DEBRE MARKOS UNIVERSITY

BURIE CAMPUS
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Operating System
By:
Amare W.

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Chapter One: Introduction

Overview of Operating Systems (OS)
 Software is “a program or set of programs to perform a task using
the capabilities of the Hardware”.
 software is a set of instructions that tell the computer hardware
what to do.
 Types of Software: There are mainly two classes of software
 Application software
 Systems software

 Application software are the user programs and consists of those

programs that solve specific problems for the users and execute
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under the control of the operating system.

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 System Software manages the computer’s basic operations, allows the

computer to run applications software and allows the user to interact
with the computer.
 System software tells the computer how to interpret data and
instructions; how to communicate with peripheral equipment like
mouse, keyboard, printers etc; and how to use the hardware in general.
 There are many number of system software,
 Operating Systems
 Device Drivers
 Language Translators
 Utility Programs 3/2/2018
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What is Operating System?

 Operating system is the core software component of your computer. It performs many
functions and is, in very basic terms, an interface between your computer and the
outside world.
 A computer is a modern system consists of one or more processor, some main memory,
disks, printers, a keyboard, display and other I/O systems. This is a complex system.
 Thus writing programs that keeps track of all these components and use them correctly
is a mandatory.
 For these reason, computers are provided with a layer of software called the operating
system (OS).
 The job of OS is to manage all these devices and provide user program with a simpler
interface to the hardware.
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 An operating system is the actual software that controls the allocation

and use of a computer's hardware.
 It keeps components working in unity, acting as a communicator
between the user, the computer's hardware and software.
 Operating system is system software that controls the execution of
programs and that provides services such as resource allocation,
scheduling, I/O control and data/file management.

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♥ Operating System interprets commands and instructions. It also

coordinates compilers, assemblers, utility programs, and other
software to the various user of the computer system.
♥ OS provides easy communication between the computer system
and the computer operator (human). It also establishes data
security and integrity.
♥ Therefore, operating system provides the means for proper use of
these resources in the operation of computer system.
♥ To understand the role of operating system we can categorize
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two viewpoints.
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user's View

♥ Regarding to the user’s view an operating system designer focused on

user interface.
♥ For instance let’s take PC, consists of monitor, keyboard , mouse and
system unit. Such system is designed for a single user to monopolize
the resource.
 The goal is to maximize the work that the user is performing. In this
case, the operating system is designed mostly for easy of use.
 In other cases, a user sits at a terminal connected to mainframe or
minicomputer.
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 Other users are accessing the same computer through other terminals.
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 So in this case the users share the resources and may exchange
information.
 The OS in such cases is designed to maximize resource
utilization to assure that all available resource are used
efficiently and no individual takes more.

System’s View
 From the systems point of view, the operating system is the
program most intimately involved with the hardware. In this
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case, operating system is resource allocator.

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 A computer system has many resources that may be required to

solve problems and OS manages such resources. Facing
numerous and possibly conflicting requests for resources.
 The operating system must decide how to allocate them to a
specific programs and users and operate computer system
efficiently and fairly.
 It is important when many users access the same mainframe or
minicomputers. An operating system is a control program.
 A control program manages the execution of user programs
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prevent errors and improper use of the computer.
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Role and purpose of operating systems

 An operating system provides an environment for the execution
of programs. It provides certain services for programs and
users of programs.
 Specific services provided are different from one operating
system to another.
 But there are some common classes provided by all operating
system.
 Operating system services provides functions that are helpful to
the user. Some of the services provided by an operating system:
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….cont’d
 User Interface: almost all operating system have a user interface

(UI). This interface can take several forms.

 CLI : is a text-oriented interface. Advanced users and application

programmers will normally directly communicate with the operating system at

this level.

 Batch interface in which commands and directives to control those commands

are entered into files and those files are executed.

 GUI: The highest level is the (GUI), which allows I/O interaction with a user

through intuitive icons, menus, and other graphical objects.

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 Program Execution: the system must be able to load a program into

memory and to run that program. The program must be able to end its

execution.

 I/O Operation: a running program may require I/O w/h may involve

a file or an I/O device

 File system manipulation: obviously, programs need to read and

write files and directories.

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 They also need to create and delete files and directories by name.
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 Some programs include permissions management to allow or deny

files and directories based on file ownership.
 Communications: there are many circumstances in w/h one
process needs to exchange information with other process.
 Such communication may occur b/n process that are executing on
the same computer or b/n process that are executing on different
computer systems tied together by a computer network.
 Communications implemented via shared memory or message
passing in w/h packets of information moved b/n processes by the
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operating system.
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Error Detection: the operating system needs to be constantly aware

of possible errors. Errors may occur in the CPU and memory hardware:
 Memory error or power failure
 I/O devices such as parity error on tape, connection failure on a
network or lack of paper in the printer
 An attempt to access an illegal memory location
 For each type of error the operating system should take an action
to ensure correct and consistent computing.
 Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the users and
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programmers abilities to use the system efficiently.
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♥ Another function of operating system exists for ensuring the

efficient operation of the system itself.
♥ Systems with multiple users can gain efficiency by sharing
the computer resources among the users.
♥ Resource Allocation: when there are multiple users or jobs
running at the same time, resources must be allocated to each
of them.
♥ Many different types of resources are managed by the
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operating system
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….cont’d
♥ Accounting: we want to keep track of w/h users use how much and
what kinds of computer resources.
♥ This record keeping may be used for accounting or simply for
accumulating usage statistics.
♥ Protection and Security: operating system ensuring confidentiality,
integrity and availability.
♥ If a computer system has multiple users and allows the concurrent
execution of multiple process, then access to data must be regulated.
♥ The mechanisms ensure that can be operated by only those process
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that have gained proper authorization from the OS.

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Operating system Zoo

 number of users they can serve at one or different stations and
 number of programs the operating system handle/ support on a time,
operating systems can be:
Mainframe Operating System
 At the high end are the operating systems for the mainframe, those
room sized computers still found in major corporate data centers.
 The operating systems for mainframes are heavily oriented towards
processing many jobs at once, most of w/h need prodigious amount of
I/O. They typically offer three kinds of services:
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 Batch, Transaction processing and Time sharing
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….cont’d
♥ In the 1970s, Batch processing was very popular. In this technique,
similar types of jobs were batched together and executed in time.
♥ A batch system is one that process routine jobs without any
interactive user present. People were used to having a single
computer which was called a mainframe.
♥ In Batch operating system, access is given to more than one person;
they submit their respective jobs to the system for the execution.
♥ The system put all of the jobs in a queue on the basis of first come
first serve and then executes the jobs one by one. The users collect
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their respective output when all the jobs get executed.

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♥ Transaction processing systems handle large numbers of small request.

Example check processing at a bank and airline reservation. Each unit of
work is small but the system handle hundred or thousands per second.
♥ Time sharing systems allow multiple remote users to run jobs on the
computer at once such as querying a big database.
♥ In the Time Sharing operating system, computer resources are allocated
in a time-dependent fashion to several programs simultaneously.
♥ Thus it helps to provide a large number of user's direct access to the main
computer. It is a logical extension of multiprogramming.
♥ In time-sharing, the CPU is switched among multiple programs given by
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different users on a scheduled basis.

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Server operating system

 One level down are the server operating systems. They run on
servers which are either very large PCs, workstations or even
mainframes.
 They serve multiple users at once over a network and allow the
users to share hardware and software resources.
 Internet providers run many server machines to support their
customers and websites use servers to store webpages and
handle the incoming request.
 Server operating systems are UNIX and Windows 2000
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Multiprocessor Operating System

♥ An increasingly common way to get major-league computing
power is to connect multiple CPU’s in to a single system.
♥ There are more than one processors present in the system which
can execute more than one process at the same time. This will
increase the throughput of the system.
♥ Depending on precisely how they are connected and what is
shared, these systems are called parallel computers,
multicomputer or multiprocessors.
♥ They need special operating systems with special features
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connectivity and communication.

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PC OS
♥ The next category is personal computer operating system. Their job is
to provide a good interface to a single user.

Real-Time Sharing Operating System

 These operating system characterized by having time as key parameter.
 For instance, in industrial processing control systems real time
computers have to collect data about the production process and use it
to control machines in the factory.
 The Application of a Real-Time system exists in the case of military
applications, if you want to drop a missile, then the missile is supposed
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to be dropped with a certain precision.
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….cont’d

 For instance, if a car is moving down an assembly line certain

actions must take place at certain instants of time.
 If a welding robot welds too late or too early, the car will be
ruined.
 If the action absolutely must occur at a certain moment (or within
a certain range) is called hard real-time system.
 Another kind of real-time system is a soft real-time system in
which missing an occasional deadline is acceptable.
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Ex. VxWorks and QNX are well known

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Embedded Operating System

Embedded systems run on the computers that control devices
that are not generally as computers such as:
TV sets and mobile phones
Example palmOS, WindowsCE

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Smart Card Operating System

 The smallest operating systems run on smart cards which are
credit card sized devices containing a CPU chip.
 They have very severe processing power and memory
constraints.
 Some of them can handle only a single function such as
electronic payments, but others can handle multiple functions
on the same smart card.

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History of Operating Systems

 First generation 1945 - 1955
 vacuum tubes, plug boards
 Operating systems were unheard of

 Second generation 1955 - 1965

 transistors, assembly and FORTRAN
 Batch system was introduced

 Third generation 1965 – 1980

 ICs and multiprogramming

 Fourth generation 1980 – present

 personal computers
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Second Generation
 Focused on cost effectiveness
 Computers were expensive
 IBM 7094: $200,000

 Two widely adopted improvements

 Computer operators: humans hired to facilitate machine
operation
 Concept of job scheduling: group together programs with
similar requirements
 Expensive time lags between CPU and I/O devices

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Third Generation
 Faster CPUs
 Speed caused problems with slower I/O devices
 Multiprogramming
 Allowed loading many programs at one time
 Program scheduling
 Initiated with second-generation systems
 Continues today
 Few advances in data management
 Total operating system customization
 Suit user’s needs
Major achievements of third generation:
 Multiprogramming
 Timesharing
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 MULTICS => UNIX
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Fourth Generation
 Faster CPUs
 Speed caused problems with slower I/O devices
 Main memory physical capacity limitations
 Multiprogramming schemes used to increase CPU
 Virtual memory developed to solve physical limitation

 Database management software

 Became a popular tool

 A number of query systems introduced

 Programs started using English-like words, modular structures, and
standard operations
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 Cost/performance ratio improvement of computer components
 More flexible hardware (firmware)
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cont’d
 Multiprocessing
 Allowed parallel program execution

 Evolution of personal computers

 Evolution of high-speed communications
 Distributed processing and networked systems introduced
 Demand for Internet capability
 Sparked proliferation of networking capability
 Increased networking
 Increased tighter security demands to protect hardware and
software
 Multimedia applications
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 Demanding additional power, flexibility, and device
compatibility for most operating systems
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History of Operating Systems

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Thank you