I'll be you didn't write drivers for USB, Hard disk, DDR3 controller, wear-leveling Flash storage, Ethernet/Networking, Graphics, etc.
You have to keep in mind that the OP is talking about such things as writing his own PCIe and USB stacks as well as everything else. He is leaving all history and prior work on the floor and re-inventing the wheel.
That's very far from writing a small RTOS for an 8-bit processor. In fact, my suggestion is that he should do just what you did in order to understand the subject a lot better. There's a lot of good Computer Science that can be learned with a small 8-bit processor.
You have to keep in mind that the OP is talking about such things as writing his own PCIe and USB stacks as well as everything else. He is leaving all history and prior work on the floor and re-inventing the wheel.
That's very far from writing a small RTOS for an 8-bit processor. In fact, my suggestion is that he should do just what you did in order to understand the subject a lot better. There's a lot of good Computer Science that can be learned with a small 8-bit processor.