[Michael Engel]
Hi, The currently maintained L4-compatible microkernels seem to be Fiasco (Dresden) and L4KA::Hazelnut/Pistachio (Karlsruhe). Is there a document describing the differences/compatibility between the various versions, probably comparing these implementations to the original L4 kernel?
Back in March I posted a short summary of the differences between the various L4 APIs.
http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/pipermail/l4-hackers/2003/001385.html
A short summary of the summary:
o L4Ka::Pistachio implements the most recent API and supports more architectures than any other implementation. L4Ka::Pistachio is the main kernel research and development platform for the Karlsruhe and Sydeny L4 groups.
o L4Ka::Hazelnut implements an experimental API, and was only meant as a platform to try out new ideas. Development on L4Ka::Hazelnut has been discontinued.
o Fiasco implements the original API (and also the experimental API supported by L4Ka::Hazelnut). Fiasco is being developed by the Dresden L4 group.
The platform for my project will probably be a AMD "Hammer"-based system (e.g. Athlon 64 or Opteron). Is there already work underway to run Fiasco or L4KA in 64-bit mode on the x86-64 CPUs? If not, I'm thinking about starting an effort to port one of the kernels (based on the x86-32 version). Which do you think would be most appropriate?
L4Ka::Pistachio (an AMD64 port already exists, but has never been tested on real hardware).
Btw., the squirrel on the L4KA web pages is quite cute ;-) - is there a high-res bitmap or vector graphics version of the logo available?
No vector version is available. Should probably put out a more high resolution version one of these days.
My last question concerns L4Linux. The most recent version seems to be based on kernel 2.2.25. Are there any plans to adapt a more recent Linux kernel version, like 2.4 or the upcoming 2.6, as a L4 personality? (I'm aware that this might involve a lot of work...)
The L4 people have internally been using a 2.4 version for quite some time already. There has been talk about cleaning up and releasing L4Linux 2.4 for months now, but I have no idea when this will actually happen.
eSk