Nexus Unikernel

v0.9 Complete

The Nexus Unikernel profile is a radiation-hardened, single-purpose system for aerospace, military, and high-reliability deployments. At 280KB, it is the most complete profile currently available.

Target Hardware

• Radiation-hardened processors
• Satellite embedded computers
• Military-grade embedded systems
• Industrial safety systems

Key Characteristics

Feature	Details
Kernel size	280KB
Architecture	Single address space
Scheduling	Tickless, cooperative with Photon/Matter/Gravity/Void
Memory	Deterministic (ARC), no garbage collection pauses
Networking	LwIP (grafted) + UTCP
Storage	NexFS Core format
ECC scrubbing	Active during Void-spectrum idle time
Boot	<600ms to operational

Radiation Hardening

The Unikernel profile includes specific features for operation in radiation environments:

ECC Memory Scrubbing

During idle time (Void spectrum), the CPU walks memory and corrects single-bit ECC errors before they accumulate into uncorrectable multi-bit errors.

Boot Error Buffer (BEB)

A 64KB region reserved for crash logs. After a radiation-induced fault:

1. The watchdog timer triggers a reset
2. The BEB preserves the crash context across reboot
3. The system restarts and logs the event to ProvChain
4. The faulty module (if identifiable) is marked and its budget is adjusted

Dual-Bank Flash

Two firmware banks allow atomic updates:

• Bank A: Currently running firmware
• Bank B: Receives the update
• After verification, the boot vector switches to Bank B
• If Bank B fails to boot, automatic rollback to Bank A

Deterministic Execution

The cooperative scheduler with fixed-capacity ION Rings ensures deterministic execution. No dynamic allocation during normal operation. No garbage collection pauses. No unbounded loops.

What's Complete (v0.9)

• Full SMP with DragonflyBSD LWKT message-passing
• NPL lifecycle (spawn, run, crash, restart)
• ProvChain logging
• LwIP networking with DHCP
• LWF protocol integration (24/24 test suites)
• UTCP sovereign transport
• NipBox LITE (21/25 commands)
• ION Ring IPC across all subsystems
• ARM64 and RISC-V 64 boot verified

Build

nexus build --profile=unikernel --arch=riscv64
nexus build --profile=unikernel --arch=aarch64