IT2060

Operating Systems Lecture 01

and System Introduction

Administration
Objectives
• Learn the major components of the operating systems

• Practice with utilities of Unix system administration.

• Students will also apply the knowledge they learn in the

lectures, tutorial and labs to complete the unit's programming
assignment
Method of Delivery
• 2 Hours Lecture

• 1 Hour Tutorial

• 2 Hours Practical
Assessment Criteria
• Mid Term Test – 30 MCQs (Netexam) 20% Lecture 1 to 5

• Assignment (Online) 20% Based on Practical Sessions (C Language)

• Final Examination (Written) 60% Lessons 6 to 12

 References
A. Silberschatz, P.B. Galvin, G. Gagne, Operating System Concepts, 10th Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, 2018
Linux Programming
Beginning Linux Programming
4th Edition
by Neil Matthew Richard Stones

PThreads Primer
A Guide to Multithreaded Programming
Bil Lewis Daniel J. Berg
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
 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
What is an Operating System(OS)?
• An Operating System is a program that acts as an
intermediary/interface between a user of a computer and the
computer hardware.

• OS goals:
• Control/execute user/application programs.
• Make the computer system convenient to use.
• Ease the solving of user problems.
• Use the computer hardware in an efficient manner.
Purposes of OS
• Provide the environment for program execution and
development
• Manage the resources (CPU, memory, IO devices, hard disk,
files etc..)
• Provide the access controlling (username and password)
Types of OS
User Interface of the Operating System
OS Components
• Process Management
• Main-memory management
• Secondary-storage management
• File Management
• I/O System Management
• Protection System
• Networking (Distributed Systems)
• Command- interpreter System
OS Services
For helping users:

• Provide user interface (UI)

• Command line interface – using text commands
• Batch interface – commands and their directives are put in a file
• Graphical user interface (GUI) – window system with pointing devices

• Provide environment for program execution.

• OS must load program and run it.
• Program must end normally or abnormally.
OS Services
For helping users:

• Provide some means to do I/O

• user programs cannot execute I/O operations directly.
• Provide mechanism to do file-system manipulation.
• Capability to read, write, create, and delete files, directory trees etc.
• Provide mechanism for process communication.
• Exchange information between processes executing on the same computer or on different systems
through a network.
• Implemented via shared memory or message passing.
• Detect errors and take appropriate actions to ensure correct and consistent computing.
• Detect errors in CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, or in user programs.
 OS Services
For efficient operation:

• Resource allocation
• Allocating resources to multiple users or multiple jobs running at the same time (CPU scheduling, etc.).
• Accounting
• Keep track of and record which users use how much and what kinds of computer resources for account
billing or for accumulating usage statistics .
• Protection and security
• Ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled (access permissions, etc.).
 System Calls

• A system call is a user interface to the OS services

• Available in assembly-language instructions or in
high level languages for systems programming
(e.g., C)
• E.g., fork () is a system call to ask OS to create a
new process

• System call result/termination.

• Normal termination (exit or return).
• Terminate current program and return to the
command interpreter.
• Abnormal termination (trap)  program error.
System Calls (cont. )
Types of system calls
1) Process control
• End, abort (running program); Load, execute; Create, terminate; Signal event, etc.
• Examples: fork(), exit(), wait(), etc.
2) File management
• Create, delete; Open, close; Read, write, reposition; Get and set file attributes, etc.
• Examples: open(), read(), write(), close(), etc.
3) Device management (memory, tape drives etc.)
• Request device; Release device; Read, write, reposition, etc.
• Examples: ioctl(), read(), write(), etc.
4) Information maintenance
• Get or set time or date; Get or set process attributes, etc.
• Examples: getpid(), alarm(), sleep(), etc.
5) Communications
• Create, delete communication connection; Send and receive messages, etc.
• Examples: pipe(), shmget(), mmap(), etc.
6) Protection
 System programs or utilities
• Provide a convenient environment for program development and execution
• Most users’ view of the OS is defined by system programs, not the actual system calls.
• Some of them are simple user interface to system calls.
• System programs can be divided into:
• File manipulation: Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list.
• Status information: Date, time, memory, disk space, number of users.
• File modification: Text editors to create and modify content of files.
• Programming-language support: Compilers, interpreters, assemblers.
• Program loading and execution: Absolute, Relocatable, Overlay loaders.
• Communication: Programs that provide the mechanism for creating virtual connections among processes,
users, and different computer systems.
OS Operation
• In multiprogramming, OS must ensure that an incorrect (or malicious) program cannot cause other programs
to execute incorrectly.
• Many programming errors are detected by the hardware, and the errors are normally handled by the OS.

Dual-mode operation
• Hardware provides at least two modes of operations:
• User mode – in which user programs run.
• Monitor mode, also called Supervisor, System, or privileged mode.
• Mode bit is provided by the hardware to indicate the current mode: monitor (0) or user (1).
 OS Operation (cont.)
Dual-mode operation (cont.)
• Some machine instructions that may cause harm are designated
(by hardware) as privileged instructions.
• E.g., the MSB of the machine code of the instruction is a bit ‘1’
Set user mode
• A privileged instruction can be executed only in monitor mode.
• At system boot-time the hardware starts in monitor mode  OS
monitor
is loaded. user

• OS starts user processes in user mode; a user process could never

gain control of the computer in monitor mode. Interrupt/fault

• When an interrupt or fault occurs hardware switches to monitor

mode.
OS Operation (cont.)
I/O
• All I/O instructions are privileged instructions.
• How does the user program perform I/O ? Use system call.
• Usually takes the form of a trap to a specific location in the interrupt vector.
• Control passes through the interrupt vector to a service routine in the OS, and the mode bit is set to a monitor
mode.
• The monitor verifies that the parameters are correct and legal, executes the request, and returns control to the
instruction following the system call.
OS Operation (cont.)
Memory
System must provide memory protection at least for the interrupt vector and the
Interrupt Service Routine.
• Use two registers that determine the range of legal addresses a program may
access:
• Base register – holds the smallest legal physical memory address.
• Limit register – contains the size of the range.
• Memory outside the defined range is protected.
• The load instructions for the base and limit registers are privileged instructions.
• OS has unrestricted access to monitor and user memory.
Memory Protection
OS Operation (cont.)
CPU
• System must prevent one user program using CPU all the time
• Because of getting stuck in an infinite loop, or non-fair users
• Use timer interrupt after specified period to ensure OS maintains control
• Timer is decremented every clock tick.
• When timer reaches value 0, an interrupt occurs.
• Timer is commonly used to implement time sharing.
• Timer is also used to compute the current time.
• Loading timer value is a privileged instruction. Why?
Operating System Design Goals
• Design of the OS is affected by the hardware choice, and system type (batch,
timeshared, etc.)
• User goals – OS should be convenient to use, easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast.
• System goals – OS should be easy to design, implement, and maintain, as well as flexible, reliable, error-free,
and efficient
• Separation of policy and mechanism is a very important principle
• It allows maximum flexibility if policy decisions are to be changed later.
• Mechanisms determine how to do something
• Policies decide what will be done.
• Policies are likely to change from place to place and time to time, and therefore a
general mechanism would be more desirable.
• Example: A mechanism for ensuring CPU protection is the timer construct; and the
decision on how long the timer is set for a particular user is a policy decision.
 OS Development
Simultaneous Peripheral Operation OnLine (SPOOL):
• Goal: To keep I/O and CPU busy all the time.
• Use a faster disk as huge buffer  disk was a new technology
• Inputs from cards are read into disks.
Card CPU Line
• CPU reads input from disks and outputs are written Reader Printer

by CPU to disks.
• The I/O of a job is overlapped with its own
computation or with another job. Disk

• Need a Job Pool – data structure that allows OS

to select job that runs next in order to increase CPU utilization  job scheduling
 OS

Multiprogramming Memory partition

Job 1

Job 2
• Goal: to increase the CPU utilization
• Several jobs are kept in main memory at the same time, and Job 3
the CPU is multiplexed among them
• It needs these OS features:

Job scheduling  OS chooses jobs in the job pool and
put them into memory.

Memory management  OS allocates the memory for
each job.

CPU scheduling  OS chooses one among the jobs in
memory (called processes) that is ready to run.

I/O allocation.
Time-Sharing/Multitasking Systems
• Goal: to provide interactive use of
computer system at reasonable cost (one
computer – several users/jobs).

• It is a variant of multiprogramming  but

user input is from on-line terminal.

• CPU is multiplexed among jobs in memory

frequently (1 sec?) so that users can
interact with their running program.

• Today, most systems provide both batch

processing and time sharing.
Real-time Systems
• Well-defined fixed-time constraint – the system is functional if it returns the correct result within
the time constraint.
• Hard real-time system.

Guarantees that critical tasks complete on time.

Often used as a control device in a dedicated application

controlling scientific experiments, medical imaging systems, industrial control systems, and some display
systems

Secondary storage is limited or absent

data is stored in short-term memory, or in ROM.
• Soft real-time system

A critical-time task gets priority over others until it completes.

Limited utility in industrial control robotics.

Useful in applications (multimedia) requiring advanced OS features.
End of Lecture 1