xv6 is a Unix-like educational operating system designed for teaching kernel concepts. It is implemented as an instructional kernel for x86 and RISC-V architectures, featuring a virtual memory manager and support for symmetric multiprocessing.
The system is designed to demonstrate core OS principles through a simplified re-implementation of Unix Version 6. It provides a controlled environment for studying system calls, trap handling, and process lifecycles.
Its capability surface covers process management, including scheduling and context switching, and memory management via page tables for process isolation. It includes a Unix-style file system with inode metadata and crash recovery logging, as well as concurrency control using spinlocks and mutexes to synchronize resources across multiple CPUs.
The project is built using a cross-compiler toolchain and is intended to be executed within a virtual machine emulator.
