User:Mxberner

Max Berner

Marquette REU Summer 2022

Advisor: Dr. Brylow

Project: https://reu.cs.mu.edu/index.php/Porting_Embedded_XINU_to_Virgil

Weekly Logs

Week 1 (05/31/22 - 06/05/22)

• Met the cohort, mentor, and research group.
• Reviewed potential subjects of research

 - Updating Exploring CS curriculum
 - Porting Embedded XINU to Virgil Programming Language
 - Porting Embedded XINU to RISC-V Architecture

• Researched RISC-V as a potential processor to port OS Xinu over to.

 - RISC-V is most applicable for small devices with it's energy conservation and great performance for strictly simple tasks.
 - RISC refers to Reduced Instruction Set Computer
 - Advantage: Open-Source license that does not require fees to use
 - Advantage: Creating a custom chip is easier
 - Advantage: Base module is extremely limited, allowing customization/optimization.
 - Advantage: Power efficient, magnitudes less energy than CISC models. 
 - Disadvantage: Not many purchasable, brand-name RISC-V processors available. 
 - Disadvantage: With only simple instructions available, complex tasks are slower.

• Conducted personal research into single-board computers, hardware architecture, and assembly language to contextualize my research of RISC-V.
• Completed RCR training modules through CITI program
• Began research into Virgil

Week 2 (06/06/22 - 06/12/22)

• Officially began work on Porting Embedded XINU to Virgil Programming Language.
• Began contextual research into porting and operating systems.
• Began researching Embedded Xinu
• Virgil does not compile/execute to Windows OS, requiring some option for me to work from my laptop.
• Installed and set-up Debian, a Linux environment on my Windows computer through WSL.
• Executed a "Hello World!" written in Virgil on Debian