ENGINE.md step 2, the carrier. Ruled 2026-10-05 (V3-PARITY.md 1i), on DECOMPOSITION.md section 6: a write to a port blocks until the neighbour reads. - node: v4_node_port_attach, v4_node_port_served; a store to the port keeps the value as the request and blocks the node - exec: a blocked node executes nothing; served, it goes on from the opcode after the store, in the same instruction word; a fault meanwhile abandons the rest of the word - compile.v4: n KERNEL-WORD name makes a word whose body writes n to the port; its arguments and results are on the data stack - boot: the kernel's words are made by handing the node text, and requests are served between the node's opcodes; one no one serves is error 12 - BYE, the first kernel word: hosted it leaves the program, as hosted v3; on the lone node it is v3's cold restart - ENGINE.md 3a: multiuser, multitasking, preemptive and cooperative, and what that asks of the engine Verified: make -C v4 test passes at both widths, with tests/test_port.c; hosted-check passes on three ISAs; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 on amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 passes POST with the same hashes as hosted, and a kernel word no one serves and BYE typed at each prompt are answered (logs/20261005-185506, -185734, -190101; -185234 is an amd64 run in which those two lines were not typed). Not done: v3's own C functions serving a node. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
src/starkernel/
LithosAnanke — the bare-metal UEFI kernel that boots StarForth directly on
hardware (amd64/aarch64/riscv64). Built only via Makefile.starkernel; the
only valid acceptance test is the three-arch QEMU boot (see
.claude/CLAUDE.md), never make test.
kernel_main.c— kernel entry point, driving the boot milestones (console init, PMM, VMM, interrupts, timers, kmalloc heap, VM bootstrap).repl.c— kernel REPL.doe_log.c— kernel-side DoE (Design of Experiments) metrics logging.
Subdirectories:
arch/{amd64,aarch64,riscv64}/— per-architecture support (APIC/GIC/ PLIC interrupt controller, timers, boot/ISR assembly).boot/— UEFI loader, ELF loading, kernel command-line parsing.capsule/— capsule birth/run/load/validate pipeline.hal/— hardware-abstraction-layer implementation (console, framebuffer, VT100, memory, host services).hash/— XXHash64 content-addressing implementation.math/— kernel-build Q48.16 fixed-point arithmetic.memory/— physical/virtual memory managers and the kernel heap.pci/— PCI bus enumeration.virtio/— VirtIO block device driver.vm/— kernel VM subsystem (bootstrap, core interpreter, parity logging, capsule arena).
See include/starkernel/README.md for the corresponding headers.