Trusted Science and Technology is always finding new projects to experiment with! Over the past few weeks the Trusted team has set up the Raspberry Pi 4 to run seL4 in AARCH64 bit mode. Raspberry Pi: This is a cheap hardware platform, ideal for learning and experimenting with programming. Find out more at: https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/what-%20is-a-raspberry-pi/ Here's the process:
We started by focusing on the Raspberry Pi 3. We were able to run seL4 in 64bit mode on this hardware by taking advantage of previous work. Check it out at: https://retout.co.uk/2020/05/11/sel4-on-rpi3-aarch64/. With this as a base, we were able to start on PI 4 work.
Now what's new:
We moved seL4 in AARCH64 bit mode to the Raspberry Pi 4. The Pi 4 uses a newer ARM A72-based System-on-a-chip (SOC) — these chips are built for low powered electronics, like mobile phones. This new chip also has a different mix of peripherals than the one in the Pi 3. We were able to have seL4 run seamlessly on the newest Raspberry Pi, and the newest technology! The effort was minimal. There were zero changes to the kernel itself, with changes mostly in the build system to pull and configure the drivers correctly.
Why this is important:
By accomplishing this task, the Trusted team were able to show that the seL4 operating system is still relevant to the latest technology. We are also adding new information to the seL4 community. As hardware advances, things get left behind... but not seL4!