CS2106

Introduction to OS

Lecture 1

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Overview
 Operating Systems basic concepts:
 What is OS?
 Brief History
 Motivation for OS
 Overview of Modern OSes

 Operating System Structures

 OS components
 Types of kernel

 Virtual Machines
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What is OS?
 Incorrect/Incomplete definition:
 It is the desktop when you boot up your PC
 The "thing" that stores your games
 Windows! (or Mac! ) (or Linux!)

 One simple definition:

 A program that acts as an intermediary between a computer user
and the computer hardware
 Wikipedia: An operating system (OS) is system software that
manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides
common services for computer programs.
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Illustration: What is an OS?
User

Operating System

Hardware

 A simplified view:
 Will be refined as we move along

 The most general version:

 Hardware ( not only computer! )
 User ( can be application programs or actual person! )

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Example of Common OS
 On Computer:
 Windows 10/9/8/XP
 Mac OS X
 Linux distros: Ubuntu, Redhat, CentOS, Debian
 Solaris

 On Smartphone:
 iOS, Android, Windows Mobile

 Other hardware with OS:

 Game console: PS4, Xbox, Wii U, PSP vista, …
 Home appliance: Blueray/DVD Player, Mio TV console, …

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 To invent the future, you must understand the past

BRIEF HISTORY OF OS

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Brief History of OS
 Essentially, OS evolves with:
 Computer hardware
 User application and usage pattern

 The "first" computers:

 Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC)
 1945
 Program controlled by cables and switches

 Harvard Mark I:
 1944

 Program controlled by punched paper tape

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OS for the first computers
 OS Type: User Program
 NO OS
Hardware

 Programs directly interact with hardware

 Reprogram by changing physical configuration of hardware

 Advantage:
 Minimal overhead

 Disadvantage:
 Not portable

 Inefficient use of computer!

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Mainframes: The "Big Iron"
 Commonly used by large corporations in 60s, 70s

 Common features:
 No interactive interface
 Accept programs in the form of:
 Paper tape, magnetic tape, punch card
 Support batch processing only
 Very costly
 Usually "rented" instead of owned
 Example:
 IBM 360
 Cost 5 billion US dollars in 1964

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OS for Mainframes
 OS Type:
 Batch OS User Program

OS

Hardware
 Batch OS:
 Execute user program (a.k.a job) one at a time
 Load job from media, execute, collect result
 User Job:
 Still interact with hardware directly
 With additional information for the OS
 Resource required
 Job specification
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OS for Mainframes: Improvements
 Simple batch processing is inefficient:
 CPU idle when perform I/O

 One possible Improvements:

 Multiprogramming:
 loads multiple jobs and runs other jobs when I/O needs to be done
 Overlaps computation with I/O

 Another development of OS during this period (70s):

 Time-Sharing OS

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Time-Sharing OS
 Features:
 Allow multiple users to interact with machine using terminals (teletypes)
 User job scheduling
 Illusion of Concurrency
 Memory management
 Famous Examples:
 CTSS developed at MIT 1960s
 Multics (1970s)
 Considered as the parent of Unix
 Pushed the state of art in virtual memory, security
 Not so different from using Unix servers today but more primitive

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Time-sharing OS: Illustration
☺ ☺ ☺ Multiple Users

Programs
UP UP …. UP initiated by user

OS

Hardware

 OS manages the sharing of:

 CPU time, memory and storage

 Virtualization of hardware:
 Each program executes as if it has all the resources to itself

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Minicomputer and Unix
 Minicomputer follows the mainframe:
 A "mini" version of mainframe:
 Smaller and cheaper
 Example:
 Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) PDP-11
 Famous OS:
 Unix
 Developed by AT&T employees, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie,
Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna
 Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
 Invented the C programming language as well!!

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Personal Computer
 Apple II PC:
 First successfully produced mass home computer
 Designed by Steve Wozniak (alone!)

 IBM PC:
 The first generic PC
 PC becoming truly a collection of commodity hardware components
 Leads to dominance of Microsoft OS in PCs: MSDOS then Windows

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OS on Personal Computer
 Machine (can be) dedicated to user, not timeshared between
multiple users
 Give rise to personal OS

 Several Models:
 Windows model:
 Single user at a time but possibly more than 1 user can access
 Dedicated machine
 Unix model:
 One user at the workstation but other users can access remotely
 General time sharing model

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 Why do we need OS?

MOTIVATIONS OF OS

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Motivation for OS: Abstraction
 Large variation in hardware configurations

 Example (Hard disk):

 Different capacity (500mb, 320gb, 1.5tb etc)
 Different capabilities:
 Rotation per minutes (RPM)
 Access (read/write) speed
 Etc

 However, hardware in the same category has well defined

and common functionality
 Example (Hard disk): Store and retrieve information
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Motivation for OS: Abstraction
 Operating System serves as an abstraction:
 Hide the different low level details
 Present the common high level functionality to user

 The user can then perform essential tasks through operating

system
 no need to concern with low level details

 Provides:
 Efficiency and portability

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Motivation for OS: Resource Allocator
 Program execution requires multiple resources:
 CPU, memory, I/O devices etc

 For better utilization of resources, multiple programs should

be allowed to execute simultaneously

 OS is a resource allocator
 Manages all resources
 CPU, Memory, Input/Output devices
 Arbitrate potentially conflicting requests
 for efficient and fair resource use
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Motivation for OS: Control Program
 Program can misuse the computer:
 Accidentally: due to coding bugs
 Maliciously: virus, malware etc

 Multiple users can share the computer:

 Tricky to ensure separate user space

 OS is a control program
 Controls execution of programs
 Prevent errors and improper use of the computer
 Provides security and protection
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Motivation for OS: Summary
 Manage resources and coordination
 process synchronization, resource sharing
 Simplify programming
 abstraction of hardware, convenient services
 Enforce usage policies
 Security and protection
 User Program Portability:
 Across different hardware
 Efficiency
 Sophisticated implementations
 Optimized for particular usage and hardware
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 The families of modern OS

OVERVIEW OF MODERN OS

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Modern OS: Overview
PC

Mobile Real-Time Embedded

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 Common Architecture for OS

OS STRUCTURE

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Operating System Structures
 We have identified the major capabilities of an OS
 i.e. the specification of the OS

 Let us now consider:

 The best way to provides these capabilities
 i.e. the implementations of the OS

 Operating system structure:

 Organization of the various components
 Important factors:
 Flexibility
 Robustness
 Maintainability
 Performance

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Illustration: High level view of OS
PowerPoint Chrome DOTA
User
Mode
User Interface Software

Kernel
Mode Operating System

Hardware Hardware

 Operating System is essentially a software

 Runs in kernel mode: Have complete access to all hardware resources
 Other software executes in user mode
 With limited (or controlled) access to hardware resources
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Illustration: Generic OS Components
E
System
User Programs
D
Processes
Library
C C

OS
A B B
Hardware

 A: OS executing machine instructions

 B: normal machine instructions executed (program/library code)
 C: calling OS using system call interface
 D: user program calls library code
 E: system processes
 Provide high level services, usually part of OS

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OS as a Program
 OS is also known as the kernel
 Just another program with some special features
 Deals with hardware issues
 Provides system call interface
 Special code for interrupt handlers, device drivers

 Kernel code has to be different than normal programs:

 no use of system call in kernel code
 can’t use normal libraries
 no normal I/O

 Consider this:
 Normal programs use OS: what does OS use? 

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Implementing Operating System
 Programming Language:  Common code organization:
 Historically in assembly/machine 1. Machine independent HLL
code 2. Machine dependent HLL
 Now in HLLs: 3. Machine dependent assembly
 Especially C/C++ code
 Heavily hardware architecture  Challenges:
dependent
 “No one else” to rely on for nice
services
 Debugging is hard
 Complexity
 Enormous Codebase

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OS Structures
 Several ways to structure an OS:
 Monolithic
 Microkernel
 Layered
 Client-Server
 Exokernel
 etc

 We will cover the first two in details:

 They represent the whole range of possibilities
 Most other approaches are variant or improvement

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Monolithic OS
 Kernel is:
 One BIG special program
 Various services and components are integral part
 Good SE principles is still possible with:
 modularization
 separation of interfaces and implementation
 This is the traditional approach taken by:
 Most Unix variants, Windows NT/XP

 Advantages:
 Well understood
 Good performance
 Disadvantages:
 Highly coupled components
 Usually devolved into very complicated internal structure

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Monolithic Kernel Illustration
User
User Programs Mode

System Call Interface

Process Memory Kernel

OS Management Management
File System Mode

Device Driver

Hardware

Generic Architecture of Monolithic OS Components

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Microkernel OS
 Kernel is:
 Very small and clean
 Only provides basic and essential facilities:
 Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
 Address space management
 Thread management
 etc
 Higher level services:
 Built on top of the basic facilities
 Run as server process outside of the OS
 Use IPC to communicate

 Advantages:
 Kernel is generally more robust and more extendible
 Better isolation and protection between kernel and high level services

 Disadvantages:
 Lower Performance

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Microkernel Components

User Programs

Device Process Memory File

Driver Management Management System User
Mode

OS IPC Scheduling Interrupt Handler …

Kernel
Hardware Mode

Generic Architecture of Microkernel OS Components

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Other Operating System Structure
 Layered Systems:
 Generalization of monolithic system
 Organize the components into hierarchy of layers
 Upper layers make use of the lower layers
 Lowest layer is the hardware
 Highest layer is the user interface
 Client-Server Model
 Variation of microkernel
 Two classes of processes:
 Client process request service from server process
 Server Process built on top of the microkernel
 Client and Server process can be on separate machine!

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 Ways of running OSes

VIRTUAL MACHINES

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Motivation: Why Virtual Machines
 Operating system assumes total control of the hardware:
 What if we want to run several OSes on the same hardware at the
same time?

 Operating system is hard to debug / monitor:

 How do we observe the working of the OS?
 How do we test a potentially destructive implementation?

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Definition: Virtual Machine
 Virtual Machine:
 A software emulation of hardware
 Virtualization of underlying hardware
 Illusion of complete hardware to level above: memory, CPU, hard disk etc…
 Normal (primitive) operating system can then run on top of the virtual
machine

 Also known as Hypervisor

 Two classes of implementations shown next

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 Type 1 Hypervisor
UP UP UP UP

OS1 OS2 OS3

Type 1 Hypervisor

Hardware

 Type 1 hypervisor:
 Provides individual virtual machines to guest OSes
 eg. IBM VM/370

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Type 2 Hypervisor
UP UP UP

Guest OS

Type 2 Hypervisor

Host Operating System

Hardware
 Type 2 hypervisor OS
 Runs in host OS
 Guest OS runs inside Virtual Machine
 e.g. VMware
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Summary
 Definition of Operating System

 Roles of Operating System

 Common Operating System families

 Operating System structure

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Reference
 Modern Operating System (4th Edition)
 By Andrew S.Tanenbaum
 Published by Pearson

 Operating System Concepts (8th Edition)

 By Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin & Greg Gagne
 Published by McGraw Hill

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 FYI: MODERN OS FAMILY
(AS OF 2016)

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Modern OS: An Overview
 Several dominant desktop OSes:
 Microsoft Windows family
 Unix and its variants
 Mac OS family

 Specialized OSes:
 Real-time OS
 Embedded System OS
 Mobile OS
 Distributed OS

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Microsoft OS Family
 16-bit:
 MS-DOS (various versions, v1.0 in 1985)
 Windows 1.X – 3.X, Windows 9X, Windows ME (2000)

 32-bit:
 Windows NT (32-bit, v3.1 in 1994)
 Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (2015)

 64-bit:
 Windows XP (2005), Vista, 7, 8, 10 (2015)

 Mostly on PC (Intel Processors) platforms

 Proprietary
 some sources available under conditions
 Complex architecture, internals info not widely available
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Microsoft OS: Complexity
 Win NT 3.1: (shipped 1993)
 Dev Team Size: 200
 6 Millions LOC (Line of Code)
 Complete build time is 5 hours on ~486/50

 Win 2000: (shipped 1999)

 Dev Team Size: 1400
 29 Millions LOC (about 50Gb of disk space)
 Complete build time: 8 hours on 4-way PIII Xeon 550 with 50Gb disk and 512k
RAM

 Windows 7: (shipped 2009)

 Dev Team Size: ~2500 (split into 25 teams of ~100)
 ~40 Millions LOC

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Unix and its Variants
 Many Unix Variants:
 Unix System V versions

 Berkeley System Distribution (BSD)

 Sun Solaris

 SGI IRIX, IBM AIX, Digital Unix, HP-UX, ...

 Linux

 MacOS X (BSD + Mach + Apple)

 Programming Interface (API) mostly the same, fundamentals are

same but small differences exist
 Simple architecture, internals well understood, good documentation, research papers
 Linux + BSD open source
 Non-proprietary, POSIX standards
 Implementations on many processors architectures:
 x86, powerpc, m68k, mips, arm, sparc, alpha, ...

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Unix Variants: Rough timeline

"Unix history-simple" by Eraserhead1, Infinity0, Sav_vas - Levenez Unix History

[ CS2106 L1 - AY2021 S1 ] Diagram, Information on the history of IBM's AIX on ibm.com
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Linux Distributions (Distros)
 Most popular form of linux OS
 E.g. Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSe, BSD, Debian, CentOS, etc

 Essentially a software collection with:

 Linux kernel
 Common software:
 Desktop management, browser, media player etc
 Development tools/libraries
 gnu libraries, compilers etc
 Device drivers
 Package manager
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Mackintosh OS Timeline

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Characteristics of Modern PC OS
 Multitasking:
 Concurrent execution of programs
 On multiple cores

 Multi/single user:
 Unix usually multi-user
 Windows usually single-user at a time

 Wide range of computer hardware:

 Single PC/notebook
 Shared memory systems with 10-100s of processors
 Machine clusters with 100-1000s of processors
 Distributed computing on Internet with >10K machines
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Real Time OS
 OS for computer systems with time constraints:
 periodicity, deadlines

 Examples:
 Critical Systems: aircraft flight system, nuclear power plant, radar system
 Consumer appliances: mobile phones, mp3, video players

 Hard real time:

 Timing requirements must be respected, eg. control system
 Soft real time:
 Some timing constraints can be missed

 May need formally verified systems

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Embedded OS
 OS for specialized devices and appliances

 Examples:
 (Older)Smartphones, microwave oven, car, smart cards, game consoles,
etc

 Special consideration required for:

 power usage, real-time requirement and memory limitations

 Usually:
 Not general purpose: cannot run any application
 Cannot be modified: Mostly stored in Read-Only Memory (ROM

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Mobile OS
 OS for smartphones, tablets, PDAs, or other mobile devices

 Examples:
 Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc

 Characteristics:
 Essentially a customised version of PC OS
 Common features: Touchscreen, Cellular, (Video) Camera, etc…

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Distributed OS
 OS for computers/processors connected using network
 Loosely or Tightly coupled

 Loosely coupled:
 Autonomous nodes, network may be wide area
 Communication is asynchronous
 Reliability issues:
 communication may not be reliable, nodes may fail
 Resources are distributed
 eg. distributed filesystem, P2P storage

 Tightly coupled:
 Specialized node (e.g. Computing nodes) that shares other resources (e.g. Memory / Harddisk
etc), nodes in close proximity
 Examples:
 Tembusu2 cluster compute nodes:
 ~100 Intel Xeon nodes running CentOS

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