Learn how to develop an operating system with the Raspberry Pi

squadMCU — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 05:11:43 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by squadMCU on 10/8/2021 5:11:43 AM

The Raspberry Pi is opening up computers and education to many more people around the world, and in particular holds a lot of promise for getting kids programming again. But the Raspberry Pi Foundation created the $25 computer in part to fix the growing problem of a lack of knowledge in students going to university to study computing.

Now the Raspberry Pi is available, tutorials are popping up all over the place to teach skills such as programming in Python, games creation using MIT’s Scratch, and generally how to use Linux and the command line.

More complex tutorials are starting to appear, though, and one great example is being offered by Cambridge University. Alex Chadwick has put together a first course in developing an operating system called “Baking Pi – Operating Systems Development.” It assumes no previous knowledge and focuses on using the Raspberry Pi hardware as a base for OS development.

The course uses assembly code and takes the budding developer through a number of lessons that sees them using the Pi’s LED and timer, how to display graphics, generate random numbers, use drivers, and how to make your own command line interface for an operating system.

This isn’t a course for the faint of heart, but it shows one of the advantages of the Raspberry Pi: it offers a common platform that can be targeted for learning that everyone can get access to for just a few dollars. And in the process it lays the groundwork and prerequisite knowledge for the next generation of computer scientists.

If you are, or have a budding programmer in your home and have access to a Raspberry Pi, this course should definitely be added to your list of must reads. It’s certainly advanced, but well worth the effort if you want to understand PCs inside and out. Once completed, you’ll be well on your way to creating your very own operating system.