https://github.com/ReturnInfinity/BareMetal

A very minimal, resource efficient exo-kernel
https://github.com/ReturnInfinity/BareMetal

assembly baremetal baremetal-kernel kernel

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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A very minimal, resource efficient exo-kernel

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/ReturnInfinity/BareMetal
• Owner: ReturnInfinity
• License: mit
• Created: 2014-08-05T16:32:23.000Z (over 10 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2024-10-29T17:03:54.000Z (about 1 month ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-29T18:30:33.003Z (about 1 month ago)
• Topics: assembly, baremetal, baremetal-kernel, kernel
• Language: Assembly
• Homepage: http://www.returninfinity.com
• Size: 688 KB
• Stars: 614
• Watchers: 51
• Forks: 89
• Open Issues: 11
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

• awesome-unikernels - BareMetal - Self described as an exokernel, it can be used as the starting point for unikernel development. (Projects / Generic)

README

        
# BareMetal

_Just enough kernel_

Official repo of the BareMetal [exokernel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exokernel). It's written from scratch in Assembly, designed for x86-64 hardware, with no dependencies except for the virtual/physical hardware. An ARM and/or RISC-V rewrite would be considered once hardware is standardized.

## What is this?

BareMetal is a _very_ lean kernel. The name is a play on the phrase "bare metal" which means to run directly on physical or virtualized hardware. BareMetal also only offers the "bare essentials" required for a working operating system.

BareMetal provides basic support for symmetric multiprocessing, network, and drive access via a low-level abstraction layer.

![BareMetal Model](./doc/BareMetal-Model.png)

### Key features

* **64-bit**: Make use of the extra-wide and additional registers available in 64-bit mode.

* **Mono-processing, multi-core**: The system is able to execute a single program but can spread the work load amongst available CPU cores.

* **Extremely tiny memory footprint**: A minimal bootable image, including boot-loader and operating system components, is currently 16K.

* **Physical and virtual hardware support** with full virtualization, using [x86 hardware virtualization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization) whenever available (it is on most modern x86-64 CPU's). In principle BareMetal should run on any x86-64 hardware platform, even on a physical x86-64 computer, given appropriate drivers. Officially, we develop on [QEMU](http://www.qemu.org) and [VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org), which means that you can run BareMetal on both Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple macOS.

## Try it out!

See the [BareMetal-OS](https://github.com/ReturnInfinity/BareMetal-OS) repo for a full build environment.

// EOF