01 about

CS student at UConn who spends most of his time close to the metal — writing C, designing instruction sets, and building the tools that make other tools possible. Currently working on Cortex-VM, a 64-bit virtual machine and assembler written from scratch, and Marrow-Lang, a compiled language targeting it. I care about systems that are fast, predictable, and fully understood by the person who wrote them.

02 skills
C / C++ · ASM
core languages for VMs, allocators, and systems tools
Systems Programming
memory management, ISA design, bare-metal projects
Compiler & Language Design
assemblers, recursive-descent parsers, IR and code generation
Verilog / HDL
8-bit CPU architecture and hardware design fundamentals
Git · CI/CD
version control, automated builds, collaborative workflows
Python · Lua
rapid prototyping and tooling for projects and demos
pytest · Test Engineering
201-test suite for Cortex-VM: ISA, extensions, syscalls, disassembler round-trips
Language Implementation
Forth 2012 core compliance, switch-threaded bytecode VM, REPL design, interpreter architecture
03 projects
  1. 01

    Cortex-VM

    complete

    Built a fast, extensible 64-bit virtual machine and assembler in C as a compiler backend target. Features a word-addressed ISA with 64 registers, optional M and F (IEEE 754) extensions, a full disassembler with round-trip fidelity, and an embeddable library API. Reaches ~400M instructions/sec at -O3.

    C · VM · Assembler view →
  2. 02

    Forth

    in progress

    A Forth 2012 Core-compliant interpreter in C. Uses a switch-threaded bytecode VM backed by an arena allocator. Supports the full Core word set, multi-base number literals, file I/O, CREATE/DOES>, exception recovery via longjmp, and 186 pytest tests covering arithmetic, control flow, and standard compliance.

    C · Forth · Interpreter github ↗
  3. 03

    ReMem

    complete

    Built a lightweight memory recycler and garbage collector for C that reuses freed blocks through size-classed arenas and O(1) page lookups to cut allocation overhead.

    C · Memory view →
  4. 04

    arena

    complete

    Published a no-dependency shunting arena for C with global and local APIs that enable fast sequential allocations while keeping memory management predictable.

    C · Allocator view →
  5. 05

    CPU Simulation

    complete

    An 8-bit LEG-like CPU simulated in both C and Python. Implements a full instruction set — ADD, SUB, AND, OR, NOT, MOV, IMMD, JMP_IF_ZERO — with 16 registers, 256-word program memory, and an interactive CLI.

    C · Python view →
  6. 06

    Pure-Quanta

    complete

    A quantum computer simulator in pure C using state vectors of double-precision complex numbers. Implements Hadamard, Pauli-X/Y/Z, and CNOT gates as direct linear transformations over the 2n-amplitude state vector.

    C · Quantum view →
  7. 07

    Marrow-Lang

    in progress

    Designing and building a compiled language from scratch with a hand-rolled recursive-descent parser in C. Cortex-VM serves as the dedicated backend target, providing a compiler-friendly flat calling convention and predictable word-addressed memory model.

    C · Compiler · Language view →
  8. 08

    ML in C

    in progress

    Exploring machine-learning primitives implemented purely in C for maximal performance and portability.

    C · ML view →
04 education
2024 — 2027

University of Connecticut

B.S. Computer Science · Storrs, CT

2020 — 2024

Torrington High School

High School Diploma · Torrington, CT

Awards

  • 2023 Rochester Institute of Technology Computing Award
  • 2022 M. Tracy Conway Exchange Club Award
  • 2020 President's Education Awards Program
05 contact

Based in Torrington, Connecticut. Open to interesting conversations about systems programming, compilers, and low-level engineering.

jonah@jonahmerriam.net ↗ github ↗ linkedin ↗ resume ↓