PAPER-IV

OPERATING SYSTEMS

UNIT I: What is Operating System? History and Evolution of OS, Basic OS

functions, Resource Abstraction, Types of Operating Systems–
Multiprogramming Systems, Batch Systems, Time Sharing Systems; Operating
Systems for Personal Computers, Workstations and Hand-held Devices, Process
Control & Real time Systems

What is an Operating System?

An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer
hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer
programs.It is a collection of programs that acts as an interface between a user
of a computer and the computer hardware.

History & Evolution of OS

The various evolution of an operating system are given below:

Early Evolution

 1945: ENIAC, Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

 1949: EDSAC and EDVAC

 1949: BINAC - a successor to the ENIAC

 1951: UNIVAC by Remington

 1952: IBM 701

 1956: The interrupt

 1954-1957: FORTRAN was developed

 By the late 1950s Operating systems were well improved and started
supporting following usages:

 It was able to perform Single stream batch processing.

 It could use Common, standardized, input/output routines for device access.

  Program transition capabilities to reduce the overhead of starting a new job
was added.

 Error recovery to clean up after a job terminated abnormally was added.

 Job control languages that allowed users to specify the job definition and
resource requirements were made possible.

Operating Systems - In 1960s

 1961: The dawn of minicomputers

 1962: Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) from MIT

 1963: Burroughs Master Control Program (MCP) for the B5000 system

 1964: IBM System/360

 1960s: Disks became mainstream

 1966: Minicomputers got cheaper, more powerful, and really useful.

 1967-1968: Mouse was invented.

 1964 and onward: Multics

 1969: The UNIX Time-Sharing System from Bell Telephone Laboratories.

OS Features by 1970s

 Multi User and Multi tasking was introduced.

 Dynamic address translation hardware and Virtual machines came into picture.

 Modular architectures came into existence.

 Personal, interactive systems came into existence.

Accomplishments after 1970

 1971: Intel announces the microprocessor

 1972: IBM comes out with VM: the Virtual Machine Operating System

 1973: UNIX 4th Edition is published

  1973: Ethernet

 1974 The Personal Computer Age begins

 1974: Gates and Allen wrote BASIC for the Altair

 1976: Apple II

 August 12, 1981: IBM introduces the IBM PC

 1983 Microsoft begins work on MS-Windows

 1984 Apple Macintosh comes out

 1990 Microsoft Windows 3.0 comes out

 1991 GNU/Linux

 1992 The first Windows virus comes out

 1993 Windows NT

 2007: iOS

 2008: Android OS

Basic Functions of OS
The operating system also includes programs to manage these resources, such
as a traffic controller, a scheduler, memory management module, I/O programs,
and a file system.
Important functions of an operating System:
1. Security –
The operating system uses password protection to protect user data and
similar other techniques. it also prevents unauthorized access to programs
and user data.

2. Control over system performance –

Monitors overall system health to help improve performance. records the
response time between service requests and system response to having a
complete view of the system health. This can help improve performance by
providing important information needed to troubleshoot problems.

3. Job accounting –
Operating system Keeps track of time and resources used by various tasks
 and users, this information can be used to track resource usage for a
particular user or group of users.

4. Error detecting aids –

The operating system constantly monitors the system to detect errors and
avoid the malfunctioning of a computer system.

5. Coordination between other software and users –

Operating systems also coordinate and assign interpreters, compilers,
assemblers, and other software to the various users of the computer
systems.

6. Memory Management –
The operating system manages the Primary Memory or Main Memory. Main
memory is made up of a large array of bytes or words where each byte or
word is assigned a certain address. Main memory is fast storage and it can
be accessed directly by the CPU. For a program to be executed, it should be
first loaded in the main memory. An Operating System performs the
following activities for memory management:
It keeps track of primary memory, i.e., which bytes of memory are used by
which user program. The memory addresses that have already been
allocated and the memory addresses of the memory that has not yet been
used. In multiprogramming, the OS decides the order in which processes are
granted access to memory, and for how long. It Allocates the memory to a
process when the process requests it and deallocates the memory when the
process has terminated or is performing an I/O operation.

7. Processor Management –
In a multi-programming environment, the OS decides the order in which
processes have access to the processor, and how much processing time
each process has. This function of OS is called process scheduling. An
Operating System performs the following activities for processor
management.
Keeps track of the status of processes. The program which performs this
task is known as a traffic controller. Allocates the CPU that is a processor to
a process. De-allocates processor when a process is no more required.

8. Device Management –
An OS manages device communication via their respective drivers. It
performs the following activities for device management. Keeps track of all
devices connected to the system. designates a program responsible for
every device known as the Input/Output controller. Decides which process
 gets access to a certain device and for how long. Allocates devices in an
effective and efficient way. Deallocates devices when they are no longer
required.

9. File Management –
A file system is organized into directories for efficient or easy navigation and
usage. These directories may contain other directories and other files. An
Operating System carries out the following file management activities. It
keeps track of where information is stored, user access settings and status
of every file, and more… These facilities are collectively known as the file
system.

Resource Abstraction
Resource abstraction is the process of “hiding the details of how the hardware
operates, thereby making computer hardware relatively easy for an application
programmer to use”. Such an abstraction saves the programmer from needing
to learn the details of both hardware interfaces . An abstraction is software that
hides lower level details and provides a set of higher-level functions. An
operating system transforms the physical world of devices, instructions,
memory, and time into virtual world that is the result of abstractions built by the
operating system.
Types of OS
1. Serial Processing
It develops by 1940 to 1950’s programmers incorporated by the hardware
components without the implementation of the operating system. The problems
here are the scheduling and setup time. The user’s login for machine time by
wasting the computed time. The setup time is involved when loading the
compiler, saving the compiled program, source program, linking and buffering. If
any intermediate error occurs, the process gets starts over.

2. The Batch System

This type of operating system does not interact with the computer directly.
There is an operator which takes similar jobs having the same requirement and
group them into batches. It is the responsibility of the operator to sort jobs with
similar needs.
Advantages of Batch Operating System:

 It is very difficult to guess or know the time required for any job to
complete. Processors of the batch systems know how long the job would
be when it is in queue
 Multiple users can share the batch systems
 The idle time for the batch system is very less
 It is easy to manage large work repeatedly in batch systems

Disadvantages of Batch Operating System:

 The computer operators should be well known with batch systems

 Batch systems are hard to debug
 It is sometimes costly
 The other jobs will have to wait for an unknown time if any job fails

Examples of Batch based Operating System: Payroll System, Bank Statements,

etc.

3. Multi-programmed Batch System

It is used to have several jobs to execute which should be held in main memory.
Job scheduling is made up of the processor to decide which program to
execute.

4. Time-Shared Operating System

Used to develop the substitute batch systems. The user communicated directly
with the computer by printing ports like an electric teletype. Few users shared
the computer instantaneously and spent a fraction of a second on every job
before starting with the next one. The fast server can act on many user’s
processes instantly by creating the iteration when they were receiving its full
attention. The Timesharing systems are used by multiple programs to apply to
the computer system by sharing the system interactively.The multi-
programming is used to manage multiple communicative jobs. The time of the
processor is shared among multiple users and many users can simultaneously
access the system via terminals.

Advantages of Time-Sharing OS:

 Each task gets an equal opportunity
 Fewer chances of duplication of software
 CPU idle time can be reduced
Disadvantages of Time-Sharing OS:
 Reliability problem
 One must have to take care of the security and integrity of user programs
and data
 Data communication problem
 Examples of Time-Sharing OSs are: Multics, Unix, etc.

5. Real-Time Operating System

These types of OSs serve real-time systems. The time interval required to
process and respond to inputs is very small. This time interval is
called response time.

Real-time systems are used when there are time requirements that are very
strict like missile systems, air traffic control systems, robots, etc.

Two types of Real-Time Operating System which are as follows:

 Hard Real-Time Systems:

These OSs are meant for applications where time constraints are very strict
and even the shortest possible delay is not acceptable. These systems are
built for saving life like automatic parachutes or airbags which are required to
be readily available in case of any accident. Virtual memory is rarely found in
these systems.
 Soft Real-Time Systems:

These OSs are for applications where for time-constraint is less strict.
Advantages of RTOS:
 Maximum Consumption: Maximum utilization of devices and system,
thus more output from all the resources
 Task Shifting: The time assigned for shifting tasks in these systems are
very less. For example, in older systems, it takes about 10 microseconds
in shifting one task to another, and in the latest systems, it takes 3
microseconds.
 Focus on Application: Focus on running applications and less
importance to applications which are in the queue.
 Real-time operating system in the embedded system: Since the size
of programs are small, RTOS can also be used in embedded systems like
in transport and others.
 Error Free: These types of systems are error-free.
 Memory Allocation: Memory allocation is best managed in these types
of systems.

Disadvantages of RTOS:
 Limited Tasks: Very few tasks run at the same time and their
concentration is very less on few applications to avoid errors.
 Use heavy system resources: Sometimes the system resources are not
so good and they are expensive as well.
 Complex Algorithms: The algorithms are very complex and difficult for the
designer to write on.
 Device driver and interrupt signals: It needs specific device drivers and
interrupts signals to respond earliest to interrupts.
 Thread Priority: It is not good to set thread priority as these systems are
very less prone to switching tasks.
Examples of Real-Time Operating Systems are: Scientific experiments,
medical imaging systems, industrial control systems, weapon systems,
robots, air traffic control systems, etc.

6.OS for PCs

PC operating systems ere neither multiuser nor multitasking. However, the

goals of these operating systems have changed with time; instead of
maximizing CPU and peripheral utilization, the systems opt for maximizing
user convenience and responsiveness. These systems are called Desktop
 Systems and include PCs running Microsoft Windows and the Apple
Macintosh. Operating systems for these computers have benefited in several
ways from the development of operating systems for mainframes.

7.Handheld Systems

Handheld systems include Personal Digital Assistants(PDAs), such

as Palm-Pilots or Cellular Telephones with connectivity to a network such as
the Internet. They are usually of limited size due to which most handheld
devices have a small amount of memory, include slow processors, and
feature small display screens.

 Many handheld devices have between 512 KB and 8 MB of memory. As a

result, the operating system and applications must manage memory
efficiently. This includes returning all allocated memory back to the
memory manager once the memory is no longer being used.
 Currently, many handheld devices do not use virtual memory techniques,
thus forcing program developers to work within the confines of limited
physical memory.
 Processors for most handheld devices often run at a fraction of the speed
of a processor in a PC. Faster processors require more power. To include
a faster processor in a handheld device would require a larger battery that
would have to be replaced more frequently.

 The last issue confronting program designers for handheld devices is the
small display screens typically available. One approach for displaying the
content in web pages is web clipping, where only a small subset of a web
page is delivered and displayed on the handheld device.