A simple approach to operating system generation and initialization

Abstract

System initialization or system generation is the creation of a viable operating system from a collection of individual program modules. For many operating systems the initialization process is a very long and complex procedure. During the development of the MCTS operating system at GMR, an initialization procedure was designed and implemented with simplicity and flexibility as key design goals.The emphasis on simplicity and flexibility was applied in two distinct aspects of the initialization process, The first was simplicity and flexibility of use. A system programmer was given an interactive procedure which allowed him to very easily modify key initialization parameters, The second aspect was the simple and flexible design of the initialization programs. As development of MCTS continued, so did the initialization programs, hence their design was kept simple and flexible to meet the changing requirements of a developing system.This paper describes the design and development of MCTS system initialization procedures beginning with an 'emptyheaded' computer and ending with a semi-automatic system initialization procedure.