Neuron OS is a capability-based actor runtime for .NET, built on a single simple idea: every stateful entity is an actor; actors communicate exclusively through immutable messages over mailboxes; isolation is a hardware property, not a software convention.
Today, Neuron OS runs on any .NET host (Windows, Linux, macOS) as a reference runtime. Tomorrow, it will run natively on the Cognitive Fabric Processing Unit (CFPU) — a new category of processor where each core is physically an actor, with private SRAM and hardware mailbox FIFOs.
// hw/os co-design
Apple’s M-series achieves tight OS/silicon integration because macOS existed before the chip was
designed — the OS’s needs shaped the hardware. Neuron OS applies the same philosophy to open-source
silicon: by running on a simulator from day one, it discovers CFPU requirements (mailbox depth, capability
token width, context size, interrupt model) before the hardware is fixed. The feedback flows
through the osreq-to-cfpu
workflow.
Design Principles
Everything is an actor. No shared memory. Let it crash. Supervision. Location transparency. Capability security. Hot code loading. Determinism.
Read →Source Code
TMailbox, TActorRef, TActor<T>, TActorSystem. TDD from day one. Apache-2.0 licensed.
Browse →CFPU Hardware
The processor Neuron OS co-designs with. Cognitive Fabric Processing Unit — the first MIMD actor-native PU.
Visit →OS Requirements for CFPU
Issues opened by the OS team that should shape the hardware. Mailbox depth, capability width, interrupt structure.
View issues →Contributing
TDD is required. Bilingual XML docs. T/I/A/F naming conventions. Apache-2.0 license with patent grant.
Read →GitHub
Source code, tests, CI for Linux + Windows + macOS. Star us and follow the OS-side of the journey.
View repo →// highlights
- Every entity — an actor with private state, communicating via immutable messages
- No shared memory — isolation is a hardware property, not a software convention
- Supervision tree — let it crash, restart strategies proven in 40 years of Erlang/OTP
- Capability security — an actor can message another only if it holds an unforgeable reference
- Location transparency — same code runs local, cross-core, or across chips
- Hot code loading — update a running system without downtime, Erlang-style
- Formal verification target — in the spirit of seL4 and Singularity
- Apache-2.0 — permissive license with patent grant, aligned with the .NET ecosystem