posted by Amjith Ramanujam on Sat 14th Feb 2009 02:00 UTC
IanOS is an experimental 64-bit operating system written from scratch as a learning experience. The source code is available online and the creator of the OS has made some detailed documentation available to go with the source code. This is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to venture into writing a 64-bit OS. The author makes his intention about this OS clear "I never had any intention of producing a true OS. There are plenty of those about and it would be a very foolish, or vain, person who thought that they could compete with the likes of FreeBSD and Linux. But my interest in computers isn't practical; I just find programming them, particularly at this level, to be a supremely satisfying intellectual pursuit".Writing an operating system from ground up is no small feat. It involves understanding the CPU architecture, structure of a boot sector, memory management, device driver etc. When a newbie decides to learn how to write a hobby OS, the usual advice from the bearded OS gurus is "Poke around Linux kernel". But the inherent problem with that approach is the lack of proper documentation and the overwhelming size of the project.
IanOS is a 64-bit operating system, that was created for the sole purpose of understanding the initial steps of creating an OS. The disclaimer on the project page reads:
only by a very wide stretch of the imagination could my system be described as an 'operating system', but it does boot, multi-tasks simple programs, and even has rudimentary keyboard and IDE hard disk device drivers"
The project page has clear instructions on how to get started. The author recommends a list of tools that he used while developing this OS and some links to the required documentation.
Tools:
- Host OS - Any flavor of Linux
- Emulator/Debugger - AMD's SimNow, qemu
- Compilers - gcc
- Editors - Hex editor and an IDE
- Disk image - mtools
The documentation page is constantly growing and has very specific information about the source code. This definitely makes it easy to follow the code and understand the different sections. It is a perfect place for anyone who is waiting to get started on writing a OS or simply to understand the low-level intricacies of an operating system.
Another great resource for understanding the OS internals and Computer Architecture is Gustavo Duarte's articles on System Internals. These are some well-written series of articles that explain in detail the Memory Management, CPU Cache, CPU Privileges, Kernel Boot Process and other OS relevant subjects.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/10/10 0:20 UTC
"After a long wait, Apple has released the next major update to its pro-class photo workflow application, Aperture 3. The new version boasts over 200 new features, including the addition of the successful facial recognition and geotagging features, Faces and Places, that were introduced with iPhoto '09. Version 3 also adds edge-detecting adjustment brushes for non-destructive localized editing and touch-ups. Along with numerous UI and performance improvements, Aperture 3 adds full 64-bit support on supported systems running Snow Leopard."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/10/10 0:16 UTC
"Every few months I make a pilgrimage to the Sysinternals website to look at its superb collection of tools. It's now hosted inside the Microsoft Technet monster since its authors joined Microsoft as employees some while ago, but the value of their site is still as strong as ever and the tools are now guaranteed not to be ignored or left to rust."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/10/10 0:07 UTC, submitted by SReilly
Hand-held devices could soon have pressure-sensitive touch-screens and keys, thanks to a UK firm's material that exploits a quantum physics trick. The technology allows, for example, scrolling down a long list or webpage faster as more pressure is applied. A division of Samsung that distributes mobile phone components to several handset manufacturers has now licensed the "Quantum Tunnelling Composite". The approach could find use in devices from phones to games to GPS handsets.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/09/10 23:57 UTC
"Whereas the iPhone is aimed at short, focused tasks, the iPad is more likely to lend itself to longer, more general tasks that involve using multiple apps, just as we're used to on the Mac. It's easy to imagine wanting to use an iPad to read text in Mobile Safari, copy some text to a Pages document, and send that document to a colleague via Mail. That specific example may turn out to be possible with the current iPhone OS, but it points toward needing more ways for iPad apps to work together in the future."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/08/10 23:34 UTC
"The 'Llano' processor that AMD described today in an ISSCC session is not a CPU, and it's not a GPU - instead, it's a hybrid design that the chipmaker is calling an 'application processor unit', or APU. Whatever you call it, it could well give Intel a run for its money in the laptop market, by combining a full DX11-compatible GPU with four out-of-order CPU cores on a single, 32nm processor die."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/08/10 19:38 UTC
"The scuttlebutt is that IBM seemed perfectly content to wait until May to launch the Power7-based Power Systems servers, but something changed and compelled the company to move up the announcement of its first machines using the eight-core processor to today. Big Blue is not in a habit of explaining its motives or its timing for product launches, but it seems clear that IBM wanted to get out in front of a whole lot of processor and systems launches that are expected between now and the summer."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/08/10 19:33 UTC
Mozilla has announced that they are going to drop support for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger definitively. "Mac OS X 10.4 was released in April of 2005 and a lot has changed since then," Josh Aas writes, "We would like to take advantage of more modern technologies on Mac OS X and 10.4 support has been a hindrance. Where we can work around supporting 10.4, doing so consumes valuable time and effort. Neither Chrome nor Safari has to deal with this."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/05/10 23:46 UTC
"The ancient bug was discovered by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy in January 2010 and involves a utility that allows newer versions of Windows to run very old programs. Mr Ormandy has found a way to exploit this utility in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 as well as Windows Vista and Windows 7. The patch for this vulnerability will appear in the February security update. Five of the vulnerabilities being patched at the same time allow attackers to effectively hijack a Windows PC and run their own programs on it."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/05/10 21:50 UTC, submitted by tyrione
"Today, Clang completed its first complete self-host! We built all of LLVM and Clang with Clang (over 550k lines of C++ code). The resulting binaries passed all of Clang and LLVM's regression test suites, and the Clang-built Clang could then build all of LLVM and Clang again. The third-stage Clang was also fully-functional, completing the bootstrap."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/05/10 21:43 UTC
With all the virtualization schemes running on top of Linux, how do they exploit the underlying kernel for I/O virtualization? The answer is virtio, which provides an efficient abstraction for hypervisors and a common set of I/O virtualization drivers. Discover virtio, and learn why Linux will soon be the hypervisor of choice.