2021-03-24 +#################################### + +| Version 21.03 of the Sculpt operating system makes the system resilient +| against classes of driver failures, adds configurable real-time priorities, +| and introduces interfaces for screen capturing and user-event injection. + +Sculpt OS 21.03 incorporates the many improvements of the latest two Genode +releases. Thanks to Genode's concept of +[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/21.02#Pluggable_network_device_drivers - pluggable device drivers], +the system has reached a new level of robustness against malfunctioning +drivers. For example, if the Intel graphics driver trips over an unsupported +external display, the driver gets automatically restarted while all graphical +applications keep running. Or as another example, should the overly complex +Wifi driver have a hick-up, it can be restarted with a simple mouse click +without harming the networking stacks running on top. + +Even though Genode supports static-priority scheduling since more than a +decade, Sculpt did not make this feature available to end users so far. The +new version changes that. For each component, the user can now take a +deliberate decision about the hard scheduling priority, e.g., prioritizing +latency-critical multi-media applications over computational workloads or +virtual machines. + +Speaking of workloads, to push the limits of what is possible with Sculpt OS, +the new version introduces additional interfaces that can be assigned to +components. First, it has become possible to redirect the interaction of a +component with the kernel through another component, thereby enabling features +like dynamic CPU-load balancing to be implemented as plain user-level +services. Second, there are new interfaces for capturing the screen and for +injecting input events. The latter interfaces pave the ground for virtual +keyboards, screen-sharing application, or remote administration scenarios. + +Under the hood, there are plenty of improvements that make the life of +Sculpt users better. The keyboard layout can now be picked from a menu. +The Chromium-based Falkon web browser runs circles around the previous +version. Menu items and file lists appear nicely sorted. Terminal windows +immediately respond to global font-size changes. On modern Intel machines, +Sculpt leverages Intel Hardware P-states (HWP) for power and thermal +management now. You can find an illustrated tour of these and more changes in +a dedicated +[https://genodians.org/nfeske/2021-03-24-sculpt-os - article at Genodians.org]. + +The updated [https://genode.org/documentation/articles/sculpt-21-03 - manual] +goes into detail about the use of the new system. + +The ready-to-use system image for version 21.03 is available at the +[https://genode.org/download/sculpt - Sculpt download page]. + + Genode OS Framework release 21.02 | 2021-02-25 ##############################################