# MAX OS — a derivation-first operating system

Canonical page: https://keilab.io/ai/max-os/

ai infrastructure · max os

An operating system written in MAX, designed to test research-derived kernel policies against classical ones and keep whichever wins. QEMU is its compiler/OS engineering harness; the same design targets real boards.

## Why an OS

A research lab eventually wants to ask: if our math is right, what changes when the OS is built from it? MAX OS is that experiment. At the places where a kernel makes a policy choice — page replacement, scheduling, file-system layout, cache eviction — it tries policies derived from the lab's research against the classical designs.

The honest goal is not to ship a desktop OS. It is to surface where derived policies beat tradition and where they do not. Both outcomes are valuable; both are reported.

## What it contains

- An ARM64 kernel with QEMU as its engineering harness.
- EL1 kernel + EL0 userspace separation.
- Process loader — reads /bin/hello from an ext2 disk and runs it in EL0.
- Syscall surface for I/O and process exit.
- ext2 read-write filesystem.

## Real boards

The same design targets real boards under the MAX-OS silicon track — Raspberry Pi 3B+, Jetson Orin, Orange Pi R2S and Kendryte K230 — with crypto and compositor accelerators for a Zynq-7020 FPGA verified in simulation. The QEMU build above is the engineering harness; the hardware page has the boards.

## Toward a usable workstation OS

The design goal is a minimal workstation OS, which includes a text editor in userspace and persistent boot across power cycles. The plan is available on request.

cross-references

- [→ MAX (language)](https://keilab.io/ai/max/)
- [→ MAX-OS on silicon](https://keilab.io/hardware/max-os-silicon/)
- [≡ Genesis (policies tested here)](https://keilab.io/research/genesis/)
- [≡ Research portfolio](https://keilab.io/research/)

Status: In development

Architecture: ARM64 EL1 kernel + EL0 userspace

Design: Loader · processes · syscalls · ext2-rw

Language: MAX, over a C runtime layer

Sensitivity: Engineering open · theory gated

[⊸ Systems inquiry](https://keilab.io/contact/)

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