Ember is an operating system written from scratch in NASM assembly for booting from USB media, running DOS software on modern hardware, and providing its own graphical desktop. It includes a boot sector, FAT12/FAT16 filesystem, DOS-compatible INT 21h services, a 32-bit protected-mode runtime, command shell, file manager, word processor, music player, paint program, and other desktop applications.
The system loads .COM and .EXE programs, batch files, XMS clients, and DOS/4GW software. Its virtual Sound Blaster is provided through a virtual-8086 monitor for real-mode programs or a DPMI host for protected-mode games; audio is sent through Intel HD Audio, with software OPL3 emulation for FM music. A separate UEFI application, Ember 2.0, supplies a BIOS-compatible layer for systems that cannot boot legacy BIOS code. The repository also includes drivers and applications for touch input, Intel graphics, 3D rendering, screenshots, and QEMU-based testing.
Python build scripts and NASM assemble a bootable raw disk image, and the image can be run in QEMU or written to a USB stick. The project is MIT-licensed; its bundled NDOOM component is based on GPL-licensed Doom source, and minimp3 is public domain. The repository documents limitations including no networking or EMS, one active program at a time, and hardware-specific touch, graphics, and 3D support.