Operating System

UNIT 2 OVERVIEW OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

Introduction: Computer System Organization, Computer System Architecture, Operating

System Operations. Operating System Structure: OS Services, System calls, Types of
System Calls, Operating – System Structure, OS Generation and System Boot.

What is an Operating System

 An operating system is a program that manages the computer hardware. It also provides a
basis for application programs and acts as an intermediary between a user of a
computer and the computer hardware.
The purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which a user can execute
programs.
 Exploits the hardware resources of one or more processors (cores)
 Provides a set of services (system calls) to system users
 Manages main/secondary memory and I/O devices

Goals of an Operating System

 The primary goal of an operating system is thus to make the computer system convenient
to use.
 The secondary goal is to use the computer hardware in an efficient manner.

Components of a Computer System

A computer system can be divided roughly into four components.
i. Hardware
ii. Operating system
iii. The application programs
iv. Users

Computer System Organization

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

 when it is powered up or rebooted—it needs to have an initial program to run.

 This initial program,or bootstrap program
 It is stored within the computer hardware in read-only memory ( ROM)
 Or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory ( EEPROM)
 Bootstrap program must locate the operating-system kernel and load it into memory

Interrupt Handling
 The occurrence of an event is usually signaled by an interrupt from either the hardware or
the software.
 Hardware may trigger an interrupt at any time by sending a signal to the CPU,usually by
way of the systembus.
 Software may trigger an interrupt by executing a special operation called a system call
(also called a monitor call).
 Interrupt transfers control to the interrupt service routine generally, through the
interrupt vector, which contains the addresses of all the service routines
 Interrupt architecture must save the address of the interrupted instruction
 The operating system preserves the state of the CPU by storing registers and the program
counter
 After the interrupt is serviced, the saved return address is loaded into the program

counter, and the interrupted computation resumes as though the interrupt had not
occurred.
 A trap or exception is a software-generated interrupt caused either by an error or a user

request
 An operating system is interrupt driven

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Storage Structure
 Main memory – only large storage media that the CPU can access directly
o Random access
o Typically volatile
 Secondary storage – extension of main memory that provides large nonvolatile storage
capacity
o Hard disks – rigid metal or glass platters covered with magnetic recording material
 Disk surface is logically divided into tracks, which are subdivided into
sectors
 The disk controller determines the logical interaction between the device
and the computer
 Storage systems organized based
o Speed
o Cost
o Volatility
 Caching – copying information into faster storage system; main memory can be viewed as
a cache for secondary storage
 Information in use copied from slower to faster storage temporarily

 Faster storage (cache) checked first to determine if information is there

o If it is, information used directly from the cache (fast)

o If not, data copied to cache and used there

I/O Structure
 I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently

 Each device controller is in charge of a particular device type

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  Each device controller has a local buffer

 The device controller is responsible for moving the data between the peripheral

devices that it controls and its local buffer storage.

 Typically, operating systems have a device driver for each device controller

 To start an I/O operation, the device driver loads the appropriate registers within the
device controller. The device controller, in turn, examines the contents of these registers to
determine what action to take (such as “read a character from the keyboard”).

 The controller starts the transfer of data from the device to its local buffer. Once the
transfer of data is complete, the device controller informs the device driver via an interrupt
that it has finished its operation. The device driver then returns control to the operating
system, possibly returning the data or a pointer to the data if the operation was a read.

 This form of interrupt-driven I/O is fine for moving small amounts of data but can

produce high overhead when used for bulk data movement

 To solve this problem, Direct memory access (DMA) is used.

 Transfers an entire block of data directly to or from its own buffer storage to memory, with

no intervention by the CPU.

 While the device controller is performing these operations, the CPU is available to

accomplish other work.

How a Modern Computer Works

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 Computer-System Architecture
 Most systems use a single general-purpose processor
o Most systems have special-purpose processors as well
Single-Processor Systems
 On a single processor system, there is one main CPU capable of executing a general-
purpose instruction set, including instructions from user processes.
 Almost all single processor systems have other special-purpose processors as well.
They may come in the form of device-specific processors, such as disk, keyboard, and
graphics controllers; or, on mainframes, they may come in the form of more general-
purpose processors, such as I/O processors that move data rapidly among the components
of the system.
 For example : PCs contain a microprocessor in the keyboard to convert the keystrokes into
codes to be sent to the CPU.
 The use of special-purpose microprocessors is common and does not turn a single-
processor system into a multiprocessor. If there is only one general-purpose CPU,
then the system is a single-processor system.
Multiprocessors systems
 Multiprocessors systems growing in use and importance
o Also known as parallel systems, tightly-coupled systems
o Advantages include:
 Increased throughput
 Economy of scale
 Increased reliability – graceful degradation or fault tolerance
o Two types:
Asymmetric Multiprocessing –in which each processor is assigned a specific task. A boss
processor controls the system; the other processors either look to the boss for instruction or
have predefined tasks. This scheme defines a boss–worker relationship. The boss processor
schedules and allocates work to the worker processors.

Symmetric Multiprocessing – which each processor performs all tasks within the operating
system. SMP means that all processors are peers; no boss–worker relationship exists between
processors.

Multiprocessing can cause a system to change its memory access model from uniform memory
access UMA) to non-uniform memory access(NUMA).
 UMA is defined as the situation in which access to any RAM from any CPU takes the
same amount of time.

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  With NUMA, some parts of memory may take longer to access than other parts, creating a
performance penalty
Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture

A Dual-Core Design
o Multi-chip and multicore
o Systems containing all chips
 Chassis containing multiple separate systems

Clustered Systems
 Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems working together
o Usually sharing storage via a storage-area network (SAN)
Clustered systems :they are composed of two or more individual systems—or nodes—
joined together. Such systems are considered loosely coupled. Each node may be a
single processor system or a multicore system.

o Provides a high-availability service which survives failures

Asymmetric clustering: has one machine in hot-standby mode, while the other is
running the applications. The hot-standby host machine does nothing but monitor the
active server. If that server fails, the hot-standby host becomes the active server.

In symmetric clustering: two or more hosts are running applications and are
monitoring each other. This structure is obviously more efficient, as it uses all of the
available hardware.
Some clusters are for high-performance computing (HPC) :Such systems can supply
significantly greater computational power than single-processor or even SMP systems
because they can run an application concurrently on all computers in the cluster.
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  The application must have been written specifically to take advantage of the
cluster, however. This involves a technique known as parallelization, which
divides a Program into separate components that run in parallel on individual
computers in the cluster.

Some have distributed lock manager (DLM) to avoid conflicting operations

Operating-System Operations
 Operating systems are interrupt driven
 Events are almost always signaled by the occurrence of an interrupt or a trap
(hardware and software)
 Hardware interrupt by one of the devices
 Software interrupt (exception or trap):
 Software error (e.g., division by zero)
 Request for operating system service
 Other process problems include infinite loop, processes modifying each
other or the operating system
 Dual-mode operation allows OS to protect itself and other system components
 User mode and kernel mode
 A bit, called the mode bit, is added to the hardware of the computer to indicate
the current mode: kernel (0) or user (1).
 At system boot time, the hardware starts in kernel mode.
 Whenever a trap or interrupt occurs, the hardware switches from user mode to
kernel mode
 The system always switches to user mode (by setting the mode bit to 1) before
passing control to a user program.
 protecting the operating system from users—and users from one another.

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Transition from User to Kernel Mode
 Timer to prevent infinite loop / process hogging resources
 Timer is set to interrupt the computer after some time period
 Keep a counter that is decremented by the physical clock.
 Operating system set the counter (privileged instruction)
 When counter zero generate an interrupt
 Set up before scheduling process to regain control or terminate program that
exceeds allotted time

Operating System Services

 Operating systems provide an environment for execution of programs and services to
programs and users
o Program execution - The system must be able to load a program into memory and
to run that program, end execution, either normally or abnormally (indicating error)
o I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may involve a file or
an I/O device
o File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest. Programs
need to read and write files and directories, create and delete them, search them, list
file Information, permission management.
o Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the same computer or
between computers over a network
 Communications may be via shared memory or through message passing
(packets moved by the OS)
o Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors
 May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user
program
 For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure
correct and consistent computing

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  Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and programmer’s
abilities to efficiently use the system
o Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running concurrently,
resources must be allocated to each of them
 Many types of resources - CPU cycles, main memory, file storage, I/O
devices.
o Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much and what kinds of
computer resources
o Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a multiuser or
networked computer system may want to control use of that information,
concurrent processes should not interfere with each other
 Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is
controlled
 Security of the system from outsiders requires user authentication, extends
to defending external I/O devices from invalid access attempts
A View of Operating System Services

SYSTEM CALLS
 System provides interface between the process & the OS.
 The calls are generally available as assembly language instruction & certain system allow system
calls to be made directly from a high level language program.
 Several language have been defined to replace assembly language program.
 A system call instruction generates an interrupt and allows OS to gain control of the processors.
PASSING PARAMETERS TO OS

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Three general methods are used to pass the parameters to the OS.

 The simplest approach is to pass the parameters in registers. In some there can be more
parameters than register. In these the parameters are generally in a block or table in m/y
and the address of the block is passed as parameters in register. This approach used by
Linux.
 Parameters can also be placed or pushed onto stack by the program & popped off the
stack by the OS.
 Some OS prefer the block or stack methods, because those approaches do not limit the
number or length of parameters being passed.
 System calls may be grouped roughly into 5 categories
1. Process control.
2. File management.
3. Device management.
4. Information maintenance.
5. Communication.
 Process control
o create process, terminate o wait event, signal event
process o allocate and free memory
o end, abort o Dump memory if error
o load, execute o Debugger for determining
o get process attributes, set bugs, single step execution
process attributes o Locks for managing access to
o wait for time shared data between processes
 File management
o create file, delete file o read, write, reposition
o open, close file o get and set file attributes
 Device management
o request device, release device o logically attach or detach
o read, write, reposition devices
o get device attributes, set
device attributes
 Information maintenance
o get time or date, set time or date
o get system data, set system data

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 o get and set process, file, or device attributes
 Communications
o create, delete communication connection
o send, receive messages if message passing model to host name or process name
 From client to server
o Shared-memory model create and gain access to memory regions
o transfer status information
o attach and detach remote devices
 Protection
o Control access to resources
o Get and set permissions
o Allow and deny user access
Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls

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

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 Operating System Structure
 A system as large and complex as a modern operating system must be engineered carefully
if it is to function properly and be modified easily.
 A common approach is to partition the task into small components, or modules,
 Each of these modules should be a well- defined portion of the system, with carefully
defined inputs, outputs, and functions
 Various ways to structure ones
o Simple structure – MS-DOS
o More complex -- UNIX
o Layered – an abstraction
o Microkernel -Mach
Simple Structure -- MS-DOS
 Many operating systems do not have well-defined structures such systems started as
small, simple, and limited system
 MS-DOS is an example of such a system
 The interfaces and levels of functionality are not well separated
 Application programs are able to access the basic I/O routines to write directly to the
display and disk drives
 MS-DOS vulnerable to errant (or malicious) programs, causing entire system crashes
when user programs fail.
 MS-DOS was also limited by the hardware
 Intel 8088 for which it was written provides no dual mode and no hardware protection

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Layered Approach
 The operating system is divided into a number of layers (levels),
 The bottom layer (layer 0), is the hardware; the highest (layer N) is the user interface.
 The main advantage of the layered approach is simplicity of construction and
debugging and System verification
 The design and implementation of the system are simplified.
 Each layer hides the existence of certain data structures, operations, and hardware from
higher-level layers.
 The major difficulty with the layered approach involves appropriately defining the
various layers. Because a layer can use only lower-level layers, careful planning is
necessary.

Fig:Traditional UNIX System Structure

Microkernel
 This method structures the operating system by removing all nonessential components
from the kernel and implementing them as system and user-level programs.
 The result is a smaller kernel.
 There is little consensus regarding which services should remain in the kernel and which
should be implemented in user space.

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  Microkernels provide minimal process and memory management, in addition to a
communication facility.

Application File Device user

Program System Driver mode

messages messages

Interprocess memory CPU kernel

Communication managment scheduling mode

microkernel

hardware

 The main function of the microkernel is to provide communication between the client
program and the various services that are also running in user space.
 Communication takes place between user modules using message passing

Benefits:
 Easier to extend a microkernel without modification of the kernel
 Portable from one hardware design to another
 The microkernel also provides more security and reliability, since most services are
running as user—rather than kernel— processes.
 If a service fails, the rest of the operating system remains untouched.
Detriments:
 Performance of microkernels can suffer due to increased system-function overhead.

Modules
 The best current methodology for operating-system design involves using loadable kernel
modules ,the kernel has a set of core components and links in additional services via
modules, either at boot time or during run time.
 CPU scheduling and memory management algorithms directly into the kernel and
then add support for different file systems by way of loadable modules.
 The Solaris operating system structure, is organized around a core kernel with seven
types of loadable kernel modules:
o Scheduling classes
o File systems
o Loadable system calls

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 o Executable formats
o STREAMS modules
o Miscellaneous
o Device and bus drivers

Hybrid Systems
 Most modern operating systems are actually not one pure model
o Hybrid combines multiple approaches to address performance, security, usability
needs
o Linux and Solaris kernels in kernel address space, so monolithic, plus modular for
dynamic loading of functionality
o Windows mostly monolithic, plus microkernel for different subsystem
personalities
 Apple Mac OS X hybrid, layered, Aqua UI plus Cocoa programming environment
o Below is kernel consisting of Mach microkernel and BSD Unix parts, plus I/O kit
and dynamically loadable modules (called kernel extensions)
Mac OS X Structure
graphical user interface
Aqua

application environments and services

Java Cocoa Quicktime BSD

kernel environment
BSD

Mach

I/O kit kernel extensions

iOS
 Apple mobile OS for iPhone, iPad
o Structured on Mac OS X, added functionality
o Does not run OS X applications natively
 Also runs on different CPU architecture (ARM vs. Intel)
o Cocoa Touch Objective-C API for developing apps
o Media services layer for graphics, audio, video

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 o Core services provides cloud computing, databases
o Core operating system, based on Mac OS X kernel

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

Application Framework

Libraries Android runtime

SQLite openGL Core Libraries

surface media
Dalvik
manager framework
virtual machine
webkit libc

Linux kernel
Operating System Generation
 Operating systems are designed to run on any of a class of machines; the system must be
configured for each specific computer site
 SYSGEN program obtains information concerning the specific configuration of the
hardware system
 Used to build system-specific compiled kernel or system-tuned
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  Can general more efficient code than one general kernel
 The following kinds of information must be determined.
 What CPU is to be used? What options (extended instruction sets, floating point
arithmetic, and so on) are installed? For multiple CPU systems, each CPU may be
described.
 How will the boot disk be formatted? How many sections, or “partitions,” swill
it be separated into, and what will go into each partition?
 How much memory is available? Some systems will determine this value
themselves by referencing memory location after memory location until an “illegal
address” fault is generated. This procedure defines the final legal address and hence
the amount of available memory.
 What devices are available? The system will need to know how to address each
device (the device number), the device interrupt number, the device’s type and model, and any
special device characteristics.
 What operating-system options are desired, or what parameter values are to
be used? These options or values might include how many buffers of which sizes should be
used, what type of CPU-scheduling algorithm is desired, what the maximum number of
processes to be supported is, and so on.

System Boot
 The procedure of starting a computer by loading the kernel is known as booting

the system.

 Small piece of code known as the bootstrap program or bootstrap loader locates

the kernel, loads it into main memory, and starts its execution.

When a CPU is powered up or rebooted—

 The instruction register is loaded with a predefined memory location, and

execution starts there.

 At that location is the initial bootstrap program. This program is in the form of

read-only memory ( ROM),

 ROM is convenient because it needs no initialization and cannot easily be

infected by a computer virus.

The bootstrap program can perform a variety of tasks.

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  Run diagnostics to determine the state of the machine. If the diagnostics pass,

the program can continue with the booting steps.

 It can also initialize all aspects of the system, from CPU registers to device

controllers and the contents of main memory.

 Sooner or later, it starts the operating system.

CASE 1

 Some systems—such as cellular phones, tablets, and game consoles—store the

entire operating system in ROM.

 Storing the operating system in ROM is suitable for small operating systems,

and simple supporting hardware

 A problem with this approach is that changing the bootstrap code requires
changing the ROM hardware chips.

 Some systems resolve this problem by using erasable programmable read-

only memory ( EPROM)

CASE 2:

For large operating systems like Windows, Mac OS

 The bootstrap loader is stored in firmware, and the operating system

is on disk.

 In this case, the bootstrap runs diagnostics and has a bit of code that can read

a single block at a fixed location (say block zero) from disk into memory and

execute the code from that boot block.

 The program stored in the boot block may be enough to load the

entire operating system into memory and begin its execution.

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