VIZIX

An operating system for fun and learning

Development Flow (Write an OS)

• Create Boot Sector

Development Tools Required

• qemu
• nasm
• gcc

PS: On Mac, Using homebrew: brew install qemu nasm

Running

• nasm -f bin Vizix.asm -o Vizix.bin
• qemu Vizix.bin

Bootsector Example:

; Infinite loop
loop:
    jmp loop 

; Fill with 510 zeros minus the size of the previous code
times 510-($-$$) db 0

; Magic number
dw 0xaa55

Registers:

• General Purpose Registers:
  • ax; Accumulator (EAX)
  • bx; Base (EBX)
  • cx; Counter (ECX)
  • dx; Data (EDX)
• Stack Registers:
  • bp; Base Pointer, Stores the base address of stack (EBP)
  • sp; Stack Pointer, Stores the top address of stack, sp gets decremented (ESP)
• Pointer Registers:
  • si; Source Index, (ESI)
  • di; Destination Index, (EDI)
  • ip; Instruction Pointer
• Segmentation: Obsolete memory protection technique
  • Segment Register: Can be altered using registers
    • cs; Code Segment; Can not be altered
    • ds; Data Segment
    • ss; Stack Segment
    • es; Extra Segment
    • fs, gs; General Purpose Segment
• Special Registers:
  • CR0,2,3
  • DR0,1,2,3,6,7
  • TR4,5,6,7

Bootloaders:

• Geek Loading: Everything in Boot Record
• One-stage Loading
• Two-stage Loading: GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader)

References:

• Little OS Book - https://littleosbook.github.io/
• https://wiki.osdev.org/Bare_Bones
• https://github.com/cfenollosa/os-tutorial
• https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~exr/lectures/opsys/10_11/lectures/os-dev.pdf
• https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~410/
• https://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page
• http://stanislavs.org/helppc/idx_interrupt.html
• https://legacy.gitbook.com/book/samypesse/how-to-create-an-operating-system/details
• https://samypesse.gitbook.io/how-to-create-an-operating-system/
• https://github.com/SamyPesse/How-to-Make-a-Computer-Operating-System
• https://github.com/arjun024/mkernel
• http://3zanders.co.uk/2017/10/13/writing-a-bootloader/
• http://mikeos.sourceforge.net/write-your-own-os.html
• http://osblog.stephenmarz.com/index.html
• https://os.phil-opp.com/
• https://www.rpi4os.com/
• https://s-matyukevich.github.io/raspberry-pi-os/
• https://www.fysnet.net/osdesign_book_series.htm
• https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/
• https://operating-system-in-1000-lines.vercel.app/en

Hardware

• https://eater.net/8bit/
• https://nand.arhan.sh/
• https://www.nand2tetris.org/
• https://nandgame.com/
• https://www.megaprocessor.com/
• https://gitlab.com/x653/nand2tetris-fpga/