[Savannah-hackers] submission of Conduet Operating System - savannah.nongnu.org

[ken]

A package was submitted to savannah.nongnu.org
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Ken Tossell <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
License: lgpl
Other License: 
Package: Conduet Operating System
System name: conduet
Type: non-GNU

Description:
Conduet is a new operating system designed to showcase new technologies, and 
build upon the successes of its predecessors. It will sport a clean and simple 
interface for home users, but keep enough power to satisfy more experienced 
users. Conduet will be a true multitasking, threaded, multiuser OS, supporting 
as many new technologies as possible. Compatibility is planned for Linux 
applications, and that support may come to include Windows.


Our technical specifications will change as we continue to discuss our future 
and learn more about the needs of a usable OS. Within the core of the OS, we 
plan a modular driver interface, with all hardware driver code being written in 
an architecture-independent c++ environment. Our pluggable module structure 
will keep kernel and memory sizes down, allowing Conduet to be a viable 
alternative to proprietary operating systems on older hardware. The storage 
system employed in Conduet will appear to the novice user as one big file 
system, actually a virtual file system composed of multiple partitions of 
different types. We will initially support Reiser, JFS, and ext3 file systems, 
and others will be available as needed.


All hardware communications from the kernel and applications will travel 
through the HAL, or Hardware Abstraction Layer. It will translate the abstract 
system calls used by applications into low-level assembly instructions. The HAL 
will allow driver and interface development to be done without regard to the 
host machine type, so 80x86 code, for example, can be reused on ppc or ia64 
processors with minimal modification.


Simple distribution is a big goal for us, and we will work hard to limit the 
knowledge a user needs to setup the system, something that keeps other open 
source systems such as Linux and BSD lacking in popularity.


As Conduet is not tied down by legacy support requirements, such as ISA, many 
of the newest computer innovations will be included. It is hoped that features 
such as Advanced Audio processing, 3D Hardware processing with integrated 
special effects processing, and even advanced text-to-speech technology will be 
included in the OS.


At this writing, we have completed the initial boot code for x86 systems, and 
our kernel boots to a console screen. It has been tested on real hardware, and 
in Bochs. We have preliminary namespaces designed, and we\'re beginning to 
develop the base classes for devices.


You may view our CVS tree at http://dev.linksos.org/lxr/source/ or via cvs from 
:pserver:address@hidden:/cvsroot/linksos module \'kernel\'

Other Software Required:
Our software has no dependencies other than G++ and GNU AS.

Other Comments: