Migration of a Modular Operating System to a Intel Atom Processor

This paper summarizes a process of operating system adaptation to an Intel Atom processor. The main objectives of this project was to adapt a simple micro kernel embedded operating system to a more complicated processor family, without destroying the original modules of system or changing their functionality. Our motivation was the lack of information or techniques regarding operating system migration. Based on the analysis we chose to implement a micro kernel for the Intel processor family capable of module loading, user segment isolation and preemptive task switching using Intel specific mechanisms. We also implemented a new module which provides standard output using legacy BIOS functionality, and could be expanded to a fully functional CLI (Command Line Interface). The result of this work is a bootable, fully functional micro kernel which loads all given modules after its initialization phase. This micro kernel is separated from the platform independent parts and easily manageable as it is written mainly in C. This work is a simple guide into developing an own micro kernel for the x86 processor family and using its basic functionality.