This lecture is based on the textbook, Operating System

Concepts, 10th Edition

Written by Abraham Silberschatz, Greg Gagne and Peter

B. Galvin

Published by Wiley Publishing

Chapter 1: Introduction

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne

 Chapter 1: Introduction

 What Operating Systems Do

 Computer-System Organization - KNOWLEDGE
 Computer-System Architecture - KNOWLEDGE
 Operating-System Operations
 Resource Management
 Security and Protection

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Objectives

 Describe the general organization of a computer system

and the role of interrupts
 Describe the components in a modern, multiprocessor
computer system
 Illustrate the transition from user mode to kernel mode
 Discuss how operating systems are used in various
computing environments
 Provide examples of free and open-source operating
systems

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 What Does the Term Operating System Mean?

 An operating system is “fill in the blanks”

 What about:
• Car
• Airplane
• Printer
• Washing Machine
• Toaster
• Compiler
• Etc.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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 user programs and make solving user
problems easier
• Make the computer system convenient to use
• Use the computer hardware in an efficient
manner

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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 the use of the 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Abstract View of Components of Computer

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 What Operating Systems Do
 Depends on the point of view – programs involved with the
hardware
 Users want convenience, ease of use, and good performance
• Don’t care about resource utilization
 But shared computers such as mainframe or minicomputers
must keep all users happy
• Operating system is a resource allocator and control
program making efficient use of HW and managing the
execution of user programs
 Users of dedicated systems such as workstations have
dedicated resources but frequently use shared resources
from servers
 Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets 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
1.8
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
and automobiles
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Defining Operating Systems

 Term OS covers many roles

• Because of myriad designs and uses of OSes
• Present in toasters through ships, spacecraft, game
machines, TVs, and industrial control systems
• Born when fixed use computers for military became
more general-purpose and needed resource
management and program control

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Overview of Computer System Structure

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Interrupt Timeline

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Interrupt-drive I/O Cycle

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 I/O Structure

 Two methods for handling I/O

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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Storage Structure

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Storage Hierarchy
 Storage systems organized in a 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 the uniform interface between controller and
kernel

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Storage-Device Hierarchy

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Operating-System Operations
 Bootstrap program – simple code to initialize the system,
load the kernel
 Kernel loads
 Starts system daemons (services provided outside of the
kernel)
 Kernel interrupt-driven (hardware and software)
• Hardware interrupted 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Multiprogramming (Batch system)
 Single users cannot always keep CPU and I/O devices
busy
 Multiprogramming organizes jobs (code and data) so the
CPU always has one to execute
 A subset of total jobs in the system is kept in memory
 One job selected and run via job scheduling
 When the job has to wait (for I/O for example), OS
switches to another job

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Multitasking (Timesharing)

 A logical extension of Batch systems– the 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 processes don’t fit in memory, swapping moves
them in and out to run
• Virtual memory allows execution of processes not
completely in memory

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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 the ability to distinguish when the 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 the user does not explicitly set
the mode bit to “kernel”?
• System call changes mode to the kernel, return from
call resets it to user
 Some instructions designated as privileged, only
executable in kernel mode

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Transition from User to Kernel Mode

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Timer
 Timer to prevent infinite loop (or process hogging
resources)
• Timer is set to interrupt the computer after some time
period
• Keep a counter that is decremented by the physical
clock
• Operating system set the counter (privileged
instruction)
• When counter zero generates an interrupt
• Set up before scheduling process to regain control or
terminate the program that exceeds the allotted time

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Process Management
 A process is a program in execution. It is a unit of work
within the system. Program is a passive entity; process is
an active entity.
 Process needs resources to accomplish its task
• CPU, memory, I/O, files
• Initialization data
 Process termination requires reclaim of any reusable
resources
 Single-threaded process has one program counter
specifying the location of the 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 users, some
operating systems running concurrently on one or more
CPUs
• Concurrency by multiplexing the CPUs among the
processes/threads
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Memory Management

 To execute a program all (or part) of the instructions

must be in memory
 All (or part) of the data that is needed by the program
must be in memory
 Memory management determines what is in memory and
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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 File-system Management
 OS provides a uniform, logical view of information
storage
• Abstracts physical properties to the logical storage
unit - file
• Each medium is controlled by the 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 are usually organized into directories
• Access control on most systems to determine 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
Operating System Concepts
th
– 10 Edition 1.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Mass-Storage Management
 Usually disks are used to store data that does not
fit in the 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
• Mounting and unmounting
• Free-space management
• Storage allocation
• Disk scheduling
• Partitioning
• Protection

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Caching

 Important principle, performed at many levels in a

computer (in hardware, operating system, software)
 Information in use copied from slower to faster
storage temporarily
 Faster storage (cache) checked first to determine if
the 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Characteristics of Various Types of Storage

Movement between levels of storage hierarchy can be

explicit or implicit

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Computer System Architecture

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Computer-System Architecture

 Most systems use a single general-purpose processor

• Most systems have special-purpose processors as
well
 Multiprocessors systems growing in use and importance
• Also known as parallel systems, tightly-coupled systems
• Advantages include:
1. Increased throughput
2. Economy of scale
3. Increased reliability – graceful degradation or fault
tolerance
• Two types:
1. Asymmetric Multiprocessing – each processor is
assigned a specie task.
2. Symmetric Multiprocessing – each processor
performs all tasks

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Dual-Core Design
 Multi-chip and multicore
 Systems containing all chips
• Chassis containing multiple separate systems

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Non-Uniform Memory Access System

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Clustered Systems

 Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems working

together
• Usually sharing storage via a storage-area network (SAN)
• Provides a high-availability service which survives failures
 Asymmetric clustering has one machine in hot-standby
mode
 Symmetric clustering has multiple nodes running
applications, monitoring each other
• Some clusters are for high-performance computing (HPC)
 Applications must be written to use parallelization
• Some have distributed lock manager (DLM) to avoid
conflicting operations

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 Clustered Systems

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 PC Motherboard

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
 The Study of Operating Systems
There has never been a more interesting time to study operating systems, and it has never been
easier. The open-source movement has overtaken operating systems, causing many of them to be
made available in both source and binary (executable) format. The list of operating
systems available in both formats includes Linux, BUSD UNIX, Solaris, and part of macOS.
The availability of source code allows us to study operating systems from the inside out.
Questions that we could once answer only by looking at documentation or the behavior of an
operating system we can now answer by examining the code itself.

Operating systems that are no longer commercially viable have been open-sourced as well, enabling
us to study how systems operated in a time of fewer CPU, memory, and storage resources.
An extensive but incomplete list of open-source operating-system projects is available
from https://curlie.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Open_Source/

In addition, the rise of virtualization as a mainstream (and frequently free) computer function
makes it possible to run many operating systems on top of one core system. For example, VMware
(http://www.vmware.com) provides a free “player” for Windows on which hundreds of free
“virtual appliances” can run. Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.com) provides a free, open-source
virtual machine manager on many operating systems. Using such tools, students can try out
hundreds of operating systems without dedicated hardware.

The advent of open-source operating systems has also made it easier to make the move from
student to operating-system developer. With some knowledge, some effort, and an Internet
connection, a student can even create a new operating-system distribution. Just a few years ago,
it was difficult or impossible to get access to source code. Now, such access is limited only by
how much interest, time, and disk space a student has.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 1.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne