Google has released version 14 of the Fuchsia operating system, which serves as the foundation for preliminary firmware updates for the Google Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. Fuchsia has been developed by Google since 2016, addressing the shortcomings in scalability and security found in the Android platform.
Key changes in Fuchsia 14:
- The capabilities of the Starnix layer have been expanded, enabling the execution of unmodified Linux programs through the translation of Linux kernel system interfaces into corresponding Fuchsia subsystem calls. The new version adds support for mounting remote file systems, introduces xattrs for symbolic links in fxfs, includes tracing points in the mmap() system call, enhances information in /proc/pid/stat, incorporates support for fuchsia_sync::Mutex, implements O_TMPFILE support, pidfd_getfd, sys_reboot(), timer_create, timer_delete, times(), and ptrace(), and utilizes a system file cache in the ext4 implementation.
- The Bluetooth stack has been improved. Support for audio in the Bluetooth HSP (HandSet Profile) has been added and latency when streaming audio through the A2DP profile has been reduced.
- Matter, the implementation of the standard for connecting devices in the smart home, now includes support for update groups and the ability to handle transitional states when managing backlighting.
- FastUDP socket support has been added to the network stack across all platforms.
- Support for multi-core systems (SMP) based on the RISC-V architecture has been introduced.
- An API for interacting with the task scheduler has been added.
- Support for DeviceTree has been included.
- The driver for audio devices with a USB interface has been transitioned to use the DFv2 framework.
Fuchsia is based on the Zircon microkernel, which is derived from the LK project, and has been extended for use across various classes of devices, including smartphones and personal computers. Zircon extends LK with support for processes and shared libraries, a user-level, an object handling system, and a security model based on capability. Drivers are implemented as user-space dynamic libraries loaded by the devhost process and managed by the device manager (devmg, Device Manager).
Fuchsia has its own graphical interface developed in Dart using the Flutter framework. The project also includes the development of the user interface framework Peridot, the package manager Fargo, the standard library libc, the rendering system Escher, the Vulkan driver Magma, the compositor Scenic, the file systems MinFS, MemFS, ThinFS (FAT in Go), and Blobfs, as well as the partition manager FVM. For application development, support is provided for C/C++ and Dart, with Rust permitted in system components, Go in the network stack, and Python in the build system.
During boot, a system manager is used, which includes appmgr for creating the initial program environment, sysmgr for forming the boot environment, and basemgr for configuring the user environment and organizing system login. An advanced sandbox isolation system ensures security, where new processes have no access to kernel objects, cannot allocate memory, and cannot execute code. Resource access is managed through a namespace system that defines available permissions. The platform provides a framework for creating components that are programs running in their own sandbox, able to interact with other components via IPC.
Source: opennet.ru
