Zephyr Kernel 1.10.0¶
We are pleased to announce the release of Zephyr kernel version 1.10.0.
Major enhancements with this release include:
- Initial alpha-quality thread-level memory protection on x86, userspace and memory domains
- Major overhaul to the build system and a switch from Kbuild to CMake.
- Newtron Flash Filesystem (NFFS) Support
- Increased testsuite coverage and migrated majority of testcases to use ztest
- Integration with MCUBOOT Bootloader
- Additional SoC, platform and driver support for many of the already supported platforms.
The following sections provide detailed lists of changes by component.
Kernel¶
- Remove deprecated k_mem_pool_defrag code
- Initial alpha-quality thread-level memory protection on x86, userspace and memory
domains:
- Same kernel & driver APIs for kernel and user mode threads
- System calls for privilege elevation
- Stack overflow protection
- Kernel object and device driver permission tracking
- Simple app vs. kernel memory separation
- Memory domain APIs for fine-tuning memory region permissions
- Stack memory protection from other threads
- Add the following application-facing memory domain APIs:
- k_mem_domain_init() - to initialize a memory domain
- k_mem_domain_destroy() - to destroy a memory domain
- k_mem_domain_add_partition() - to add a partition into a domain
- k_mem_domain_remove_partition() - to remove a partition from a domain
- k_mem_domain_add_thread() - to add a thread into a domain
- k_mem_domain_remove_thread() - to remove a thread from a domain
- add k_calloc() which uses kernel heap to implement traditional calloc() semantics.
- Introduce object validation mechanism: All system calls made from userspace, which involve pointers to kernel objects (including device drivers), will need to have those pointers validated; userspace must never be able to crash the kernel by passing it garbage.
Architectures¶
- nrf52: Add support for LOW_POWER state and SYSTEM_OFF
- Architecture specific memory domain APIs added
- Tickless Kernel Implementation for Xtensa
- Added support for the following ARM SoCs:
- NXP i.MX RT1052
- Silabs EFM32WG
- STM F0
- TI MSP432P4xx
Boards¶
- Jailhouse port: The port will enable Zephyr to run as a guest OS on x86-64 systems. It comes with a test on QEMU to validate that, thus this new board introduction.
- Power Management for nrf52 series SOC
- Added support for the following ARM boards:
- 96b_neonkey
- efm32wg_stk3800
- mimxrt1050_evk
- msp_exp432p401r_launchxl
- nucleo_f030r8
- nucleo_f091rc
- stm32f411e_disco
- stm32f412g_disco
- stm32l476g_disco
- usb_kw24d512
Drivers and Sensors¶
- timer: Add Support for TICKLESS KERNEL in xtensa_sys_timer
- Rename
randomtoentropy - Add Atmel SAM I2S (SSC) driver
- Add Atmel SAM DMA (XDMAC) driver
- Add plantower PMS7003 Driver
- Add Altera shim driver for JTAG UART soft IP
- Add Altera shim driver for timer soft IP
- Introduce mcux ccm driver
- Introduce mcux igpio shim driver
Networking¶
- HTTP API changed to use net-app API. Old HTTP API is deprecated.
- Loopback network interface support added. This is used in testing only.
- LWM2M multi-fragment network packet support added.
- New CoAP library implementation, supporting longer network packets.
- Deprecated ZoAP library.
- mDNS (multicast DNS) support added.
- SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) client library added.
- Various fixes for: TCP, RPL, ARP, DNS, LWM2M, Ethernet, net-app API, Network shell, and BSD socket API
- Network management API fixes.
- Networking sample application fixes.
- 6lo IPv6 header compression fixes.
- IEEE 802.15.4 generic fixes.
- IEEE 802.15.4 mcr20a driver fixes.
- IEEE 802.15.4 kw41z driver fixes.
- IEEE 802.15.4 nrf5 driver fixes.
Bluetooth¶
- Multiple qualification-related fixes for Bluetooth Mesh
- Support for Bluetooth Mesh Friend Node role
- Support for Bluetooth Mesh Foundation Client Models
- New Bluetooth Mesh shell module and test application
- Support for PA/LNA amplifiers in the BLE Controller
- Support for additional VS commands in the BLE Controller
- Multiple stability fixes for the BLE Controller
Build and Infrastructure¶
- The Zephyr project has migrated to CMake, an important step in a larger effort to make Zephyr easier to use for application developers working on different platforms with different development environment needs. This change retains Kconfig as-is, and replaces all Makefiles with corresponding CMakeLists.txt. The DSL-like Make language that KBuild offers is replaced by a set of CMake extensions that provide either simple one-to-one translations of KBuild features or introduce new concepts that replace KBuild concepts. Please re-read the Getting Started guide (https://docs.zephyrproject.org/getting_started/getting_started.html) with updated instructions for setting up and developing on your host-OS. You will need to port your own out-of-tree scripts and Makefiles to CMake.
Libraries / Subsystems¶
- The implementation for sys_rand32_get() function has been moved to a new “random” subsystem. There are new implementations for this function, one based in the Xoroshift128+ PRNG (using a hardware number generator to seed), and another that obtains random numbers directly from a hardware number generator driver. Hardware number generator drivers have been moved to a “drivers/entropy” directory; these drivers only expose the interface provided by include/entropy.h.
- TinyCrypt updated to version 0.2.8
HALs¶
- Add Altera HAL for support NIOS-II boards
- Add mcux 2.3.0 for mimxrt1051 and mimxrt1052
- stm32cube: HAL/LL static library for stm32f0xx v.1.9.
- Add support for STM32 family USB driver
- Add Silabs Gecko SDK for EFM32WG SoCs
- Simplelink: Update cc32xx SDK to version 1.50.00.06
Documentation¶
- Missing API documentation caused by doxygen subgroups and missing Sphinx directives now included.
- Note added to all released doc pages mentioning more current content could be available from the master branch version of the documentation.
- Documentation updated to use CMake (vs. Make) in all examples, and using a new Sphinx extension to keep examples consistent.
- Getting Started Guide material updated to include CMake dependencies and build instructions required for version 1.10.
- Instead of hiding all expected warnings from the document build process (there are some known doxygen/sphinx issues), the build now outputs all warnings, and then reports if any new/unexpected warnings or errors were detected.
- Obsolete V1 to V2 porting material removed.
- Continued updates to documentation for new board support, new samples, and new features.
- Integration of documentation with new zephyrproject.org website.
- Documentation moved to docs.zephyrproject.org site (with redirection from zephyrproject.org/doc)
Tests and Samples¶
- Benchmarking: cleanup of the benchmarking code
- Add userspace protection tests
- Move all tests to ztest and cleanup coding style and formatting