Operating System I

(CS215)
Lecture 1:Introduction

Dr. Abdelrahman Elsayed

Reference Book
 Course Syllabus

 In this course we will discuss the following:

• Introduction to operating system.
• Types of operating systems,
• Operating Systems structures: system components
and services, virtual machines.
• Process management: CPU scheduling concepts,
performance criteria, scheduling algorithm.
• Memory organization and management for single
user and multi-user system.
• Secondary storage management, Disk scheduling,
virtual memory.
 Agenda
 What Does the Term Operating System Mean?
 What Operating Systems Do
 Operating System Definition
 Computer System Structure
 Computer-System Operation
 Interrupts
 I/O Structure
 Storage Structure
 How a Modern Computer Works

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 What Does the Term Operating System Mean?

 An operating system is
• a program that manages a computer’s hardware and application
programs.
• Also, it acts as an intermediary between the computer user 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

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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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 Quiz
 What are the three main purposes of an operating
system?
Answer: The three main purposes are:

1. To provide an environment for a computer user to execute

programs on computer hardware in a convenient and efficient
manner.
2. Operating system is a resource allocator for each task . The
allocation process should be as fair and efficient as possible.
3. As a control program, it serves two major functions:
1. supervision of the execution of user programs to prevent
errors and improper use of the computer,
2. and (2) management of the operation and control of I/O
devices.

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 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, 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 additional
services to application developers such as databases, multimedia,
graphics 1.8
 Quiz

 True or false?
a) kernel remains in the memory during the entire computer
session
b) kernel is made of various modules which can not be loaded in
running operating system
c) kernel is the first part of the operating system to load into memory
during booting
d) kernel is the program that constitutes the central core of the
operating system

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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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Overview of Computer System Structure
 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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Example: windows device manager

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 Interrupts

 The OS tells devices what to do by sending

commands through the bus to registers in the
device controllers,
 but how do the devices communicate with
the OS??
 INTERRUPTS is by far the most common
method.

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Interrupt Timeline

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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 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

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 I/O Structure

 Two methods for handling I/O

• After I/O starts, control returns to user program only
upon I/O completion
• After I/O starts, control returns to user program
without waiting for I/O completion

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 I/O Structure (Cont.)

 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
 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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How a Modern Computer Works

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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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 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

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 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

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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).
 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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 Operating-System Operations

 Bootstrap program – simple code to initialize the system,

load the kernel
 Kernel loads
 Starts system daemons (example windows 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 1.29
 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”
• When kernel code is executing  mode bit is “kernel”
 How do we guarantee that user does not explicitly set the mode bit to
“kernel”?
• System call changes mode to kernel, return from call resets it to user
 Some instructions designated as privileged, only executable in kernel
mode

1.31
Transition from User to Kernel Mode

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 Quiz

Select the correct answer?

1. An operating system is….
a) interface between the hardware and application
programs
b) collection of programs that manages hardware
resources
c) system service provider to the application programs
d) all of the mentioned

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