Intel Desktop Port

Intel Desktop Port

Purpose

This page defines the second platform target for XAI OS.

Contents

• Why Desktop Second
• Current Bring-Up Gate
• Placement Policy
• Hardware Focus
• Benchmark Focus
• Success Criteria

Why Desktop Second

Intel Desktop is the first real performance target after QEMU correctness. It offers high single-core performance, common developer access, P-core/E-core scheduling challenges, NVMe, and PCIe NIC options.

Current Bring-Up Gate

Milestones 43-51 add the first x86_64 Intel Desktop bring-up and gate path:

• x86_64 UEFI loader build;
• x86_64 kernel ELF build;
• FAT boot image at build/xaios-x86_64.img;
• QEMU/OVMF boot through qemu-system-x86_64;
• deterministic serial markers for loader handoff, boot-info validation, COM1 serial, and milestone success;
• IDT installation with fault stubs and early exception reporting;
• UEFI memory-map parsing into early PMM counters;
• early identity page tables with kernel/user policy markers;
• CPUID/APIC/TSC discovery;
• PCI config-space enumeration for VirtIO, network, and NVMe planning;
• placement policy metadata for housekeeping, hot AI, and background cores;
• SMT disabled-by-default policy marker;
• hot-core telemetry proving zero migration and zero context switches in the QEMU gate;
• x86_64 OS contract parity markers for userspace, filesystem, networking, AI Cell, security, and telemetry;
• Intel Desktop hardware-gate report that keeps performance claims disabled until physical hardware and tuned Linux/BSD baselines exist.

The local gate is:

• make qemu-x86_64-smoke
• make intel-desktop-gate

This is a correctness gate only. It does not claim Intel Desktop hardware performance.

Placement Policy

Default policy:

• P-cores: AI inference and low-latency network workers;
• E-cores: SSH, logging, source indexing, Git, build/test, background services;
• SMT siblings: disabled or reserved until explicitly enabled;
• migration: forbidden for hot workers.

Hardware Focus

Desktop validation should cover DDR bandwidth limits, PCIe NIC latency, NVMe behavior, thermal sustain, and core isolation under build/test load.

Benchmark Focus

Measure TCP/UDP latency, effective CPU-AI memory bandwidth, sustained usable CPU-core performance, scheduler jitter, core migration, context switches, and page faults.

Success Criteria

XAI OS must measure against a tuned Linux/BSD baseline for the target CPU-only embedded app-agent workload. Claims remain design targets until measured.

Concrete acceptance gates:

• make qemu-x86_64-smoke passes for the QEMU x86_64 boot path;
• make intel-desktop-gate writes build/intel-desktop-gate-report.json with status=pass;
• IDT, PMM, page-table, APIC/timer, PCI discovery, placement policy, OS contract, and hardware-gate markers are present in the x86_64 smoke log;
• core_migrations = 0 on hot AI threads;
• post_ready_page_faults = 0 on hot AI paths;
• P-core/E-core placement matches the service manifest;
• SMT policy is documented and measured;
• TCP/UDP latency is compared with tuned kernel TCP/UDP;
• effective CPU-only AI bandwidth is measured separately from raw DRAM bandwidth;
• sustained core performance is measured under build/test interference;
• NVMe and PCIe NIC behavior are included in logs.

Related Pages

• Hardware Readiness Gate
• Scheduler and Core Isolation
• Testing and Benchmarking
• Benchmark Result Format