Unit 6: Resource management

This unit considers the various resources that a computer system must manage, and the competing
demands for those resources by various programs and subsystems. The burden of this management
responsibility falls predominantly to the Operating System.

1. Role of the operating system

Introduction
Operating Systems: Crash Course Computer Science #18 (13:35)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26QPDBe-NB8

● The origin of the operating system came about to solve what issue?
● Batching a program refers to?
● What complexity is caused for programmers by different the preponderance of hardware peripherals?
● What is the role of the device driver?
● Multitasking is?
● Describe the complication for managing a computer’s memory once multitasking is a factor?
● How does virtual memory create an abstraction around physical memory?
● Protected memory refers to?
● What is the role of the kernel in a lean operating system?
● The early versions of DOS and Windows lacked what key features of an operating system?

Role of the Operating System

The various roles of an operating system generally revolve around the idea of "sharing nicely."

Multiple users, multiple programs, multiple devices all taking their turn to share the CPU between them. The
OS acts as the playground monitor and makes sure everyone cooperates and has a chance.

System resources
Computers have become rather complex machines with a number of particular issues and resources that
require continual management. This includes:

● Primary memory,
● Secondary storage,
● Processor,
● Bandwidth,
● Screen,
● Sound processor,
● Graphics processor,
● Cache,
● Network connectivity.

Each application wants to have access to many or all of these. What determines which program can use
what and when? That is the role of the operating system.
Evaluating the limits available
Before it can manage the resources, the OS needs to determine what is available.

Anything with a CPU can be considered a computer system. Mobile phones, digital cameras, standalone GPS
units (Tom Toms), digital radio systems, through to Cray supercomputers (universities, NASA, NSA)

Different operating systems are required to manage an enormous range of resource levels. Consider the
variety of systems these OSes have to contend with:

● Microsoft Windows - From the slowest weakest laptop to the beefiest gaming desktop
● Apple Mac OS X
● Linux
● Apple iOS - iPads v iPhones v iPods v iWatch all have very different specifications
● Android

Limitations in the resources of a specific computer system are often closely related to the hardware of the
system and its capabilities. Limitations could include:

● RAM - Speed, capacity, OS’s own demands

● CPU - Clock speed, number of cores, 32 v 64 bit
● Graphics card - Processing power, video memory, eg: demands of 4K frames/s?
● Network card - Speed 1Gbps, 100Mbps, 10Mbps other?
● Hard drive - Type (SSD v magnetic), seek rate, storage capacity

Dedicated device operating systems

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, run operating systems that are tailored to their
needs. The memory constraints and the smaller set of peripherals involved are different than those of a
typical desktop or laptop computer.

Apple's iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad all run the iOS mobile operating system which is derived from Mac OS.
The Android operating system, developed by Google, is an open source project as part of the Open Handset
Alliance.

What are the advantages and disadvantages to using a dedicated operating system for different devices?

Hiding complexity
Operating systems aim to hide complexity through abstraction and high level API's (application programming
interfaces). Some examples of these include

● Drive letters
● Virtual memory
● Input devices
● Java virtual machine
● International localisation compatibility issues

These abstractions and APIs make life for programmers much simpler. If an application wants to create a file
in a particular location, it orders the OS to create that file. The program doesn't need to be concerned with
what filesystem the disk is running (FAT, NTFS, etc), what disk it is, whether it's a network server or local
drive. The OS hides all these details from the program.

Device drivers
How could one operating system communicate with and manage an impossibly large variety of devices?

Usually that communication is accomplished with the help of a device driver, a small program that "knows"
the way a particular device expects to receive and deliver information. With device drivers, every operating
system no longer needs to know about every device with which it might possibly be expected to
communicate in the future.
2. Operating system management techniques
While these are simplifications, there are several common techniques used by operating systems for
managing the sharing of the system resources amongst the competing demands to be aware of.

● Scheduling
● Policies
● Multi tasking
● Virtual memory & paging
● Interrupts
● Polling

Scheduling
CPU scheduling determines which process in memory to be executed by the CPU at any given point

There are a few common strategies used to perform scheduling:

● First come first served (FCFS)​ - Processes are moved to the CPU in the order in which they arrive in
the running state. FCFS scheduling is non-preemptive. Once a process is given access to the CPU, it
keeps it unless it makes a request that forces it to wait, such as a request that forces it to wait, such
as a request for a device in use by another process.
● Shortest job next (SJN)​ - CPU scheduling algorithm looks at all processes in the ready state and
dispatches the one with the smallest service time. Like FCFS, it is generally implemented as a
non-preemptive algorithm.
● Round robin​ or t​ ime slicing​ - distributes the processing time equitably among all ready processes.
The algorithm establishes a particular time slice (or time quantum), which is the amount of time each
process receives before being preempted and returned to the ready state to allow another process its
turn. Eventually the preempted process will be given another time slice on the CPU. This procedure
continues until the process eventually gets all the time it needs and terminates.

Policies
The "rules" in place to govern competing resources all wanting access to the computer’s resources.

Example: The user is attempting to have a Skype video chat. This means the webcam, microphone, graphics,
audio output and network connection must all be managed in such a way to allow a "smooth" conversation to
occur.

Affects things such as:

● Network connectivity and bandwidth management

● Sound and graphics management
● Printers
● Cameras, scanners
Multitasking

Multitasking is the technique of keeping

multiple programs in main memory at the
same time; these programs compete for
access to the CPU so that they can do their
work. All modern operating systems employ
multiprogramming to one degree or another.
An operating system must therefore perform
memory management to keep track of what
programs are in memory and where in
memory they reside. *(page 340)*

Thus, operating systems must employ techniques to:

● track where and how a program resides in memory, and

● convert logical program addresses into actual memory addresses.

A program is filled with references to variables and to other parts of the program code. When the program is
compiled, these references are changed into the addresses in memory where the data and code resides. But
since one doesn't know exactly where a program will be loaded into main memory, how can one know what
address to use for anything?

The solution is to use two kinds of addresses: logical addresses and physical addresses. A logical address
(sometimes called a virtual or relative address) is a value that specifies a generic location, relative to the
program but not to the reality of main memory. A physical address is an actual address in the main memory
device − again shown in the figure.

When a program is compiled, a reference to an identifier (such as a variable name) is changed to a logical
address. When the program is eventually loaded into memory, each logical address finally corresponds to a
specific physical address. The mapping of a logical address to a physical address is called address binding.
Logical addresses allow a program to be moved around in memory or loaded in different places at different
times. As long as one keeps track of where the program is stored, one is always able to determine the
physical address that corresponds to any given logical address. (pages 344-245)
3. Virtual memory
Segmented, paged and virtual memory (7:47)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9yZNLeOj4s

Video review questions

● Differentiate between segmented memory and paged

memory?
● What is the role of a page table?
● How can secondary memory be used to increase the amount
of “apparent memory”?
● Describe what paging in and paging out is?
● Disk thrashing occurs in what scenario?
● Logical memory is?
● Compare the advantages of segmentation vs paged memory
approaches?

Virtual Memory is a memory management technique that is

implemented using both hardware (MMU) and software (operating
system). It creates an abstraction of the real memory available on a
system by introducing the concept of virtual address space. This
allows each individual process to think of iti’s own allotted memory as
a single contiguous address space even if that is not the reality
physically.

The goal of virtual memory is to map virtual memory addresses generated by an executing program into
physical addresses in computer memory. This concerns two main aspects:
● address translation (from virtual to physical) and
● virtual address spaces management.

Address translation is implemented on the CPU chip by a specific hardware element called M
​ emory
Management Unit​ or MMU.

Address management is provided by the operating system, which sets up virtual address spaces and actually
assigns real memory to virtual memory as required. The operating system may also provide a virtual address
space that can exceed the actual capacity of main memory (i.e., using also secondary memory) and thus
reference more memory than is physically present in the system.

The benefits of virtual memory include:

● freeing applications (and programmers) from having to manage a shared memory space,
● increasing security due to memory isolation, and
● be able to use more memory than might be physically available, through the technique of paging.

Almost all virtual memory implementations divide a virtual address space into blocks of contiguous virtual
memory addresses, called pages, which are usually 4 KB in size.
In order to translate virtual addresses of a process into physical memory addresses used by the hardware the
MMU makes use of a so-called ​page table​, which is, a data structure managed by the OS that stores
mappings between virtual and physical addresses.
4. Interrupts & polling

Interrupts & polling

An interrupt is a signal to the processor emitted by hardware or software indicating an event that needs
immediate attention.

An interrupt alerts the processor to a high-priority condition requiring the interruption of the current code the
processor is executing.

An alternative to using interrupts is a method known as 'polling'.

This is where the CPU periodically checks each device to see if it needs service.

● It takes CPU time even when no requests pending

Overhead may be reduced at expense of response time
● Can be efficient if events arrive rapidly

"Polling is like picking up your phone every few seconds to see if you have a call. ..."

Which is more efficient?

● Interrupts win if processor has other work to do and event response time is not critical
● Polling can be better if the processor has to respond to an event ASAP ??
● Polling may sometimes be used in device controller that contains dedicated secondary processor

This video demonstrates through using an Arduino the differences between polling and interrupts.

Computerphile (2017) Program, Interrupted (6:40)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54BrU82ANww

This is an interesting article looking at the Apollo Guidance Computer of the 1970s and the challenges they
tackled building an operating system for it. The article discusses the unsuitability of round-robin scheduling
and the adoption of priority queues through interrupts.

Srikanth, V (2018): The Magic behind Apollo -

https://medium.com/delta-force/the-magic-behind-apollo-cf89aede34d4
5. Review
What is the difference between a program using physical addresses and logical addresses of memory?

State two key differences between Android and Windows

Outline the concept of virtual memory and suggest a scenario when it could be a problem. What would a
potential solution be for a computer owner whose system is continually paging the virtual memory?

Compare and contrast the advantages of Solid State Drives over the traditional spinning magnetic Hard Drive
Drives, and why are they becoming increasingly popular?

If applications are loaded into RAM to execute, why is it that a computer with a full hard drive would freeze
up?

Describe one way that the operating system of a networked workstation hides the complexity of the network
from the user?

Outline the role of paging in the management of primary memory?

What is the effect on the system if RAM is too limited?

What is the effect on the system of limited Secondary memory?

Identify 5 resources that need to be managed within a computer system.

Explain two functions that an operating system needs to perform in relation to multitasking. [4]

Explain why cache memory can speed up the processing within a computer. [2]

One of the functions of an operating system is memory management. Describe how this function prevents
the system from crashing when more than one program is run at the same time.[2]

A biotechnology company owns a resource centre which collects and classifies organisms for use in
research. Only authorized employees are allowed access to some laboratories in the resource centre.
These laboratories are protected by locked doors. Each door is controlled by a separate microprocessor. A
digital camera is used to scan the iris of an employee who wishes to enter the lab. If the employee is
authorized the doors are unlocked.
● Polling and interrupt are two operating system management techniques. Suggest with reasons which
of these two techniques is the most appropriate for a centrally controlled system. [3]
Past paper questions for review
(refer to separate document)