To study how chips really work, MIT researchers built their own operating system
The new "Fractal" operating system kernel, developed at MIT, gives researchers a clearer look at how computer chips work internally. It was used to study the branch predictors inside Apple's M1 processor, where it revealed a potential vulnerability to major speculative attacks.
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A new kernel called Fractal gives researchers a cleaner view of what’s happening inside a processor, and has already surfaced previously unknown behavior in Apple’s M1. Rachel Gordon | MIT CSAIL Publication Date: June 10, 2026 Press Inquiries Press Contact: Rachel Gordon Email: [email protected] Phone: 617-258-0675 MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Close Caption: Fractal relies on a new construct: the outer kernel thread, which sits inside a user process’s memory but executes with kernel privileges. “If you’ve got a hand magnifying glass, you can see a little bit. But if you had an electron microscope, now we’re really talking. That’s what Fractal is. The electron microscope of operating systems,” says lead author and MIT PhD student Joseph Ravichandran.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at MIT News.