Operating Systems

Moumita Patra
July-Nov 2019
Ref: Galvin, Gagne

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 General Information
● Textbook:
-> Operating System Concepts 9th edition, Silberschatz, Galvin
and Gagne.
● Reference text books:
-> Operating Systems: Principles & Practice; Anderson and
Dahlin.
-> Modern Operating Systems; Andrew S Tanenbaum.
● Programming assignments will be covered in the associated lab
course.
● Course materials will be uploaded on moodle.

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 Marks Distribution (Tentative)
● Mid-sem -> 30
● Quiz -> 20
● End sem -> 50

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Introduction

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 Operating System
● What is an operating system (OS)?
-> An OS is a program that manages a computer’s
hardware.
-> A program that acts as an intermediary between a user
of a computer and the computer hardware.

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 OS from different views
● User-centric
➔ A program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a
computer and the computer hardware
➔ Defines an interface for the user to use services provided by the
system
➔ Converts what the hardware gives to what the user wants
➔ Can hide many details of the hardware that the user does not
need to know
➔ Can even give a very different view of the operating
environment to the user than what is actually there

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● System-centric
➔ Efficiently manages and allocates resources to users
➔ Controls the execution of user programs and operations of I/O
devices
➔ Provides isolation/protection between different user programs

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● Operating system goals-
-> Execute user programs and make solving user problems easier
-> Make the computer system convenient to use
-> Use the computer hardware in an efficient manner
● Components of a computer system:
-> hardware- provides basic computing resources
-> OS- controls and coordinates use of hardware among various
applications and users
-> application programs- define ways in which the system
resources are used to solve computing problems of the users
-> users- people, machines, other computers
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 Operating System Definition
● No universally accepted/ completely adequate definition.
● Operating systems exist because they offer a reasonable way to
solve the problem of creating a usable computing system.
● An approximation is that it includes everything that a vendor ships
when an OS is ordered. The features may vary widely across
systems.
● More commonly- OS is the one program running at all times on
the computer called kernel.
● Two types of other programs are:
➔ System programs- associated with the OS but not necessarily
part of the kernel
➔ Application programs- include all programs not associated with
the operation of the system 9
 NOTE:
● Mobile operating systems often include not only a core kernel
but also middleware
● Middleware- a set of software frameworks that provide
additional services to application developers.
● Example- Both iOS and Android feature a core kernel along with
middleware that supports databases, multimedia, and graphics
(to name a few).

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Components of a computer system

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 Computer Startup
● Bootstrap program is loaded at power-up or reboot
● Typically stored in ROM or EEPROM, generally known as
firmware
● Initializes all aspects of the system
● Loads operating system kernel and starts execution

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Computer System Organization

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 Computer System Operation
● I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently
● Each device controller is in charge of a particular device type
● Each device controller has a local buffer
● CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from local buffers
● I/O is from the device to local buffer of controller
● Device controller informs CPU that it has finished its operation
by causing an interrupt

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 Common Functions of Interrupts

●
A signal, generated to get the attention of the CPU. Usually
generated when I/O is required.
●
Interrupt transfers control to the interrupt service routine
generally, through the interrupt vector, which contains the
addresses of all the service routines
●
Interrupt architecture must save the address of the
interrupted instruction
●
A trap or exception is a software-generated interrupt
caused either by an error or a user request
●
An operating system is interrupt driven
Interrupt Timeline
 I/O Structure
●
After I/O starts, control returns to user program
only upon I/O completion
– Wait instruction idles the CPU until the next
interrupt
– Wait loop (contention for memory access)
– At most one I/O request is outstanding at a
time, no simultaneous I/O processing
●
After I/O starts, control returns to user program
without waiting for I/O completion
How a modern computer works

A von Neumann architecture

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 Storage Structure
●
Main memory – only large storage media that the
CPU can access directly
– Random access
– Typically volatile
●
Secondary storage – extension of main memory
that provides large nonvolatile storage capacity
●
Hard disks – rigid metal or glass platters covered
with magnetic recording material
– Disk surface is logically divided into tracks, which are subdivided into sectors
– The disk controller determines the logical interaction between the device and the
computer
●
Solid-state disks – faster than hard disks,
nonvolatile
 Storage Hierarchy

●
Storage systems organized in hierarchy
– Speed
– Cost
– Volatility
●
Caching – copying information into faster
storage system; main memory can be
viewed as a cache for secondary storage
●
Device Driver for each device controller to
manage I/O
– Provides uniform interface between controller
and kernel
Storage-Device Hierarchy
 Computer System Architecture
● Single and multi-processor systems
● Multi-processor systems have gained importance over time
● Advantages :
1. Increased throughput
2. Economy of scale
3. Increased reliability

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 Computer-System Architecture
●
Most systems use a single general-purpose processor
●
Multiprocessor systems growing in use and importance
– Also known as parallel systems, tightly-coupled systems
– Advantages include:
1. Increased throughput
2. Economy of scale
3. Increased reliability – graceful degradation or fault tolerance
– Two types:
1. Asymmetric Multiprocessing – each processor is assigned a specific
task.
2. Symmetric Multiprocessing – each processor performs all tasks
Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture
 A Dual-Core Design
●
Multicore- Multiple computing cores on a single chip
 Clustered Systems
●
Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems
working together
– Usually sharing storage via a storage-area network (SAN)
– Provides a high-availability service which survives failures
●
Asymmetric clustering has one machine in hot-standby mode
●
Symmetric clustering has multiple nodes running applications,
monitoring each other
– Some clusters are for high-performance computing (HPC)
●
Applications must be written to use parallelization
– Some have distributed lock manager (DLM) to avoid
conflicting operations
Clustered Systems
 Operating System Structure
● One of the most important aspects of operating systems is to
multiprogram.
● Multiprogramming needed for efficiency
➔ Efficient CPU and I/O utilization
➔ Jobs are selected via job scheduling
➔ When a program waits, OS switches to another job
● Time sharing (multitasking)- CPU switches jobs frequently so that
users can interact with each job while it is running, creating
interactive computing.
➔ Each user has at least one program executing in memory process
➔ CPU scheduling needed if several jobs ready to run at the same
time.
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 Types of systems
● Batch systems
Multiple jobs, but only one job in memory at one time and
executed (till completion) before the next one starts
● Multiprogrammed batch systems
Multiple jobs in memory, CPU is multiplexed between them
● Time-sharing systems
Multiple jobs in memory and on disk, CPU is multiplexed among
jobs in memory, jobs swapped between disk and memory
Allows interaction with users

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● Personal Computers
-> Dedicated to single user at one time
● Multiprocessing Systems
-> More than one CPU in a single machine to allocate jobs to
-> Multicore architectures
● Other paraller systems, distributed systems, clusters...
-> Different types of systems with multiple CPUs/ Machines
● Real time systems
-> Systems to run jobs with time guarantees
● Other types
-> Embedded systems, mobiles/smartphones, ...
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● OS design depends on the type of system it is designed for
● Challenges today-
➔ Very wide variety of systems
➔ From small embedded systems with low memory and storage to
very large systems with hundreds of thousands of machines
with large distributed storage
➔ Increasing number of cores per processor and processors per
machine

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 Resources managed by OS
● Physical
CPU, memory, disk, I/O devices like keyboard, monitor, printer
● Logical
Process, file ...

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Operating System Operations

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● In order to ensure proper execution of the OS, it is
necessary to distinguish between system code and
user-defined code.
● Dual-mode operation allows OS to protect itself and
other system components- user mode and kernel
mode
● Mode bit provided by hardware
➢ Provides ability to distinguish when system is running
user mode (1) or kernel mode (0)
➢ When the computer system is executing on behalf of a
user application, the system is in user mode
➢ When a user application requests a service from the
OS (via a system call), the system must transition from
user to kernel mode
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 User-centric view
● System calls- programmatic way in which a computer program
requests a service from the kernel of the OS it is executed on.
● Command interpreter (not strictly a part of an OS)

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 Main components of an OS
● Resource-centric view
➔ Process management
➔ Main memory management
➔ File management
➔ I/O system management
➔ Secondary storage management
➔ Security and protection system
➔ Networking

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 Process Management
● A process is a program in execution
● A process is the unit of work in a system
● A system consists of a collection of processes, some of which
are OS processes and rest are user processes
● Needs certain resources to accomplish its task
-> CPU time, memory, files, I/O devices...
● OS responsibilities
-> Process creation and deletion
-> Process suspension and resumption
-> Mechanisms for process synchronization and interprocess
communication 38
 Main memory management
● Main memory is a large array of bytes. Each byte has its own
address.
● It is generally the only large storage that the CPU is able to
address and access directly
● For a program to be executed, it must be mapped to absolute
adresses and loaded into memory
● OS responsibilities-
➔ Keep track of which parts of memory are currently being used
and by whom
➔ Decide which processes to load when memory space becomes
available
➔ Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed
➔ Protect memory of one process from another
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 File management
● To make the computer system convenient for users, the OS
provides a uniform, logical view of information storage.
● The OS abstracts from the physical properties of its storage
devices to define a logical storage unit called the file.
● OS responsibilities-
➔ File creation, deletion, modification
➔ Directory creation, deletion, modification
➔ Support of primitives for manipulating files and directories
➔ Mapping files onto secondary storage
➔ File backup on stable (non volatile) storage media

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 I/O system management
The I/O system consists of:
● A buffer-caching system
● Device driver interface
● Drivers for specific hardware devices

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 Secondary storage management
● Most modern computer systems use disks as the principle on-
line storage medium, for both programs and date
● OS responsibilities
➔ Free space management
➔ Storage allocation
➔ Disk scheduling

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 Security and protection system
● Protection refers to a mechanism for controlling access by
programs, processes, or users to both system and user
resources
● The protection mechanism must:
➔ Distinguish between authorized and unauthorized usage
➔ Specify the controls to be imposed
➔ Provide a means of enforcement

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