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UNIT-1
Content of Unit-1

What is an OS?

Evolution of OS

OS Services

Types of OS

Concepts of OS

Different view of OS

Concepts of OS

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What

is an OS?

Operating System:-Operating System is Program that Manage the

Computer Hardware
An Operating System is Interface between User and Hardware.
The OS coordinates multiple applications and users (multiple processes) in
a fair and efficient manner.
The goal in OS development is to make the machine convenient to use (a
software engineering problem) and efficient (a system and engineering problem)

An operating system is the most important software that runs on a

computer. It manages the computer's memory, processes, and all of its
software and hardware. It also allows you to communicate with the
computer without knowing how to speak the computer's "language."
Without an operating system, a computer is useless.
Operating System also Provides a Basis of for application program and acts
as an intermediary between the computer user and computer hardware.

Operating System is large and complex ,it must be created piece by piece
.Each of These pieces should be a well delineated portion of system ,with
carefully defined Input ,outputs and function .

OS FUNCTIONS
At the simplest level, an operating system does two things:
1. It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop

computer, these resources include such things as the processor, memory, disk
space and more (On a cell phone, they include the keypad, the screen, the
address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection).

2. It provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with

the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware.
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The first task, managing the hardware and software resources, is very
important, as various programs and input methods compete for the attention
of the central processing unit (CPU) and demand memory, storage and
input/output (I/O) bandwidth for their own purposes. In this capacity, the
operating system plays the role of the good parent, making sure that each
application gets the necessary resources while playing nicely with all the
other applications, as well as husbanding the limited capacity of the system to
the greatest good of all the users and applications.
The second task, providing a consistent application interface, is especially
important if there is to be more than one of a particular type of computer using
the operating system, or if the hardware making up the computer is ever open
to change. A consistent application program interface (API) allows a software
developer to write an application on one computer and have a high level of
confidence that it will run on another computer of the same type, even if the
amount of memory or the quantity of storage is different on the two machines.
Even if a particular computer is unique, an operating system can ensure that
applications continue to run when hardware upgrades and updates occur. This is
because the operating system -- not the application -- is charged with managing
the hardware and the distribution of its resources. One of the challenges facing
developers is keeping their operating systems flexible enough to run hardware
from the thousands of vendors manufacturing computer equipment. Today's
systems can accommodate thousands of different printers, disk drives and
special peripherals in any possible combination.

Evolution

of OS

Operating system has been Evolving through the years. we can

th
distribute the evolution in up to 4 generation.

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The first computers

used batch operating systems,
in which the computer ran
batches of jobs without stop.
Programs were punched into
cards that were usually copied to
tape for processing. When the
computer finished one job, it
would immediately start the next
one on the tape.
Professional operators, not
the users, interacted with the
machine. Users dropped jobs
off, then returned to pick up
the results after their jobs had
run. This was inconvenient for
the users, but the expensive
computer was kept busy with
a steady stream of jobs.
In the 1960s, timeshared
operating
systems
began replacing batch systems.
Users interacted directly with
the computer via a printing
terminal like the Western
Electric Teletype shown here.

Several users shared the

computer at the same time,
and it spent a fraction of a
second on each one's job
before moving on to the next.
A fast computer could work
on many user's jobs at the
same time, while creating the
illusion that they were
receiving its full attention.

Printing terminals required

that programs
had character orcommand4

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line user interfaces (CLI), in

which the user typed responses
to
prompts
or
typed
commands. The interaction
scrolled down a roll of paper.

Printing terminals were later

replaced by video terminals
that could only display fixed
size characters. Some could be
used to create forms on the
screen, but many simply
scrolled like a "glass Teletype."

Personal computers became

affordable in the mid 1970s.
TheAltair 8800, shown here,
was the first commercially viable
personal computer marketed to
individuals. Beginning in January
1975, the Altair was sold to
hobbyists in kit form. The Altair
did not have an operating
system, since it had only toggle
switches and light-emitting
diodes for input and output.
people
soon
connected
terminals and floppy disk
drives to Altairs. In 1976,
Digital Research introduced
the CP/M operating system for
the Altair and computers like
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it. CP/M and later DOShad

CLIs that were similar to
those of the time-shared
operating systems, but the
computer was dedicated to
a single user, not shared.
As hardware prices fell, personal
computers
with
bitmappeddisplays that could
control individual pixels were
developed. These made personal
computer with graphical user
interfaces(GUIs) possible.
The first commercial success
was the Apple Macintosh which
was introduced in 1984. The
initial Macintosh pushed the
state of the hardware art, and
was restricted to a small,
monochrome display.
As hardware continued to
evolve, larger, color Macs were
developed
and
Microsoft
introduced Windows, their GUI
operating system.

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The
Macintosh
operating
system was based on decades of
research on graphically-oriented
personal computer operating
systems and applications.
This photo of shows Ivan
Sutherland's
pioneering
programSketchpad in the early
1960s.
Sketchpad
foreshadowed many of the
characteristics of a modern
GUI, but the hardware cost
millions of dollars and filled a
room. After many generations
of research projects on large
computers and improvement in
hardware,
the
Macintosh
became economically feasible.

Research prototypes like

Sketchpad are still being
developed at universities
and in research labs.
They will form the basis of
future products.

OS Services
Following are the five services provided by an operating
systems to the convenience of the users.
(1)

Program Execution

The purpose of a computer systems is to allow the user to execute programs. So the
operating systems provides an environment where the user can conveniently run
programs. The user does not have to worry about the memory allocation or
multitasking or anything. These things are taken care of by the operating systems.
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Running a program involves the allocating and deallocating memory, CPU

scheduling in case of multiprocess. These functions cannot be given to the
user-level programs. So user-level programs cannot help the user to run
programs independently without the help from operating systems.

(2)I/O Operations
Each program requires an input and produces output. This involves the
use of I/O. The operating systems hides the user the details of underlying
hardware for the I/O. All the user sees is that the I/O has been performed
without any details. So the operating systems by providing I/O makes it
convenient for the users to run programs.
For efficiently and protection users cannot control I/O so this service
cannot be provided by user-level programs.

(3)File System Manipulation

The output of a program may need to be written into new files or input taken
from some files. The operating systems provides this service. The user does not
have to worry about secondary storage management. User gives a command
for reading or writing to a file and sees his her task accomplished. Thus
operating systems makes it easier for user programs to accomplished their task.

This service involves secondary storage management. The speed of I/O

that depends on secondary storage management is critical to the speed of
many programs and hence I think it is best relegated to the operating
systems to manage it than giving individual users the control of it. It is not
difficult for the user-level programs to provide these services but for above
mentioned reasons it is best if this service s left with operating system.

(4)Communications
There are instances where processes need to communicate with each other to
exchange information. It may be between processes running on the same computer
or running on the different computers. By providing this service the operating
system relieves the user of the worry of passing messages between processes. In
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case where the messages need to be passed to processes on the other

computers through a network it can be done by the user programs. The user
program may be customized to the specifics of the hardware through which the
message transits and provides the service interface to the operating system.

(5)

Error Detection
An error is one part of the system may cause malfunctioning of the complete
system. To avoid such a situation the operating system constantly monitors
the system for detecting the errors. This relieves the user of the worry of
errors propagating to various part of the system and causing malfunctioning.

This service cannot allowed to be handled by user programs because it

involves monitoring and in cases altering area of memory or de allocation
of memory for a faulty process. Or may be relinquishing the CPU of a
process that goes into an infinite loop. These tasks are too critical to be
handed over to the user programs. A user program if given these privileges
can interfere with the correct (normal) operation of the operating systems.

Types Of OS

An operating system is the single most important software when you run a
computer, it is what takes care of pretty much everything on a computer
system, while the majority of computers we see happen to be using one
type of operating system performing the same functions, operating
systems can be branched into several different types as well.
(1) Batch Processing Operating System
In a batch processing operating system interaction between the user and
processor is limited or there is no interaction at all during the execution of
work. Data and programs that need to be processed are bundled and
collected as a batch and executed together.
Batch processing operating systems are ideal in situations where:
- There are large amounts of data to be processed.
- Similar data needs to be processed.
- Similar processing is involved when executing the data.
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The system is capable of identifying times when the processor is idle at

which time batches maybe processed. Processing is all performed
automatically without any user intervention.
(2) Real-time Operating System
A real-time operating system processes inputs simultaneously, fast enough to affect
the next input or process. Real-time systems are usually used to control complex
systems that require a lot of processing like machinery and industrial systems.

(3) Single User Operating System

A single user OS as the name suggests is designed for one user to
effectively use a computer at a time.
(4) Multi-Tasking Operating System
In this type of OS several applications maybe simultaneously loaded and
used in the memory. While the processor handles only one application at a
particular time it is capable of switching between the applications effectively
to apparently simultaneously execute each application. This type of
operating system is seen everywhere today and is the most common type
of OS, the Windows operating system would be an example.
(5) Multi-User Operating System
This type of OS allows multiple users to simultaneously use the system, while here
as well, the processor splits its resources and handles one user at a time, the speed
and efficiency at which it does this makes it apparent that users are simultaneously
using the system, some network systems utilize this kind of operating system.

(6) Distributed Operating System

In a distributed system, software and data maybe distributed around the
system, programs and files maybe stored on different storage devices
which are located in different geographical locations and maybe accessed
from different computer terminals.
While we are mostly accustomed to seeing multi-tasking and multi-user
operating systems, the other operating systems are usually used in
companies and firms to power special systems
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Different Views Of OS
There are two views for OS .one is from user side and another is from System Side

User's View

The user view of the computer varies by the interface being used. Most computer
users sit in front of a PC, consisting of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and system
unit. Such a system is designed for one user to monopolize its resources, to
maximize the work that the user is performing. In this case,the operating system
is designed mostly for ease of use, with some attention paid to performance, and
none paid to resource utilization.

Some users sit at a terminal connected to a mainframe or minicomputer. Other

users are accessing the same computer through other terminals. These users
share resources and may exchange information. The operating system is designed
to maximize resource utilization.
Other users sit at workstations, connected to networks of other workstations and
servers. These users have dedicated resources at their disposal, but they also
share resources such as networking and servers.
Recently, many varieties of handheld computers have come into fashion. These
devices are mostly standalone, used singly by individual users. Some are
connected to networks, either directly by wire or through wireless modems. Due
to power and interface limitations they perform relatively few remote
operations. These operating systems are designed mostly for individual usability,
but performance per amount of battery life is important as well.
Some computers have little or no user view. For example, embedded computers
in home devices and automobiles may have numeric keypad, and may turn
indicator lights on or off to show status, but mostly they and their operating
systems are designed to run without user intervention.

Systems View
We can view an operating system as a resource allocator. A computer system has
many resources - hardware and software - that may be required to solve a
problem. The operating system acts as the manager of these resources.
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An operating system can also be viewed as a control program that manages the
execution of user programs to prevent errors and improper use of the computer.
It is especially concerned with the operation and control of I/O devices.
We have no universally accepted definition of what is part of the operating
system. A simple viewpoint is that it includes everything a vendor ships when you
order the operating system.
A more common definition is that the operating system is the one program
running at all times on the computer (usually called the kernel), with all else
being application programs. This is the one that we generally follow.

Operating System Concepts

(1)Processes:-Program which is in Execution is known as process. A
Key Concepts in all Operating System is process. Each process is its
address space, a list of memory location from 0 to some maximum, which
the process can read or write.

The address Space Contains executable program, the programs data and its stack.

A process is fundamentally a container that holds all the information needed

to run the program. the details of process we will see in next chapter.

(2)Address Spaces:-Every Computer

has some main memory

that it use to hold executing programs. In a Very Simple operating system,
only one program at a time is in memory .to run a second program, the first
one has to be removed and second placed in memory.
More sophisticated operating system allows multiple programs to be in
memory at a same time. to keep them for interfacing with one another ,some
kind of protection mechanism is needed. While this mechanism has to be in
hardware and its controlled by the operating system.

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Address space is the amount of memory allocated for all possible

addresses for a computational entity, such as a device, a file, a server, or a
networked computer. Address space may refer to a range of either physical
or virtual addresses accessible to a processor or reserved for a process

. As unique identifiers of single entities, each address specifies an

entity's location (unit of memory that can be addressed separately). On a
computer, each computer device and process is allocated address space,
which is some portion of the processor's address space. A processor's
address space is always limited by the width of its address bus and registers

(3)Files:-Anothor key concepts of operating System are File. and we will

briefly discuss it in File management Chapter.

(4)The Shell: - The outermost layer of a program. Shell is another term

for interface. Operating and applications sometimes provide an alternative
shell to make interaction with the program easier. For example, if the
application is usually command driven, the shell might be a menu-driven
system that translates the user's selections into the appropriate commands.
Sometimes called command shell, a shell is the processor interface. The
command processor is the program that executes operating system
commands. The shell, therefore, is the part of the command processor that
accepts commands. After verifying that the commands are valid, the shell
sends them to another part of the command processor to be executed.
UNIX systems offer a choice between several different shells, the most
popular being the Cshell, the Bourne shell, and the Korn shell. Each
offers a somewhat different command language

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