We are happy to announce the 16.03 release for the Reference Software Platform project, right before Linaro Connect BKK16!

This is our third release, incorporating quite a few changes and improvements for both the consumer and enterprise reference platforms. We are also happy to share, for the first time, that we were able to produce a common and unified kernel tree (4.4.0 based) that is shared across all the supported platforms!

The unified kernel is a critical piece as we can concentrate the development and validation into one single source tree, and also allowing us to create one package (deb/rpm) that can be shared with everyone. As a result of the integration of many different development trees, we are also able to quickly spot issues that could later affect upstream and distros (e.g. DT x ACPI).

Some of the highlights for this release (check https://github.com/96boards/documentation/wiki/RPB-16.03-Highlights for the complete list):

Unified Kernel:

- Unified tree shared between the CE and EE builds, supporting Hikey, Dragonboard, D02, APM X-Gene, HP Proliant m400 and AMD Overdrive. - 4.4.0 based, including under-review topic branches to extend the hardware support for the platforms available. - Device-Tree support for CE; ARM ACPI and PCIe support for Enterprise. - Single kernel config for all platforms in arch/arm64/configs/distro.config

Consumer Reference Platform:

CE Debian RPB:

- Upgrade to Debian 8.3 "Jessie" - Upgrade to the unified 4.4.0 Linux Kernel - DB410c: Freedreno X11 video driver included by default (1.4.0) - HiKey: Grub 2 config supporting kernel package updates

CE AOSP RPB:

- AOSP Android Marshmallow 6.0 (android-6.0.1_r16) - Early Developer Preview snapshot for DragonBoard™ 410, supporting Mesa and Freedreno

Enterprise Reference Platform:

Platforms Supported:

- AMD Overdrive A0 (new) and B0 - D02 - APM X-Gene Mustang (new) - HP ProLiant m400 (new)

Features: UEFI with ACPI, KVM and PCIe support

Firmware: Updated UEFI/EDK2 for D02, including support for PCIe and SAS

Network Installers: - Upgrade to Debian 8.3 "Jessie" - CentOS (now supported): Based on CentOS 7.2 15.11

Install instructions, known issues, test reports and instructions to build from source are all published at https://github.com/96boards/documentation/wiki/Reference-Platform-Home.

For general questions or support requests, please go to the 96boards.org Community forum (https://www.96boards.org/forums/). For development questions and topics, please use the 96Boards.org development mailing-list (dev@lists.96boards.org).

For bugs related to the 96Boards platforms, please use the 96Boards bug tracking system (https://bugs.96boards.org/). For bugs related to the reference software platform release, but on development boards that are not officially part of 96Boards, please use https://bugs.linaro.org instead (e.g. AMD Overdrive and HiSilicon D02).

For IRC support, please go to the #96boards channel at Freenode.

Since Linaro Connect BKK16 is just around the corner, please also make sure to check the sessions involving 96Boards and the Reference Software Project. Sessions we will cover next week: * BKK16-100: Evolution of the Reference Software Platform Project * BKK16-501: Kernel and bootloader consolidation and upstreaming * BKK16-505: Mezzanine Enablement

Also make sure to check https://bkk16.pathable.com/ for the full schedule!

We hope you enjoy the release, and have a great Linaro Connect BKK16!

On behalf of the Linaro 96Boards team,

Ricardo Salveti