Figure 15 — Five-Phase Boot Sequence
Hardware initialization state machine. The machine starts in IDLE, resets all capability registers to NULL (failsafe), loads the namespace, initializes threads, loads the nucleus abstractions, and transitions to COMPLETE. Any failure at any phase routes to FAULT. No software runs until the hardware has established a safe, fully-validated initial state.
Hardware Boot State Machine
Each phase must complete successfully before the next begins. Any failure routes to FAULT.
IDLE
Power-on / Reset
state = 0x00
RST
Phase 1: FAULT_RST
All CRs ← NULL GT
CR0-CR15 zeroed, flags cleared, PC=0
Failsafe: machine starts with zero authority
CRs zeroed
Phase 2: LOAD_NS
Load Namespace from ROM/Flash
Read namespace image → verify integrity hash
Populate namespace table: entries, seals, version counters
Set CR15 ← namespace root GT (global version = V1)
CR15 set
Phase 3: INIT_THRD
Initialize Thread Infrastructure
Create boot thread control block
Set CR8 ← thread identity GT (boot thread)
Initialize stack pointer, allocate initial call frame
CR8 set
Phase 4: LOAD_NUC
Load Nucleus Abstractions
Load Boot abstraction into CR0 (entry point)
Load core abstractions: Threads, CapabilityManager, GC
Verify all GTs via mLoad (version, seal, permissions)
verified
Phase 5: COMPLETE
CALL CR0 (Boot abstraction)
First instruction executes with full GT protection
FAULT
Any Phase Fails
Hash mismatch
Seal verify fail
Version mismatch
Permission denied
Namespace corrupt
Thread alloc fail
Machine halts
No recovery path
Single FAULT handler
for all boot failures
Register State at Each Phase
Register
FAULT_RST
LOAD_NS
INIT_THRD
LOAD_NUC
COMPLETE
CR0-CR7
NULL
NULL
NULL
CR0=Boot
CR0=Boot
CR8
NULL
NULL
Thread ID
Thread ID
Thread ID
CR15
NULL
NS Root
NS Root
NS Root
NS Root
Flags
0x0000
0x0000
0x0000
0x0000
0x0000
PC
0x0000
0x0000
0x0000
0x0000
Boot entry
Why Hardware Boot Matters
Phase 1 (FAULT_RST) guarantees zero ambient authority: every register starts NULL.
No software executes until Phase 5. The machine is safe before it is useful.
Compare to conventional boot: BIOS/UEFI runs with full ring-0 privilege from the first instruction.
Phase 1: FAULT_RST (zero authority)
Phase 2: LOAD_NS (namespace)
Phase 3: INIT_THRD (threads)
Phase 4: LOAD_NUC (nucleus)
Phase 5: COMPLETE (first CALL)