MEKDELA AMBA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

OPERATING SYSTEM

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 Chapter 1 :- System Software
➢Unit Structure
❖ Objectives
❖ Introduction
❖ Definition of operating system
❖ Functions of Operating System
❖ Operating System as User Interface
❖ I/O System Management
❖ Assembler, Compiler , Loader
❖ History of Operating System
❖ Summary
❖ Model questions

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 Objectives

• After going through this unit, you will be

able to:
➢Describe Basic Organization of Computer
Systems
➢Define Operating system, functions, history
and Evolution
➢Define assembler, linker, loader, compiler

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 Introduction
• An operating system act as an intermediary between the
user of a computer and computer hardware. The purpose of
an operating system is to provide an environment in which
a user can execute programs in a convenient and efficient
manner.
• An operating system is a software that manages the
computer hardware. The hardware must provide
appropriate mechanisms to ensure the correct operation of
the computer system and to prevent user programs from
interfering with the proper operation of the system.

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 Definition of Operating Systems
▪ An Operating system is a program that controls the
execution of application programs and acts as an interface
between the user of a computer and the computer hardware.
▪ A more common definition is that the operating system is the
one program running at all times on the computer (usually
called the kernel), with all else being applications programs.
▪ An Operating system is concerned with the allocation of
resources and services, such as memory, processors, devices
and information.
▪ The Operating System correspondingly includes programs to
manage these resources, such as a traffic controller, a
scheduler, memory management module, I/O programs, and a
file system.
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 Goals of Operating System
• Operating system performs three functions:
❖Convenience: An OS makes a computer more user
friendly or easy use.
❖ Efficiency: An OS allows the computer system
resources to be used in an efficient (perfection +
balanced value) manner.
❖ Ability to Evolve: An OS should be constructed in
such a way as to permit the effective development,
testing and introduction of new system functions
without at the same time interfering with service

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 Operating System as User Interface
• Every general purpose computer consists of the hardware,
operating system, system programs, application programs.
• The hardware consists of memory, CPU, I/O devices, and
storage device.
• System program consists of compilers, loaders, editors, OS
• The application program consists of business program,
database program.
• The fig. 1.1 shows the conceptual view of a computer system

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Cont…

Fig 1.1 Abstract view of the components a computer system

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 Cont…

1.Hardware - provides basic computing resources(CPU, memory

,I/O devices).
2.Operating system - controls and coordinates the use of the
hardware among the various application programs for the
various users.
3.Applications programs - define the ways in which the system
resources are used to solve the computing problems of the
users (compilers, database systems, video games, business pro
grams).
4. Users (people, machines, other computers).

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 Cont…
➢ Every computer must have an operating system to run other
programs. The operating system and coordinates the use of the
hardware among the various system programs and application
program for a various users.
➢ Operating system
• provides an environment within which other programs can
do useful work.
• is a set of special programs that run on a computer system
that allow it to work properly.
• is the fundamental piece of software and runs in kernel
mode. In this mode it has a complete access to all the
hardware and can execute any instruction the machine is
capable of executing. The rest of the software runs in user
mode in which only a subset of the machine instruction is
available.

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 Cont…

➢ Operating system is a set of special programs that run on a

computer system that allows it to work properly. It performs
basic tasks such as:-
✓ Recognizing input from the keyboard
✓ Keeping track of files and directories on the disk.
✓ Sending output to the display screen.
✓ Controlling the peripheral devices.

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 Cont…
Functions of operating system
 OS is designed to serve the following purposes :
1) . Resource Management: Disk, CPU cycles, I/O devices etc.
must be managed efficiently to maximize overall system
performance. It controls the allocation and use of the
computing system‘s resources among the various user and
tasks.
2) . Process management: involves various tasks like creation,
scheduling, termination of processes, and a dead lock.
3) Memory management: mainly on RAM, determine which
process waits in main memory and how long.
4) Security and protection: If the system is password
protected differentiate and authenticate the user.

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 Cont…

• The operating system must support the following

tasks. The tasks are :
➢ Provides the facilities to create, modification of
program and data files using and editor.
➢ Access to the compiler for translating the user program
from high level language to machine language.
➢ Provide a loader program to move the compiled
program code to the computer‘s memory for execution.
➢ Provide routines that handle the details of I/O
programming.

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 Assembler
• Input to an assembler is an assembly language program.
• Output is an object program plus information that enables the
loader to prepare the object program for execution.
• At one time, the computer programmer had at his disposal a
basic machine that interpreted, through hardware, certain
fundamental instructions.
• He would program this computer by writing a series of ones
and zeros(machine language), place them into the memory of
the machine.

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 Compiler
• The high level languages – examples are FORTRAN,
COBOL, ALGOL and PL/I – are processed by compilers and
interpreters.
• A compilers is a program that accepts a source program in a
―high-level language and produces a corresponding object
program.
• An interpreter is a program that appears to execute a source
program as if it was machine language. The same name
(FORTRAN, COBOL etc) is often used to designate both a
compiler and its associated language.

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 Loader
 A loader is a routine that loads an object program and
prepares it for execution. There are various loading
schemes: absolute, relocating and direct-linking.
 In general, the loader must load, relocate, and link the
object program. Loader is a program that places
programs into memory and prepares them for execution.
 In a simple loading scheme, the assembler outputs the
machine language translation of a program on a
secondary device and a loader is placed in core.
 The loader places into memory the machine language
version of the user‘s program and transfers control to it.
Since the loader program is much smaller than the
assembler, those makes more core available to user‘s
program.
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 History of Operating System
• Operating systems have been evolving through the years.
Following table shows the history of OS.

Generation Year Electronic devices used Types of OS

and devices
First 1945 – 55 Vacuum tubes Plug boards
Second 1955 – 1965 Transistors Batch system
Third 1965 – 1980 Integrated Circuit (IC) Multiprogramming
Fourth Since 1980 Large scale integration PC

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 History of Operating Systems
➢ The 1940's - First Generations
– The earliest electronic digital computers had no operating systems.
– Machines of the time were so primitive that programs were often
entered one bit at time on rows of mechanical switches (plug boards).
– Programming languages were unknown (not even assembly
languages).
– Operating systems were unheard of.
➢ The 1950's - Second Generation
– By the early 1950's, the routine had improved somewhat with the
introduction of punch cards. The General Motors Research
Laboratories
implemented the first operating systems in early 1950's for their IBM
701.
– The system of the 50's generally ran one job at a time.

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 Cont…
➢ The 1960's - Third Generation
– The systems of the 1960's were also batch processing systems,
but they were able to take better advantage of the computer's
resources by running several jobs at once.
➢ Fourth Generation
– With the development of LSI (Large Scale Integration) circuits,
chips, operating system entered in the personal computer and
the workstation age. Microprocessor technology evolved to the
point that it becomes possible to build desktop computers as
powerful as the mainframes of the 1970s.

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 Summary
• An Operating system is concerned with the allocation of resources and
services, such as memory, processors, devices and information. The
Operating System correspondingly includes programs to manage these
resources, such as a traffic controller, a scheduler, memory management
module, I/O programs, and a file system.
• Assembler
Input to an assembler is an assembly language program. Output is an
object program plus information that enables the loader to prepare the object
program for execution.
• Loader
A loader is a routine that loads an object program and prepares it for
execution. There are various loading schemes: absolute, relocating and
direct-linking. In general, the loader must load, relocate, and link the object
program
• Compilers
A compilers is a program that accepts a source program ‖ in a high- level
language‖ and produces a corresponding object program.
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 Model Question
Q. 1 Define Operating System?
Q. 2 Explain various function of operating system?
Q. 3 Explain I/O system Management?
Q. 4 Define & explain Assembler, Loader, Compiler?

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