Operating System

An Operating System (OS) is an interface between a computer user and

computer hardware. An operating system is a software which performs all
the basic tasks like file management, memory management, process
management, handling input and output, and controlling peripheral
devices such as disk drives and printers.
Some popular Operating Systems include Linux Operating System,
Windows Operating System, VMS, OS/400, AIX, z/OS, etc.

Definition

An operating system is a program that acts as an interface between the

user and the computer hardware and controls the execution of all kinds of
programs.

Following are some of important functions of an operating System.

 Memory Management
 Processor Management
 Device Management
 File Management
 Security
 Control over system performance
 Job accounting
 Error detecting aids
 Coordination between other software and users

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Memory Management

Memory management refers to management of Primary Memory or Main

Memory. Main memory is a large array of words or bytes where each word
or byte has its own address.
Main memory provides a fast storage that can be accessed directly by the
CPU. For a program to be executed, it must in the main memory. An
Operating System does the following activities for memory management −
 Keeps tracks of primary memory, i.e., what part of it are in use by
whom, what part are not in use.
 In multiprogramming, the OS decides which process will get memory
when and how much.
 Allocates the memory when a process requests it to do so.
 De-allocates the memory when a process no longer needs it or has
been terminated.

Processor Management

In multiprogramming environment, the OS decides which process gets the

processor when and for how much time. This function is called process
scheduling. An Operating System does the following activities for processor
management −
 Keeps tracks of processor and status of process. The program
responsible for this task is known as traffic controller.
 Allocates the processor (CPU) to a process.
 De-allocates processor when a process is no longer required.

Device Management

An Operating System manages device communication via their respective

drivers. It does the following activities for device management −
 Keeps tracks of all devices. Program responsible for this task is
known as the I/O controller.
 Decides which process gets the device when and for how much time.
 Allocates the device in the efficient way.
 De-allocates devices.

File Management

A file system is normally organized into directories for easy navigation and
usage. These directories may contain files and other directions.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

An Operating System does the following activities for file management −

 Keeps track of information, location, uses, status etc. The collective
facilities are often known as file system.
 Decides who gets the resources.
 Allocates the resources.
 De-allocates the resources.

Other Important Activities

Following are some of the important activities that an Operating System

performs −
 Security − By means of password and similar other techniques, it
prevents unauthorized access to programs and data.
 Control over system performance − Recording delays between
request for a service and response from the system.
 Job accounting − Keeping track of time and resources used by
various jobs and users.
 Error detecting aids − Production of dumps, traces, error messages,
and other debugging and error detecting aids.
 Coordination between other softwares and users − Coordination
and assignment of compilers, interpreters, assemblers and other
software to the various users of the computer systems.

Operating systems are there from the very first computer generation and
they keep evolving with time. In this chapter, we will discuss some of the
important types of operating systems which are most commonly used.

Batch operating system

The users of a batch operating system do not interact with the computer
directly. Each user prepares his job on an off-line device like punch cards
and submits it to the computer operator. To speed up processing, jobs with
similar needs are batched together and run as a group. The programmers
leave their programs with the operator and the operator then sorts the
programs with similar requirements into batches.
The problems with Batch Systems are as follows −

 Lack of interaction between the user and the job.

 CPU is often idle, because the speed of the mechanical I/O devices is
slower than the CPU.
 Difficult to provide the desired priority.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Time-sharing operating systems

Time-sharing is a technique which enables many people, located at various

terminals, to use a particular computer system at the same time. Time-
sharing or multitasking is a logical extension of multiprogramming.
Processor's time which is shared among multiple users simultaneously is
termed as time-sharing.
The main difference between Multiprogrammed Batch Systems and Time-
Sharing Systems is that in case of Multiprogrammed batch systems, the
objective is to maximize processor use, whereas in Time-Sharing Systems,
the objective is to minimize response time.
Multiple jobs are executed by the CPU by switching between them, but the
switches occur so frequently. Thus, the user can receive an immediate
response. For example, in a transaction processing, the processor executes
each user program in a short burst or quantum of computation. That is,
if n users are present, then each user can get a time quantum. When the
user submits the command, the response time is in few seconds at most.
The operating system uses CPU scheduling and multiprogramming to
provide each user with a small portion of a time. Computer systems that
were designed primarily as batch systems have been modified to time-
sharing systems.
Advantages of Timesharing operating systems are as follows −

 Provides the advantage of quick response.

 Avoids duplication of software.
 Reduces CPU idle time.
Disadvantages of Time-sharing operating systems are as follows −

 Problem of reliability.
 Question of security and integrity of user programs and data.
 Problem of data communication.

Distributed operating System

Distributed systems use multiple central processors to serve multiple real-

time applications and multiple users. Data processing jobs are distributed
among the processors accordingly.
The processors communicate with one another through various
communication lines (such as high-speed buses or telephone lines). These
are referred as loosely coupled systems or distributed systems.
Processors in a distributed system may vary in size and function. These
processors are referred as sites, nodes, computers, and so on.
The advantages of distributed systems are as follows −

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 With resource sharing facility, a user at one site may be able to use
the resources available at another.
 Speedup the exchange of data with one another via electronic mail.
 If one site fails in a distributed system, the remaining sites can
potentially continue operating.
 Better service to the customers.
 Reduction of the load on the host computer.
 Reduction of delays in data processing.

Network operating System

A Network Operating System runs on a server and provides the server the
capability to manage data, users, groups, security, applications, and other
networking functions. The primary purpose of the network operating
system is to allow shared file and printer access among multiple computers
in a network, typically a local area network (LAN), a private network or to
other networks.
Examples of network operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server
2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, Novell
NetWare, and BSD.
The advantages of network operating systems are as follows −

 Centralized servers are highly stable.

 Security is server managed.
 Upgrades to new technologies and hardware can be easily integrated
into the system.
 Remote access to servers is possible from different locations and types
of systems.
The disadvantages of network operating systems are as follows −

 High cost of buying and running a server.

 Dependency on a central location for most operations.
 Regular maintenance and updates are required.

Real Time operating System

A real-time system is defined as a data processing system in which the time

interval required to process and respond to inputs is so small that it
controls the environment. The time taken by the system to respond to an
input and display of required updated information is termed as
the response time. So in this method, the response time is very less as
compared to online processing.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Real-time systems are used when there are rigid time requirements on the
operation of a processor or the flow of data and real-time systems can be
used as a control device in a dedicated application. A real-time operating
system must have well-defined, fixed time constraints, otherwise the
system will fail. For example, Scientific experiments, medical imaging
systems, industrial control systems, weapon systems, robots, air traffic
control systems, etc.
There are two types of real-time operating systems.

Hard real-time systems

Hard real-time systems guarantee that critical tasks complete on time. In
hard real-time systems, secondary storage is limited or missing and the
data is stored in ROM. In these systems, virtual memory is almost never
found.

Soft real-time systems

Soft real-time systems are less restrictive. A critical real-time task gets
priority over other tasks and retains the priority until it completes. Soft
real-time systems have limited utility than hard real-time systems. For
example, multimedia, virtual reality, Advanced Scientific Projects like
undersea exploration and planetary rovers, etc.

An Operating System provides services to both the users and to the

programs.

 It provides programs an environment to execute.

 It provides users the services to execute the programs in a convenient
manner.
Following are a few common services provided by an operating system −

 Program execution
 I/O operations
 File System manipulation
 Communication
 Error Detection
 Resource Allocation
 Protection

Program execution

Operating systems handle many kinds of activities from user programs to

system programs like printer spooler, name servers, file server, etc. Each of
these activities is encapsulated as a process.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

A process includes the complete execution context (code to execute, data to

manipulate, registers, OS resources in use). Following are the major
activities of an operating system with respect to program management −

 Loads a program into memory.

 Executes the program.
 Handles program's execution.
 Provides a mechanism for process synchronization.
 Provides a mechanism for process communication.
 Provides a mechanism for deadlock handling.

I/O Operation

An I/O subsystem comprises of I/O devices and their corresponding driver

software. Drivers hide the peculiarities of specific hardware devices from
the users.
An Operating System manages the communication between user and device
drivers.

 I/O operation means read or write operation with any file or any
specific I/O device.
 Operating system provides the access to the required I/O device when
required.

File system manipulation

A file represents a collection of related information. Computers can store

files on the disk (secondary storage), for long-term storage purpose.
Examples of storage media include magnetic tape, magnetic disk and
optical disk drives like CD, DVD. Each of these media has its own
properties like speed, capacity, data transfer rate and data access methods.
A file system is normally organized into directories for easy navigation and
usage. These directories may contain files and other directions. Following
are the major activities of an operating system with respect to file
management −

 Program needs to read a file or write a file.

 The operating system gives the permission to the program for
operation on file.
 Permission varies from read-only, read-write, denied and so on.
 Operating System provides an interface to the user to create/delete
files.
 Operating System provides an interface to the user to create/delete
directories.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Operating System provides an interface to create the backup of file

system.

Communication

In case of distributed systems which are a collection of processors that do

not share memory, peripheral devices, or a clock, the operating system
manages communications between all the processes. Multiple processes
communicate with one another through communication lines in the
network.
The OS handles routing and connection strategies, and the problems of
contention and security. Following are the major activities of an operating
system with respect to communication −

 Two processes often require data to be transferred between them

 Both the processes can be on one computer or on different computers,
but are connected through a computer network.
 Communication may be implemented by two methods, either by
Shared Memory or by Message Passing.

Error handling

Errors can occur anytime and anywhere. An error may occur in CPU, in I/O
devices or in the memory hardware. Following are the major activities of an
operating system with respect to error handling −

 The OS constantly checks for possible errors.

 The OS takes an appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent
computing.

Resource Management

In case of multi-user or multi-tasking environment, resources such as main

memory, CPU cycles and files storage are to be allocated to each user or
job. Following are the major activities of an operating system with respect
to resource management −

 The OS manages all kinds of resources using schedulers.

 CPU scheduling algorithms are used for better utilization of CPU.

Protection

Considering a computer system having multiple users and concurrent

execution of multiple processes, the various processes must be protected
from each other's activities.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Protection refers to a mechanism or a way to control the access of

programs, processes, or users to the resources defined by a computer
system. Following are the major activities of an operating system with
respect to protection −

 The OS ensures that all access to system resources is controlled.

 The OS ensures that external I/O devices are protected from invalid
access attempts.
 The OS provides authentication features for each user by means of
passwords.

Batch processing

Batch processing is a technique in which an Operating System collects the

programs and data together in a batch before processing starts. An
operating system does the following activities related to batch processing −
 The OS defines a job which has predefined sequence of commands,
programs and data as a single unit.
 The OS keeps a number a jobs in memory and executes them without
any manual information.
 Jobs are processed in the order of submission, i.e., first come first
served fashion.
 When a job completes its execution, its memory is released and the
output for the job gets copied into an output spool for later printing
or processing.

Advantages
 Batch processing takes much of the work of the operator to the
computer.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Increased performance as a new job get started as soon as the

previous job is finished, without any manual intervention.

Disadvantages

 Difficult to debug program.

 A job could enter an infinite loop.
 Due to lack of protection scheme, one batch job can affect pending
jobs.

Multitasking

Multitasking is when multiple jobs are executed by the CPU simultaneously

by switching between them. Switches occur so frequently that the users
may interact with each program while it is running. An OS does the
following activities related to multitasking −
 The user gives instructions to the operating system or to a program
directly, and receives an immediate response.
 The OS handles multitasking in the way that it can handle multiple
operations/executes multiple programs at a time.
 Multitasking Operating Systems are also known as Time-sharing
systems.
 These Operating Systems were developed to provide interactive use of
a computer system at a reasonable cost.
 A time-shared operating system uses the concept of CPU scheduling
and multiprogramming to provide each user with a small portion of a
time-shared CPU.
 Each user has at least one separate program in memory.

 A program that is loaded into memory and is executing is commonly

referred to as a process.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 When a process executes, it typically executes for only a very short

time before it either finishes or needs to perform I/O.
 Since interactive I/O typically runs at slower speeds, it may take a
long time to complete. During this time, a CPU can be utilized by
another process.
 The operating system allows the users to share the computer
simultaneously. Since each action or command in a time-shared
system tends to be short, only a little CPU time is needed for each
user.
 As the system switches CPU rapidly from one user/program to the
next, each user is given the impression that he/she has his/her own
CPU, whereas actually one CPU is being shared among many users.

Multiprogramming

Sharing the processor, when two or more programs reside in memory at the
same time, is referred as multiprogramming. Multiprogramming assumes
a single shared processor. Multiprogramming increases CPU utilization by
organizing jobs so that the CPU always has one to execute.
The following figure shows the memory layout for a multiprogramming
system.

An OS does the following activities related to multiprogramming.

 The operating system keeps several jobs in memory at a time.
 This set of jobs is a subset of the jobs kept in the job pool.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 The operating system picks and begins to execute one of the jobs in
the memory.
 Multiprogramming operating systems monitor the state of all active
programs and system resources using memory management
programs to ensures that the CPU is never idle, unless there are no
jobs to process.

Advantages

 High and efficient CPU utilization.

 User feels that many programs are allotted CPU almost
simultaneously.

Disadvantages

 CPU scheduling is required.

 To accommodate many jobs in memory, memory management is
required.

Interactivity

Interactivity refers to the ability of users to interact with a computer

system. An Operating system does the following activities related to
interactivity −

 Provides the user an interface to interact with the system.

 Manages input devices to take inputs from the user. For example,
keyboard.
 Manages output devices to show outputs to the user. For example,
Monitor.
The response time of the OS needs to be short, since the user submits and
waits for the result.

Real Time System

Real-time systems are usually dedicated, embedded systems. An operating

system does the following activities related to real-time system activity.

 In such systems, Operating Systems typically read from and react to

sensor data.
 The Operating system must guarantee response to events within fixed
periods of time to ensure correct performance.

Distributed Environment

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

A distributed environment refers to multiple independent CPUs or

processors in a computer system. An operating system does the following
activities related to distributed environment −
 The OS distributes computation logics among several physical
processors.
 The processors do not share memory or a clock. Instead, each
processor has its own local memory.
 The OS manages the communications between the processors. They
communicate with each other through various communication lines.

Spooling

Spooling is an acronym for simultaneous peripheral operations on line.

Spooling refers to putting data of various I/O jobs in a buffer. This buffer is
a special area in memory or hard disk which is accessible to I/O devices.
An operating system does the following activities related to distributed
environment −
 Handles I/O device data spooling as devices have different data
access rates.
 Maintains the spooling buffer which provides a waiting station where
data can rest while the slower device catches up.
 Maintains parallel computation because of spooling process as a
computer can perform I/O in parallel fashion. It becomes possible to
have the computer read data from a tape, write data to disk and to
write out to a tape printer while it is doing its computing task.

Advantages

 The spooling operation uses a disk as a very large buffer.

 Spooling is capable of overlapping I/O operation for one job with
processor operations for another job.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Process

A process is basically a program in execution. The execution of a process

must progress in a sequential fashion.
A process is defined as an entity which represents the basic unit of work to
be implemented in the system.

To put it in simple terms, we write our computer programs in a text file and
when we execute this program, it becomes a process which performs all the
tasks mentioned in the program.
When a program is loaded into the memory and it becomes a process, it can
be divided into four sections ─ stack, heap, text and data. The following
image shows a simplified layout of a process inside main memory −

S.N. Component & Description

1 Stack
The process Stack contains the temporary data such as method/function
parameters, return address and local variables.

2 Heap
This is dynamically allocated memory to a process during its run time.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

3 Text
This includes the current activity represented by the value of Program
Counter and the contents of the processor's registers.

4 Data
This section contains the global and static variables.

Program

A program is a piece of code which may be a single line or millions of lines.

A computer program is usually written by a computer programmer in a
programming language. For example, here is a simple program written in C
programming language −

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
printf("Hello, World! \n");
return 0;
}
A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific
task when executed by a computer. When we compare a program with a
process, we can conclude that a process is a dynamic instance of a
computer program.
A part of a computer program that performs a well-defined task is known as
an algorithm. A collection of computer programs, libraries and related data
are referred to as a software.

Process Life Cycle

When a process executes, it passes through different states. These stages

may differ in different operating systems, and the names of these states are
also not standardized.
In general, a process can have one of the following five states at a time.

S.N. State & Description

1 Start
This is the initial state when a process is first started/created.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

2 Ready
The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor. Ready processes are
waiting to have the processor allocated to them by the operating system so
that they can run. Process may come into this state after Start state or
while running it by but interrupted by the scheduler to assign CPU to
some other process.

3 Running
Once the process has been assigned to a processor by the OS scheduler,
the process state is set to running and the processor executes its
instructions.

4 Waiting
Process moves into the waiting state if it needs to wait for a resource, such
as waiting for user input, or waiting for a file to become available.

5 Terminated or Exit
Once the process finishes its execution, or it is terminated by the operating
system, it is moved to the terminated state where it waits to be removed
from main memory.

Process Control Block (PCB)

A Process Control Block is a data structure maintained by the Operating

System for every process. The PCB is identified by an integer process ID
(PID). A PCB keeps all the information needed to keep track of a process as
listed below in the table −

S.N. Information & Description

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

1 Process State
The current state of the process i.e., whether it is ready, running, waiting,
or whatever.

2 Process privileges
This is required to allow/disallow access to system resources.

3 Process ID
Unique identification for each of the process in the operating system.

4 Pointer
A pointer to parent process.

5 Program Counter
Program Counter is a pointer to the address of the next instruction to be
executed for this process.

6 CPU registers
Various CPU registers where process need to be stored for execution for
running state.

7 CPU Scheduling Information

Process priority and other scheduling information which is required to
schedule the process.

8 Memory management information

This includes the information of page table, memory limits, Segment table
depending on memory used by the operating system.

9 Accounting information
This includes the amount of CPU used for process execution, time limits,
execution ID etc.

10 IO status information

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

This includes a list of I/O devices allocated to the process.

The architecture of a PCB is completely dependent on Operating System

and may contain different information in different operating systems. Here
is a simplified diagram of a PCB −

The PCB is maintained for a process throughout its lifetime, and is deleted
once the process terminates.

Definition

The process scheduling is the activity of the process manager that handles
the removal of the running process from the CPU and the selection of
another process on the basis of a particular strategy.
Process scheduling is an essential part of a Multiprogramming operating
systems. Such operating systems allow more than one process to be loaded
into the executable memory at a time and the loaded process shares the
CPU using time multiplexing.

Process Scheduling Queues

The OS maintains all PCBs in Process Scheduling Queues. The OS

maintains a separate queue for each of the process states and PCBs of all
processes in the same execution state are placed in the same queue. When
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

the state of a process is changed, its PCB is unlinked from its current
queue and moved to its new state queue.
The Operating System maintains the following important process
scheduling queues −
 Job queue − This queue keeps all the processes in the system.
 Ready queue − This queue keeps a set of all processes residing in
main memory, ready and waiting to execute. A new process is always
put in this queue.
 Device queues − The processes which are blocked due to
unavailability of an I/O device constitute this queue.

The OS can use different policies to manage each queue (FIFO, Round
Robin, Priority, etc.). The OS scheduler determines how to move processes
between the ready and run queues which can only have one entry per
processor core on the system; in the above diagram, it has been merged
with the CPU.

Two-State Process Model

Two-state process model refers to running and non-running states which

are described below −

S.N. State & Description

1 Running
When a new process is created, it enters into the system as in the running
state.

2 Not Running
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Processes that are not running are kept in queue, waiting for their turn to
execute. Each entry in the queue is a pointer to a particular process.
Queue is implemented by using linked list. Use of dispatcher is as follows.
When a process is interrupted, that process is transferred in the waiting
queue. If the process has completed or aborted, the process is discarded.
In either case, the dispatcher then selects a process from the queue to
execute.

Schedulers

Schedulers are special system software which handle process scheduling in

various ways. Their main task is to select the jobs to be submitted into the
system and to decide which process to run. Schedulers are of three types −

 Long-Term Scheduler
 Short-Term Scheduler
 Medium-Term Scheduler

Long Term Scheduler

It is also called a job scheduler. A long-term scheduler determines which

programs are admitted to the system for processing. It selects processes
from the queue and loads them into memory for execution. Process loads
into the memory for CPU scheduling.
The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of
jobs, such as I/O bound and processor bound. It also controls the degree of
multiprogramming. If the degree of multiprogramming is stable, then the
average rate of process creation must be equal to the average departure
rate of processes leaving the system.
On some systems, the long-term scheduler may not be available or
minimal. Time-sharing operating systems have no long term scheduler.
When a process changes the state from new to ready, then there is use of
long-term scheduler.

Short Term Scheduler

It is also called as CPU scheduler. Its main objective is to increase system

performance in accordance with the chosen set of criteria. It is the change
of ready state to running state of the process. CPU scheduler selects a
process among the processes that are ready to execute and allocates CPU to
one of them.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers, make the decision of

which process to execute next. Short-term schedulers are faster than long-
term schedulers.

Medium Term Scheduler

Medium-term scheduling is a part of swapping. It removes the processes

from the memory. It reduces the degree of multiprogramming. The medium-
term scheduler is in-charge of handling the swapped out-processes.
A running process may become suspended if it makes an I/O request. A
suspended processes cannot make any progress towards completion. In
this condition, to remove the process from memory and make space for
other processes, the suspended process is moved to the secondary storage.
This process is called swapping, and the process is said to be swapped out
or rolled out. Swapping may be necessary to improve the process mix.

Comparison among Scheduler

S.N. Long-Term Scheduler Short-Term Medium-Term

Scheduler Scheduler

1 It is a job scheduler It is a CPU scheduler It is a process swapping

scheduler.

2 Speed is lesser than Speed is fastest Speed is in between both

short term scheduler among other two short and long term
scheduler.

3 It controls the degree of It provides lesser It reduces the degree of

multiprogramming control over degree of multiprogramming.
multiprogramming

4 It is almost absent or It is also minimal in It is a part of Time

minimal in time sharing time sharing system sharing systems.
system

5 It selects processes It selects those It can re-introduce the

from pool and loads processes which are process into memory and
them into memory for ready to execute execution can be
execution continued.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Context Switch

A context switch is the mechanism to store and restore the state or context
of a CPU in Process Control block so that a process execution can be
resumed from the same point at a later time. Using this technique, a
context switcher enables multiple processes to share a single CPU. Context
switching is an essential part of a multitasking operating system features.
When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to
execute another, the state from the current running process is stored into
the process control block. After this, the state for the process to run next is
loaded from its own PCB and used to set the PC, registers, etc. At that
point, the second process can start executing.

Context switches are computationally intensive since register and memory

state must be saved and restored. To avoid the amount of context switching
time, some hardware systems employ two or more sets of processor

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

registers. When the process is switched, the following information is stored

for later use.

 Program Counter
 Scheduling information
 Base and limit register value
 Currently used register
 Changed State
 I/O State information
 Accounting information
A Process Scheduler schedules different processes to be assigned to the
CPU based on particular scheduling algorithms. There are six popular
process scheduling algorithms which we are going to discuss in this
chapter −

 First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling

 Shortest-Job-Next (SJN) Scheduling
 Priority Scheduling
 Shortest Remaining Time
 Round Robin(RR) Scheduling
 Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling
These algorithms are either non-preemptive or preemptive. Non-
preemptive algorithms are designed so that once a process enters the
running state, it cannot be preempted until it completes its allotted time,
whereas the preemptive scheduling is based on priority where a scheduler
may preempt a low priority running process anytime when a high priority
process enters into a ready state.

First Come First Serve (FCFS)

 Jobs are executed on first come, first serve basis.

 It is a non-preemptive, pre-emptive scheduling algorithm.
 Easy to understand and implement.
 Its implementation is based on FIFO queue.
 Poor in performance as average wait time is high.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Wait time of each process is as follows −

Proces Wait Time : Service Time - Arrival Time

s

P0 0-0=0

P1 5-1=4

P2 8-2=6

P3 16 - 3 = 13

Average Wait Time: (0+4+6+13) / 4 = 5.75

Shortest Job Next (SJN)

 This is also known as shortest job first, or SJF

 This is a non-preemptive, pre-emptive scheduling algorithm.
 Best approach to minimize waiting time.
 Easy to implement in Batch systems where required CPU time is
known in advance.
 Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU
time is not known.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 The processer should know in advance how much time process will
take.
Given: Table of processes, and their Arrival time, Execution time

Process Arrival Time Execution Time Service Time

P0 0 5 0

P1 1 3 5

P2 2 8 14

P3 3 6 8

Waiting time of each process is as follows −

Proces Waiting Time

s

P0 0-0=0

P1 5-1=4

P2 14 - 2 = 12

P3 8-3=5

Average Wait Time: (0 + 4 + 12 + 5)/4 = 21 / 4 = 5.25

Priority Based Scheduling

 Priority scheduling is a non-preemptive algorithm and one of the most

common scheduling algorithms in batch systems.
 Each process is assigned a priority. Process with highest priority is to
be executed first and so on.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Processes with same priority are executed on first come first served
basis.
 Priority can be decided based on memory requirements, time
requirements or any other resource requirement.
Given: Table of processes, and their Arrival time, Execution time, and
priority. Here we are considering 1 is the lowest priority.

Process Arrival Time Execution Time Priority Service Time

P0 0 5 1 0

P1 1 3 2 11

P2 2 8 1 14

P3 3 6 3 5

Waiting time of each process is as follows −

Proces Waiting Time

s

P0 0-0=0

P1 11 - 1 = 10

P2 14 - 2 = 12

P3 5-3=2

Average Wait Time: (0 + 10 + 12 + 2)/4 = 24 / 4 = 6

Shortest Remaining Time

 Shortest remaining time (SRT) is the preemptive version of the SJN

algorithm.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 The processor is allocated to the job closest to completion but it can

be preempted by a newer ready job with shorter time to completion.
 Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU
time is not known.
 It is often used in batch environments where short jobs need to give
preference.

Round Robin Scheduling

 Round Robin is the preemptive process scheduling algorithm.

 Each process is provided a fix time to execute, it is called a quantum.
 Once a process is executed for a given time period, it is preempted
and other process executes for a given time period.
 Context switching is used to save states of preempted processes.

Wait time of each process is as follows −

Proces Wait Time : Service Time - Arrival Time

s

P0 (0 - 0) + (12 - 3) = 9

P1 (3 - 1) = 2

P2 (6 - 2) + (14 - 9) + (20 - 17) = 12

P3 (9 - 3) + (17 - 12) = 11

Average Wait Time: (9+2+12+11) / 4 = 8.5

Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Multiple-level queues are not an independent scheduling algorithm. They

make use of other existing algorithms to group and schedule jobs with
common characteristics.

 Multiple queues are maintained for processes with common

characteristics.
 Each queue can have its own scheduling algorithms.
 Priorities are assigned to each queue.
For example, CPU-bound jobs can be scheduled in one queue and all I/O-
bound jobs in another queue. The Process Scheduler then alternately
selects jobs from each queue and assigns them to the CPU based on the
algorithm assigned to the queue.

What is Thread?

A thread is a flow of execution through the process code, with its own
program counter that keeps track of which instruction to execute next,
system registers which hold its current working variables, and a stack
which contains the execution history.
A thread shares with its peer threads few information like code segment,
data segment and open files. When one thread alters a code segment
memory item, all other threads see that.
A thread is also called a lightweight process. Threads provide a way to
improve application performance through parallelism. Threads represent a
software approach to improving performance of operating system by
reducing the overhead thread is equivalent to a classical process.
Each thread belongs to exactly one process and no thread can exist outside
a process. Each thread represents a separate flow of control. Threads have
been successfully used in implementing network servers and web server.
They also provide a suitable foundation for parallel execution of
applications on shared memory multiprocessors. The following figure shows
the working of a single-threaded and a multithreaded process.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Difference between Process and Thread

S.N. Process Thread

1 Process is heavy weight or resource intensive. Thread is

light
weight,
taking
lesser
resources
than a
process.

2 Process switching needs interaction with operating system. Thread

switching
does not
need to
interact
with
operating

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

system.

3 In multiple processing environments, each process executes All

the same code but has its own memory and file resources. threads
can share
same set
of open
files, child
processes.

4 If one process is blocked, then no other process can execute While one
until the first process is unblocked. thread is
blocked
and
waiting, a
second
thread in
the same
task can
run.

5 Multiple processes without using threads use more resources. Multiple

threaded
processes
use fewer
resources.

6 In multiple processes each process operates independently of One

the others. thread
can read,
write or
change
another
thread's
data.

Advantages of Thread

 Threads minimize the context switching time.

Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Use of threads provides concurrency within a process.

 Efficient communication.
 It is more economical to create and context switch threads.
 Threads allow utilization of multiprocessor architectures to a greater
scale and efficiency.

Types of Thread

Threads are implemented in following two ways −

 User Level Threads − User managed threads.
 Kernel Level Threads − Operating System managed threads acting
on kernel, an operating system core.

User Level Threads

In this case, the thread management kernel is not aware of the existence of
threads. The thread library contains code for creating and destroying
threads, for passing message and data between threads, for scheduling
thread execution and for saving and restoring thread contexts. The
application starts with a single thread.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Advantages

 Thread switching does not require Kernel mode privileges.

 User level thread can run on any operating system.
 Scheduling can be application specific in the user level thread.
 User level threads are fast to create and manage.

Disadvantages

 In a typical operating system, most system calls are blocking.

 Multithreaded application cannot take advantage of multiprocessing.

Kernel Level Threads

In this case, thread management is done by the Kernel. There is no thread

management code in the application area. Kernel threads are supported
directly by the operating system. Any application can be programmed to be
multithreaded. All of the threads within an application are supported
within a single process.
The Kernel maintains context information for the process as a whole and
for individuals threads within the process. Scheduling by the Kernel is done
on a thread basis. The Kernel performs thread creation, scheduling and
management in Kernel space. Kernel threads are generally slower to create
and manage than the user threads.

Advantages

 Kernel can simultaneously schedule multiple threads from the same

process on multiple processes.
 If one thread in a process is blocked, the Kernel can schedule another
thread of the same process.
 Kernel routines themselves can be multithreaded.

Disadvantages

 Kernel threads are generally slower to create and manage than the
user threads.
 Transfer of control from one thread to another within the same
process requires a mode switch to the Kernel.

Multithreading Models

Some operating system provide a combined user level thread and Kernel
level thread facility. Solaris is a good example of this combined approach.
In a combined system, multiple threads within the same application can

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

run in parallel on multiple processors and a blocking system call need not
block the entire process. Multithreading models are three types

 Many to many relationship.

 Many to one relationship.
 One to one relationship.

Many to Many Model

The many-to-many model multiplexes any number of user threads onto an

equal or smaller number of kernel threads.
The following diagram shows the many-to-many threading model where 6
user level threads are multiplexing with 6 kernel level threads. In this
model, developers can create as many user threads as necessary and the
corresponding Kernel threads can run in parallel on a multiprocessor
machine. This model provides the best accuracy on concurrency and when
a thread performs a blocking system call, the kernel can schedule another
thread for execution.

Many to One Model

Many-to-one model maps many user level threads to one Kernel-level

thread. Thread management is done in user space by the thread library.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

When thread makes a blocking system call, the entire process will be
blocked. Only one thread can access the Kernel at a time, so multiple
threads are unable to run in parallel on multiprocessors.
If the user-level thread libraries are implemented in the operating system in
such a way that the system does not support them, then the Kernel threads
use the many-to-one relationship modes.

One to One Model

There is one-to-one relationship of user-level thread to the kernel-level

thread. This model provides more concurrency than the many-to-one
model. It also allows another thread to run when a thread makes a blocking
system call. It supports multiple threads to execute in parallel on
microprocessors.
Disadvantage of this model is that creating user thread requires the
corresponding Kernel thread. OS/2, windows NT and windows 2000 use
one to one relationship model.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Difference between User-Level & Kernel-Level Thread

S.N. User-Level Threads Kernel-Level Thread

1 User-level threads are faster to create Kernel-level threads are slower

and manage. to create and manage.

2 Implementation is by a thread library at Operating system supports

the user level. creation of Kernel threads.

3 User-level thread is generic and can run Kernel-level thread is specific to

on any operating system. the operating system.

4 Multi-threaded applications cannot take Kernel routines themselves can

advantage of multiprocessing. be multithreaded.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Memory management is the functionality of an operating system which

handles or manages primary memory and moves processes back and forth
between main memory and disk during execution. Memory management
keeps track of each and every memory location, regardless of either it is
allocated to some process or it is free. It checks how much memory is to be
allocated to processes. It decides which process will get memory at what
time. It tracks whenever some memory gets freed or unallocated and
correspondingly it updates the status.
This tutorial will teach you basic concepts related to Memory Management.

Process Address Space

The process address space is the set of logical addresses that a process
references in its code. For example, when 32-bit addressing is in use,
addresses can range from 0 to 0x7fffffff; that is, 2^31 possible numbers, for
a total theoretical size of 2 gigabytes.
The operating system takes care of mapping the logical addresses to
physical addresses at the time of memory allocation to the program. There
are three types of addresses used in a program before and after memory is
allocated −

S.N. Memory Addresses & Description

1 Symbolic addresses
The addresses used in a source code. The variable names, constants, and
instruction labels are the basic elements of the symbolic address space.

2 Relative addresses
At the time of compilation, a compiler converts symbolic addresses into
relative addresses.

3 Physical addresses
The loader generates these addresses at the time when a program is loaded
into main memory.

Virtual and physical addresses are the same in compile-time and load-time
address-binding schemes. Virtual and physical addresses differ in
execution-time address-binding scheme.
The set of all logical addresses generated by a program is referred to as
a logical address space. The set of all physical addresses corresponding to
these logical addresses is referred to as a physical address space.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

The runtime mapping from virtual to physical address is done by the

memory management unit (MMU) which is a hardware device. MMU uses
following mechanism to convert virtual address to physical address.
 The value in the base register is added to every address generated by
a user process, which is treated as offset at the time it is sent to
memory. For example, if the base register value is 10000, then an
attempt by the user to use address location 100 will be dynamically
reallocated to location 10100.
 The user program deals with virtual addresses; it never sees the real
physical addresses.

Static vs Dynamic Loading

The choice between Static or Dynamic Loading is to be made at the time of

computer program being developed. If you have to load your program
statically, then at the time of compilation, the complete programs will be
compiled and linked without leaving any external program or module
dependency. The linker combines the object program with other necessary
object modules into an absolute program, which also includes logical
addresses.
If you are writing a Dynamically loaded program, then your compiler will
compile the program and for all the modules which you want to include
dynamically, only references will be provided and rest of the work will be
done at the time of execution.
At the time of loading, with static loading, the absolute program (and data)
is loaded into memory in order for execution to start.
If you are using dynamic loading, dynamic routines of the library are
stored on a disk in relocatable form and are loaded into memory only when
they are needed by the program.

Static vs Dynamic Linking

As explained above, when static linking is used, the linker combines all
other modules needed by a program into a single executable program to
avoid any runtime dependency.
When dynamic linking is used, it is not required to link the actual module
or library with the program, rather a reference to the dynamic module is
provided at the time of compilation and linking. Dynamic Link Libraries
(DLL) in Windows and Shared Objects in Unix are good examples of
dynamic libraries.

Swapping

Swapping is a mechanism in which a process can be swapped temporarily

out of main memory (or move) to secondary storage (disk) and make that

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

memory available to other processes. At some later time, the system swaps
back the process from the secondary storage to main memory.
Though performance is usually affected by swapping process but it helps in
running multiple and big processes in parallel and that's the
reason Swapping is also known as a technique for memory compaction.

The total time taken by swapping process includes the time it takes to move
the entire process to a secondary disk and then to copy the process back to
memory, as well as the time the process takes to regain main memory.
Let us assume that the user process is of size 2048KB and on a standard
hard disk where swapping will take place has a data transfer rate around 1
MB per second. The actual transfer of the 1000K process to or from
memory will take
2048KB / 1024KB per second
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

= 2 seconds
= 2000 milliseconds
Now considering in and out time, it will take complete 4000 milliseconds
plus other overhead where the process competes to regain main memory.

Memory Allocation

Main memory usually has two partitions −

 Low Memory − Operating system resides in this memory.
 High Memory − User processes are held in high memory.
Operating system uses the following memory allocation mechanism.

S.N. Memory Allocation & Description

1 Single-partition allocation
In this type of allocation, relocation-register scheme is used to protect user
processes from each other, and from changing operating-system code and
data. Relocation register contains value of smallest physical address
whereas limit register contains range of logical addresses. Each logical
address must be less than the limit register.

2 Multiple-partition allocation
In this type of allocation, main memory is divided into a number of fixed-
sized partitions where each partition should contain only one process.
When a partition is free, a process is selected from the input queue and is
loaded into the free partition. When the process terminates, the partition
becomes available for another process.

Fragmentation

As processes are loaded and removed from memory, the free memory space
is broken into little pieces. It happens after sometimes that processes
cannot be allocated to memory blocks considering their small size and
memory blocks remains unused. This problem is known as Fragmentation.
Fragmentation is of two types −

S.N. Fragmentation & Description

1 External fragmentation

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Total memory space is enough to satisfy a request or to reside a process in

it, but it is not contiguous, so it cannot be used.

2 Internal fragmentation
Memory block assigned to process is bigger. Some portion of memory is left
unused, as it cannot be used by another process.

The following diagram shows how fragmentation can cause waste of

memory and a compaction technique can be used to create more free
memory out of fragmented memory −

External fragmentation can be reduced by compaction or shuffle memory

contents to place all free memory together in one large block. To make
compaction feasible, relocation should be dynamic.
The internal fragmentation can be reduced by effectively assigning the
smallest partition but large enough for the process.

Paging

A computer can address more memory than the amount physically

installed on the system. This extra memory is actually called virtual
memory and it is a section of a hard that's set up to emulate the computer's
RAM. Paging technique plays an important role in implementing virtual
memory.
Paging is a memory management technique in which process address space
is broken into blocks of the same size called pages (size is power of 2,

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

between 512 bytes and 8192 bytes). The size of the process is measured in
the number of pages.
Similarly, main memory is divided into small fixed-sized blocks of (physical)
memory called frames and the size of a frame is kept the same as that of a
page to have optimum utilization of the main memory and to avoid external
fragmentation.

Address Translation
Page address is called logical address and represented by page
number and the offset.
Logical Address = Page number + page offset
Frame address is called physical address and represented by a frame
number and the offset.
Physical Address = Frame number + page offset
A data structure called page map table is used to keep track of the relation
between a page of a process to a frame in physical memory.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

When the system allocates a frame to any page, it translates this logical
address into a physical address and create entry into the page table to be
used throughout execution of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding pages are loaded into
any available memory frames. Suppose you have a program of 8Kb but your
memory can accommodate only 5Kb at a given point in time, then the
paging concept will come into picture. When a computer runs out of RAM,
the operating system (OS) will move idle or unwanted pages of memory to
secondary memory to free up RAM for other processes and brings them
back when needed by the program.
This process continues during the whole execution of the program where
the OS keeps removing idle pages from the main memory and write them
onto the secondary memory and bring them back when required by the
program.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Paging

Here is a list of advantages and disadvantages of paging −
 Paging reduces external fragmentation, but still suffer from internal
fragmentation.
 Paging is simple to implement and assumed as an efficient memory
management technique.
 Due to equal size of the pages and frames, swapping becomes very
easy.
 Page table requires extra memory space, so may not be good for a
system having small RAM.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Segmentation

Segmentation is a memory management technique in which each job is

divided into several segments of different sizes, one for each module that
contains pieces that perform related functions. Each segment is actually a
different logical address space of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding segmentation are
loaded into non-contiguous memory though every segment is loaded into a
contiguous block of available memory.
Segmentation memory management works very similar to paging but here
segments are of variable-length where as in paging pages are of fixed size.
A program segment contains the program's main function, utility functions,
data structures, and so on. The operating system maintains a segment
map table for every process and a list of free memory blocks along with
segment numbers, their size and corresponding memory locations in main
memory. For each segment, the table stores the starting address of the
segment and the length of the segment. A reference to a memory location
includes a value that identifies a segment and an offset.

A computer can address more memory than the amount physically

installed on the system. This extra memory is actually called virtual

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

memory and it is a section of a hard disk that's set up to emulate the

computer's RAM.
The main visible advantage of this scheme is that programs can be larger
than physical memory. Virtual memory serves two purposes. First, it allows
us to extend the use of physical memory by using disk. Second, it allows us
to have memory protection, because each virtual address is translated to a
physical address.
Following are the situations, when entire program is not required to be
loaded fully in main memory.
 User written error handling routines are used only when an error
occurred in the data or computation.
 Certain options and features of a program may be used rarely.
 Many tables are assigned a fixed amount of address space even
though only a small amount of the table is actually used.
 The ability to execute a program that is only partially in memory
would counter many benefits.
 Less number of I/O would be needed to load or swap each user
program into memory.
 A program would no longer be constrained by the amount of physical
memory that is available.
 Each user program could take less physical memory, more programs
could be run the same time, with a corresponding increase in CPU
utilization and throughput.
Modern microprocessors intended for general-purpose use, a memory
management unit, or MMU, is built into the hardware. The MMU's job is to
translate virtual addresses into physical addresses. A basic example is
given below −

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand paging. It can also

be implemented in a segmentation system. Demand segmentation can also
be used to provide virtual memory.

Demand Paging

A demand paging system is quite similar to a paging system with swapping

where processes reside in secondary memory and pages are loaded only on
demand, not in advance. When a context switch occurs, the operating
system does not copy any of the old program’s pages out to the disk or any
of the new program’s pages into the main memory Instead, it just begins
executing the new program after loading the first page and fetches that
program’s pages as they are referenced.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

While executing a program, if the program references a page which is not

available in the main memory because it was swapped out a little ago, the
processor treats this invalid memory reference as a page fault and
transfers control from the program to the operating system to demand the
page back into the memory.

Advantages
Following are the advantages of Demand Paging −

 Large virtual memory.

 More efficient use of memory.
 There is no limit on degree of multiprogramming.

Disadvantages
 Number of tables and the amount of processor overhead for handling
page interrupts are greater than in the case of the simple paged
management techniques.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Page Replacement Algorithm

Page replacement algorithms are the techniques using which an Operating

System decides which memory pages to swap out, write to disk when a
page of memory needs to be allocated. Paging happens whenever a page
fault occurs and a free page cannot be used for allocation purpose
accounting to reason that pages are not available or the number of free
pages is lower than required pages.
When the page that was selected for replacement and was paged out, is
referenced again, it has to read in from disk, and this requires for I/O
completion. This process determines the quality of the page replacement
algorithm: the lesser the time waiting for page-ins, the better is the
algorithm.
A page replacement algorithm looks at the limited information about
accessing the pages provided by hardware, and tries to select which pages
should be replaced to minimize the total number of page misses, while
balancing it with the costs of primary storage and processor time of the
algorithm itself. There are many different page replacement algorithms. We
evaluate an algorithm by running it on a particular string of memory
reference and computing the number of page faults,

Reference String

The string of memory references is called reference string. Reference strings

are generated artificially or by tracing a given system and recording the
address of each memory reference. The latter choice produces a large
number of data, where we note two things.
 For a given page size, we need to consider only the page number, not
the entire address.
 If we have a reference to a page p, then any immediately following
references to page p will never cause a page fault. Page p will be in
memory after the first reference; the immediately following references
will not fault.
 For example, consider the following sequence of addresses −
123,215,600,1234,76,96
 If page size is 100, then the reference string is 1,2,6,12,0,0

First In First Out (FIFO) algorithm

 Oldest page in main memory is the one which will be selected for
replacement.
 Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages from the tail and add
new pages at the head.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Optimal Page algorithm

 An optimal page-replacement algorithm has the lowest page-fault rate

of all algorithms. An optimal page-replacement algorithm exists, and
has been called OPT or MIN.
 Replace the page that will not be used for the longest period of time.
Use the time when a page is to be used.

Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm

 Page which has not been used for the longest time in main memory is
the one which will be selected for replacement.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages by looking back into

time.

Page Buffering algorithm

 To get a process start quickly, keep a pool of free frames.

 On page fault, select a page to be replaced.
 Write the new page in the frame of free pool, mark the page table and
restart the process.
 Now write the dirty page out of disk and place the frame holding
replaced page in free pool.

Least frequently Used(LFU) algorithm

 The page with the smallest count is the one which will be selected for
replacement.
 This algorithm suffers from the situation in which a page is used
heavily during the initial phase of a process, but then is never used
again.

Most frequently Used(MFU) algorithm

 This algorithm is based on the argument that the page with the
smallest count was probably just brought in and has yet to be used.
One of the important jobs of an Operating System is to manage various I/O
devices including mouse, keyboards, touch pad, disk drives, display
adapters, USB devices, Bit-mapped screen, LED, Analog-to-digital
converter, On/off switch, network connections, audio I/O, printers etc.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

An I/O system is required to take an application I/O request and send it to

the physical device, then take whatever response comes back from the
device and send it to the application. I/O devices can be divided into two
categories −
 Block devices − A block device is one with which the driver
communicates by sending entire blocks of data. For example, Hard
disks, USB cameras, Disk-On-Key etc.
 Character devices − A character device is one with which the driver
communicates by sending and receiving single characters (bytes,
octets). For example, serial ports, parallel ports, sounds cards etc

Device Controllers

Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to

handle a particular device. Operating System takes help from device drivers
to handle all I/O devices.
The Device Controller works like an interface between a device and a device
driver. I/O units (Keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) typically consist of a
mechanical component and an electronic component where electronic
component is called the device controller.
There is always a device controller and a device driver for each device to
communicate with the Operating Systems. A device controller may be able
to handle multiple devices. As an interface its main task is to convert serial
bit stream to block of bytes, perform error correction as necessary.
Any device connected to the computer is connected by a plug and socket,
and the socket is connected to a device controller. Following is a model for
connecting the CPU, memory, controllers, and I/O devices where CPU and
device controllers all use a common bus for communication.

Synchronous vs asynchronous I/O

 Synchronous I/O − In this scheme CPU execution waits while I/O

proceeds
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Asynchronous I/O − I/O proceeds concurrently with CPU execution

Communication to I/O Devices

The CPU must have a way to pass information to and from an I/O device.
There are three approaches available to communicate with the CPU and
Device.

 Special Instruction I/O

 Memory-mapped I/O
 Direct memory access (DMA)

Special Instruction I/O

This uses CPU instructions that are specifically made for controlling I/O
devices. These instructions typically allow data to be sent to an I/O device
or read from an I/O device.

Memory-mapped I/O
When using memory-mapped I/O, the same address space is shared by
memory and I/O devices. The device is connected directly to certain main
memory locations so that I/O device can transfer block of data to/from
memory without going through CPU.

While using memory mapped IO, OS allocates buffer in memory and

informs I/O device to use that buffer to send data to the CPU. I/O device
operates asynchronously with CPU, interrupts CPU when finished.
The advantage to this method is that every instruction which can access
memory can be used to manipulate an I/O device. Memory mapped IO is
used for most high-speed I/O devices like disks, communication interfaces.

Direct Memory Access (DMA)

Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Slow devices like keyboards will generate an interrupt to the main CPU
after each byte is transferred. If a fast device such as a disk generated an
interrupt for each byte, the operating system would spend most of its time
handling these interrupts. So a typical computer uses direct memory
access (DMA) hardware to reduce this overhead.
Direct Memory Access (DMA) means CPU grants I/O module authority to
read from or write to memory without involvement. DMA module itself
controls exchange of data between main memory and the I/O device. CPU
is only involved at the beginning and end of the transfer and interrupted
only after entire block has been transferred.
Direct Memory Access needs a special hardware called DMA controller
(DMAC) that manages the data transfers and arbitrates access to the
system bus. The controllers are programmed with source and destination
pointers (where to read/write the data), counters to track the number of
transferred bytes, and settings, which includes I/O and memory types,
interrupts and states for the CPU cycles.

The operating system uses the DMA hardware as follows −

Ste Description
p

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

1 Device driver is instructed to transfer disk data to a buffer address X.

2 Device driver then instruct disk controller to transfer data to buffer.

3 Disk controller starts DMA transfer.

4 Disk controller sends each byte to DMA controller.

5 DMA controller transfers bytes to buffer, increases the memory address,

decreases the counter C until C becomes zero.

6 When C becomes zero, DMA interrupts CPU to signal transfer completion.

Polling vs Interrupts I/O

A computer must have a way of detecting the arrival of any type of input.
There are two ways that this can happen, known
as polling and interrupts. Both of these techniques allow the processor to
deal with events that can happen at any time and that are not related to
the process it is currently running.

Polling I/O
Polling is the simplest way for an I/O device to communicate with the
processor. The process of periodically checking status of the device to see if
it is time for the next I/O operation, is called polling. The I/O device simply
puts the information in a Status register, and the processor must come and
get the information.
Most of the time, devices will not require attention and when one does it
will have to wait until it is next interrogated by the polling program. This is
an inefficient method and much of the processors time is wasted on
unnecessary polls.
Compare this method to a teacher continually asking every student in a
class, one after another, if they need help. Obviously the more efficient
method would be for a student to inform the teacher whenever they require
assistance.

Interrupts I/O
An alternative scheme for dealing with I/O is the interrupt-driven method.
An interrupt is a signal to the microprocessor from a device that requires
attention.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

A device controller puts an interrupt signal on the bus when it needs CPU’s
attention when CPU receives an interrupt, It saves its current state and
invokes the appropriate interrupt handler using the interrupt vector
(addresses of OS routines to handle various events). When the interrupting
device has been dealt with, the CPU continues with its original task as if it
had never been interrupted.
I/O software is often organized in the following layers −
 User Level Libraries − This provides simple interface to the user
program to perform input and output. For example, stdio is a library
provided by C and C++ programming languages.
 Kernel Level Modules − This provides device driver to interact with
the device controller and device independent I/O modules used by
the device drivers.
 Hardware − This layer includes actual hardware and hardware
controller which interact with the device drivers and makes hardware
alive.
A key concept in the design of I/O software is that it should be device
independent where it should be possible to write programs that can access
any I/O device without having to specify the device in advance. For
example, a program that reads a file as input should be able to read a file
on a floppy disk, on a hard disk, or on a CD-ROM, without having to modify
the program for each different device.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Device Drivers

Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to

handle a particular device. Operating System takes help from device drivers
to handle all I/O devices. Device drivers encapsulate device-dependent code
and implement a standard interface in such a way that code contains
device-specific register reads/writes. Device driver, is generally written by
the device's manufacturer and delivered along with the device on a CD-
ROM.
A device driver performs the following jobs −

 To accept request from the device independent software above to it.

 Interact with the device controller to take and give I/O and perform
required error handling
 Making sure that the request is executed successfully
How a device driver handles a request is as follows: Suppose a request
comes to read a block N. If the driver is idle at the time a request arrives, it
starts carrying out the request immediately. Otherwise, if the driver is
already busy with some other request, it places the new request in the
queue of pending requests.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Interrupt handlers

An interrupt handler, also known as an interrupt service routine or ISR, is

a piece of software or more specifically a callback function in an operating
system or more specifically in a device driver, whose execution is triggered
by the reception of an interrupt.
When the interrupt happens, the interrupt procedure does whatever it has
to in order to handle the interrupt, updates data structures and wakes up
process that was waiting for an interrupt to happen.
The interrupt mechanism accepts an address ─ a number that selects a
specific interrupt handling routine/function from a small set. In most
architectures, this address is an offset stored in a table called the interrupt
vector table. This vector contains the memory addresses of specialized
interrupt handlers.

Device-Independent I/O Software

The basic function of the device-independent software is to perform the I/O

functions that are common to all devices and to provide a uniform interface
to the user-level software. Though it is difficult to write completely device
independent software but we can write some modules which are common
among all the devices. Following is a list of functions of device-independent
I/O Software −

 Uniform interfacing for device drivers

 Device naming - Mnemonic names mapped to Major and Minor device
numbers
 Device protection
 Providing a device-independent block size
 Buffering because data coming off a device cannot be stored in final
destination.
 Storage allocation on block devices
 Allocation and releasing dedicated devices
 Error Reporting

User-Space I/O Software

These are the libraries which provide richer and simplified interface to
access the functionality of the kernel or ultimately interactive with the
device drivers. Most of the user-level I/O software consists of library
procedures with some exception like spooling system which is a way of
dealing with dedicated I/O devices in a multiprogramming system.
I/O Libraries (e.g., stdio) are in user-space to provide an interface to the OS
resident device-independent I/O SW. For example putchar(), getchar(),

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

printf() and scanf() are example of user level I/O library stdio available in C
programming.

Kernel I/O Subsystem

Kernel I/O Subsystem is responsible to provide many services related to

I/O. Following are some of the services provided.
 Scheduling − Kernel schedules a set of I/O requests to determine a
good order in which to execute them. When an application issues a
blocking I/O system call, the request is placed on the queue for that
device. The Kernel I/O scheduler rearranges the order of the queue to
improve the overall system efficiency and the average response time
experienced by the applications.
 Buffering − Kernel I/O Subsystem maintains a memory area known
as buffer that stores data while they are transferred between two
devices or between a device with an application operation. Buffering
is done to cope with a speed mismatch between the producer and
consumer of a data stream or to adapt between devices that have
different data transfer sizes.
 Caching − Kernel maintains cache memory which is region of fast
memory that holds copies of data. Access to the cached copy is more
efficient than access to the original.
 Spooling and Device Reservation − A spool is a buffer that holds
output for a device, such as a printer, that cannot accept interleaved
data streams. The spooling system copies the queued spool files to
the printer one at a time. In some operating systems, spooling is
managed by a system daemon process. In other operating systems, it
is handled by an in kernel thread.
 Error Handling − An operating system that uses protected memory
can guard against many kinds of hardware and application errors.

File

A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded on

secondary storage such as magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and optical
disks. In general, a file is a sequence of bits, bytes, lines or records whose
meaning is defined by the files creator and user.

File Structure

A File Structure should be according to a required format that the operating

system can understand.
 A file has a certain defined structure according to its type.
 A text file is a sequence of characters organized into lines.
 A source file is a sequence of procedures and functions.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 An object file is a sequence of bytes organized into blocks that are

understandable by the machine.
 When operating system defines different file structures, it also
contains the code to support these file structure. Unix, MS-DOS
support minimum number of file structure.

File Type

File type refers to the ability of the operating system to distinguish different
types of file such as text files source files and binary files etc. Many
operating systems support many types of files. Operating system like MS-
DOS and UNIX have the following types of files −

Ordinary files

 These are the files that contain user information.

 These may have text, databases or executable program.
 The user can apply various operations on such files like add, modify,
delete or even remove the entire file.

Directory files

 These files contain list of file names and other information related to
these files.

Special files

 These files are also known as device files.

 These files represent physical device like disks, terminals, printers,
networks, tape drive etc.
These files are of two types −
 Character special files − data is handled character by character as
in case of terminals or printers.
 Block special files − data is handled in blocks as in the case of disks
and tapes.

File Access Mechanisms

File access mechanism refers to the manner in which the records of a file
may be accessed. There are several ways to access files −

 Sequential access
 Direct/Random access
 Indexed sequential access

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Sequential access
A sequential access is that in which the records are accessed in some
sequence, i.e., the information in the file is processed in order, one record
after the other. This access method is the most primitive one. Example:
Compilers usually access files in this fashion.

Direct/Random access
 Random access file organization provides, accessing the records
directly.
 Each record has its own address on the file with by the help of which
it can be directly accessed for reading or writing.
 The records need not be in any sequence within the file and they need
not be in adjacent locations on the storage medium.

Indexed sequential access

 This mechanism is built up on base of sequential access.

 An index is created for each file which contains pointers to various
blocks.
 Index is searched sequentially and its pointer is used to access the file
directly.

Space Allocation

Files are allocated disk spaces by operating system. Operating systems

deploy following three main ways to allocate disk space to files.

 Contiguous Allocation
 Linked Allocation
 Indexed Allocation

Contiguous Allocation

 Each file occupies a contiguous address space on disk.

 Assigned disk address is in linear order.
 Easy to implement.
 External fragmentation is a major issue with this type of allocation
technique.

Linked Allocation

 Each file carries a list of links to disk blocks.

 Directory contains link / pointer to first block of a file.
 No external fragmentation

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Effectively used in sequential access file.

 Inefficient in case of direct access file.

Indexed Allocation

 Provides solutions to problems of contiguous and linked allocation.

 A index block is created having all pointers to files.
 Each file has its own index block which stores the addresses of disk
space occupied by the file.
 Directory contains the addresses of index blocks of files.
Security refers to providing a protection system to computer system
resources such as CPU, memory, disk, software programs and most
importantly data/information stored in the computer system. If a computer
program is run by an unauthorized user, then he/she may cause severe
damage to computer or data stored in it. So a computer system must be
protected against unauthorized access, malicious access to system
memory, viruses, worms etc. We're going to discuss following topics in this
chapter.

 Authentication
 One Time passwords
 Program Threats
 System Threats
 Computer Security Classifications

Authentication

Authentication refers to identifying each user of the system and associating

the executing programs with those users. It is the responsibility of the
Operating System to create a protection system which ensures that a user
who is running a particular program is authentic. Operating Systems
generally identifies/authenticates users using following three ways −
 Username / Password − User need to enter a registered username
and password with Operating system to login into the system.
 User card/key − User need to punch card in card slot, or enter key
generated by key generator in option provided by operating system to
login into the system.
 User attribute - fingerprint/ eye retina pattern/ signature − User
need to pass his/her attribute via designated input device used by
operating system to login into the system.

One Time passwords

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

One-time passwords provide additional security along with normal

authentication. In One-Time Password system, a unique password is
required every time user tries to login into the system. Once a one-time
password is used, then it cannot be used again. One-time password are
implemented in various ways.
 Random numbers − Users are provided cards having numbers
printed along with corresponding alphabets. System asks for
numbers corresponding to few alphabets randomly chosen.
 Secret key − User are provided a hardware device which can create a
secret id mapped with user id. System asks for such secret id which
is to be generated every time prior to login.
 Network password − Some commercial applications send one-time
passwords to user on registered mobile/ email which is required to be
entered prior to login.

Program Threats

Operating system's processes and kernel do the designated task as

instructed. If a user program made these process do malicious tasks, then
it is known as Program Threats. One of the common example of program
threat is a program installed in a computer which can store and send user
credentials via network to some hacker. Following is the list of some well-
known program threats.
 Trojan Horse − Such program traps user login credentials and stores
them to send to malicious user who can later on login to computer
and can access system resources.
 Trap Door − If a program which is designed to work as required, have
a security hole in its code and perform illegal action without
knowledge of user then it is called to have a trap door.
 Logic Bomb − Logic bomb is a situation when a program misbehaves
only when certain conditions met otherwise it works as a genuine
program. It is harder to detect.
 Virus − Virus as name suggest can replicate themselves on computer
system. They are highly dangerous and can modify/delete user files,
crash systems. A virus is generatlly a small code embedded in a
program. As user accesses the program, the virus starts getting
embedded in other files/ programs and can make system unusable
for user

System Threats

System threats refers to misuse of system services and network

connections to put user in trouble. System threats can be used to launch
program threats on a complete network called as program attack. System

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

threats creates such an environment that operating system resources/ user

files are misused. Following is the list of some well-known system threats.
 Worm − Worm is a process which can choked down a system
performance by using system resources to extreme levels. A Worm
process generates its multiple copies where each copy uses system
resources, prevents all other processes to get required resources.
Worms processes can even shut down an entire network.
 Port Scanning − Port scanning is a mechanism or means by which a
hacker can detects system vulnerabilities to make an attack on the
system.
 Denial of Service − Denial of service attacks normally prevents user
to make legitimate use of the system. For example, a user may not be
able to use internet if denial of service attacks browser's content
settings.

Computer Security Classifications

As per the U.S. Department of Defense Trusted Computer System's

Evaluation Criteria there are four security classifications in computer
systems: A, B, C, and D. This is widely used specifications to determine and
model the security of systems and of security solutions. Following is the
brief description of each classification.

S.N. Classification Type & Description

1 Type A
Highest Level. Uses formal design specifications and verification
techniques. Grants a high degree of assurance of process security.

2 Type B
Provides mandatory protection system. Have all the properties of a class
C2 system. Attaches a sensitivity label to each object. It is of three types.
 B1 − Maintains the security label of each object in the system. Label
is used for making decisions to access control.
 B2 − Extends the sensitivity labels to each system resource, such as
storage objects, supports covert channels and auditing of events.
 B3 − Allows creating lists or user groups for access-control to grant
access or revoke access to a given named object.

3 Type C

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Provides protection and user accountability using audit capabilities. It is of

two types.
 C1 − Incorporates controls so that users can protect their private
information and keep other users from accidentally reading /
deleting their data. UNIX versions are mostly Cl class.
 C2 − Adds an individual-level access control to the capabilities of a
Cl level system.

4 Type D
Lowest level. Minimum protection. MS-DOS, Window 3.1 fall in this
category.

Linux is one of popular version of UNIX operating System. It is open source

as its source code is freely available. It is free to use. Linux was designed
considering UNIX compatibility. Its functionality list is quite similar to that
of UNIX.

Components of Linux System

Linux Operating System has primarily three components

 Kernel − Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all
major activities of this operating system. It consists of various
modules and it interacts directly with the underlying hardware.
Kernel provides the required abstraction to hide low level hardware
details to system or application programs.
 System Library − System libraries are special functions or programs
using which application programs or system utilities accesses
Kernel's features. These libraries implement most of the
functionalities of the operating system and do not requires kernel
module's code access rights.
 System Utility − System Utility programs are responsible to do
specialized, individual level tasks.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

Kernel Mode vs User Mode

Kernel component code executes in a special privileged mode called kernel

mode with full access to all resources of the computer. This code
represents a single process, executes in single address space and do not
require any context switch and hence is very efficient and fast. Kernel runs
each processes and provides system services to processes, provides
protected access to hardware to processes.
Support code which is not required to run in kernel mode is in System
Library. User programs and other system programs works in User
Mode which has no access to system hardware and kernel code. User
programs/ utilities use System libraries to access Kernel functions to get
system's low level tasks.

Basic Features

Following are some of the important features of Linux Operating System.

 Portable − Portability means software can works on different types of
hardware in same way. Linux kernel and application programs
supports their installation on any kind of hardware platform.
 Open Source − Linux source code is freely available and it is
community based development project. Multiple teams work in
collaboration to enhance the capability of Linux operating system and
it is continuously evolving.
 Multi-User − Linux is a multiuser system means multiple users can
access system resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at
same time.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Multiprogramming − Linux is a multiprogramming system means

multiple applications can run at same time.
 Hierarchical File System − Linux provides a standard file structure
in which system files/ user files are arranged.
 Shell − Linux provides a special interpreter program which can be
used to execute commands of the operating system. It can be used to
do various types of operations, call application programs. etc.
 Security − Linux provides user security using authentication features
like password protection/ controlled access to specific files/
encryption of data.

Architecture

The following illustration shows the architecture of a Linux system −

The architecture of a Linux System consists of the following layers −

 Hardware layer − Hardware consists of all peripheral devices (RAM/
HDD/ CPU etc).
 Kernel − It is the core component of Operating System, interacts
directly with hardware, provides low level services to upper layer
components.
 Shell − An interface to kernel, hiding complexity of kernel's functions
from users. The shell takes commands from the user and executes
kernel's functions.
Notes Prepared by,
A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

 Utilities − Utility programs that provide the user most of the

functionalities of an operating systems.
Sample Questions

Operating Systems Overview

1. What is the relationship between operating systems and computer

hardware?
2. How Buffering can improve the performance of a Computer system?
3. What are the primary differences between Network Operating System
and Distributed Operating System?
4. What inconveniences that a user can face while interacting with a
computer system, which is without an operating system?

Operating Systems Process

1. What is the Difference between a Job and a Process?

2. What are the advantages of multiprogramming?
3. What are the advantages of Multiprocessing or Parallel System?

Operating Systems Types

1. What are the differences between Batch processing system and Real
Time Processing System?
2. What are the differences between Real Time System and Timesharing
System?
3. What are the differences etween multiprocessing and
multiprogramming?

Operating Systems Process Scheduling

1. What is a process scheduler? State the characteristicsof a good

process scheduler?
OR
What is scheduling? What criteria affects the schedulers
performance?
2. Explain time slicing. How its duration affects the overall working of
the system.
3. What is Shortest Remaining Time, SRT scheduling?
4. What is Highest Response Ratio Next (HRN) Scheduling?
5. What are the different principles which must be considered while
selection of a scheduling algorithm?

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti
 Operating System

6. Find out which algorithm among FCFS, SJF And Round Robin with
quantum 10, would give the minimum average time for a given
workload.
7. Explain pseudo parallelism? Describe the process model that makes
parallelism easier to deal with.

Operating Systems Memory Allocation

1. What are the differences between paging and segmentation?

2. Explain various allocation algorithms.
3. When does a page fault occur? Explain various page replacement
strategies/algorithms.

Operating Systems Semaphores

1. Explain semophores and write a short note on it.

Notes Prepared by,

A.Bathsheba Parimala, Dept. of BCA,
St. John’s College, Palayamkotti