Proto: A Guided Journey through Modern OS Construction
Abstract
Proto is a new instructional OS that runs on commodity, portable hardware. It showcases modern features, including per-app address spaces, threading, commodity filesystems, USB, DMA, multicore support, self-hosted debugging, and a window manager. It supports rich applications such as 2D/3D games, music and video players, and a blockchain miner. Unlike traditional instructional systems, Proto emphasizes engaging, media-rich apps that go beyond basic terminal programs. Our method breaks down a full-featured OS into a set of incremental, self-contained prototypes. Each prototype introduces a minimal set of OS mechanisms, driven by the needs of specific apps. The construction process then progressively enables these apps by bringing up one mechanism at a time. Proto enables a wider audience to experience building a self-contained software system used in daily life
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2504.17984,
title = {Proto: A Guided Journey through Modern OS Construction},
author = {Wonkyo Choe and Rongxiang Wang and Afsara Benazir and Felix Xiaozhu Lin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.17984},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
17 pages, SOSP'25