[Feb 28, 2010: the authors provide an updated and expanded version of the
paper, replacing the one submitted Mar 14, 2009.]
We completely determine the 2-primary torsion subgroups of the hermitian
K-groups of rings of 2-integers in totally real 2-regular number fields. The
result is almost periodic with period 8. Moreover, the 2-regular case is
precisely the class of totally real number fields that have homotopy cartesian
"Bokstedt square", relating the K-theory of the 2-integers to that of the
fields of real and complex numbers and finite fields. We also identify the
homotopy fibers of the forgetful and hyperbolic maps relating hermitian and
algebraic K-theory. The result is then exactly periodic of period 8 in the
orthogonal case. In both the orthogonal and symplectic cases, we prove a
2-primary hermitian homotopy limit conjecture for these rings.