Space

Space is a component-based operating system built on a five-layer architecture:

       .in          ← native language
       ↑
 Inauguration       ← compiler — the real OS contract
       ↑
      SCI           ← component image format (replaces ELF)
       ↑
    Space           ← operating system, component runtime
       ↑
 Nanokernel         ← hardware enforcement layer

The native model is component + capability + object + execution graph — not process + file + syscall + user. There is no POSIX in the kernel. Linux, Darwin, and Windows compatibility are .in microservices that translate legacy concepts into Space primitives.

Status

The nanokernel root, written in .in and compiled by Inauguration, enters x86_64 long mode under QEMU. The maintained checks verify the shell, in-kernel SCI loader self-test, Linux-personality demo, VFS, time service, component deny policy, network traffic, and external display/input SCI components. NVMe-backed writes still time out after storage-component startup. The standalone memory-backed Volume SCI component completes init, write, and read RPCs under QEMU.

Subsystem status is tracked in architecture.md.

Benchmarks

Measured on macOS ARM64 (M3), Inauguration v0.7.1.

Metric	Value
Metric	x86_64 KVM
--------	-----------
Boot image size	230,662 B
Kernel compile (warm, cached)	~27 ms
Boot to interactive shell	~2,000 ms
SeaBIOS + boot	~200 ms
Kernel init to shell	~1,800 ms

Measured via serial output polling. KVM on Intel i9-7960X (Fedora 43, WSL2). TCG on Apple M3 (macOS 15). Boot time is dominated by SeaBIOS firmware init and serial output through the emulated 16550 UART.

Performance notes

• Most kernel init time is waiting for PIT ticks for timer calibration.
• The warm compile path is cached by source hash; repeated edits rebuild fast.
• scripts/boot.sh drops into an interactive shell. Type halt to exit.
• scripts/bench-boot.sh runs 5 iterations and reports median/min/max.

Target architectures

Arch	Compiler status	Kernel status
x86_64	Native lowering, boot image, ELF object	Boots verified subsystems
ARM64	Native lowering, boot image, ELF object	Platform boot work remains
RISC-V	Planned	—

Build and run

Requirements: clang, nasm, qemu-system-x86_64, and Inauguration checked out at ../inauguration.

bash scripts/check-qemu-boot.sh      # full boot verification
bash scripts/build-multicomponent.sh # SCI component loading demo
bash scripts/check-sci-contract.sh   # metadata validation
bash scripts/check-network.sh        # e1000 ARP/UDP test
bash scripts/check-terminal-editor.sh # serial editor save test

Browser demo (Alpenglow-style v86 shell): see docs/v86-website.md and website/.

Repository layout

kernel/
  kernel-root.in          nanokernel root component
  domain.in               memory domain subsystem
  channel.in              cross-domain channel fabric
  net.in                  e1000 NIC driver
  guest-service.in        SCI guest component example
components/
  pci.in                  PCI bus enumeration
  volume-mem.in           standalone memory-backed Volume SCI component
boot/
  multiboot.asm           x86_64 CPU bring-up (32-bit → long mode)
scripts/
  check-qemu-boot.sh      full boot verification
  build-multicomponent.sh SCI loading demo
  check-sci-contract.sh   metadata validation
  check-network.sh        network driver test
  check-terminal-editor.sh serial editor save test

Relationship to Inauguration

Per AGENTS.md, Space owns the OS contracts, examples, SCI profile, and boot plan. Inauguration owns the generic compiler capabilities:

• freestanding target support (x86_64-unknown-none)
• SCI-compatible component metadata emission
• native x86_64 lowering, instruction encoding, boot image assembly
• Core IR optimization
• multi-frontend support (.in, Rust, Go, V, Tree-sitter polyglot)

Inauguration does not depend on this repository. Space does not add Space-branded targets to Inauguration.

License

Mozilla Public License 2.0