ACRN Sample App

Proposal for an ACRN Sample App

Introduction

The Getting Started Guide is the document of reference to set up ACRN on a system. It is designed to take the user through the entire process of starting from a bare system with no Operating System installed to one running ACRN and an Ubuntu-based Service VM. It also includes some basic steps to bring up a User VM based on Ubuntu but this is where it stops. Wouldn't it be nice to also have some sample app available that can demonstrate ACRN in action? ;-)

Objective

Provide an "ACRN Sample App" that can easily and quickly be set up by users and that demonstrates ACRN functionality in a limited, real-world context.

Evaluation criteria:​

• Ease of use and usefulness: Measured by the OOB DX metric that comprehends usability, usefulness, learnability and other characteristics of the sample app.​
• Minimal set-up time: if the Getting Started Guide takes about 2 hours, our goal for the sample should be about 1 hour with a maximum of 2 hours.​
• Demonstrate ACRN is functional with limited, simulated context but one that maps to real-world ACRN application ​
• Universal (no HW dependency)​
• Demonstrate ACRN unique feature in delivering real-time VMs​
• Expandable learnings: users can take the learnings and apply them to another ACRN application

Proposal

Post-launched RTVM​:

• Based on Zephyr​
• Uses ivshmem to communicate with other Post-launched User VM​
• Zephyr shell available from Service VM terminal (no serial port needed)​
• Runs Cyclictest​

Post-launched User VM​

• Based on Ubuntu​
• Collects performance data (cyclictest) from RTVM over ivshmem
• Runs Visualization UI​

Opens

Glossary

• OOB: Out Of the Box
• DX: Developer eXperience
• UX: User eXperience