Chapter 1: Introduction

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Chapter 1: Introduction
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

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 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

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 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

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 Abstract View of Components of Computer

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 What Operating Systems Do
Depends on the point of view
Users want convenience, ease of use and good performance
Don’t care about resource utilization
But shared computer such as mainframe or minicomputer must keep
all users happy
Operating system is a resource allocator and control program
making efficient use of HW and managing execution of user
programs
Users of dedicate systems such as workstations have dedicated
resources but frequently use shared resources from servers
Mobile devices like smartphones and tables are resource poor,
optimized for usability and battery life
Mobile user interfaces such as touch screens, voice recognition
Some computers have little or no user interface, such as embedded
computers in devices and automobiles
Run primarily without user intervention
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 Defining Operating Systems

Term OS covers many roles

Because of myriad designs and uses of OSes
Present in toasters through ships, spacecraft, game
machines, TVs and industrial control systems
Born when fixed use computers for military became
more general purpose and needed resource
management and program control

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 Operating System Definition (Cont.)

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, 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

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 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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 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

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 Common Functions of Interrupts

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

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 Interrupt Timeline

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 Interrupt Handling

The operating system preserves the state of the CPU by

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

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 Interrupt-drive I/O Cycle

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 I/O Structure
Synchronous: After I/O starts, control returns to user program
only upon I/O completion
Wait instruction idles the CPU until the next interrupt
Wait loop (contention for memory access)
At most one I/O request is outstanding at a time, no
simultaneous I/O processing
Asynchronous: After I/O starts, control returns to user program
without waiting for I/O completion
System call – request to the OS to allow user to wait for
I/O completion
Device-status table contains entry for each I/O device
indicating its type, address, and state
OS indexes into I/O device table to determine device
status and to modify table entry to include interrupt

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 Two I/O Methods

Synchronous Asynchronous

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 Device-Status Table

If the device is busy with a request, the type of request and other parameters
are stored in the table entry for that device
A queue will contain a list of all those requests waiting for a device

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 Storage Structure
Main memory – only large storage media that the CPU can access directly
Random access
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
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

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 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).

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 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

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 Storage-Device Hierarchy

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 How a Modern Computer Works

A von Neumann architecture

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 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

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 Computer-System Architecture

Most systems use a single general-purpose processor

Most systems have special-purpose processors as well
Multiprocessors systems growing in use and importance
Also known as parallel systems, tightly-coupled systems
Advantages include:
1. Increased throughput
2. Economy of scale
3. Increased reliability – graceful degradation or fault tolerance
Two types:
1. Asymmetric Multiprocessing – each processor is assigned a
specie task.
2. Symmetric Multiprocessing – each processor performs all tasks

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 Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture

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

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 Non-Uniform Memory Access System

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 Clustered Systems

Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems working together

Usually sharing storage via a storage-area network (SAN)
Provides a high-availability service which survives failures
 Asymmetric clustering has one machine in hot-standby mode
 Symmetric clustering has multiple nodes running applications,
monitoring each other
Some clusters are for high-performance computing (HPC)
 Applications must be written to use parallelization
Some have distributed lock manager (DLM) to avoid conflicting
operations

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 Clustered Systems

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 PC Motherboard

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 Operating-System Operations
Bootstrap program – simple code to initialize the system, load
the kernel
Kernel loads
Starts system daemons (services provided outside of the
kernel)
Kernel 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 – system call

 Other process problems include infinite loop, processes
modifying each other or the operating system

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 Multiprogramming and Multitasking
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 another job

Timesharing (multitasking) is logical extension in which CPU 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

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 Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System

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 Dual-mode and Multimode 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
 Some instructions designated as privileged, only
executable in kernel mode
 System call changes mode to kernel, return from call resets
it to user
Increasingly CPUs support multi-mode operations
i.e. virtual machine manager (VMM) mode for guest VMs

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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

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 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

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 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

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 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
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 deallocating memory space as needed

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 File-system Management
OS provides uniform, logical view of information storage
Abstracts physical properties to logical storage unit - file
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
Access control on most systems to determine who can access
what
OS activities include
 Creating and deleting files and directories
 Primitives to manipulate files and directories

 Mapping files onto secondary storage

 Backup files onto stable (non-volatile) storage media

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 Mass-Storage Management
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
Some storage need not be fast
Tertiary storage includes optical storage, magnetic tape
Still must be managed – by OS or applications

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 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

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 Characteristics of Various Types of Storage

Movement between levels of storage hierarchy can be explicit or implicit

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 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

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 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

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 Protection and Security

Protection – any 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
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

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 End of Chapter 1

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