Introduction to Operating System

What is Operating System(OS)?

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A Computer System consists of various hardwares such as

Who manages(controls) these hardwares?

Operating System

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 Introduction
What is an Operating System?

An operating system is a software program that controls the system’s hardware and that

interacts with the user and application software.

It is the master control program that performs basic tasks, such as recognizing input

from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and

directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as printer and disk drives.

Application programs usually require an operating system to function.

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 Where OS lies?

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Os lies between hardware and user program.
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It acts as an intermediary between the user and the hardware
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 History of Operating Systems

Generation Year Electronic device used Types of OS Devices

First 1945-55 Vacuum Tubes Plug Boards

Second 1955-65 Transistors Batch Systems

Third 1965-80 Integrated Circuits(IC) Multiprogramming

Fourth 1980-Present Large Scale Integration PC

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 First Generation: (1945-1955)
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These machines were made up of vacuum tubes, very huge in size filling entire rooms.
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They produced a lot of heat and consumed more power.
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They were very slow.
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All the programming was done in absolute machine language by wiring up plug boards (rows of
mechanical switches).
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Programming languages were unknown (not even assembly languages).
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Operating systems were unheard of.
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All the problems were straightforward numerical calculations.

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 Second Generation: (1955-1965)
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These machines were made up of transistors.
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Compared to first generation, they were smaller in size, faster in speed and consumed less power and heat.
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These were batch processing systems in which jobs were gathered in groups or batches. Once a job was
running, it had total control of the machine. As each job terminated, control was returned to the
operating system (that cleaned up after the job and read in and initiated the next job).
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The operating systems were designed to smooth the transaction between jobs.
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A job is a set of programs written in FORTRAN or assembly language.
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Mostly used for scientific and engineering calculations.
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Typical OSs were FMS (the Fortran Monitor System),
and IBSYS (IBM’s OS for the 7094).

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 Third Generation: (1965-1980)
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These machines were made up of ICs.
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They provided a major price/performance advantage over the second generation machines.
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The OS designers developed the concept of multiprogramming in which several jobs are in main memory
at once. A processor is switched from job to job as needed to keep several jobs advancing.
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Another major feature in third-generation OS was the technique called SPOOL (Simultaneous Peripheral
Operations on Line). In Spooling, a high-speed device is interposed between a running program and a
low-speed I/O device. For example, instead of writing directly to a printer, outputs are written to the
disk. Programs can run to completion faster and other programs can be initiated sooner.
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Another feature present in this generation was time-sharing technique. It is a variant of multiprogramming
technique, which was developed to multi-program large number of simultaneous interactive users.

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 Fourth Generation: (1980-Present)
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With the development of LSI circuits, OS entered in the personal computer and workstation age.
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Computers became small enough and inexpensive.
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Two operating systems have dominated the personal computer scene: MS-DOS written by Microsoft, Inc.
for IBM PC and UNIX.
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During mid-1980s, it began taking place the growth of networks of personal computers running network
OS and distributed OS.
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Networked systems consist of multiple computers that are networked together. The users are aware of the
existence of multiple computers.
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A distributed OS is one that appears to its users as a traditional uniprocessor system, even though it is
actually composed of multiple processors. The users should not be aware of where their programs are
being run or where their files are stored, that all should be handled by the OS automatically and
efficiently.

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 Operating System as an Extended Machine
The architecture of a computer is very primitive and awkward to program at the machine level language.
So it is obvious that the user would not want to interact directly with the storage devices or hardware to
get the work done.

Let’s understand this thing more clearly with the help of an example:

1. Imagine if the user wants to read something from the floppy or hard disk, then He has to write a
command to address it to the disk controller and then initiate the I/O.
2. Now the disk controller will try to find the requested data in the disk and will fetch it from the disk to the
disk controller buffer.

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 3. The user will check the status of the disk controller operation that whether it has finished or not.
4. If successful, then the data from the disk controller buffer would move to the main memory.

Now just think if all the users have to do such messy and complex details, then the program will become
very difficult to write and it would become quite long as well because the interaction is with the hardware
directly.

Therefore, in order to solve such a problem, an Operating System provides

a set of basic instructions which are helpful in performing various tasks
such as reading, writing, modifying, saving, closing, etc. It is way easier to
deal with these commands or instructions than to directly dealing with the
hardware.

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 How OS helps as a Extended Machine?

Operating System basically helps in hiding the complexity and difficulty of the hardware and presents a

pleasing and nice-looking interface to the user. And It not only shields the user from the hardware but

also hides a lot of unpleasant business concerning interrupts, timers, memory management, and other

low-level features. In all the above cases, the notion offered by the operating system is very simple and

easy to use than that offered by the hardware. So, here we can say that the function or the work of the

operating system is to present the user with the equivalent of an extended machine that is easier to

operate or work with as compared to the underlying hardware.

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 Operating System as Resource Manager
Modern computers consist of processors, memories, timers, disks, mice, network interfaces, printers and a wide variety
of other devices. The job of the OS is to provide for an orderly and controlled allocation of the processors, memories
and I/O devices among the various programs competing for them. It also keeps track of who is using which resources. It
is like a traffic policeman. It makes sure that different programs and users running at the same time do not interfere with
each other.
Resource management includes multiplexing (sharing) resources in two ways: in time and in space.
When a resource is time multiplexed, different programs (or users) take turns using it. For example, CPU.
In space multiplexing, each one gets part of the resource instead of taking turns. For example, memory.

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The diagram given below shows the functioning of OS as a resource manager −

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 Types of Operating Systems
Batch System:
A batch system is one that processes routine jobs without any interactive user present. Jobs are set up
so they can be run to completion without manual intervention. A program takes a set of data files as
input, processes the data and produces a set of output data files. This operating environment is termed
as ‘batch processing’.

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Real-time Operating Systems:
Real-time OSs are systems that respond to input immediately. These systems are characterized by
having time as a key parameter. Often there are hard deadlines that must be met.
For example, if a welding robot welds too early or too late, the car will be ruined. If the action must occur
absolutely at a certain moment, we have a hard real-time system.
In a soft real-time system, missing an occasional deadline is acceptable. Digital audio and multimedia
systems fall in this category. VxWorks and QNX are well-known real-time OSs.

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Time Sharing Systems:
Time sharing is the sharing of computing resources among many users. It is a variant of
multiprogramming, in which each user has an online terminal. For example, if 20 users are logged in
and 17 of them are thinking or drinking coffee, the CPU can be allocated in turn to the 3 jobs that want
service.

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Multiprocessing System:
Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer
system. It refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate
tasks between them.
A multiprocessor is a computer system having two or more processing units (multiple processors) each
sharing main memory and peripherals, in order to simultaneously process programs. At the operating
system level, multiprocessing is sometimes used to refer to the execution of multiple concurrent
processes in a system, with each process running on a separate CPU or core, as opposed to a single
process at any one instant.
Multiprocessing is sometimes contrasted with multitasking, which may use just a single processor but
switch it in time slices between tasks (i.e. a time-sharing system). Multiprocessing however means true
parallel execution of multiple processes using more than one processor.

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Interactive System:
An interactive operating system is one that allows the user to directly interact with the operating system
while one or more programs are running. There will be a user interface in place to allow this to happen. It
could be a command line style of interface or it could be a graphical interface. These systems allow
users to enter data or commands and receive the results of processing immediately. The user is in direct
two way communication with the computer.
Most of the operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS are of this type.

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 Functions of an Operating System (Important)
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Memory Management
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Processor Management
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Device Management
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File Management
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Network Management
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Security
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Control over system performance
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Job accounting
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Error detecting aids
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Coordination between other software and users

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 Memory Management
Memory management refers to management of Primary Memory or Main Memory. Main memory is a
large array of words or bytes where each word or byte has its own address.

Main memory provides a fast storage that can be accessed directly by the CPU. For a program to be
executed, it must in the main memory. An Operating System does the following activities for memory
management −

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Keeps tracks of primary memory, i.e., what part of it are in use by whom, what part are not in use.
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In multiprogramming, the OS decides which process will get memory when and how much.
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Allocates the memory when a process requests it to do so.
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De-allocates the memory when a process no longer needs it or has been terminated.

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 Processor Management
In multiprogramming environment, the OS decides which process gets the processor when and for how
much time. This function is called process scheduling. An Operating System does the following activities
for processor management −

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Keeps tracks of processor and status of process. The program responsible for this task is known as
traffic controller.
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Allocates the processor (CPU) to a process.
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De-allocates processor when a process is no longer required.

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 Device Management

An Operating System manages device communication via their respective drivers. It does the following
activities for device management −

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Keeps tracks of all devices. Program responsible for this task is known as the I/O controller.
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Decides which process gets the device when and for how much time.
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Allocates the device in the efficient way.
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De-allocates devices.

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 File Management
A file system is normally organized into directories for easy navigation and usage. These directories
may contain files and other directions.

An Operating System does the following activities for file management −

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Keeps track of information, location, uses, status etc. The collective facilities are often known as
file system.
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Decides who gets the resources.
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Allocates the resources.
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De-allocates the resources.

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➢
Security − By means of password and similar other techniques, it prevents unauthorized access to
programs and data.

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Control over system performance − Recording delays between request for a service and response
from the system.

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Job accounting − Keeping track of time and resources used by various jobs and users.

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Error detecting aids − Production of dumps, traces, error messages, and other debugging and error
detecting aids.

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Coordination between other softwares and users − Coordination and assignment of compilers,
interpreters, assemblers and other software to the various users of the computer systems.

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