Operating system notes
Operating system notes
Historically operating systems have bcen tightly related to the computer architecture, it is
good idea to study the history of opcrating systems from the architecture of the computers
on which they run.
Problems:
Lack of interaction between the user and job.
CPUis often idle, because the speeds of the mechanical l/O devices are
slower than CPU.
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For example, on the system with no multiprogramming, when the current job paused to
wait for other V/O operation to complete, the CPU simply sat idle until the l/O finished.
The solution for this problem that evolved was to partition memory intoseveral pieces,
with a different job in each partition. While one job was waiting for I/O to complete,
another job could be using the CPU.
Timesharing Systems (1970s - present): Another feature present in this generation was
time-sharing technique, a variant of multiprogramming technique, in which each user has
an on-line (directly connected) terminal. Because the user is present and interacting with
the computer, the computer system must respond quickly to user requests, otherwise user
productivity could suffer. Timesharing systems were developed to multiprogramming
large number of simultaneous interactiveusers.
Time-sharing or multitasking is a logical extension of multiprogramming. That is
processors time is shared among multiple users simultaneously is called time-sharing.
The main difference between Multiprogrammed Batch Systems and Time-Sharing
Systems is, in Multiprogrammed batch systems its objective is maximizeprocessor use,
whereas in Time-Sharing Systems its objective is minimize response time.
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SPooling
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Areal-time computer is one that executes programs that are guaranteed to have an upper
boundon tasks that they carryout. Usually it is desired that the upper bound be very
small. Examples included guidedmissile systems and medicalmonitoring equipment.
Theoperating system on real-time computers is severely constrained by the timing
requirements.
Dedicated computers are special purpose computers that are used to perform only one or
more tasks. Often these are real-time computers and include applications such as the
guided missile mentioned above and the computer in moderm cars that controls the fuel
injection system.
Amultiprocessor computer is one with more than one CPU. The category of
multiprocessor computers can be divided into the following sub-categories:
Shared memory multiprocessors have multiple CPUs, ali with access to the
same memory. Communication between the the processors is easy to implement,
but care must be taken so that memory accesses are synchronized.
Distributed memory multiprocessors also have multiple CPUs, but each CPU
has it's own associated memory. Here, memory access synchronization is not a
problem, but communication between the processors is often slow and
complicated.