Robert Allan JamesandClaude Sonnet 5
56e19a00f9
Captain Bob's call after seeing the identity-heap-capacity findings (FABRIC-3.md §X.4): the number of concurrently-running VMs is not known in advance, and once this is a complete operating system the heap should be able to use whatever memory is actually available -- not a hardcoded compile-time ceiling. This was already half-built and just not wired up. src/starkernel/vm/alloc_kernel.c previously implemented sf_malloc()/ sf_free() (platform_alloc.h's allocator abstraction -- what vm_create_word() calls for every VM's word dictionary) as its own isolated static 4MB arena: first-fit free list, no splitting or coalescing. That's exactly the allocator that topped out around 6 concurrent WIREBIND-born identities, failing from fragmentation before true capacity exhaustion (§X.4's own measurements). Sitting right next to it, unused for this purpose: src/starkernel/memory/ kmalloc.c, the kernel's general heap. Already initialized at boot (M6, kernel_main.c, well before any VM is ever born), reserved from real PMM-tracked physical memory rather than a fixed array, defaults to a 2 GiB floor explicitly sized "for 256+ baby VMs" per its own comment, overridable via the --heap= boot flag, and its free list actually coalesces neighboring blocks on every free. Change: alloc_kernel.c's sf_malloc()/sf_free() now delegate to kmalloc_aligned()/kfree() instead of managing a separate arena. sf_alloc_init() becomes a no-op (kmalloc is already initialized by the time any VM allocation can happen, and "resetting" a heap now shared by every kernel subsystem would be actively wrong -- confirmed no external caller depended on its old reset semantics). sf_alloc_get_stats() reads kmalloc_get_stats() fresh rather than shadowing byte counts locally; alloc_count/free_count (which kmalloc.c doesn't track) stay as simple local counters. sf_calloc()/sf_realloc() are otherwise unchanged. Kernel- only: the hosted (non-kernel) StarForth build keeps its own separate alloc_host.c implementation, untouched. Verified live: replaying the exact hotplug sequence that previously topped out at 6 identities (Zuse + 8 identities, one at a time via QMP device_add) now succeeds for all 9, where identity 05 specifically used to fail. Three-arch clean qemu acceptance (single Zuse device, the standard regression case) passed on amd64, aarch64, and riscv64 -- one aarch64 attempt hit an unrelated, already-documented one-off QEMU hiccup (empty log, boot never progressed past firmware) and passed cleanly on retry with no rebuild. Not addressed here: the underlying free-list itself is still first-fit without splitting (only coalescing changed, inherited from kmalloc.c); per-VM dictionary sizing (shrinking what each WIREBIND VM's word set actually needs) is a separate, still-open lever from FABRIC-3.md §X.4's open architecture question. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014Ec88YKxxhZGG1RNnune78
src/
Hosted StarForth VM implementation (compiled by the root Makefile).
Bare-metal kernel sources live in src/starkernel/; FORTH word
implementations in src/word_source/; the test harness in
src/test_runner/; platform shims in src/platform/.
Entry point / interpreter core
main.c— CLI entry point, VM init, DoE mode dispatch.vm.c— interpreter loop, stacks, dictionary state (the central runtime file).vm_api.c— external VM API implementation.vm_bootstrap.c— VM bootstrap initialization.vm_debug.c— debugging utilities.vm_time.c— time-related VM operations.vm_internal.h— internal-only declarations shared across thevm_*.cfiles, not part of the publicinclude/vm_api.hsurface.repl.c— REPL read-eval-print loop.cli.c— CLI argument parsing.io.c— I/O operations.log.c— logging infrastructure.
Memory / dictionary / blocks
memory_management.c— dictionary allocator.dictionary_management.c— dictionary allocation and search.dictionary_heat_optimization.c— Loop #1 execution-heat tracking.word_registry.c— word registration system.block_subsystem.c— logical→physical block mapper.blkio_file.c,blkio_ram.c,blkio_factory.c— block I/O backends (file-backed, RAM-backed) and the factory that selects between them.stack_management.c— stack operations.
Physics-driven adaptive runtime (7 feedback loops)
physics_runtime.c— main physics coordinator.physics_hotwords_cache.c— Loop #1 hot-words caching.physics_metadata.c— per-word metadata tracking.physics_pipelining_metrics.c— Loop #4 word-transition prediction.physics_execution_hooks.c— execution instrumentation.rolling_window_of_truth.c— Loop #2 circular execution-history buffer.inference_engine.c— Loops #5/#6, statistical inference (window-width, decay-slope).ssm_jacquard.c— L8 Jacquard steady-state mode selector; consumescompudynamics.cfor tuning-word/config lookups.compudynamics.c— generic compudynamics module (cd_tuning_word(),cd_tuning_vm()); the score/UCB/reward/weight constants for the L8 adaptive table live here, not inssm_jacquard.c.heartbeat_export.c— heartbeat metrics export (CSV export function itself not yet implemented — seedocs/working/architecture/heartbeat_csv_export.md).
Math / measurement
math_portable.c— portable math functions.profiler.c— performance profiling.doe_metrics.c— Design of Experiments metrics (2^7 factorial).
Any .bak file alongside a .c file here (doe_metrics.c.bak,
inference_engine.c.bak, vm.c.bak) is a pre-edit backup left by a past
maintenance script (see scripts/remove_loop_conditionals.sh), not a
build input.