VIREOS: an integrated, bottom-up, educational operating systems project with FPGA support

Abstract

In this paper, we present the VIREOS project, a new operating system designed specifically for the classroom. VIREOS is a simple, Unix-like, operating system, which runs on the Larc educational architecture. A VIREOS/Larc system can either be simulated or run on a pre-configured FPGA. The VIREOS project is well integrated with an introductory computer architecture course using Larc and the assignments are structured in a similar fashion: using a bottom-up approach. We have several resources available on the Web, which help reduce the overhead of adopting VIREOS. Finally, VIREOS has been used in one operating systems course already, and the feedback from students was generally favorable.