Introduction to Operating

System
Introduction, Components, Services, Types of OS
&
Architecture of OS
 Introduction to Operating System
• Operating system − a program that acts as an intermediary between a
user of a computer and the computer hardware.
• An operating system is software that manages a computer’s
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.
 Introduction to Operating System
Computer System Components:
• Hardware − provides basic computing resources
(CPU, memory, I/O devices).
• Operating system − controls and coordinates the use of the hardware
among the various application programs for the various users.
• Applications programs − define the ways in which the system
resources are used to solve the computing problems of the users
(compilers, database systems, video games, business programs).
• Users (people, machines, other computers).

A fundamental responsibility of an operating system is to allocate these resources

(CPU, memory, I/O devices, and storage) to programs.
 Computer System

Abstract view of the components of a computer system.

 Computer System

Fig: Operating systems turn ugly hardware into beautiful abstractions.

One of the major tasks of the operating system is to hide the hardware &
ugly interfaces, and present programs with nice, clean, elegant, consistent.
 Computer System

A typical PC computer system

 A resource manager
• The primary task of an operating system is to keep track of which
programs are using which resource, to grant resource requests, to
account for usage, and to mediate conflicting requests from different
programs and users.
• Resource management includes multiplexing (sharing) resources in two
different ways: in time and in space.
• Time multiplexed: different programs or users take turns to use it. First
one of them gets to use the resource, then another, and so on.
• For example, with only one CPU and multiple programs that want to run
on it, the operating system first allocates the CPU to one program, then,
after it has run long enough, another program gets to use the CPU, then
another, and then eventually the first one again.
• Determining how the resource is time multiplexed—who goes next and
for how long—is the task of the operating system.
 A resource manager
• Space multiplexing: Instead of the customers taking turns, each one gets part of
the resource.
• For example, main memory is normally divided up among several running
programs, so each one can be resident at the same time.
• Assuming there is enough memory to hold multiple programs, it is more
efficient to hold several programs in memory at once rather than give one of
them all of it, especially if it only needs a small fraction of the total.
• This raises issues of fairness, protection, and so on, and it is up to the operating
system to solve them.
• Another resource that is space multiplexed is the disk. In many systems a single
disk can hold files from many users at the same time. Allocating disk space and
keeping track of who is using which disk blocks is a typical operating system task.
Each program gets time with the resource.
Each program gets space on the resource.
 Operating System Components
Most operating systems support the following types of system
components:
• Process Management
• Main Memory Management
• I/O System Management
• File Management
• Secondary Management
• Networking
• Protection System
• Command-Interpreter System
 Process Management
• A process is a program in execution. A process needs certain
resources, including CPU time, memory, files, and I/O devices, to
accomplish its task.
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in
connection with process management.
 Process creation and deletion.
 Process suspension and resumption.
 Provision of mechanisms for:
o process synchronization
o process communication
 Main-Memory Management
• Memory is a large array of words or bytes, each with its own address.
It is a repository of quickly accessible data shared by the CPU and I/O
devices.
• Main memory is a volatile storage device. It loses its contents in the
case of system failure.
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in
connection with memory management:
 Keep track of which parts of memory are currently being used and by whom.
 Decide which processes to load when memory space becomes available.
 Allocate and de-allocate memory space as needed.
 Secondary-Storage Management
• Since main memory (primary storage) is volatile and too small to
accommodate all data and programs permanently, the computer
system must provide secondary storage to back up main memory.
• Most modern computer systems use disks as the principle on-line
storage medium, for both programs and data.
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in
connection with disk management:
 Free-space management
 Storage allocation
 Disk scheduling
 I/O System Management
• The I/O system consists of:
 A buffer-caching system
 A general device-driver interface
 Drivers for specific hardware devices
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in
connection with I/O management:
 It keeps track of data, status, location, uses, etc.
 It monitors the status of every device, including printers, storage drivers, and
other devices.
 It allocates and effectively deallocates the device.
 File Management
• A file is a collection of related information defined by its creator.
Commonly, files represent programs (both source and object forms)
and data.
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in
connection with file management:
 File creation and deletion.
 Directory creation and deletion.
 Support of primitives for manipulating files and directories.
 Mapping files onto secondary storage.
 File backup on stable (nonvolatile) storage media.
 Protection System
• Protection refers to a mechanism for controlling access by programs,
processes, or users to both system and user resources.
• The protection mechanism must:
 distinguish between authorized and unauthorized usage.
 specify the controls to be imposed.
 provide a means of enforcement.
 Networking (Distributed Systems)
• A distributed system is a collection of processors that do not share
memory or a clock. Each processor has its own local memory.
• The processors in the system are connected through a communication
network.
• A distributed system provides user access to various system
resources.
• Access to a shared resource allows:
 Computation speed-up
 Increased data availability
 Enhanced reliability
 Command-Interpreter System
• Many commands are given to the operating system by control
statements which deal with:
 process creation and management
 I/O handling
 secondary-storage management
 main-memory management
 file-system access
 protection
 networking
• The program that reads and interprets control statements is called
variously:
 control-card interpreter
 command-line interpreter
 shell (in UNIX)
Its function is to get and execute the next command statement
Operating System Services

A view of operating system services.

 Operating-System Services
• An operating system provides an environment for the execution of
programs.
• It makes certain services available to programs and to the users of
those programs.
• The specific services provided, of course, differ from one operating
system to another, but we can identify common classes.
 Program execution
 I/O operations
 File-system manipulation
 Communications
 Error detection
 Operating-System Services
Program execution:
• system capability to load a program into memory, run the program, and
terminate the program, either normally or abnormally.
I/O operations:
• since user programs cannot execute I/O operations directly, the operating
system must provide some means to perform I/O.
• The OS is responsible for transferring data to and from I/O devices, including
keyboards, terminals, printers, and storage devices.
File-system manipulation:
• In addition to raw data storage, the OS is also responsible for maintaining
directory and subdirectory structures, mapping file names to specific blocks of
data storage, and providing tools for navigating and utilizing the file system.
• program capability to read, write, create, and delete files.
 Operating-System Services
Communications:
• Inter-process communications, IPC, either between processes running on
the same processor, or between processes running on separate processors
or separate machines.
• exchange of information between processes executing either on the same
computer or on different systems tied together by a network. Implemented
via shared memory or message passing.
Error detection:
• ensure correct computing by detecting errors in the CPU & memory
hardware, in I/O devices, or in user programs.
Memory error or a power failure
Parity error on tape, a connection failure on a network, or lack of paper in the printer
Arithmetic overflow, an attempt to access an illegal memory location, or a too-great
use of CPU time
 Operating-System Services
Additional operating-system functions exist not for helping the user, but
rather for ensuring efficient system operation.
Resource allocation:
• allocating resources to multiple users or multiple jobs running at the
same time.
• Many different types of resources are managed by OS such as CPU
cycles, main memory, and file storage.
• best to use the CPU
Accounting:
• keep track of and record which users use how much and what kinds of
computer resources.
• Usage statistics may be a valuable tool for researchers who wish to
 Operating-System Services
Additional operating-system functions exist not for helping the user, but
rather for ensuring efficient system operation.
Protection and security:
• Preventing harm to the system and to resources
• Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is
controlled.
• Security of the system from outsiders is also important.
 User Operating-System Interface
There are two fundamental approaches for users to interface with the
operating system.
• Command-line Interface Or Command Interpreter
command interpreter allows users to directly enter commands that are
to be performed by the operating system.
• Graphical user interface or GUI.
 System Calls
• System calls provide the interface between a running program and
the operating system.
 Generally available as assembly-language instructions.
• System calls provide a means for user or application programs to call
upon the services of the operating system.
• Generally written in C or C++, although some are written in assembly
for optimal performance.
 System Calls
• Example: how the operating system handles a user application
invoking the open() system call.
 Types of System Calls
• System calls can be grouped roughly into six major categories:
 Process Control
 File Manipulation
 Device Manipulation
 Information maintenance, and
 Communications
 Protection
 Types of System Calls
Process control:
• A running program needs to be able to halt its execution either
normally (end) or abnormally (abort).
• If a system call is made to terminate the currently running program
abnormally, or if the program runs into a problem and causes an error
trap, a dump of memory is sometimes taken and an error message
generated.
 Types of System Calls
Process control:
 Types of System Calls
File manipulation:
• We identify several common system calls dealing with files.
• We first need to be able to create() and delete() files.
• Either system call requires the name of the file and perhaps some of
the file’s attributes.
 Types of System Calls
File manipulation:
 Types of System Calls
• Device manipulation:
• A process may need several resources to execute—main memory, disk
drives, access to files, and so on.
• If the resources are available, they can be granted, and control can be
returned to the user process.
• Otherwise, the process will have to wait until sufficient resources are
available.
• The various resources controlled by the operating system can be
thought of as devices.
• Some of these devices are physical devices (e.g. disk drives), while
others can be thought of as abstract or virtual devices (e.g. files).
 Types of System Calls
• Device manipulation:
 Types of System Calls
Information maintenance:
• Many system calls exist simply for the purpose of transferring
information between the user program and the operating system.
• For example, most systems have a system call to return the current
time() and date().
• Other system calls may return information about the system, such as
the version number of the operating system, the amount of free
memory or disk space, and so on
 Types of System Calls
Information maintenance:
 Types of System Calls
Communications:
• There are two common models of inter-process communication:
 Message-passing model
 Shared-memory model.
• In the message-passing model, the communicating processes
exchange messages with one another to transfer information.
• Messages can be exchanged between the processes either directly or
indirectly through a common mailbox.
• Before communication can take place, a connection must be opened.
 Types of System Calls
Communications:
 Types of System Calls
Protection:
• Protection provides a mechanism for controlling access to the
resources provided by a computer system.
• Historically, protection was a concern only on multiprogrammed
computer systems with several users.
• However, with the advent of networking and the Internet, all
computer systems, from servers to mobile handheld devices, must be
concerned with protection.
 Types of System Calls
Protection:
 Types of Operating System
Operating system classifications:
• Batch Operating System
• Time-Sharing Systems
• Desktop Systems
• Parallel Systems
• Distributed Systems
• Clustered Systems
• Real-Time Systems
 Batch Operating System
• Reduce setup time by batching similar jobs
 There is an operator which takes similar jobs having the same requirement
and group them into batches.
 It is the responsibility of the operator to sort jobs with similar needs.
• Automatic job sequencing – automatically transfers control from one
job to another.
 Batch Operating System
• Multiple users can share the batch systems
• The idle time for the batch system is very less
• It is easy to manage large work repeatedly in batch systems.
• Batch systems are hard to debug
• It is sometimes costly
• The other jobs will have to wait for an unknown time if any job fails
 OS Features Needed for Multiprogramming
• I/O routine supplied by the system.
• Memory management – the system must allocate the memory to
several jobs.
• CPU scheduling – the system must choose among several jobs ready
to run.
• Allocation of devices.
 Time Sharing Systems
• Each task is given some time to execute so that all the tasks work
smoothly.
• Each user gets the time of CPU as they use a single system.
• These systems are also known as Multitasking Systems.
• The task can be from a single user or different users also.
 Time Sharing Systems
• The time that each task gets to execute is called quantum. After this
time interval is over OS switches over to the next task.
• Each task gets an equal opportunity
• Fewer chances of duplication of software
• CPU idle time can be reduced
 Desktop Systems
• Personal computers – computer system dedicated to a single user.
• I/O devices – keyboards, mice, display screens, small printers.
• User convenience and responsiveness.
• Can adopt technology developed for larger operating system’ often
individuals have sole use of computer and do not need advanced CPU
utilization of protection features.
• May run several different types of operating systems (Windows,
MacOS, UNIX, Linux)
 Parallel Systems
• Multiprocessor systems with more than on CPU in close
communication.
• Tightly coupled system – processors share memory and a clock;
communication usually takes place through the shared memory.
• Advantages of parallel system:
 Increased throughput
 Economical
 Increased reliability
o graceful degradation
o fail-soft systems
 Parallel Systems
• Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
 Each processor runs and identical copy of the operating system.
 Many processes can run at once without performance
deterioration.
 Most modern operating systems support SMP
• Asymmetric multiprocessing
 Each processor is assigned a specific task; master processor
schedules and allocated work to slave processors.
 More common in extremely large systems
 Distributed Systems
• Distribute the computation among several physical processors.
• Loosely coupled system – each processor has its own local memory;
processors communicate with one another through various
communications lines, such as high-speed buses or telephone lines.
 Distributed Systems
• Advantages of distributed systems.
 Resources Sharing
 Computation speed up – load sharing
 Reliability
 Communications
• Requires networking infrastructure.
• Local area networks (LAN) or Wide area networks (WAN)
• May be either client-server or peer-to-peer systems.
 Clustered Systems
• Clustering allows two or more systems to share storage.
• Provides high reliability.
• Asymmetric clustering: one server runs the application while other
servers standby.
• Symmetric clustering: all N hosts are running the application.
 Real-Time Systems
• Often used as a control device in a dedicated application such as
controlling scientific experiments, medical imaging systems, industrial
control systems, and some display systems.
• Well-defined fixed-time constraints.
• Real-Time systems may be either hard or soft real-time.
 Real-Time Systems
• Hard real-time:
 Secondary storage limited or absent, data stored in short term
memory, or read-only memory (ROM)
 Conflicts with time-sharing systems, not supported by general-
purpose operating systems.

• Soft real-time
 Limited utility in industrial control of robotics
 Useful in applications (multimedia, virtual reality) requiring
advanced operating-system features.
 Operating System Structure
• For efficient performance and implementation an OS should be
partitioned into separate subsystems, each with carefully defined tasks,
inputs, outputs, and performance characteristics.
• You may use a similar approach when you structure your programs:
rather than placing all of your code in the main() function, you instead
separate logic into a number of functions, clearly articulate parameters
and return values, and then call those functions from main().
• These subsystems can then be arranged in various architectural
configurations:
 Monolithic Systems
 Layered Systems
 Microkernels
 Client-server Systems
 Virtual Machines
 Operating System Structure: Monolithic Systems
• An OS is a complex software that has a large number of functionalities
and may contain millions of instructions.
• It is designed to consist of a set of software modules, where each
module has a well-defined interface that must be used to access any
of its functions or data.
• The simplest structure for organizing an operating system is no
structure at all.
• That is, place all of the functionality of the kernel into a single, static
binary file that runs in a single address space.
 Operating System Structure: Monolithic Systems
• Early operating systems had a monolithic structure, whereby the OS
formed a single software layer between the user and the bare
machine.
• The user interface was provided by a command interpreter. The
command interpreter organized creation of user processes.
 Operating System Structure: Monolithic Systems
• Both the command interpreter and user processes invoked OS
functionalities and services through system calls.
• Two kinds of problems with the monolithic structure were realized
over a period of time. The sole OS layer had an interface with the bare
machine. Hence architecture-dependent code was spread throughout
the OS, and so there was poor portability.
• It also made testing and debugging difficult, leading to high costs of
maintenance and enhancement.
 Operating System Structure: Monolithic Systems
• These problems led to the search for alternative ways to structure an
OS.
• Solutions to these problems: Layered structure, Kernel-based
structure and Microkernel-based OS structure.
 Operating System Structure: Layered Systems
• The monolithic approach is often known as a tightly coupled system
because changes to one part of the system can have wide-ranging
effects on other parts.
• Alternatively, we could design a loosely coupled system. Such a
system is divided into separate, smaller components that have specific
and limited functionality.
• All these components together comprise the kernel.
• The advantage of this modular approach is that changes in one
component affect only that component, and no others, allowing
system implementers more freedom in creating and changing the
inner workings of the system.
 Operating System Structure: Layered Systems
• The monolithic OS structure suffered from the problem that all OS
components had to be able to work with the bare machine.
• This feature increased the cost and effort in developing an OS because
of the large semantic gap between the operating system and the bare
machine.
• Semantic Gap: The mismatch between the nature of operations
needed in the application and the nature of operations provided in
the machine.
 Operating System Structure: Layered Systems
• The extended machine provides operations like context save,
dispatching, swapping, and I/O initiation.
• The operating system layer is located on top of the extended machine
layer. This arrangement considerably simplifies the coding and testing
of OS modules by separating the algorithm of a function from the
implementation of its primitive operations.
 Operating System Structure: Layered Systems
• It is now easier to test, debug, and modify an OS module than in a
monolithic OS.
• We say that the lower layer provides an abstraction that is the
extended machine. We call the operating system layer the top layer of
the OS.
 Operating System Structure: Layered Systems
• The layered approach to OS design suffers from two main problems:
1) The operation of a system may be slowed down by the layered
structure. Recall that each layer can interact only with adjoining
layers. It implies that a request for OS service made by a user
process must move down from the highest numbered layer to the
lowest numbered layer before the required action is performed by
the bare machine. This feature leads to high overhead.
2) The second problem concerns difficulties in developing a layered
design. Since a layer can access only the immediately lower layer, all
features and facilities needed by it must be available in lower layers.
This requirement poses a problem in the ordering of layers that
require each other’s services.
 Operating System Structure: Kernel-based
• The kernel is the core of the OS.
• It provides a set of functions and services to support various OS
functionalities. The rest of the OS is organized as a set of non-kernel
routines, which implement operations on processes and resources
that are of interest to users, and a user interface.
• We all know the operation of the kernel is interrupt-
driven.
• The kernel gets control when an interrupt such as a
timer interrupt or an I/O completion interrupt notifies
occurrence of an event to it, or when the software-
interrupt instruction is executed to make a system call.
• When the interrupt occurs, an interrupt servicing
routine performs the context save function and invokes
an appropriate event handler, which is a nonkernel
routine of the OS.
 Operating System Structure: Kernel-based
Functions and Services Offered by the Kernel

• Kernel-based operating systems have poor extensibility because addition of a new

functionality to the OS may require changes in the functions and services offered by
 Operating System Structure: Microkernels
• The microkernel was developed in the early 1990s to overcome the
problems concerning portability, extensibility, and reliability of
kernels.
• A microkernel is an essential core of OS code, thus it contains only a
subset of the mechanisms typically included in a kernel and supports
only a small number of system calls. This feature enhances portability
and reliability of the microkernel.
• Less essential parts of OS code are outside the microkernel and use
its services, hence these parts could be modified without affecting the
kernel
 Operating System Structure: Microkernels
• The microkernel includes mechanisms for process scheduling and
memory management, etc., but does not include a scheduler or
memory handler.
• These functions are implemented as servers, which are simply
processes that never terminate. The servers and user processes
operate on top of the microkernel, which merely performs interrupt
handling and provides communication between the servers and user
processes.
 Operating System Structure: Microkernels
• The small size and extensibility of microkernels are valuable
properties for the embedded systems environment, because
operating systems need to be both small and fine-tuned to the
requirements of an embedded application.
 Operating System Structure: Client-Server Systems
• A slight variation of the microkernel idea is to distinguish two classes
of processes, Client & Server.
• The servers, each of which provides some service, and
• The clients, which use these services.
• This model is known as the client-server model. Often the lowest layer
is a microkernel, but that is not required. The essence is the presence
of client processes and server processes.
 Operating System Structure: Virtual Machines
• Different classes of users need different kinds of user service. Hence
running a single OS on a computer system can disappoint many users.
• Operating the computer under different OSs during different periods
is not a satisfactory solution because it would make accessible
services offered under only one of the operating systems at any time.
• This problem is solved by using a virtual machine operating system
(VM OS) to control the computer system.
• The VM OS creates several virtual machines. Each virtual machine is
allocated to one user, who can use any OS of his own choice on the
virtual machine and run his programs under this OS.
• This way users of the computer system can use different operating
systems at the same time
 Modern Operating System
• Architecture of some modern operating systems:
 Architecture of Unix
 The Kernel of Linux
 The Kernel of Solaris
 Architecture of Windows
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• Unix is a kernel-based operating system.
• It consists of two main components—process management and file
management.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• The process management component consists of a module for inter-
process communication, which implements communication and
synchronization between processes, and the memory management
and scheduling modules.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• The file management component performs I/O through device
drivers.
• Each device driver handles a specific class of I/O devices and uses
techniques like disk scheduling to ensure good throughput of an I/O
device.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• The buffer cache is used to reduce both the time required to
implement a data transfer between a process and an I/O device, and
the number of I/O operations performed on devices like disks.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• The process management and file management components of the
kernel are activated through interrupts raised in the hardware, and
system calls made by processes and non-kernel routines of the OS.
• The user interface of the OS is a command interpreter, called a shell,
that runs as a user process.
• The Unix kernel cannot be interrupted at any arbitrary moment of
time.
• It can be interrupted only when a process executing kernel code exits,
or when its execution reaches a point at which it can be safely
interrupted.
• This feature ensures that the kernel data structures are not in an
inconsistent state when an interrupt occurs and another process
starts executing the kernel code.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• The Unix kernel has a long history of over four decades. The original
kernel was small and simple.
• It provided a small set of abstractions, simple but powerful features
like the pipe mechanism, which enabled users to execute several
programs concurrently, and a small file system that supported only
one file organization called the byte stream organization.
• All devices were represented as files, which unified the management
of I/O devices and files.
• The kernel was written in the C language and had a size of less than
100 KB. Hence it was easily portable.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• Unix kernel was monolithic and not very extensible. So it had to be
modified as new computing environments, like the client–server
environment.
• A major strength of Unix was its use of open standards. It enabled a
large number of organizations ranging from the academia to the
industry to participate in its development, which led to widespread
use of Unix.
• But also led to the development of a large number of variants
because of concurrent and uncoordinated development.
• The kernel became bulky, growing to a few million bytes in size, which
affected its portability.
 Modern Operating System- Unix
• Around this time, a feature was added to dynamically load kernel
modules in memory. It enabled kernel modules to be loaded only
when needed.
• This feature reduced the memory requirement of the kernel, but not
its code size. Hence it did not enhance its portability
 Modern Operating System- Linux
• Linux operating system provides the functionalities of Unix System V
and Unix BSD; it is also compliant with the POSIX standard.
• It was initially implemented on the Intel 80386 and has since been
implemented on later Intel processors and several other
architectures.
• Linux has a monolithic kernel.
 Modern Operating System- Linux
• Linux kernel is one layer in the
architecture of the entire Linux
system. The kernel is
conceptually composed of five
major modules: the process
scheduler, the memory manager,
the virtual file system, the
network interface, and the
interprocess communication
interface.
• These modules interact with
each other using function calls
and shared data structures.
 Modern Operating System- Linux
• Each module can be individually
loaded into memory, or
removed from it, depending on
whether it is likely to be used in
near future.
• In principle, any component of
the kernel can be structured as a
loadable module, but typically
device drivers become separate
modules.
 Modern Operating System- Linux
• A few kernel modules are loaded
when the system is booted.
• A new kernel module is loaded
dynamically when needed
• However, it has to be integrated
with the kernel modules that
already existed in memory so
that the modules can collectively
function as a monolithic kernel.
 Modern Operating System- Solaris
• The Solaris kernel has an abstract machine layer that supports a wide
range of processor architectures of the SPARC and Intel 80x86 family,
including multiprocessor architectures.
• The pre-SVR4 versions of the OS are called SunOS, while the SVR4-
based and later versions are called Solaris.
• The kernel is fully preemptible and provides real-time capabilities.
• Solaris 7 employs the kernel-design methodology of dynamically
loadable kernel modules.
• The kernel has a core module that is always loaded; it contains
interrupt servicing routines, system calls, process and memory
management, and a virtual file system framework that can support
different file systems concurrently.
 Modern Operating System- Solaris
• The kernel maintains a symbol table containing information about
symbols defined in currently loaded kernel modules. This information is
used while loading and linking a new module. New information is
added to the symbol table after a module is loaded and some
information is deleted after a module is deleted.
• The Solaris kernel supports seven types of loadable modules:
 Scheduler classes
 File systems
 Loadable system calls
 Loaders for different formats of exe. file.s
 Streams modules
 Bus controllers and device drivers
 Miscellaneous modules
 Modern Operating System- Solaris
• The hardware abstraction layer (HAL) interfaces with the bare machine
and provides abstractions of the I/O interfaces, interrupt controllers, and
interprocessor communication mechanisms in a multiprocessor system.
• The HAL and the kernel are together equivalent to a conventional kernel.
A device driver also uses the abstractions provided by the HAL to
manage I/O operations on a class of devices.
 Modern Operating System- Solaris
• The kernel performs the process synchronization and scheduling
functions.
• The executive comprises nonkernel routines of the OS; its code uses
facilities in the kernel to provide services such as process creation and
termination, virtual memory management, an interprocess message
passing facility for client–server communication.
 Modern Operating System- Solaris
• The I/O manager uses device drivers, which are loaded dynamically
when needed.
• Many functions of the executive operate in the kernel mode, thus
avoiding frequent context switches when the executive interacts with
the kernel; it has obvious performance benefits.