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02 Introduction To OS 2

The operating system controls the computer hardware and makes it usable for users. It performs several functions including implementing the user interface, managing shared resources among users, facilitating input/output, and handling errors. Modern operating systems generally aim to hide hardware details through abstraction, allocate resources efficiently among processes, and provide a pleasant user interface. The core of the operating system is the kernel, which manages processes, memory, and devices.

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102 views2 pages

02 Introduction To OS 2

The operating system controls the computer hardware and makes it usable for users. It performs several functions including implementing the user interface, managing shared resources among users, facilitating input/output, and handling errors. Modern operating systems generally aim to hide hardware details through abstraction, allocate resources efficiently among processes, and provide a pleasant user interface. The core of the operating system is the kernel, which manages processes, memory, and devices.

Uploaded by

Chandrakant Karalkar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction

What is an Operating System?


The 1960s definition of an operating system is the software that controls the hardware.
However, today, due to microcode we need a better definition. We see an operating
system as the programs that make the hardware useable. In brief, an operating system is
the set of programs that controls a computer. Some examples of operating systems are
UNIX, Mach, MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Windows/NT, Chicago, OS/2, MacOS, VMS,
MVS, and VM.
Controlling the computer involves software at several levels. We will differentiate kernel
services, library services, and application-level services, all of which are part of the
operating system. Processes run Applications, which are linked together with libraries
that perform standard services. The kernel supports the processes by providing a path to
the peripheral devices. The kernel responds to service calls from the processes and
interrupts from the devices. The core of the operating system is the kernel, a control
program that functions in privileged state (an execution context that allows all hardware
instructions to be executed), reacting to interrupts from external devices and to service
requests and traps from processes. Generally, the kernel is a permanent resident of the
computer. It creates and terminates processes and responds to their request for service.
Operating Systems are resource managers. The main resource is computer hardware in
the form of processors, storage, input/output devices, communication devices, and data.
Some of the operating system functions are: implementing the user interface, sharing
hardware among users, allowing users to share data among themselves, preventing users
from interfering with one another, scheduling resources among users, facilitating
input/output, recovering from errors, accounting for resource usage, facilitating parallel
operations, organizing data for secure and rapid access, and handling network
communications.

Objectives of Operating Systems


Modern Operating systems generally have following three major goals. Operating
systems generally accomplish these goals by running processes in low privilege and
providing service calls that invoke the operating system kernel in high-privilege state.

To hide details of hardware by creating abstraction


An abstraction is software that hides lower level details and provides a set of

higher-level functions. An operating system transforms the physical world of


devices, instructions, memory, and time into virtual world that is the result of
abstractions built by the operating system. There are several reasons for
abstraction.
First, the code needed to control peripheral devices is not standardized. Operating
systems provide subroutines called device drivers that perform operations on
behalf of programs for example, input/output operations.
Second, the operating system introduces new functions as it abstracts the
hardware. For instance, operating system introduces the file abstraction so that
programs do not have to deal with disks.
Third, the operating system transforms the computer hardware into multiple
virtual computers, each belonging to a different program. Each program that is
running is called a process. Each process views the hardware through the lens of
abstraction.
Fourth, the operating system can enforce security through abstraction.

To allocate resources to processes (Manage resources)


An operating system controls how processes (the active agents) may access
resources (passive entities).

Provide a pleasant and effective user interface


The user interacts with the operating systems through the user interface and
usually interested in the look and feel of the operating system. The most
important components of the user interface are the command interpreter, the file
system, on-line help, and application integration. The recent trend has been
toward increasingly integrated graphical user interfaces that encompass the
activities of multiple processes on networks of computers.

One can view Operating Systems from two points of views: Resource manager and
Extended machines. Form Resource manager point of view Operating Systems manage
the different parts of the system efficiently and from extended machines point of view
Operating Systems provide a virtual machine to users that is more convenient to use. The
structurally Operating Systems can be design as a monolithic system, a hierarchy of
layers, a virtual machine system, an exokernel, or using the client-server model. The
basic concepts of Operating Systems are processes, memory management, I/O
management, the file systems, and security.

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