Chapter 1: Introduction

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline

 What Operating Systems Do

 Computer-System Organization
 Computer-System Architecture
 Operating-System Operations
 Resource Management
 Security and Protection
 Virtualization
 Distributed Systems
 Kernel Data Structures
 Computing Environments
 Free/Libre and Open-Source Operating Systems

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Objectives

 Describe the general organization of a computer system and the

role of interrupts
 Describe the components in a modern, multiprocessor computer
system
 Illustrate the transition from user mode to kernel mode
 Discuss how operating systems are used in various computing
environments
 Provide examples of free and open-source operating systems

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 What is an Operating System?

 A program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a

computer and the computer hardware
 Operating system goals:
• Execute user programs and make solving user problems
easier
• Make the computer system convenient to use
• Use the computer hardware in an efficient manner
• Provide an environment in which user can easily interface
with computer.
• It is a resource allocator

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computer System Structure

 Computer system can be divided into four components:

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Abstract View of Components of Computer

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Abstract View of Components of Computer

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 What Operating Systems Do
 Depends on the point of view
 User’’s View (type of user)
 Standalone s/m - OS is designed for ease of use and good
performance
 different terminals connected to mainframe or minicomputer - OS is
designed to maximize resource utilization
 users of workstation, connected to networks and servers - ease of use
and resource utilization
 users of handheld devices - ease of use and good performance per
amount of battery
- optimized for usability and battery life
 Embedded systems - designed for less user intearactions and ease of
use
- little or no user interface
- designed to run primarily without user intervention

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 What Operating Systems Do (Cont.)
 System View:
• OS is a resource allocator
• Manages all resources
• Decides between conflicting requests for efficient and fair resource
use
• OS is a control program
• Controls execution of programs to prevent errors and improper use of
the computer

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Definition
 No universally accepted definition
 “Everything a vendor ships when you order an operating system” is a
good approximation
• But varies wildly
 “The one program running at all times on the computer” is the kernel,
which is part of the operating system
 Everything else is either
• A system program (ships with the operating system, but not part of
the kernel) , or
• An application program, all programs not associated with the
operating system
 Today’s OSes for general purpose and mobile computing also include
middleware – a set of software frameworks that provide addition services
to application developers such as databases, multimedia, graphics etc.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Overview of Computer System Structure

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computer-System Operation

 I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Interrupt Handling
 Occurence of an event is signalled by interrupt
 Hardaware interrupt - triggered by an event external to the
processor
 Software interrupt - triggered by executing special
intruction/operation (API or system calls)
 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
 A trap or exception is a software-generated interrupt caused
either by an error or a user request
 An operating system is interrupt driven

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Interrupt Handling

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Interrupt Handling

 The operating system preserves the state of the CPU by

storing the registers and the program counter
 Determines which type of interrupt has occurred:
 Separate segments of code determine what action should
be taken for each type of interrupt

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Interrupt-drive I/O Cycle

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Interrupt Driven Program Execution

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Storage Structure

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Storage Structure
 Main memory – only large storage media that the CPU can
access directly
• Typically, volatile
• Typically, random-access memory in the form of
Dynamic Random-access Memory (DRAM)
 Secondary storage – extension of main memory that
provides large nonvolatile storage capacity

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Storage Structure (Cont.)
 Hard Disk Drives (HDD) – 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
 Non-volatile memory (NVM) devices– faster than hard disks,
nonvolatile
• Various technologies
• Becoming more popular as capacity and performance
increases, price drops

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Storage Definitions and Notation Review
The basic unit of computer storage is the bit . A bit can contain one of two
values, 0 and 1. All other storage in a computer is based on collections of bits.
Given enough bits, it is amazing how many things a computer can represent:
numbers, letters, images, movies, sounds, documents, and programs, to name
a few. A byte is 8 bits, and on most computers, it is the smallest convenient
chunk of storage. For example, most computers don’t have an instruction to
move a bit but do have one to move a byte. A less common term is word,
which is a given computer architecture’s native unit of data. A word is made
up of one or more bytes. For example, a computer that has 64-bit registers and
64-bit memory addressing typically has 64-bit (8-byte) words. A computer
executes many operations in its native word size rather than a byte at a time.

Computer storage, along with most computer throughput, is generally

measured and manipulated in bytes and collections of bytes. A kilobyte , or
KB , is 1,024 bytes; a megabyte , or MB , is 1,0242 bytes; a gigabyte , or GB , is
1,0243 bytes; a terabyte , or TB , is 1,0244 bytes; and a petabyte , or PB , is 1,0245
bytes. Computer manufacturers often round off these numbers and say that
a megabyte is 1 million bytes and a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. Networking
measurements are an exception to this general rule; they are given in bits
(because networks move data a bit at a time).

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Storage Hierarchy
 Storage systems organized in hierarchy
• Speed
• Cost
• Volatility
 Caching – copying information into faster storage system; main memory
can be viewed as a cache for secondary storage
 Device Driver for each device controller to manage I/O
• Provides uniform interface between controller and kernel

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Storage-Device Hierarchy

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 I/O Structure

 A large portion of operating system code is dedicated to managing I/O.

• Varying nature of devices
• Performance of a system
 Each device has device controller with local buffers and set of special
purpose registers.
 OSs have device driver for each device controller.
• Part of the OS kernel
• Run with the same privilege level as the OS kernel
 To start an I/O operation, the device driver loads the registers within
the device controller.
 The device controller, examines the contents of these registers and
starts the transfer of data from the device to its local buffer.
 Finally, the device driver returns control to the operating system, and
also returns the data and status information. (Interrupt driven I/O)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 I/O Structure

A von Neumann architecture

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Direct Memory Access Structure

 Used for high-speed I/O devices able to transmit information

at close to memory speeds
 Device controller transfers blocks of data from buffer storage
directly to main memory without CPU intervention
 Only one interrupt is generated per block, rather than the one
interrupt per byte

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computer-System Architecture

 Categorized based on number of general-purpose processor

 Single-Processor Systems use a single processor (PDAs to mainframes)
• One main CPU executing user processes
• Contain special purpose processors – run limited instructions, do not run
user processes and managed by OS
Eg1: Disk controller processor - implements its own disk queue and
scheduling algorithm
Eg2: Special processors in the keyboard, converts the keystrokes
into codes to be sent to the CPU

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computer-System Architecture

 Multiprocessors systems growing in use and importance

• Also known as parallel systems, tightly-coupled systems
• Systems that have two or more processors in close communication,
sharing the computer bus, the clock, memory, and peripheral devices
• Advantages include:
1. Increased throughput : No. programs executed per unit time is
more; increasing number of processors do not always guarantee
increased performance due to the overhead of comlexity and cost
2. Economy of scale – costs less than equivalent no. of many single
processors due to sharing of peripherals, mass storage and power
supplies. Even data can be shared among several processes.
3. Increased reliability – if one processor fails, the s/m is not halted, it
only slows down; the job of the failed processor is taken up by other
processor
- graceful degradation or fault tolerant

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture
Two types of multiprocessor systems:
1. Asymmetric Multiprocessing (Master/Slave) – each
processor is assigned a specific task by master processor. It
schedules and allocates work to slave processors
2. Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)– each processor
performs all tasks; all processors are considered peers;
Windows, MacOS, Liux support SMP

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 A Dual-Core Design
 Multiple processing units (computing cores) fabricated on
a single chip - multicore processors
 The term processor is then used for the complete chip
 The communication b/w processors within a chip is more
faster than communication between two single processors

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Clustered Systems

 Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems working together via

network and sharing software resources
• Provides a high-availability of resources and services which survive
failures;the service continues even if one or more systems in the cluster
fail; duplication of s/w resources
 Asymmetric clustering has one system in hot-standby mode
monitoring the server.
 Symmetric clustering has multiple systems running applications,
monitoring each other. Uses all of the available resources.
• Some clusters are for high-performance computing (HPC)
 Applications must be written to use parallelization
• Parallel clusters allow multipe hosts to access same data on the shared
storage. Cluster technology is changing rapidly with storage-area
network (SAN) - where resources can be shared with dozens of
systems in a cluster, that are separated by miles.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Structure
 Multiprogramming (Batch system) needed for efficiency
• Single user cannot keep CPU and I/O devices busy at all times
• Multiprogramming organizes jobs (code and data) so CPU always has one
to execute
• A subset of total jobs in system is kept in memory
• One job selected and run via job scheduling
• When it has to wait (for I/O for example), OS switches to and executes
another job
• Multiprogrammed s/ms provide envoronment in which various s/m resources
are utilized effectively, but they do not provide user interaction with the
computer system

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Structure

 Timesharing (multitasking) is logical extension in which a single CPU

executes multiple jobs by switching among them
switches jobs so frequently that users can interact with each job while it is running,
creating interactive computing

• Response time should be < 1 second

• Each user has at least one program executing in memory process
• If several jobs ready to run at the same time  CPU scheduling
• If processes don’t fit in memory, swapping moves them in and out to run
• Virtual memory allows execution of processes not completely in memory

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating-System Operations
 Interrupt driven (hardware and software)
• Hardware interrupt by one of the devices
• Software interrupt (exception or trap):
 Software error (e.g., division by zero)
 Request for operating system service
 Other process problems include infinite loop, processes
modifying each other or the operating system

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Dual-mode Operation
 Dual-mode operation allows OS to protect itself and other system
components
• User mode and kernel mode
 Mode bit provided by hardware
• Provides ability to distinguish when system is running user code or
kernel code.
• When a user is running  mode bit is “user” (set to 1)
• When kernel code is executing  mode bit is “kernel” (set to 0)
 Some instructions designated as privileged, only executable in kernel
mode.
 Eg: changing the mode bit; changing the priority level etc.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Dual-mode Operation (Cont.)
 How do we guarantee that user does not explicitly set the
mode bit to “kernel”?
 When the system starts executing it is in kernel mode
 When control is given to a user program the mode-bit changes
to “user mode”.
 When a user issues a system call it results in an interrupt,
which trap to the operating system. At that time, the mode–bit
is set to “kernel mode”.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Transition from User to Kernel Mode

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Timer
 Operating system uses timer to control the CPU. A user program
cannot hold CPU for a long time, this is prevented with the help of
timer.
 Timer to prevent infinite loop (or process hogging resources)
• Timer is set to interrupt the computer after some time period
 Fixed timer - After a fixed time, the process under execution is
interrupted.`
 Variable timer - Interrupt occurs after varying interval.
• Fixed clock and a counter that is decremented every time the clock
ticks
• 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 Concepts – 10th Edition 1.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Process Management
 A process is a program in execution. It is a unit of work within the
system. Program is a passive entity; process is an active entity.
 Process needs resources to accomplish its task
• CPU, memory, I/O, files
• Initialization data
 Process termination requires reclaim of any reusable resources
 Single-threaded process has one program counter specifying location
of next instruction to execute
• Process executes instructions sequentially, one at a time, until
completion
 Multi-threaded process has one program counter per thread
 Typically, system has many processes, some user, some operating
system running concurrently on one or more CPUs
• Concurrency by multiplexing the CPUs among the processes /
threads

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Process Management Activities

The operating system is responsible for the following activities in

connection with process management:
 Creating and deleting both user and system processes
 Suspending and resuming processes
 Providing mechanisms for process synchronization
 Providing mechanisms for process communication
 Providing mechanisms for deadlock handling

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Memory Management

 To execute a program all (or part) of the instructions must be in

memory
 All (or part) of the data that is needed by the program must be in
memory
 To improve both the utilization of the CPU several programs are kept in
memory, creating a need for memory management.
 Memory management determines what is in memory and when
• Optimizing CPU utilization and computer response to users
 Memory management activities
• Keeping track of which parts of memory are currently being used
and by whom
• Deciding which processes (or parts thereof) and data to move into
and out of memory
• Allocating and de-allocating memory space as needed

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 File-system Management
 OS provides uniform, logical view of information storage
• Abstracts physical properties to logical storage unit - file
• Different types of physical media - Magnetic disk, optical disk, and
magnetic tape`
• Each medium is controlled by device (i.e., disk drive, tape drive)
 Varying properties include access speed, capacity, data-transfer
rate, access method (sequential or random)

 File-System management
• Files usually organized into directories
• Multiple users - Access control on most systems to determine who can
access what
• OS activities include
 Creating and deleting files and directories
 Supporting primitives to manipulate files and directories
 Mapping files onto secondary storage
 Backup files onto stable (non-volatile) storage media

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Mass-Storage Management
 Main memory is small and volatile – secondary storage back up
main maemory
 Usually, disks used to store data that does not fit in main
memory or data that must be kept for a “long” period of time
 Proper management is of central importance
 Entire speed of computer operation hinges on disk subsystem
and its algorithms
 OS activities
• Mounting and unmounting
• Free-space management
• Storage allocation
• Disk scheduling
• Partitioning
• Protection

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Caching

 Important principle, performed at many levels in a computer

(in hardware, operating system, software)
 Information in use copied from slower to faster storage
temporarily
 Faster storage (cache) checked first to determine if
information is there
• If it is, information used directly from the cache (fast)
• If not, data copied to cache and used there
 Cache smaller than storage being cached
• Cache management important design problem
• Cache size and replacement policy

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Characteristics of Various Types of Storage

Movement between levels of storage hierarchy can be explicit or implicit

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Migration of data “A” from Disk to Register

 Multitasking environments must be careful to use most recent value,

no matter where it is stored in the storage hierarchy

 Multiprocessor environment must provide cache coherency in

hardware such that all CPUs have the most recent value in their
cache
 Distributed environment situation even more complex
• Several copies of a datum can exist
• Various solutions covered in Chapter 19

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 I/O Subsystem
 One purpose of OS is to hide peculiarities of hardware devices from
the user
 I/O subsystem responsible for
• Memory management of I/O including buffering (storing data
temporarily while it is being transferred), caching (storing parts of
data in faster storage for performance), spooling (the overlapping
of output of one job with input of other jobs)
• General device-driver interface
• Drivers for specific hardware devices

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Protection and Security

 Protection – mechanism for controlling access of processes or

users to resources defined by the OS
 Security – defense of the system against internal and external
attacks
• Huge range, including denial-of-service, worms, viruses,
identity theft, theft of service

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.51 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Protection

 Systems generally first distinguish among users, to determine who

can do what
• User identities (user IDs, security IDs) include name and
associated number, one per user
• User ID then associated with all files, processes of that user to
determine access control
• Group identifier (group ID) allows set of users to be defined and
controls managed, then also associated with each process, file
• Privilege escalation allows user to change to effective ID with
more rights

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.52 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Traditional

 Stand-alone general purpose machines

 But blurred as most systems interconnect with others (i.e.,
the Internet)
 Portals provide web access to internal systems
 Network computers (thin clients) are like Web terminals
 Mobile computers interconnect via wireless networks
 Networking becoming ubiquitous – even home systems use
firewalls to protect home computers from Internet attacks

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.53 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Mobile

 Handheld smartphones, tablets, etc

 What is the functional difference between them and a
“traditional” laptop?
 Extra feature – more OS features (GPS, gyroscope)
 Allows new types of apps like augmented reality
 Use IEEE 802.11 wireless, or cellular data networks for
connectivity
 Leaders are Apple iOS and Google Android

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.54 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments – Distributed

 Distributed computiing
• Collection of separate, possibly heterogeneous, systems
networked together
 Network is a communications path, TCP/IP most common
– Local Area Network (LAN)
– Wide Area Network (WAN)
– Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
– Personal Area Network (PAN)
• Network Operating System provides features between
systems across network
 Communication scheme allows systems to exchange
messages
 Illusion of a single system

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.55 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments – Client-Server

 Client-Server Computing
 Dumb terminals supplanted by smart PCs
 Many systems now servers, responding to requests generated
by clients
 Compute-server system provides an interface to client to
request services (i.e., database)
 File-server system provides interface for clients to store
and retrieve files

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.56 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Peer-to-Peer

 Another model of distributed system

 P2P does not distinguish clients and servers
• Instead all nodes are considered peers
• May each act as client, server or both
• Node must join P2P network
 Registers its service with central
lookup service on network, or
 Broadcast request for service and
respond to requests for service via
discovery protocol
• Examples include Napster and Gnutella,
Voice over IP (VoIP) such as Skype

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.57 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments – Real-Time Embedded Systems

 Real-time embedded systems most prevalent form of computers

• Vary considerable, special purpose, limited purpose OS,
real-time OS
• Use expanding
 Many other special computing environments as well
• Some have OSes, some perform tasks without an OS
 Real-time OS has well-defined fixed time constraints
• Processing must be done within constraint
• Correct operation only if constraints met

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.58 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Virtualization

 Allows operating systems to run applications within other OSes

• Vast and growing industry
 Emulation - creates an environment that imitates the properties of one
system onto another, mimics the properties of one processor to run in
another platform efficiently
 hardware component is replaced by software based construct
 used when source CPU type different from target type
- run programs designed for a completely different architecture on
an x86 PC
- running an old game designed for obsolete platforms on todays
modern systems (i.e. PowerPC to Intel x86)
• Generally slowest method
• When computer language not compiled to native code –
Interpretation

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.59 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Virtualization

 Virtualization – OS natively compiled for CPU, running guest OSes also

natively compiled
• Consider VMware running WinXP guests, each running applications,
all on native WinXP host OS
• VMM (virtual machine Manager) provides virtualization services
 Use cases involve laptops and desktops running multiple OSes for
exploration or compatibility
• Apple laptop running Mac OS X host, Windows as a guest
• Developing apps for multiple OSes without having multiple systems
• Executing and managing compute environments within data centers
 VMM can run natively, in which case they are also the host

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.60 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Virtualization

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.61 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments - Virtualization

 Emulation requires software bridge

 With virtualization harware can be directly accessed whereas in
Emulator the GOS does not run on the physical hardware
 Emulator requires interpreter to translate the source code to host’s
readable format, to further process it.
 Emulators are slower than VMs
 Emulators do not rely on CPU while VMs make use of CPU
 VM solution is costlier and more complex than Emulation
technoque
 VM provides more throughput, minimal overhead with a better
backup and recovery solution

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.62 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments – Cloud Computing

 Delivers computing, storage, even apps as a service across a network

 Logical extension of virtualization because it uses virtualization as the base
for it functionality.
• Amazon EC2 has thousands of servers, millions of virtual machines,
petabytes of storage available across the Internet, pay based on usage
 Many types
• Public cloud – available via Internet to anyone willing to pay
• Private cloud – run by a company for the company’s own use
• Hybrid cloud – includes both public and private cloud components
• Software as a Service (SaaS) – one or more applications available via
the Internet (i.e., word processor)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) – software stack ready for application use
via the Internet (i.e., a database server)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – servers or storage available over
Internet (i.e., storage available for backup use)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.63 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Computing Environments – Cloud Computing

 Cloud computing environments composed of traditional OSes,

plus VMMs, plus cloud management tools
• Internet connectivity requires security like firewalls
• Load balancers spread traffic across multiple applications

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.64 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Open-Source Operating Systems

 Operating systems made available in source-code format rather

than just binary closed-source
 Counter to the copy protection and Digital Rights
Management (DRM) movement
 Started by Free Software Foundation (FSF), which has
“copyleft” GNU Public License (GPL)
 Examples include GNU/Linux and BSD UNIX (including core of
Mac OS X), and many more
 Can use VMM like VMware Player (Free on Windows), Virtualbox
(open source and free on many platforms -
http://www.virtualbox.com)
• Use to run guest operating systems for exploration

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.65 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 The Study of Operating Systems
There has never been a more interesting time to study operating systems, and it has never been
easier. The open-source movement has overtaken operating systems, causing many of them to be
made available in both source and binary (executable) format. The list of operating
systems available in both formats includes Linux, BUSD UNIX, Solaris, and part of macOS.
The availability of source code allows us to study operating systems from the inside out.
Questions that we could once answer only by looking at documentation or the behavior of an
operating system we can now answer by examining the code itself.

Operating systems that are no longer commercially viable have been open-sourced as well, enabling
us to study how systems operated in a time of fewer CPU, memory, and storage resources.
An extensive but incomplete list of open-source operating-system projects is available
from https://curlie.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Open_Source/

In addition, the rise of virtualization as a mainstream (and frequently free) computer function
makes it possible to run many operating systems on top of one core system. For example, VMware
(http://www.vmware.com) providesa free “player” for Windows on which hundreds of free
“virtual appliances” can run. Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.com) provides a free, open-source
virtual machine manager on many operating systems. Using such tools, students can try out
hundreds of operating systems without dedicated hardware.

The advent of open-source operating systems has also made it easier to make the move from
student to operating-system developer. With some knowledge, some effort, and an Internet
connection, a student can even create a new operating-system distribution. Just a few years ago,
it was difficult or impossible to get access to source code. Now, such access is limited only by
how much interest, time, and disk space a student has.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.66 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Chapter 2a: Operating-System
Services

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline

 Operating System Services

 User and Operating System-Interface
 System Calls
 System Services
 Linkers and Loaders
 Why Applications are Operating System Specific

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.68 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Objectives
 Identify services provided by an operating system
 Illustrate how system calls are used to provide operating
system services

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.69 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Services
 Operating systems provide an environment for execution of programs
and services to programs and users
 One set of operating-system services provides functions that are
helpful to the user:
• User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user
interface (UI).
 Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User
Interface (GUI), touch-screen, Batch
• Program execution - The system must be able to load a program
into memory and to run that program, end execution, either
normally or abnormally (indicating error)
• I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may
involve a file or an I/O device
.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.70 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Services (Cont.)
 One set of operating-system services provides functions that are
helpful to the user (Cont.):
• File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular
interest. Programs need to read and write files and directories,
create and delete them, search them, list file Information,
permission management.
• Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the
same computer or between computers over a network
 Communications may be via shared memory or through
message passing (packets moved by the OS)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.71 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Services (Cont.)
 One set of operating-system services provides functions that are
helpful to the user (Cont.):
• Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible
errors
 May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in
user program
 For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action
to ensure correct and consistent computing
 Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and
programmer’s abilities to efficiently use the system

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.72 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Services (Cont.)
 Another set of OS function exists for ensuring the efficient operation of
the system itself via resource sharing
• Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs
running concurrently, resources must be allocated to each of them
 Many types of resources - CPU cycles, main memory, file
storage, I/O devices.
• Logging - To keep track of which users use how much and what
kinds of computer resources
• Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a
multiuser or networked computer system may want to control use
of that information, concurrent processes should not interfere with
each other
 Protection involves ensuring that all access to system
resources is controlled
 Security of the system from outsiders requires user
authentication, extends to defending external I/O devices from
invalid access attempts

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.73 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 A View of Operating System Services

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.74 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 User Operating System Interface

 CLI -- command line interpreter

• allows direct command entry
 GUI – graphical user interface
 Touchscreen Interfaces
 Batch

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.75 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 CLI

 Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by systems

program
 Sometimes multiple flavors implemented – shells
 Primarily fetches a command from user and executes it
 Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just names of
programs
• If the latter, adding new features doesn’t require shell
modification

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.76 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Bourne Shell Command Interpreter

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.77 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 GUI

 User-friendly desktop metaphor interface

• Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor
• Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc.
• Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause various
actions (provide information, options, execute function, open
directory (known as a folder)
• Invented at Xerox PARC
 Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces
• Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI “command” shell
• Apple Mac OS X is “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel
underneath and shells available
• Unix and Linux have CLI with optional GUI interfaces (CDE, KDE,
GNOME)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.78 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Touchscreen Interfaces

 Touchscreen devices require new

interfaces
• Mouse not possible or not
desired
• Actions and selection based on
gestures
• Virtual keyboard for text entry
 Voice commands

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.79 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 The Mac OS X GUI

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.80 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Calls
 Programming interface to the services provided by the OS
 Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
 Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application
Programming Interface (API) rather than direct system call use
 Three most common APIs are Win32 API for Windows, POSIX
API for POSIX-based systems (including virtually all versions of
UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X), and Java API for the Java virtual
machine (JVM)

Note that the system-call names used throughout this text are
generic

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.81 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example of System Calls

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.82 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example of Standard API

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.83 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Call Implementation

 Typically, a number is associated with each system call

• System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to
these numbers
 The system call interface invokes the intended system call in OS
kernel and returns status of the system call and any return values
 The caller need not know anything about how the system call is
implemented
• Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a
result call
• Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API
 Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built
into libraries included with compiler)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.84 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 API: System Call to Open a File

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.85 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Call Parameter Passing

 Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired

system call
• Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS and
call
 Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS
• Pass the parameters in registers
In some cases, there may be more parameters than registers

• Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address of
block passed as a parameter in a register
This approach taken by Linux and Solaris

• Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the program and
popped off the stack by the operating system
• Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of
parameters being passed

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.86 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Parameter Passing via Table

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.87 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.88 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.89 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.90 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Types of System Calls (Cont.)

 Protection
• control access to resources
• get and set permissions
• allow and deny user access

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.91 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.92 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Standard C Library Example

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.93 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example: Arduino
The Arduino is a simple hardware platform consisting of a microcontroller
along with input sensors that respond to a variety of events, such as
changes to light, temperature, and barometric pressure, etc.

 Single-tasking
 No operating system
 Programs (sketch) loaded via
USB into flash memory
 Single memory space
 Boot loader loads program
 Program exit -> shell reloaded At system startup running a program

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.94 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example: FreeBSD
 Unix variant
 Multitasking
 User login -> invoke user’s choice of shell
 Shell executes fork() system call to create
process
• Executes exec() to load program into
process
• Shell waits for process to terminate or
continues with user commands
 Process exits with:
• code = 0 – no error
• code > 0 – error code

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.95 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Services
 System programs provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution. They can be divided into:
• File manipulation
• Status information sometimes stored in a file
• Programming language support
• Program loading and execution
• Communications
• Background services
• Application programs
 Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by system
programs, not the actual system calls

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.96 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Services (Cont.)
 Provide a convenient environment for program development and
execution
• Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others
are considerably more complex

 File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list,

and generally manipulate files and directories

 Status information
• Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available
memory, disk space, number of users
• Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging
information
• Typically, these programs format and print the output to the
terminal or other output devices
• Some systems implement a registry - used to store and
retrieve configuration information

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.97 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Services (Cont.)
 File modification
• Text editors to create and modify files
• Special commands to search contents of files or perform
transformations of the text
 Programming-language support - Compilers, assemblers,
debuggers and interpreters sometimes provided
 Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders, relocatable
loaders, linkage editors, and overlay-loaders, debugging systems for
higher-level and machine language
 Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual
connections among processes, users, and computer systems
• Allow users to send messages to one another’s screens, browse
web pages, send electronic-mail messages, log in remotely,
transfer files from one machine to another

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.98 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 System Services (Cont.)
 Background Services
• Launch at boot time
Some for system startup, then terminate

 Some from system boot to shutdown
• Provide facilities like disk checking, process scheduling, error
logging, printing
• Run in user context not kernel context
• Known as services, subsystems, daemons
 Application programs
• Don’t pertain to system
• Run by users
• Not typically considered part of OS
• Launched by command line, mouse click, finger poke

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.99 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Linkers and Loaders

 Source code compiled into object files designed to be loaded into any
physical memory location – relocatable object file
 Linker combines these into single binary executable file
• Also brings in libraries
 Program resides on secondary storage as binary executable
 Must be brought into memory by loader to be executed
• Relocation assigns final addresses to program parts and adjusts
code and data in program to match those addresses
 Modern general-purpose systems don’t link libraries into executables
• Rather, dynamically linked libraries (in Windows, DLLs) are
loaded as needed, shared by all that use the same version of that
same library (loaded once)
 Object, executable files have standard formats, so operating system
knows how to load and start them

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.100 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 The Role of the Linker and Loader

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.101 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Why Applications are Operating System Specific

 Apps compiled on one system usually not executable on other

operating systems
 Each operating system provides its own unique system calls
• Own file formats, etc.
 Apps can be multi-operating system
• Written in interpreted language like Python, Ruby, and interpreter
available on multiple operating systems
• App written in language that includes a VM containing the running
app (like Java)
• Use standard language (like C), compile separately on each
operating system to run on each
 Application Binary Interface (ABI) is architecture equivalent of API,
defines how different components of binary code can interface for a
given operating system on a given architecture, CPU, etc.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.102 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 End of Chapter 2a

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018