OS

• An operating system is a collection of system

programs, which controls the operation of a
computer system.
• It is the most important part of any computer
system. It acts as an intermediary between a
user and the computer hardware.
 OS - INTRODUCTION
• In the early days of computer use, computers were huge
machines, which were expensive to buy, run and maintain.
The user at that time interacted directly with the hardware
through machine language.
• A software was required which could perform basic tasks
such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending
output to the display screen, keeping track of files and
directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices
such as printers and scanners.
• The search for such software led to the evolution of
modern day operating system(OS). This software is loaded
onto the top of memory and performs all the aforesaid
basic tasks.
 OS - INTRODUCTION
• Initially, the OS's interface was only character-based.
This interface provides the user with a command
prompt and the user has to type all the commands to
perform various functions. As a result, the user had to
memorize many commands. With the advancement in
technology, OS became even more user friendly by
providing graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI-based
OS allows the user to interact with the system using
visual objects such as windows, pull-down menus,
mouse pointers and icons. Consequently, operating the
computer became easy and intuitive.
 OBJECTIVES OF OS
• Managing Hardware: The prime objective of the OS is to
manage and control various hardware resources of a
computer system. These hardware resources include
processor, memory, disk space, I/O devices and so on.
The OS supervises which input device's data is requesting
for being processed and which processed data is ready to
be displayed on the output device.
In addition to communicating with hardware, the OS
provides an error handling procedure and displays an error
notification. If a device is not functioning properly, the OS
tries to communicate with the device again. If it is still
unable to communicate with the device, it provides an
error message notifying the user about the problem.
 OBJECTIVES OF OS
• Providing an Interface: The OS organizes applications
so that users can easily access, use and store them.
When an application is opened, the OS assists the
application to provide the major part of the user
interface. It provides a stable and consistent way for
applications to deal with the hardware without the
user having to know all the details of the hardware. If
the application program is not functioning properly,
the OS again takes control, stops the application and
displays an appropriate error message.
 Historical Background
• In the early days, the computers lacked any form of
OS. The user would arrive at the machine armed
with his program and data, often on punched paper
tape. The program would be loaded into the
machine and the machine set to work.
• Then came machines with libraries of support code
(initial OSs), which were linked to the user's
program to assist in operations such as input and
output. At this stage, OSs were very diverse with
each vendor producing one or more OSs specific to
its particular hardware.
 Historical Background
• In 1960s , IBM developed the S/360 series of
machines. Although there were enormous
performance differences across the range, all the
machines ran essentially the same OS called S/360.
• Then came the small 4 bit and 8 bit processors
known as microprocessors. The development of
microprocessors provided inexpensive computing for
the small businesses. This led to the widespread use
of interchangeable hardware components using a
common interconnection, and thus creating an
increasing need for standardized OS to control them.
 Historical Background
• AT&T and Microsoft came up with character-
based OSs, namely, Unix and Disk
OS, respectively, which supported the
prevalent hardware architectures.
• After the character-based OSs, Microsoft and
Apple Macintosh came with their Windows
3.1 and MAC, which were GUI-based OSs and
well suited for the Desktop PC market.
 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Batch Processing OS: This type of OS was one of the first to
evolve. Batch processing OS allowed only one program to run at a
time. These kinds of OSs can still be found on some mainframe
computers running batches of jobs.
• Batch processing OS works on a series of programs that are held in
a queue. The OS is responsible for scheduling the jobs according
to priority and the resources required. Batch processing OSs are
good at churning through large numbers of repetitive jobs on
large computers.
• For example, this OS would be best suited for a company wishing
to automate their payrolls. A list of employees will be entered,
their monthly salaries will be calculated, and corresponding pay
slips would be printed. Batch processing is useful for this purpose
since these procedures are to be repeated for every employee
and each month.
 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Multi-user or Time-sharing OS: This system is
used in computer networks which allow
different users to access the same data and
application programs on the same network.
The multi-user OS builds a user database
account, which defines the rights that users
can have on a particular resource of the
system.
 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Multi-programming OS: In this system, more than one
process (task) can be executed concurrently. The
processor is switched rapidly between the processes.
Hence, a user can have more than one process running
at a time. For example, a user on his computer can
have a word processor and an audio CD player running
at the same time. The multi-tasking OS allows the user
to switch between the running applications and even
transfer data between them.
• For example, a user can copy a picture from an
Internet opened in the browser application and paste it
into an image editing application.
 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Real-time OS (RTOS): This system is designed to
respond to an event within a predetermined time.
This kind of OS is primarily used in process control,
telecommunications and so on.
• The OS monitors various inputs which affect the
execution of processes, changing the computer's
model of the environment, thus affecting the output,
within a guaranteed time period (usually less than one
second). As the real-time OSs respond quickly, they
are often used in applications such as flight
reservation systems, railway reservation systems,
military applications, etc.
 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Multi-processor OS: This system can
incorporate more than one processor
dedicated to running processes. This
technique of using more than one processor is
often called parallel processing. The main
advantage of multi-processor systems is that
they increase the system throughput by
getting more work done in less time.
 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Embedded OS: It refers to the OS that is self-
contained in the device and resident in the ROM.
Since embedded systems are usually not general-
purpose systems, they are lighter or less resource
intensive as compared to general-purpose OSs.
Most of the embedded OSs also offer real-time OS
qualities. Typical systems that use embedded OSs
are household appliances, car management
systems, traffic control systems and energy
management systems.
 FUNCTIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Process Management: As a process manager, the OS
handles the creation and deletion of processes,
suspension and resumption of processes, and
scheduling and synchronization of processes.
• Memory Management: As a memory manager, the
OS handles the allocation and de-allocation of
memory space as required by various programs.
• File Management: The OS is responsible for creation
and deletion of files and directories. It also takes care
of other file-related activities such as organizing,
storing, retrieving, naming and protecting the files.
 FUNCTIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
• Device Management: The OS provides input/output
subsystem between process and device driver. It handles
the device caches, buffers and interrupts. It also detects
the device failures and notifies the same to the user.
• Security Management: The OS protects system resources
and information against destruction and unauthorized use.
• User Interface: The OS provides the interface between the
user and the hardware. The user interface is the layer that
actually interacts with the computer operator. The
interface consists of a set of commands or menus through
which a user communicates with a program.
 Process Management
• A process is an execution of a sequence of instructions
or program by the CPU. It can also be referred to as
the basic unit of a program that the OS deals with,
with the help of the processor. For example, a text
editor program running on a computer is a process.
This program may cause several other processes to
begin—like it can furnish a request for printing while
editing the document. Thus, we can say that the text
editor is a program that initiates two processes—one
for editing the text and second for printing the
document.
 Process Management
• Hence, a process is initiated by the program to
perform an action, which can be controlled by
the user or the OS. A process in order to
accomplish a task needs certain resources like
CPU time, memory allocation and I/O devices.
Therefore, the idea of process management in an
OS is to accomplish the process assigned by the
system or the user in such a way that the
resources are utilized in a proper and efficient
manner.
 Memory Management
• In addition to managing processes, the OS also manages the primary
memory of the computer. The part of the OS that handles this job is
called memory manager. Since every process must have some
amount of primary memory to execute, the performance of the
memory manager is crucial to the performance of the entire system.
As the memory is central to the operation of any modern OS, its
proper use can make a huge difference. The memory manager is
responsible for allocating the main memory to processes and for
assisting the programmer in loading and storing the contents of the
main memory. Managing the main memory, sharing, and minimizing
memory access time are the basic goals of the memory manager.
The major tasks accomplished by the memory manager so that all
the processes function in harmony, are as follows:
• Relocation: Each process must have enough memory to execute.
• Protection and Sharing: A process should not run into another
process's memory space.
 File Management
• File system is one of the most visible aspects of the OS.
It provides a uniform logical view of the information
storage, organized in terms of files, which are mapped
onto the underlying physical device like the hard disk.
• While the memory manager is responsible for the
maintenance of the primary memory, the file
manager is responsible for the maintenance of the file
system.
• In the simplest arrangement, the file system contains a
hierarchical structure of data. This file system maintains
user data and metadata (the data describing the files of
the user data).
 File Management
• The hierarchical structure usually contains the
metadata in the form of directories of files and
sub-directories. Each file is a named collection of
data stored on the disk.
• The file manager implements this abstraction and
provides directories for organizing files. It also
provides a spectrum of commands to read/write
the contents of a file, to set the read/write
position, to use the protection mechanism, to
change the ownership, to list files in a directory,
and to remove a file.
 File Management
• The file manager also provides a logical way for users
to organize files in the secondary storage. To assist
users, most file managers allow files to be grouped
into a bundle called a directory or a folder. This allows
a user to organize his or her files according to their
purpose by placing related files in the same directory.
• By allowing directories to contain other directories,
called sub-directories, a hierarchical organization can
be constructed. For example, a user may create a
directory called games that contains sub-directories
called cricket, football, golf, rugby and tennis). Within
each of these sub-directories are files that fall within
that particular category.
 Device Management
• Device management in an OS refers to the process of
managing various devices connected to the computer. The
device manager manages the hardware resources and
provides an interface to hardware for application
programs. A device communicates with the computer
system by sending signals over a cable. The device
communicates with the machine through a connection
point called port. The communication using a port is done
through rigidly defined protocols, like when to send the
data and when to stop. These ports are consecutively
connected to a bus (a set of wires) which one or more
device uses to communicate with the system.
 Device Management
• The OS communicates with the hardware with
the help of standard software provided by the
hardware vendor called device drivers. A
device driver works as a translator between
the electrical signals from the hardware and
the application programs of the OS. Drivers
take data that the OS has defined as a file and
translate them into streams of bits placed in
specific locations on storage devices.
 Security Management
• Security in terms of a computer system covers
every aspect of its protection in case of a
catastrophic event, corruption of data, loss of
confidentiality and so on. Security requires not
only ample protection within the system, but
also from the external environment in which the
system operates. In this section, we will be
covering security in terms of internal protection,
which is one of the most important functions of
the OS. This involves protecting information
residing in the system from unauthorized access.
 Security Management
• Various security techniques employed by the
OS to secure the information are user
authentication and backup of data.
• User Authentication: The process of
authenticating users can be based on a user's
possession like a key or card, user information
like username and password or user attributes
like fingerprints and signature.
 Security Management
• Backup of Data: No matter what kind of information
a system contains, backup of data is of utmost
importance for its users. Backup or archiving is an
important issue for a user and especially for business
organizations. Typically, a computer system uses
hard drives for online data storage. These drives may
sometimes fail, or can be damaged in case of a
catastrophic event, so care must be taken to ensure
that the data is not lost. To ensure this, the OS
should provide a feature of backing up of data, say
from a disk to another storage device such as
a floppy disk or an optical disk.
 User Interface
• OSs organize applications so that users can
easily access them, use them and store
application data. When an application is
opened, the OS lets the application provide the
majority of the user interface. The OS still has
the responsibility of providing access to the
hardware for whatever the application needs.
• An effective interface of an OS does not concern
the user with the internal workings of the
system.
 User Interface
• Common interfaces provided by different OSs can
be categorized as command line interface (CLI)
and graphical user interface (GUI).
• Command Line Interface: In early days of
computing, OSs provided the user with the facility
of entering commands via an interactive terminal.
Those were the only means of communication
between a program and its user, based solely on
textual input and output. Commands were used to
initiate programs, applications and so on. A user
had to learn many commands for proper operation
of the system.
 User Interface
• Graphical User Interface: With the
development in chip designing technology,
computer hardware became quicker and cheaper,
which led to the birth of GUI-based OS. These OSs
provide users with pictures rather than just
characters to interact with the machine. The OS
displays icons, buttons, dialog boxes, etc., on the
screen.
• The user sends instructions by moving a pointer
on the screen (generally mouse) and selecting
certain objects by pressing buttons on the mouse.