I’ve published an updated version of Sculpt OS 26.04.02 equipped with Genode’s own hw-kernel, which contains several improvements.
First, it takes advantage of x86 PCIDs - an TLB usage optimization. Further, additional CPU extensions (AVX/AVX-512) are now enabled and can be used also in the context of virtual-machines. The CPU extensions like FPU, SSE*, and AVX* are getting switched in between different contexts more efficiently now.
Moreover, CPU frequency and power steering introduced in Sculpt 23.10 for the Nova kernel, can now be used on top of the hw kernel too. Last, but not least: the order of logical cpus has changed. Formerly, they were just ordered according to their physical numbers. Now, the list starts with the high-performance cores, and it ends with the energy-optimized cores. If there are hyperthreads available, they are ordered adjacent. This way it is possible to define more useful resp. informed affinity settings than before.
If you would like to give it a try, you can use the online update mechanism by choosing “Index of /skalk” as repository and install the “2026-07-14” image. Alternatively, you might download the image from here (sha256 sum: 4a847f91de965772064c6f09be9ecac4c10189361f0f588493721c6326b5bf73).
Best regards
Stefan
