Stage 3: timer-driven preemptive switching, live on all 3 arches (FABRIC-3.md §XXVIII)
Build / build-amd64-iso (push) Waiting to run
Build / build-aarch64-iso (push) Waiting to run
Build / build-riscv64-img (push) Waiting to run

Fourth stage of the preemptive context-switching plan, and the biggest.
LithosAnanke now genuinely, continuously preempts between Hera, Hermes,
and Artemis -- timer-driven, running live for the entire remainder of
every boot once the Tripod fleet registers, not a bounded probe.

A real design fork was resolved before writing code: the naive approach
(the timer ISR calling Stage 2's sk_vm_context_switch() directly) is
broken -- Stage 0's trap frame lives on whatever stack was active at
interrupt time, and jumping to a different stack via Stage 2's own
independent swap mid-handler would abandon that trap frame unresumed,
guaranteed corruption on the first tick. Chose the safer of two named
options: the ISR only ever sets a flag and returns completely normally
through its own full epilogue; the actual switch happens moments later,
via Stage 2's already-proven mechanism, at a safe cooperative checkpoint
on the mainline (execute_colon_word()'s per-word dispatch loop, checked
on literally every word, not throttled to the existing 256-word
heartbeat-tuning cadence) -- confirmed with the user that word-level
granularity is fine-grained enough given the eventual Zynq FPGA target
where a word is a mnemonic.

New capsule_vm_switch_signal.c/.h: a purpose-built run-readiness signal,
deliberately separate from capsule_vm_physics.c's execution-heat engine
(that one's own header documents itself as never touched from interrupt
context, by design). Slot table sized with headroom (8) rather than
hardcoded to today's 3 participants, so extending participation later is
another register() call, not a redesign -- per direct request to leave
room for swapping the participant set. Simple linear accumulate-then-
threshold for this first cut; a fancier law can replace it later without
touching the mechanism around it. heartbeat_tick() gains its one
deliberate, documented amendment to this file's own top-half/bottom-half
discipline -- the first time this codebase reaches into VM-scheduling
state from real ISR context.

Registration happens only after all three VMs are fully born, right
before the REPL starts -- no critical-section protection yet against
being switched away mid-birth-setup.

Known, flagged rough edge (not reconciled this pass): MSG-TICK's own
idle-pump and this new mechanism can still independently move control
between the same VMs; not observed to interact badly in verification,
but not fully unified either.

Verified interactively at the console on all 3 architectures with
continuous background preemption running throughout -- amd64 computed
`1 1 + .` -> 2, aarch64 computed `1 1 + dup DUP * . CR` -> 4, both
correct, REPL fully responsive, zero fault indicators over sustained
runtime.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016UNhH1mhi52i6Qihh7ZV5S
This commit is contained in:
Robert Allan James
2026-09-13 19:32:36 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Sonnet 5
parent f790d0995e
commit 986d042aa7
14 changed files with 27452 additions and 1 deletions
File diff suppressed because it is too large Load Diff
File diff suppressed because it is too large Load Diff
File diff suppressed because it is too large Load Diff