rajamesandClaude Opus 5.5
a2d21d5cda
D-12 (ruled 2026-10-02): Q.SQRT of a negative value and Q.LOG of zero or a negative value return 0 and set NODE-ERROR, as Q./ does on division by zero. Q.SQRT is v3's q48_sqrt_approx: Newton from x0 = q/2 + 0.25, up to 8 rounds of x' = (x + q/x) / 2, returning x once |x' - x| < 10 ulp; sqrt(0) = 0 and sqrt(1.0) = 1.0. q, x and the rounds left live in a 5-cell variable (QR). Checked bit for bit against v3's q48_sqrt_approx (ported into the test) on 19 edge values and 3000 pseudo-random q below 2^48, at both cell widths, optimised and ASan+UBSan. Above 2^48 v3's q48_div saturates and v4 divides correctly, so there is no parity there. Bug found and fixed on the way: the "< 10 ulp" test subtracted 10 from the step's low cell as a signed number, so at 32-bit cells a step of 2^31 or more read as small and the iteration stopped early. It now tests the low cell's top bit first, as Q.EXP does. The first test run missed it because `make build/32-test_foundation.c` rebuilds nothing (the Makefile's rules use absolute paths); the mutation runs, compiled from source, exposed it. Only `make test` is used from here. Headroom (data under arg / return): Q.SQRT 3/2. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
LithosAnanke v2.0.1
UEFI-bootable FORTH microkernel. Boots from firmware, initialises memory and interrupts, then runs the StarForth VM as its sole userspace runtime. No libc. No OS. Just stone and necessity.
Lithos (foundation) + Ananke (necessity) — the kernel under StarshipOS.
Status — M7.1 (Capsule System · Multi-VM Fleet)
| Milestone | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| M0–M6 | UEFI boot · PMM · VMM · IDT · APIC · heap · framebuffer VT100 console (v1.5.1-FINAL) | ✅ Complete |
| M7 | StarForth VM integration + parity validation | ✅ Complete |
| M7.1 | Capsule birth protocol · Mama FORTH vocabulary · Tripod multi-VM fleet (Hermes/Artemis) · Word-level ACL (Phases 1–7) | 🔄 In Progress |
| M8 | REPL — keyboard input, interactive Forth | Planned |
| M9 | Block storage — AHCI driver | Planned |
POST at boot: parity hash verified across amd64/aarch64/riscv64 · Mama capsule dictionary: 453 words
What's live in M7.1
- Tripod — a named multi-VM fleet (Hera the Mama VM, Artemis, two Hermes instances) births, runs, and re-births independently, verified booting live pre-REPL on all three architectures.
- Hermes — a 17-block inter-VM messaging/channel layer between fleet members, with async delivery and channel negotiation.
- Artemis — a Block Allocation Map (BAM) storage subsystem with Q48.16
block-heat tracking and cooldown/reclamation (
ART-COOL/ART-REAP). - Word-level ACL — every dictionary entry carries a TTL/allow/mode/pin
access-control record. Strict, TTL, and pinned modes; two console layers
(emergency
ok>and superuserzuse)ok>). Phases 1–7 complete (C infrastructure, FORTH policy layer,zusebootstrap superuser, Isabelle proof stubs, kernel parity); Phase 8 (Ed25519 PKI / thumbdrive challenge-response) is the only item remaining. Measured overhead once active on every check: +0.0054%–+0.0088%, CV = 0.000%, across a 3×3 Latin-square DoE campaign (architecture × seed × 30 replicates) — three orders of magnitude below the measurement floor. - VM Fleet Attractor physics — the L8 Jacquard mode selector now has a real per-VM heat channel into fleet-wide tuning, replacing hardcoded compudynamics constants with a dynamically-inferred rate.
- Kconfig build configuration — every physics/heartbeat/pipelining/ kernel-only tuning knob (~40 total) is now a discoverable, optional Kconfig symbol shared with the hosted VM build. See Quick Start below.
Quick Start
# One boot image per physical target (output: build/boards/<board>/)
make boot_image TARGET=SER5 # Beelink SER5 -- GPT/ESP, BOOTX64.EFI
make boot_image TARGET=RASPI # Raspberry Pi 5 -- FAT, config.txt + kernel_2712.img + DTB
make boot_image TARGET=MILKV # Milk-V Mars -- GPT/ESP, BOOTRISCV64.EFI (U-Boot bootefi)
make boot_image TARGET=ZYNQ7020 # Zynq-7020 -- ARMv7 port in progress
make boards # list boards
# The same TARGET drives all, docs and clean (make help)
make # every board with a kernel port + hosted v3 + the book
make TARGET=RASPI # one board's image + build/docs/LithosAnanke-raspi.pdf
make docs # build/docs/LithosAnanke.pdf (LaTeX master: docs/book/main.tex)
make clean TARGET=RASPI # that board's outputs and build/aarch64/kernel
make clean # all of build/ except build/cache/
# Build kernel (requires cross-compilation toolchain, or native gcc)
make -f kernel/Makefile ARCH=amd64
# Run in QEMU with OVMF
make -f kernel/Makefile qemu
# Other architectures
make -f kernel/Makefile ARCH=aarch64 qemu
make -f kernel/Makefile ARCH=riscv64 qemu
Artifacts: build/amd64/kernel/starkernel_loader.efi · build/amd64/kernel/starkernel_kernel.elf
Tree: kernel/ (LithosAnanke: Makefile, src/, include/starkernel/, linker/),
v3/ (StarForth v3 engine and hosted build: Makefile, src/, include/),
v4/ (StarForth v4, see docs/v4.0.0/), boards/<board>/ (board.mk + boot files).
Every makefile runs from the repo root; the root Makefile forwards any other goal to
v3/Makefile (hosted build).
For the hosted VM by itself (Linux, no cross-compiler needed, no bare-metal tooling): see
the separate StarForth repository — LithosAnanke used to be a branch inside that repo,
now it's its own project with its own master.
Build configuration (optional)
Every kernel-only knob (STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM, PARITY_MODE, the shared
physics/heartbeat family, etc.) is an optional Kconfig symbol — a plain
make -f kernel/Makefile uses the same defaults it always has unless
you opt in:
make -f kernel/Makefile ARCH=amd64 menuconfig
make -f kernel/Makefile ARCH=amd64 kernel_amd64_defconfig
Documentation
| System Architecture | Full kernel + VM design |
| HAL Reference | Hardware abstraction layer interfaces |
| Capsule System — M7.1 | Capsule birth protocol design |
| VM Fleet Attractor design log | Tripod/Hermes/Artemis physics + build-system history |
| Getting Started / Kconfig reference | Full symbol reference for both build targets |
| Changelog | Milestone-level history |
| Roadmap | Milestone plan through self-hosting |
License
Starship License 1.0 (SL-1.0) — free for personal, research, and educational use. Commercial use requires a separate agreement. Attribution to R.A. James (Captain Bob) must be preserved in all distributions.
Patent pending. USPTO provisional filed December 2025 — physics-grounded self-adaptive runtime system. This license does not grant patent rights. Licensing inquiries: rajames440@gmail.com
Robert A. James (Captain Bob) · Systems Engineer · Hacking since 1973