Development of a kernel: A deeper look at the architecture of an operating system

Abstract

The operating systems (OSs) created the possibility for people to interact with computer hardware, these same are made with an enormous number of lines of code for this kernel, usually developed with the languages of C and Assembly language programming. Thus, the objectives of this study are in the area of knowledge, development, and learning of construction, approach and design in the development of complex codes for the creation of an OS. In this present study, the build process from C code compulsorily uses a compiler. An assembler generates the machine code. Assembly language is crucial for real-time operation. Nevertheless, most of OS can be implemented with an additional language. After Assembly, the leanest Kernel code can be obtained with a low-level language like C/C++. The use of a proper boot manager or an existing one, such as Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB), this itself once programmed, adds knowledge about the hardware developer. This project’s Kernel has been loaded into two virtual machines (one with Linux and one with Windows) and on a physical machine. These results demonstrated that the developed software is viable, relevance and academic potential, with high learning power, being able to serve as a starting point for several pieces of academic research.