Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction
 What Operating Systems Do
 Computer-System Organization
 Computer-System Architecture
 Operating-System Structure
 Operating-System Operations
 Process Management
 Memory Management
 Storage Management
 Protection and Security
 Distributed Systems
 Special-Purpose Systems
 Computing Environments

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 Objectives
 To provide a grand tour of major operating systems components
 To provide coverage of basic computer system organization

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 What is an Operating System?

 A program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a

computer and the computer hardware.
 Operating system goals:
 Execute programs and make solving user problems easier.
 Make the computer system convenient to use.
 Use the computer hardware in an efficient manner.
 All you need to know:
 An operating system manages the physical resources of the
underlying computing system so that they can be utilized
efficiently, conveniently, and safely.

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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 users
 Word processors, compilers, web browsers, database
systems, video games
 Users
 People, machines, other computers

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 Four Components of a Computer System

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 Weird but memorable quote from text
 “An operating system is similar to a government. Like a
government, it performs no useful function by itself. It simply
provides an environment within which other programs can do useful
work.”
 Um, what does that mean?
 It means that – like a government – operating systems do not exist
to serve themselves, but rather they exist to serve other processes
by regulating, allocating, and protecting shared resources.

 Similarly bad metaphor (sourced from the Washington Post):

 “The politician was gone but unnoticed…
…like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.”

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 Disinformative quote from the text
 “Most computer users sit in front of a PC, consisting of a monitor,
keyboard, mouse, and system unit.”
 Um, no, they don’t.
 Most computer users…
 …sit behind a steering wheel in their car
 …sit comfortably at home with central air conditioning
 …sit at the table next to you talking loudly on their cell phones

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 Operating System Definition

 OS is a resource allocator: Fairness and Efficiency

 Manages all resources – CPU time, I/O devices, memory
 Decides among conflicting requests for fair and efficient
resource use

 OS is a control program: Safety and Protection

 Controls execution of programs to prevent errors and improper
use of the computer (especially for I/O devices)

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 Operating System Definition

 No universally accepted definition, but operating systems exist

because they offer a reasonable way to solve the problem of
creating usable computing systems
 “The one program running at all times on the computer” is the
kernel. Everything else is either a system program (ships with
the operating system) or an application program
 “Everything a vendor ships when you order an operating system”
is good approximation – but this varies wildly

 What is a chair?
 Movable seat for one with a back, and optionally arms.

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 Internet Explorer
 U.S. Department of Justice sued Microsoft in 1998 for monopolistic
practices related to the Windows Operating System
 Why? Suit alleged that Microsoft included “too much” functionality
in the operating systems it shipped – specifically Internet Explorer
 This practice squashed competition from application vendors
 Microsoft lost the case
 Found guilty of using OS monopoly to suppress competition in
the market for web browsers

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 Computer Startup
 Important!
 Operating system cannot be stored in volatile memory.
 Why?
 bootstrap program is loaded at power-up or reboot
 Typically stored in ROM (read-only memory) or
 EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable ROM)
 Generally known as firmware
 Initializates all aspects of system
 Loads operating system kernel and starts execution

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 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.
 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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 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.
 Incoming interrupts are disabled while another interrupt is being
processed to prevent a lost interrupt.
 A trap is a software-generated interrupt caused either by an error or
a user request.
 Operating systems are almost always interrupt driven.

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 Interrupt Handling
 The operating system preserves the state of the CPU by storing
registers and the program counter.
 Determines which type of interrupt has occurred:
 polling
 vectored interrupt system
 Separate segments of code determine what action should be taken
for each type of interrupt

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 Interrupt Timeline

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 Storage Structure - Primary
 Primary Storage
 Small, fast, random access, and volatile
 Registers, Cache, and Main Memory (RAM and ROM)
 Directly accessible to CPU without using I/O channels
 Main Memory
 Stores instructions and data
 Shared by CPU and I/O devices
 Only large storage media directly accessible by CPU
 Usually too small to store all needed programs and data
 Can use overlays to store partial programs during execution

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 Storage Structure - Secondary
 Secondary Storage
 Extension of main memory
 Provides large non-volatile storage capacity
 Not directly accessible by CPU (requires I/O channels)
 Hard Disks are most common current secondary medium
 Magnetic Disks – 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.

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 Storage Structure – Tertiary
 Tertiary Storage
 Storage devices in an automatic media library
 Magnetic tapes, optical disc jukebox, CDs, DVDs
 Archival or rarely accessed information (e.g., backups)
 Usually sequential access (rather than random access)
 Example:
 Database lookup to determine tape or disc location
 Submit request to robotic arm to fetch and mount medium
 Access medium via mounted drive
 Robotic arm replaces medium after use
 Different from off-line storage. Why?
 Information accessible without direct human action

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 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

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 Storage-Device Hierarchy

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 Caching
 Important principle, performed at many levels in a computer (in
hardware, operating systems, software)
 Information in use copied from slower to faster storage temporarily
 Faster storage (cache) checked first to see if information is there
 If it is, information used directly from the cache (fast)
 If not, data copied to cache and used there
 Cache smaller than storage being cached
 Cache management important design problem
 Cache size and replacement policy (consistency)

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 Performance of Various Levels of Storage

 Movement between storage levels can be explicit or implicit

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 Migration of Integer A from Disk to Register

 Multitasking environments must be careful to use most recent

value, no matter where it is stored in the storage hierarchy

 Multiprocessor environment must provide cache coherency in

hardware such that all CPUs have the most recent value in their
cache
 Distributed environment situation even more complex
 Several copies of a datum can exist

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 Question: Why does caching work?
 Caching is basically a performance optimization
 It is based on two empirical principles of real systems
 Data Locality – Nearby addresses likely to be used soon
 Temporal Locality – Same addresses likely to be used again
 Does caching always improve performance?
 Almost always, but not always always.
 Optimized for the common case of real programs
 But some programs may by slower using caching…
 Cache management implies an overhead cost
 Performance benefits almost always exceed this cost
 But pathological programs can mitigate such benefits by
jumping around to avoid data locality and temporal locality

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 Process Management - Multiprogramming

 Multiprogramming increases CPU utilization (efficiency)

 Single user cannot keep CPU and I/O devices busy at all times
 Multiprogramming organizes jobs (code and data) so CPU always has
one to execute
 A subset of total jobs in system is kept in memory
 One job selected and run via job scheduling
 When it has to wait (for I/O for example), OS switches to another job
 Weird lawyer metaphor (from book)
 Lawyers typically serve multiple clients
 While one case waits to go to trial, another can be deposition
 Lawyer stays busy with multiple cases to maximize billable hours

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 Process Management – Time Sharing
 Timesharing (multitasking) is logical extension in which CPU switches
jobs so frequently that users can interact with each job while it is running,
creating interactive computing
 Response time should be < 1 second
 Each user has at least one program executing in memory process
 If several jobs ready to run at the same time  CPU scheduling
 If process won’t fit in memory, swapping moves them in and out to run
 Virtual memory allows execution of processes partially in memory

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 Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System

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 Operating-System Operations
 Interrupt driven by hardware
 Software error or request creates exception or trap
 Division by zero, request for operating system service
 Other process problems include infinite loops, processes modifying
each other, other segments, or the operating system
 Dual-mode operation allows OS to protect itself and other system
components
 User mode and kernel mode (supervisor, privileged mode)
 Mode bit provided by hardware
 Provides ability to distinguish when system is running user code
or kernel code
 Some instructions designated as privileged, only executable in
kernel mode
 System call changes mode to kernel, return from call resets it to
user

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 Transition from User to Kernel Mode
 Timer to prevent infinite loop / process hogging resources
 Set interrupt after specific period
 Operating system decrements counter
 When counter reaches zero, generate an interrupt
 Set up before scheduling process to regain control or terminate
program that exceeds allotted time

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 Process Management

 A process is a program in execution. It is a unit of work within the system.

A program is a passive entity, whereas a process is an active entity.
 Process needs resources to accomplish its task
 CPU, memory, I/O, files
 Data Initialization
 Process termination needs to reclaim any reusable resources
 Single-threaded process has one program counter specifying location of
next instruction to execute
 Process executes instructions sequentially, one at a time, until
completion
 Multi-threaded process has one program counter per thread
 Typically system has many processes, some user, some operating system
running concurrently on one or more CPUs
 Concurrency by multiplexing the CPUs among the processes/threads

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 Process Management Activities

The operating system is responsible for the following activities in

connection with process management:
 Creating and deleting both user and system processes
 Suspending and resuming processes
 Providing mechanisms for process synchronization
 Providing mechanisms for process communication
 Providing mechanisms for deadlock handling
 Weird deadlock example about busy intersections

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 Memory Management
 All data in memory before and after processing
 All instructions in memory in order to execute
 Memory management determines what is in memory when
 Optimizing CPU utilization and computer response to users
 Memory management activities
 Keeping track of which parts of memory are currently being
used and by whom
 Deciding which processes (or parts thereof) and data to move
into and out of memory
 Allocating and deallocating memory space as needed

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 Storage Management

 OS provides uniform, logical view of information storage

 Abstracts physical properties to logical storage unit - file
 Each medium controlled by a device (i.e., disk drive, tape drive)
 Varying properties include access speed, capacity, data-
transfer rate, access method (sequential or random)
 File-System management
 Files usually organized into directories
 Access control typically for determining who can access what
 OS activities include
 Creating and deleting files and directories
 Primitives to manipulate files and directories
 Mapping files onto secondary storage
 Backup files onto stable (non-volatile) storage media

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 Mass-Storage Management
 Usually disks used to store data that does not fit in main memory or data
that must be kept for a “long” period of time.
 Proper management is of central importance
 Entire speed of computer operation hinges on disk subsystem and its
algorithms
 OS activities
 Free-space management
 Storage allocation
 Disk scheduling
 Some storage need not be fast
 Tertiary storage includes optical storage, magnetic tape
 Still must be managed
 Varies between WORM (write-once, read-many-times) and RW (read-
write)

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 I/O Subsystem
 One purpose of OS is to hide peculiarities of hardware devices
from the user
 I/O subsystem responsible for
 Memory management of I/O including buffering (storing data
temporarily while it is being transferred), caching (storing parts
of data in faster storage for performance), spooling (the
overlapping of output of one job with input of other jobs)
 General device-driver interface
 Drivers for specific hardware devices

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 Protection and Security
 Protection – any mechanism for controlling access of processes or
users to resources defined by the OS
 Security – defense of the system against internal and external attacks
 Huge range, including denial-of-service, worms, viruses, identity
theft, theft of service
 Systems generally first distinguish among users, to determine who
can do what
 User identities (user IDs, security IDs) include name and
associated number, one per user
 User ID then associated with all files, processes of that user to
determine access control
 Group identifier (group ID) allows set of users to be defined and
controls managed, then also associated with each process, file
 Privilege escalation allows user to change to effective ID with
more rights

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 Computing Environments
 Traditional computer
 Blurring over time
 Office environment
 PCs connected to a network, terminals attached to
mainframe or minicomputers providing batch and
timesharing
 Now portals allowing networked and remote systems
access to same resources
 Home networks
 Used to be single system, then modems
 Now firewalled, networked

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 Client-Server Computing

 Client-Server Computing
 Dumb terminals supplanted by smart PCs
 Many systems now have servers, responding to requests
generated by clients
 Compute-server provides an interface to client to request
services (i.e. database)
 File-server provides interface for clients to store and retrieve
files

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 Peer-to-Peer Computing
 Another model of distributed systems
 P2P does not distinguish clients and servers
 Instead all nodes are considered peers
 May each act as client, server or both
 Node must join P2P network
 Registers its service with central lookup service on network,
or
 Broadcast request for service and respond to requests for
service via discovery protocol
 Examples include Napster and Gnutella

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 Web-Based Computing
 Web has become nearly ubiquitous
 PCs still most prevalent devices
 More devices becoming networked to allow web access
 New category of devices to manage web traffic among similar
servers: load balancers
 Use of operating systems like Windows 95, client-side, have
evolved into Linux and Windows XP, which can be clients and
servers

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End of Chapter 1