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Australian Startup Ships Microkernel


Virtualization touted as solution to licensing issues

By P. J. Connolly
May 15, 2007 — 
The next thing in embedded microkernels has emerged from Down Under: Open Kernel Labs has announced the release of its OKL4 variant of the L4 microkernel, for use in embedded real-time applications.

OKL4 is available under a BSD open source license, and runs on ARM v4/v5 and x86 processors. ARM v6 and MIPS processors will be supported this fall. OKL4 can host a number of RTOSes as guests, including eCos. It also works with Wombat, a Linux port engineered for the L4 microkernel.

The OKL4 microkernel includes virtualization technology that runs guest operating systems in user mode; the microkernel is the only code executing in privileged mode. A native programming environment allows developers to create subsystems without requiring an operating system, while the trusted computing base allows security-critical subsystems to function with fewer than 20,000 lines of code.

Open Kernel Labs CEO Steve Subar believes that the company’s “pure microkernel approach” solves the problem that arises when open source and proprietary code are deployed on the same handset. “We didn’t start off in life with the idea that what the world needed was another virtualization technology, but it turned out that in the mobile space, that’s a current requirement for most vendors, and a microkernel is a really good solution to doing that.”

OKL4 also incorporates protection domains that allow applications, drivers, libraries and other systems services to be walled off from one another, with the intent of ensuring system stability. Communication between subsystems takes place in a high-bandwidth, low-latency architecture, which allows the use of hardware-enforced interfaces with lightweight components. Qualcomm adopted the platform in an early state in September 2005, as a foundation technology for its Mobile Station Modem chip sets. Ericsson has also used OKL4, as a research platform for operating system implementation.

The company is a spin-off of NICTA (National ICT Australia), a research institute and technology incubator funded by the Australian government, with support from educational, state and territorial institutions. Concurrently with the OKL4 release, Open Kernel Labs announced the establishment of its worldwide headquarters in Chicago. Research and development will remain in Australia, although other functions, including field engineering, will be based in the United States.

At the same time the company announced a development, marketing and research alliance with Fluffy Spider Technologies, a developer of user interface technology for embedded devices. Fluffy Spider is the creator of the FancyPants embedded GUI platform. The new alliance continues an agreement between FluffySpider and the NICTA incubator.


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