My Favorite "Bare Bones" System - Starting with Logic Gates, then  assembler, then virtual machine, a language, compiler, and finally, operating system as a very high level construct:<p><a href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&#38;tid=10218" rel="nofollow">http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&#38...</a>