Chapter 1: Introduction

What is an Operating System?

• A program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a computer
and the computer hardware
• Operating system goals:
• Execute user programs and make solving user problems easier
• Make the computer system convenient to use
• Use the computer hardware in an efficient manner

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 Computer System Structure

• Computer system can be divided into four components:

• Hardware – provides basic computing resources
• CPU, memory, I/O devices
• Operating system
• Controls and coordinates use of hardware among various applications and
users
• Application programs – define the ways in which the system resources are used to
solve the computing problems of the users
• Word processors, compilers, web browsers, database systems, video games
• Users
• People, machines, other computers

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Four Components of a Computer System

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 Operating System Definition

• OS is a resource allocator
• Manages all resources
• Decides between conflicting requests for efficient and fair
resource use
• OS is a control program
• Controls execution of programs to prevent errors and improper
use of the computer

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Computer System Organization

• Computer-system operation
• One or more CPUs, device controllers connect through common bus
providing access to shared memory
• Concurrent execution of CPUs and devices competing for memory cycles

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Computer-System Operation

• I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently

• Each device controller is in charge of a particular device type
• Each device controller has a local buffer
• CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from local buffers
• I/O is from the device to local buffer of controller
• Device controller informs CPU that it has finished its operation by causing an
interrupt

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 Operating System Structure
• Multiprogramming (Batch system) needed for efficiency
• Single user cannot keep CPU and I/O devices busy at all times
• Multiprogramming organizes jobs (code and data) so CPU always has one to
execute
• A subset of total jobs in system is kept in memory
• One job selected and run via job scheduling
• When it has to wait (for I/O for example), OS switches to another job

• Timesharing (multitasking) is logical extension in which CPU switches jobs so

frequently that users can interact with each job while it is running, creating
interactive computing
• Response time should be < 1 second
• Each user has at least one program executing in memory process
• If several jobs ready to run at the same time  CPU scheduling
• If processes don’t fit in memory, swapping moves them in and out to run
• Virtual memory allows execution of processes not completely in memory

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Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System

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 Operating-System Operations

• Interrupt driven (hardware and software)

• Hardware interrupt by one of the devices
• Software interrupt (exception or trap):
• Software error (e.g., division by zero)
• Request for operating system service
• Other process problems include infinite loop,
processes modifying each other or the
operating system

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 Operating-System Operations (cont.)

• Dual-mode operation allows OS to protect itself and other system

components
• User mode and kernel mode
• Mode bit provided by hardware
• Provides ability to distinguish when system is running user code
or kernel code
• Some instructions designated as privileged, only executable in
kernel mode
• System call changes mode to kernel, return from call resets it to
user
• Increasingly CPUs support multi-mode operations
• i.e. virtual machine manager (VMM) mode for guest VMs

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 Operating System Services
• Operating systems provide an environment for execution of programs and
services to programs and users
• One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the
user:
• User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI).
• Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User Interface (GUI), Batch
• Program execution - The system must be able to load a program into memory
and to run that program, end execution, either normally or abnormally (indicating
error)
• I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may involve a file or
an I/O device

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)

• One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the user (Cont.):
• File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest. Programs need to read
and write files and directories, create and delete them, search them, list file Information,
permission management.
• Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the same computer or
between computers over a network
• Communications may be via shared memory or through message passing (packets
moved by the OS)
• Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors
• May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user program
• For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure correct and
consistent computing
• Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and programmer’s abilities to
efficiently use the system

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 Operating System Services (Cont.)

• Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient operation of the
system itself via resource sharing
• Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running concurrently,
resources must be allocated to each of them
• Many types of resources - CPU cycles, main memory, file storage, I/O devices.
• Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much and what kinds of
computer resources
• Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a multiuser or
networked computer system may want to control use of that information,
concurrent processes should not interfere with each other
• Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled
• Security of the system from outsiders requires user authentication, extends to
defending external I/O devices from invalid access attempts

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 System Calls

• Programming interface to the services provided by the OS

• Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
• Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application
Programming Interface (API) rather than direct system call use
• Three most common APIs are Win32 API for Windows, POSIX API
for POSIX-based systems (including virtually all versions of UNIX,
Linux, and Mac OS X), and Java API for the Java virtual machine
(JVM)

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Example of System Calls

• System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file

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Example of Standard API

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 System Call Implementation

• Typically, a number associated with each system call

• System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to these numbers
• The system call interface invokes the intended system call in OS kernel and
returns status of the system call and any return values
• The caller need know nothing about how the system call is implemented
• Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a result call
• Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API
• Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built into libraries
included with compiler)

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API – System Call – OS Relationship

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 System Call Parameter Passing
• Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired system call
• Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS and call
• Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS
• Simplest: pass the parameters in registers
• In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
• Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address of block passed as
a parameter in a register
• This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
• Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the program and popped off the
stack by the operating system
• Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of parameters being
passed

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 Types of System Calls
• Process control
• create process, terminate process
• end, abort
• load, execute
• get process attributes, set process attributes
• wait for time
• wait event, signal event
• allocate and free memory
• Dump memory if error
• Debugger for determining bugs, single step execution
• Locks for managing access to shared data between processes

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 Types of System Calls
• File management
• create file, delete file
• open, close file
• read, write, reposition
• get and set file attributes
• Device management
• request device, release device
• read, write, reposition
• get device attributes, set device attributes
• logically attach or detach devices

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 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

• Information maintenance
• get time or date, set time or date
• get system data, set system data
• get and set process, file, or device attributes
• Communications
• create, delete communication connection
• send, receive messages if message passing model to host name or process name
• From client to server
• Shared-memory model create and gain access to memory regions
• transfer status information
• attach and detach remote devices

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 Types of System Calls (Cont.)
• Protection
• Control access to resources
• Get and set permissions
• Allow and deny user access

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Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls

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Standard C Library Example

• C program invoking printf() library call, which calls write() system

call

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Example: MS-DOS

• Single-tasking
• Shell invoked when system
booted
• Simple method to run
program
• No process created
• Single memory space
• Loads program into
memory, overwriting all but
the kernel
• Program exit -> shell
reloaded
At system startup running a program

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Example: FreeBSD
• Unix variant
• Multitasking
• User login -> invoke user’s choice of
shell
• Shell executes fork() system call to
create process
• Executes exec() to load program into process
• Shell waits for process to terminate or
continues with user commands
• Process exits with:
• code = 0 – no error
• code > 0 – error code

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Operating System Structure
• General-purpose OS is very large program
• Various ways to structure ones
• Simple structure – MS-DOS
• More complex -- UNIX
• Layered – an abstrcation
• Microkernel -Mach

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Simple Structure -- MS-DOS

• MS-DOS – written to provide the

most functionality in the least
space
• Not divided into modules
• Although MS-DOS has some
structure, its interfaces and levels
of functionality are not well
separated

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 Non Simple Structure -- UNIX

UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX operating system

had limited structuring. The UNIX OS consists of two separable parts
• Systems programs
• The kernel
• Consists of everything below the system-call interface and above the physical
hardware
• Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and other
operating-system functions; a large number of functions for one level

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Traditional UNIX System Structure
Beyond simple but not fully layered

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Layered Approach

• The operating system is

divided into a number of layers
(levels), each built on top of
lower layers. The bottom layer
(layer 0), is the hardware; the
highest (layer N) is the user
interface.
• With modularity, layers are
selected such that each uses
functions (operations) and
services of only lower-level
layers

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Microkernel System Structure
• Moves as much from the kernel into user space
• Mach example of microkernel
• Mac OS X kernel (Darwin) partly based on Mach
• Communication takes place between user modules using
message passing
• Benefits:
• Easier to extend a microkernel
• Easier to port the operating system to new architectures
• More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode)
• More secure
• Detriments:
• Performance overhead of user space to kernel space communication

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Microkernel System Structure

Application File Device user

Program System Driver mode

messages messages

Interprocess memory CPU kernel

Communication managment scheduling mode

microkernel

hardware

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iOS

• Apple mobile OS for iPhone, iPad

• Structured on Mac OS X, added functionality
• Does not run OS X applications natively
• Also runs on different CPU architecture
(ARM vs. Intel)
• Cocoa Touch Objective-C API for developing
apps
• Media services layer for graphics, audio, video
• Core operating system, based on Mac OS X
Core services provides cloud computing,
databases
• kernel

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 Android
• Developed by Open Handset Alliance (mostly Google)
• Open Source
• Similar stack to IOS
• Based on Linux kernel but modified
• Provides process, memory, device-driver management
• Adds power management
• Runtime environment includes core set of libraries and Dalvik virtual machine
• Apps developed in Java plus Android API
• Java class files compiled to Java bytecode then translated to executable than runs in
Dalvik VM
• Libraries include frameworks for web browser (webkit), database (SQLite),
multimedia, smaller libc

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Android ArchitectureApplications

Application Framework

Libraries Android runtime

SQLite openGL Core Libraries

surface media
Dalvik
manager framework
virtual machine
webkit libc

Linux kernel

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