Operating

Systems
Prepared by : Sir Dave
 Objectives:
After studying this lesson, the student should be able to:
• Understand the role of operating system.
• Understand the process of bootstrapping to load the operating
system into memory.
• List the components of an operating system.
• Discuss the role of the memory manager.
• Discuss the role of the process memory.
• Discuss the role of device manager.
• Discuss the role of file manager in an operating system.
• Understand the main features of three common operating systems:
UNIX, Linux, Windows NT.
 Overview:
A computer is a system composed of two major components: hardware
and software.

Computer hardware is the physical equipment. Software is the

collection of programs that allows the hardware to do its job. Computer
software is divided into two broad categories: the operating system
and application programs (Figure 7.1). Application programs use
the computer hardware to solve users’ problems. The operating
system, on the other hand, controls the access to hardware by users.
 INTRODUCTION
An operating system is complex, so it is difficult to give a simple
universal definition. Instead, here are some common definitions:

❑ An operating system is an interface between the hardware of a

computer and the user (programs or humans).
❑ An operating system is a program (or a set of programs) that
facilitates the execution of other programs
❑ An operating system acts as a general manager supervising the
activity of each component in the computer system.
 INTRODUCTION:

Two major design goals of an operating system are:

❑ Efficient use of hardware.

❑ Ease of use of resources.
Bootstrap
Process
The operating system, based on the above definitions,
provides supports for other programs. For example, it is responsible for
loading other programs into memory for execution. However, the
operating system itself is a program that needs to be loaded into the
memory and be run. How is this dilemma solved?

The solution is a two-stage process. A very small section of memory is

made of ROM and holds a small program called the bootstrap
program. When the computer is turned on, the CPU counter is set to
the first instruction of this bootstrap program and executes the
instructions in this program. When loading is done, the program counter
is set to the first instruction of the operating system in RAM.
 EVOLUTION
Operating systems have gone through a long history of evolution, which
we summarize here.

Batch Systems
Batch operating systems were designed in the 1950s to control
mainframe computers. At that time, computers were large machines
that used punched cards for input, line printers for output and tape
drives for secondary storage media. Each program to be executed was
called a job. A programmer who wished to execute a job sends a
request to the operating system.
Time-sharing
systems
To use computer system resources efficiently, multiprogramming was
introduced. The idea is to hold several jobs in memory at a time, and
only assign a resource to a job that needs it on the condition that the
resource is available.

Multiprogramming brought the idea of time sharing:

resources could be shared between different jobs, with each job being
allocated a portion of time to use a resource. Because a computer is
much faster than a human, time sharing is hidden from the user—each
user has the impression that the whole system is serving them
exclusively
Personal systems
When personal computers were introduced, there was a need
for an operating system for this new type of computer. During this era,
single-user operating systems such as DOS (Disk Operating System)
were introduced.

Parallel systems
The need for more speed and efficiency led to the design of
parallel systems: multiple CPUs on the same machine. Each CPU can
be used to serve one program or a part of a program, which means that
many tasks can be accomplished in parallel instead of serially. The
operating systems required for this are more complex than those that
support single CPUs.
Distributed systems
Networking and internetworking, as we saw in Chapter 6, have
created a new dimension in operating systems. A job that was
previously done on one computer can now be shared between
computers that may be thousands of miles apart. Distributed systems
combine features of the previous generation with new duties such as
controlling security.

Real-time systems
A real-time system is expected to do a task within a specific
time constraint. They are used with real-time applications, which
monitor, respond to or control external processes or environments.
 COMPONENTS

Today’s operating systems are very complex. An operating

system needs to manage different resources in a computer system. It
resembles an organization with several managers at the top level. Each
manager is responsible for managing their department, but also needs
to cooperate with others and coordinate activities.

A modern operating system has at least four duties: memory

manager, process manager, device manager and file manager.
User interface
Each operating system has a user interface, a program
that accepts requests from users (processes) and interprets
them for the rest of the operating system. A user interface in
some operating systems, such as UNIX, is called a shell. In
others, it is called a window to denote that it is menu driven and
has a GUI (graphical user interface) component.
Memory manager
One of the responsibilities of a modern computer system is
memory management. Although the memory size of computers has
increased tremendously in recent years, so has the size of the
programs and data to be processed. Memory allocation must be
managed to prevent applications from running out of memory.
Operating systems can be divided into two broad categories of memory
management: monoprogramming and multiprogramming.
Monoprogramming
In monoprogramming, most of the memory capacity is
dedicated to a single program; only a small part is needed to hold the
operating system. In this configuration, the whole program is in memory
for execution. When the program finishes running, the program area is
occupied by another program.
Multiprogramming
In multiprogramming, more than one program is in memory
at the same time, and they are executed concurrently, with the CPU
switching rapidly between the programs.
Process manager
A second function of an operating system is process
management, but before discussing this concept, we need to define
some terms.

Program, job, and process

❑ A program is a non-active set of instructions stored on disk.
❑ A program becomes a job from the moment it is selected for
execution until it has finished running and becomes a program again.
❑ A process is a program in execution. It is a program that has started
but has not finished.
Process manager
State diagram

The relationship between a program, a job and a process

becomes clearer if we consider how a program becomes a job
and how a job becomes a process. This can be illustrated with a
state diagram that shows the different states of each of these
entities.
Process manager

Schedulers

To move a job or process from one state to another, the process

manager uses two schedulers: the job scheduler and the
process scheduler.
Process manager
Queuing

Our state diagram shows one job or process moving from one state to
another. In reality, there are many jobs and many processes competing
with each other for computer resources. To handle multiple processes
and jobs, the process manager uses queues (waiting lists). A job control
block or process control block is associated with each job or process.
This is a block of memory that stores information about that job or
process. The process manager stores the job or process control block
in the queues instead of the job or process itself.
Process manager
Process synchronization

The whole idea behind process management is to synchronize different

processes with different resources. Whenever resources can be used
by more than one user (or process, in this case), we can have two
problematic situations: deadlock and starvation.
Device manager
The device manager, or input/output manager, is
responsible for access to input/ output devices. There are limitations on
the number and speed of input/output devices in a computer system.

❑ The device manager monitors every input/output device constantly to

ensure that the device is functioning properly
❑ The device manager maintains a queue for each input/output device
or one or more queues for similar input/output devices.
❑ The device manager controls the different policies for accessing
input/output devices.
File manager
Operating systems today use a file manager to control access to files.
A detailed discussion of the file manager also requires advanced knowledge of
operating system principles and file access concepts that are beyond the scope
of this book.

The file manager:

❑ controls access to files.

❑ supervises the creation, deletion, and modification of files.
❑ controls the naming of files.
❑ supervises the storage of files.
❑ is responsible for archiving and backups
 A SURVEY OF
OPERATING SYSTEMS
In this section we introduce some popular operating systems
and encourage you to study them further. We have chosen
three operating systems that are familiar to most computer
users: UNIX, Linux and Windows.
UNIX
UNIX was originally developed in 1969 by Thomson and
Ritchie of the Computer Science Research Group at Bell
Laboratories. UNIX has gone through many versions since then.
It has been a popular operating system among computer
programmers and computer scientists.

UNIX is a multiuser, multiprocessing, portable operating system.

It is designed to facilitate programming, text processing and
communication.
Linux
In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a Finish student at the
University of Helsinki at the time, developed a new operating
system that is known today as Linux. The initial kernel, which
was similar to a small subset of UNIX, has grown into a fullscale
operating system today. The Linux 2.0 kernel, released in 1997,
was accepted as a commercial operating system: it has all
features traditionally attributed to UNIX.
Windows NT/2000/XP
In the late 1980s Microsoft, under the leadership of
Dave Cutler, started development of a new single-user
operating system to replace MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating
System). Windows NT (NT standing for New Technology) was
the result. Several versions of Windows NT followed and the
name was changed to Windows 2000. Windows XP (XP stands
for eXPerience) was released in 2001. We refer to all of these
versions as Windows NT or just NT.
THAN
KS!
Do you have any questions?