KODA

Kernel-Offloaded Disk Acceleration

KODA is an architecture-feasibility project for accelerating inexpensive, high-capacity Windows storage with a smaller NVMe cache while keeping Windows bare metal. A tiny Linux microVM is intended to act only as a storage appliance; it is not a general-purpose server environment.

Core invariant: NVMe is acceleration, never authority.

The ordinary backing NTFS disk remains authoritative, independently meaningful, and recoverable without KODA. Any design that makes the cache the sole source of truth is out of scope.

High-level architecture

Windows application
        ↓
NTFS / C:\Games
        ↓
Windows iSCSI initiator
        ↓
Linux microVM
        ↓
dm-cache (writethrough)
      ↙         ↘
 NVMe cache    HDD origin

The intended direct path remains available:

Windows
   ↓
ordinary NTFS backing disk

Status

Pre-prototype / architecture feasibility. KODA does not currently accelerate disks. B0 establishes the public repository; R0 is the next engineering milestone and has not started.

Planned prototype direction

• Windows 11 x86-64
• Windows Hypervisor Platform
• smolvm/libkrun candidate runtime (subject to R0 feasibility)
• Alpine Linux appliance
• Linux dm-cache in writethrough mode
• Linux LIO
• Windows native iSCSI initiator

The stack is a candidate direction, not a claim that these components have been integrated or validated.

Roadmap

B0 — Repository Bootstrap is complete. The planned milestones are R0 — Architecture Feasibility, R1 — Return Path and Performance Ceiling, R2 — KODA Cache Proof, R3 — Safety Core, R4 — Stateless Appliance, R5 — V1 Host Product, and R6 — V1 Qualification. See the roadmap.

The detailed architecture is in DESIGN.md.

Developer warning

KODA is pre-production storage software. Do not test raw-device functionality against irreplaceable data or a system disk.

License

KODA is released under the Apache License 2.0.