Operating System Notes

Program : B.
Tech
Subject Name: Operating System
Subject Code: CS-405
Semester: 4th
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CS405 Operating Systems
UNIT-I
Operating System
An Operating System (OS) is an interface between computer user and computer hardware. An
operating system is software which performs all the basic tasks like file management, memory
management, process management, handling input and output, and controlling peripheral
devices such as disk drives and printers.
Examples-Some Popular Operating Systems include Linux Operating System, Windows

Operating System, VMS, OS/400, AIX, z/OS, etc.
Definition
An operating system is a program that acts as an interface between the user and the computer
hardware and controls the execution of all kinds of programs.
Fig 1.1Operating System
Desirable Characteristics & features of an Operating System
Following are some of important features of an operating System.
 Memory Management
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

Processor Management

Device Management

File Management

Security

Control over system performance

Job accounting

Error detecting aids
Coordination between other software and users
Memory Management
Memory management refers to management of Primary Memory or Main Memory. Main

memory is a large array of words or bytes where each word or byte has its own address.
Main memory provides a fast storage that can be accessed directly by the CPU. For a program
to be executed, it must in the main memory. An Operating System does the following activities
fo e o y a age e t −
 Keeps tracks of primary memory, i.e., what part of it are in use by whom, what part is not in
 In multiprogramming, the OS decides which process will get memory when and how much.
use.
 Allocates the memory when a process requests it to do so.

 De-allocates the memory when a process no longer needs it or has been terminated.
Processor Management
In multiprogramming environment, the OS decides which process gets the processor when and
for how much time. This function is called process scheduling. An Operating System does the
follo i g a ti ities fo p o esso a age e t −
 Keeps tracks of processor and status of process. The program responsible for this task is
 Allocates the processor (CPU) to a process.

known as traffic controller.
 De-allocates processor when a process is no longer required.
Device Management
An Operating System manages device communication via their respective drivers. It does the
follo i g a ti ities fo de i e a age e t −
 Keeps tracks of all devices. Program responsible for this task is known as the I/O
 Decides which process gets the device when and for how much time.
controller.
 Allocates the device in the efficient way.

 De-allocates devices.
File Management
A file system is normally organized into directories for easy navigation and usage. These
directories may contain files and other directions.

An Operating System does the follo i g a ti ities fo file a age e t −
 Keeps track of information, location, uses, status etc. The collective facilities are often known
 Decides who gets the resources.

as file system.
 Allocates the resources.

 De-allocates the resources.
Other Important Characteristics
Follo i g a e so e of the i po ta t a ti ities that a Ope ati g Syste pe fo s −

 Security− By ea s of pass o d a d si ila othe te h i ues, it p e e ts u autho ized
 Control over system performance− Re o ding delays between request for a service and
access to programs and data.
 Job accounting− Keepi g t a k of ti e a d esou es used y a ious jo s a d use s.

response from the system.
 Error detecting aids− P odu tio of du ps, t a es, e o essages, a d othe de uggi g a d
 Coordination between other software’s and users− Coo di atio a d assig e t of

error detecting aids.
compilers, interpreters, assemblers and other software to the various users of the computer
systems.
Types of Operating System
Operating systems are there from the very first computer generation and they keep evolving
with time. In this chapter, we will discuss some of the important types of operating systems
which are most commonly used.
Batch operating system
The users of a batch operating system do not interact with the computer directly. Each user
prepares his job on an off-line device like punch cards and submits it to the computer operator.
To speed up processing, jobs with similar needs are batched together and run as a group. The
programmers leave their programs with the operator and the operator then sorts the programs
with similar requirements into batches.
The p o le s ith Bat h Syste s a e as follo s −
 Lack of interaction between the user and the job.
 CPU is often idle, because the speed of the mechanical I/O devices is slower than the CPU.
 Difficult to provide the desired priority.
Time-sharing operating systems
Time-sharing is a technique which enables many people, located at various terminals, to use a
particular computer system at the same time. Time-sharing or multitasking is a logical extension
of multiprogramming. Processor's time which is shared among multiple users simultaneously is
termed as time-sharing.

The main difference between Multi-programmed Batch Systems and Time-Sharing Systems is
that in case of Multi-programmed batch systems, the objective is to maximize processor use,
whereas in Time-Sharing Systems, the objective is to minimize response time.
Multiple jobs are executed by the CPU by switching between them, but the switches occur so
frequently. Thus, the user can receive an immediate response. For example, in a transaction
processing, the processor executes each user program in a short burst or quantum of
computation. That is, if nusers are present, then each user can get a time quantum. When the
user submits the command, the response time is in few seconds at most.
The operating system uses CPU scheduling and multiprogramming to provide each user with a
small portion of a time. Computer systems that were designed primarily as batch systems have
been modified to time-sharing systems.
Advantages of Timesharing operating systems
 Provides the advantage of quick response.

 Avoids duplication of software.
 Reduces CPU idle time.
Disadvantages of Time-sharing operating systems
 Problem of reliability.
 Question of security and integrity of user programs and data.
 Problem of data communication.
Distributed operating System
Distributed systems use multiple central processors to serve multiple real-time applications and
multiple users. Data processing jobs are distributed among the processors accordingly.
The processors communicate with one another through various communication lines (such as
high-speed buses or telephone lines). These are referred as loosely coupled systems or
distributed systems. Processors in a distributed system may vary in size and function. These
processors are referred as sites, nodes, computers, and so on.
The advantages of distributed systems
 With resource sharing facility, a user at one site may be able to use the resources available at
 Speedup the exchange of data with one another via electronic mail.
another.
 If one site fails in a distributed system, the remaining sites can potentially continue
 Better service to the customers.

operating.
 Reduction of the load on the host computer.

 Reduction of delays in data processing.

Network operating System
A Network Operating System runs on a server and provides the server the capability to manage
data, users, groups, security, applications, and other networking functions. The primary
purpose of the network operating system is to allow shared file and printer access among
multiple computers in a network, typically a local area network (LAN), a private network or to
other networks.
Examples of network operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft
Windows Server 2008, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, Novell NetWare, and BSD.
The ad a tages of et o k ope ati g syste s a e as follo s −
 Centralized servers are highly stable.
 Security is server managed.
 Upgrades to new technologies and hardware can be easily integrated into the system.
 Remote access to servers is possible from different locations and types of systems.
The disadvantages of network operating systems
 High cost of buying and running a server.

 Dependency on a central location for most operations.
 Regular maintenance and updates are required.
Real Time operating System
A real-time system is defined as a data processing system in which the time interval required to
process and respond to inputs is so small that it controls the environment. The time taken by
the system to respond to an input and display of required updated information is termed as the
response time. So, in this method, the response time is very less as compared to online
processing.
Real-time systems are used when there are rigid time requirements on the operation of a
processor or the flow of data and real-time systems can be used as a control device in a
dedicated application. A real-time operating system must have well-defined, fixed time
constraints, otherwise the system will fail. For example, scientific experiments, medical image
systems, industrial control systems, weapon systems, robots, air traffic control systems, etc.
There are two types of real-time operating systems.
Hard real-time systems
Hard real-time systems guarantee that critical tasks complete on time. In hard real-time
systems, secondary storage is limited or missing and the data is stored in ROM. In these
systems, virtual memory is almost never found.
Soft real-time systems
Soft real-time systems are less restrictive. A critical real-time task gets priority over other tasks
and retains the priority until it completes. Soft real-time systems have limited utility than hard

real-time systems. For example, multimedia, virtual reality, Advanced Scientific Projects likes
undersea exploration and planetary rovers, etc.
Operating Systems Services: Types of Services
Operating system services are responsible for the management of platform resources, including
the processor, memory, files, and input and output. They generally shield applications from the
implementation details of the machine. Types of Operating system services include:

1. Kernel operations provide low-level services necessary to:

create and manage processes and threads of execution

execute programs

define and communicate asynchronous events

define and process system clock operations

implement security features

manage files and directories, and

Control input/output processing to and from peripheral devices.
Some kernel services have analogues described in the paragraph on Object Services,
such as concurrency control services.
2. Command interpreter and utility services include mechanisms for services at the operator

level, such as:

comparing, printing, and displaying file contents

editing files

searching patterns

evaluating expressions

logging messages

moving files between directories

sorting data

executing command scripts

local print spooling

scheduling signal execution processes, and
Accessing environment information.
3. Batch processing services support the capability to queue work (jobs) and manage the
sequencing of processing based on job control commands and lists of data. These
services also include support for the management of the output of batch processing,
which frequently includes updated files or databases and information products such as
printed reports or electronic documents. Batch processing is performed asynchronously
from the user requesting the job.
4. File and directory synchronization services allow local and remote copies of files and
directories to be made identical. Synchronization services are usually used to update
files after periods of off line working on a portable system.

Operating System – Important Services
An Operating System provides services to both the users and to the programs.
 It provides programs an environment to execute.
 It provides users the services to execute the programs in a convenient manner.
Following are a few common services provided y a ope ati g syste −



Program execution

I/O operations

File System manipulation

Communication

Error Detection

Resource Allocation
Protection
Program execution
Operating systems handle many kinds of activities from user programs to system programs like
printer spooler, name servers, file server, etc. Each of these activities is encapsulated as a
process.
A process includes the complete execution context (code to execute, data to manipulate,
registers, OS resources in use). Following are the major activities of an operating system with
respect to progra a age e t −
 Loads a program into memory.
 Executes the program.
 Handles program's execution.
 Provides a mechanism for process synchronization.
 Provides a mechanism for process communication.
 Provides a mechanism for deadlock handling.
I/O Operation
An I/O subsystem comprises of I/O devices and their corresponding driver software. Drivers
hide the peculiarities of specific hardware devices from the users.
An Operating System manages the communication between user and device drivers.
 I/O operation means read or write operation with any file or any specific I/O device.
 Operating system provides the access to the required I/O device when required.
File system manipulation
A file represents a collection of related information. Computers can store files on the disk
(secondary storage), for long-term storage purpose. Examples of storage media include
magnetic tape, magnetic disk and optical disk drives like CD, DVD. Each of these media has its
own properties like speed, capacity, and data transfer rate and data access methods.

A file system is normally organized into directories for easy navigation and usage. These
directories may contain files and other directions. Following are the major activities of an
ope ati g syste ith espe t to file a age e t −
 Program needs to read a file or write a file.

 The operating system gives the permission to the program for operation on file.
 Permission varies from read-only, read-write, denied and so on.
 Operating System provides an interface to the user to create/delete files.
 Operating System provides an interface to the user to create/delete directories.
 Operating System provides an interface to create the backup of file system.
Communication
In case of distributed systems which are a collection of processors that do not share memory,
peripheral devices, or a clock, the operating system manages communications between all the
processes. Multiple processes communicate with one another through communication lines in
the network.
The OS handles routing and connection strategies, and the problems of contention and security.
Follo i g a e the ajo a ti ities of a ope ati g syste ith espe t to o u i atio −
 Two processes often require data to be transferred between them

 Both the processes can be on one computer or on different computers, but are connected
through a computer network.
 Communication may be implemented by two methods, either by Shared Memory or by
Message Passing.
Error handling
Errors can occur anytime and anywhere. An error may occur in CPU, in I/O devices or in the
memory hardware. Following are the major activities of an operating system with respect to
e o ha dli g −
 The OS constantly checks for possible errors.

 The OS takes an appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent computing.
Resource Management
In case of multi-user or multi-tasking environment, resources such as main memory, CPU cycles
and files storage are to be allocated to each user or job. Following are the major activities of an
ope ati g syste ith espe t to esou e a age e t −
 The OS manages all kinds of resources using schedulers.

 CPU scheduling algorithms are used for better utilization of CPU.

Protection
Considering a computer system having multiple users and concurrent execution of multiple
processes, the various processes must be protected from each other's activities.
Protection refers to a mechanism or a way to control the access of programs, processes, or
users to the resources defined by a computer system. Following are the major activities of an
operating system with respect to protection −
 The OS ensures that all access to system resources is controlled.
 The OS ensures that external I/O devices are protected from invalid access attempts.
 The OS provides authentication features for each user by means of passwords.
Different ways of providing these Services –
 Utility Programs
A program performs very specific tasks.
These programs usually related to managing system resources. Operating systems contain a
number of utilities for managing disk drives, printers, and other devices. Utilities differ
from applications mostly in terms of size, complexity and function. For example, word
processors, spreadsheet programs, and database applications are considered applications
because they are large programs that perform a variety of functions not directly related to
managing computer resources. Utilities are sometimes installed as memory-
resident programs.
Examples of utility programs are antivirus software, backup software and disk tools.
 System Calls
A system call is the programmatic way in which a computer program requests a service from
the kernel of the operating system it is executed on. A system call is a way for programs
to interact with the operating system. A computer program makes a system call when it makes
a e uest to the ope ati g syste ’s ke el. Syste all provides the services of the operating
system to the user programs via Application Program Interface (API). It provides an interface
between a process and operating system to allow user-level processes to request services of
the operating system. System calls are the only entry points into the kernel system. All
programs needing resources must use system calls.
 Process creation and management

Services Provided by System Calls:
 Main memory management

 File Access, Directory and File system management
 Device handling(I/O)
 Protection
 Networking, etc.

Types of System Calls: There are 5 different categories of system calls –
 Process control: end, abort, create, terminate, allocate and free memory.
 File management: create, open, close, delete, read file etc.
 Device management
 Information maintenance
 Communication
Operating System - Properties

Batch processing
Batch processing is a technique in which an Operating System collects the programs and data
together in a batch before processing starts. An operating system does the following activities
elated to at h p o essi g −
 The OS defines a job which has predefined sequence of commands, programs and data as a
 The OS keeps a number a job in memory and executes them without any manual
single unit.
 Jobs are processed in the order of submission, i.e., first come first served fashion.
information.
 When a job completes its execution, its memory is released and the output for the job gets
copied into an output spool for later printing or processing.
Fig 1.2Batch processing
Advantages
 Batch processing takes much of the work of the operator to the computer.
 Increased performance as a new job gets started as soon as the previous job is finished,
without any manual intervention.
Disadvantages
 Difficult to debug program.

 A job could enter an infinite loop.

 Due to lack of protection scheme, one batch job can affect pending jobs.
Multitasking
Multitasking is when multiple jobs are executed by the CPU simultaneously by switching
between them. Switches occur so frequently that the users may interact with each program
while it is running. An OS does the follo i g a ti ities elated to ultitaski g −
 The user gives instructions to the operating system or to a program directly, and receives an
 The OS handles multitasking in the way that it can handle multiple operations/executes
immediate response.
 Multitasking Operating Systems are also known as Time-sharing systems.

multiple programs at a time.
 These Operating Systems were developed to provide interactive use of a computer system at
 A time-shared operating system uses the concept of CPU scheduling and multiprogramming
a reasonable cost.
 Each user has at least one separate program in memory.

to provide each user with a small portion of a time-shared CPU.
Fig 1.3Multitasking
 A program that is loaded into memory and is executing is commonly referred to as a process.
 When a process executes, it typically executes for only a very short time before it either
 Since interactive I/O typically runs at slower speeds, it may take a long time to complete.
finishes or needs to perform I/O.
 The operating system allows the users to share the computer simultaneously. Since each
During this time, a CPU can be utilized by another process.
action or command in a time-shared system tends to be short, only a little CPU time is
 As the system switches CPU, rapidly from one user/program to the next, each user is given
needed for each user.
the impression that he/she has his/her own CPU, whereas actually one CPU is being shared
among many users.

Multiprogramming
Sharing the processor, when two or more programs reside in memory at the same time, is
referred as multiprogramming. Multiprogramming assumes a single shared processor.
Multiprogramming increases CPU utilization by organizing jobs so that the CPU always has one
to execute.
The following figure shows the memory layout for a multiprogramming system.
Fig 1.4 Multiprogramming
An OS does the following activities related to multiprogramming.

 The operating system keeps several jobs in memory at a time.
 This set of jobs is a subset of the jobs kept in the job pool.
 The operating system picks and begins to execute one of the jobs in the memory.
 Multiprogramming operating systems monitor the state of all active programs and system
resources using memory management programs to ensure that the CPU is never idle, unless
there are no jobs to process.
Advantages
 High and efficient CPU utilization.

 User feels that many programs are allotted CPU almost simultaneously.
Disadvantages
 CPU scheduling is required.

 To accommodate many jobs in memory, memory management is required.
Interactivity
Interactivity refers to the ability of users to interact with a computer system. An Operating
syste does the follo i g a ti ities elated to i te a ti ity −

 Provides the user an interface to interact with the system.

 Manages input devices to take inputs from the user. For example, keyboard.
 Manages output devices to show outputs to the user. For example, Monitor.
The response time of the OS needs to be short, since the user submits and waits for the result.
Real Time System
Real-time systems are usually dedicated, embedded systems. An operating system does the
following activities related to real-time system activity.
 In such systems, Operating Systems typically read from and react to sensor data.
 The Operating system must guarantee response to events within fixed periods of time to
ensure correct performance.
Distributed Environment
A distributed environment refers to multiple independent CPUs or processors in a computer

system. An operating system does the following activities related to distributed enviro e t −
 The OS distributes computation logics among several physical processors.

 The processors do not share memory or a clock. Instead, each processor has its own local
 The OS manages the communications between the processors. They communicate with each
memory.
other through various communication lines.
Spooling
Spooling is an acronym for simultaneous peripheral operations on line. Spooling refers to

putting data of various I/O jobs in a buffer. This buffer is a special area in memory or hard disk
which is accessible to I/O devices.
A ope ati g syste does the follo i g a ti ities elated to dist i uted e i o e t −
 Handles I/O device data spooling as devices have different data access rates.
 Maintains the spooling buffer which provides a waiting station where data can rest while the
 Maintains parallel computation because of spooling process as a computer can perform I/O
slower device catches up.
in parallel fashion. It becomes possible to have the computer read data from a tape, write
data to disk and to write out to a tape printer while it is doing its computing task.
Fig 1.5 Spooling

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Program : B.Tech
Semester: 4th
CS-405 Operating System
UNIT-II
File Concept: -A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded on secondary
storage such as magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and optical disks. In general, a file is a sequence
of bits, bytes, lines or records whose meaning is defined by the files creator and user.
File Structure
A File Structure should be according to a required format that the operating system can
understand.


A file has a certain defined structure according to its type.

A text file is a sequence of characters organized into lines.

A source file is a sequence of procedures and functions.
An object file is a sequence of bytes organized into blocks that are understandable by the
 When operating system defines different file structures, it also contains the code to support
machine.
these file structure. UNIX, MS-DOS support minimum number of file structure.
File Type
File type refers to the ability of the operating system to distinguish different types of file such as
text files source files and binary files etc. Many operating systems support many types of files.
Operating system like MS-DOS a d UNIX ha e the follo i g t pes of files −
Ordinary files
 These are the files that contain user information.

 These may have text, databases or executable program.
 The user can apply various operations on such files like add, modify, delete or even remove
the entire file.
Directory files
 These files contain list of file names and other information related to these files.
Special files
 These files are also known as device files.

 These files represent physical device like disks, terminals, printers, networks, tape drive etc.
These files a e of t o t pes −
 Character special files− data is handled character by character as in case of terminals or
 Block special files− data is handled in blocks as in the case of disks and tapes.
printers.

User’s a d Syste Progra er’s ie of File Syste
User View
The user view of the computer refers to the interface being used. Such systems are designed
for one user to monopolize its resources, to maximize the work that the user is performing. In
these cases, the operating system is designed mostly for ease of use, with some attention paid
to performance, and none paid to resource utilization.
System View
Operating system can be viewed as a resource allocator also. A computer system consists of
many resources like - hardware and software - that must be managed efficiently. The operating
system acts as the manager of the resources, decides between conflicting requests, controls
execution of programs etc.
Disk Organization
A hard disk is a memory storage device which looks like this:
Fig 2.0 Hard disk

The disk is divided into tracks. Each track is further divided into sectors. The point to be noted
here is that outer tracks are bigger in size than the inner tracks but they contain the same
number of sectors and have equal storage capacity. This is because the storage density is high
in sectors of the inner tracks where as the bits are sparsely arranged in sectors of the outer

tracks. Some space of every sector is used for formatting. So, the actual capacity of a sector is
less than the given capacity.
Read-Write(R-W) head moves over the rotating hard disk. It is this Read-Write head that
performs all the read and write operations on the disk and hence, position of the R-W head is a
major concern. To perform a read or write operation on a memory location, we need to place
the R-W head over that position. Some important terms must be noted here:
1. Seek time – The time taken by the R-W head to each the desi ed t ack f o it’s cu e t
position.
2. Rotational latency – Time taken by the sector to come under the R-W head.
3. Data transfer time – Time taken to transfer the required amount of data. It depends upon
the rotational speed.
4. Controller time – The processing time taken by the controller.
5. Average Access time – seek time + Average Rotational latency + data transfer time +
controller time.
Different Modules of a File System:
 The basic file system level works directly with the device drivers in terms of retrieving
and storing raw blocks of data, without any consideration for what is in each block.
Depending on the system, blocks may be referred to with a single block number or with
head-sector-cylinder combinations.
 The file organization module knows about files and their logical blocks, and how they
map to physical blocks on the disk. In addition to translating from logical to physical
blocks, the file organization module also maintains the list of free blocks, and allocates
free blocks to files as needed.
 The logical file system deals with all of the meta data associated with a file ( UID, GID,
mode, dates, etc ), i.e. everything about the file except the data itself. This level
manages the directory structure and the mapping of file names to file control blocks,
FCBs, which contain all of the Meta data as well as block number information for finding
the data on the disk.
 The layered approach to file systems means that much of the code can be used
uniformly for a wide variety of different file systems, and only certain layers need to be
file system specific. Common file systems in use include the UNIX file system, UFS, the
Berkeley Fast File System, FFS, Windows systems FAT, FAT32, NTFS, CD-ROM systems
ISO 9660, and for Linux the extended file systems ext2 and ext3 .

Fig 2.1 - Layered file system.
File system in Linux & Windows
Linux
Linux is one of popular version of UNIX operating System. It is open source as its source code is
freely available. It is free to use. Linux was designed considering UNIX compatibility. Its
functionality list is quite similar to that of UNIX.
Components of Linux System
Linux Operating System has primarily three components
 Kernel− Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all major activities of this
operating system. It consists of various modules and it interacts directly with the underlying
hardware. Kernel provides the required abstraction to hide low level hardware details to
 System Library− System libraries are special functions or programs using which application
system or application programs.
programs or system utilities accesses Kernel's features. These libraries implement most of
the functionalities of the operating system and do not require kernel module's code access
 System Utility− System Utility programs are responsible to do specialized, individual level
rights.
tasks.

Fig 2.2 Linux Operating System
Directory systems
A directory is a location for storing files on your computer. Directories are found in
a hierarchical file system, such as Linux, MS-DOS, OS/2, and Unix.


A collection of nodes containing information about all files
A directory system can be classified in to single level and hierarchical directory system:
Single level directory system: In this type of directory system, there is a root directory which
has all files. It has a simple architecture and there are no sub directories. Advantage of single
level directory system is that it is easy to find a file in the directory. This type of directory
system is used in cameras and phones.
Fig 2.3 Directory System
Hierarchical directory system: In a hierarchical directory system, files are grouped together to
form a sub directory at the top of the hierarchy is the root directory and then there are sub
directories which has files. Advantage of hierarchical directory system is that users can be
provided access to a sub directory rather than the entire directory. It provides a better
structure to file system. Also, managing millions of files is easy with this architecture. Personal
computers use hierarchical directory system for managing files.

Fig 2.4 Hierarchical directory system
Disk Space Allocation Methods:
There are three major methods of storing files on disks: contiguous, linked, and indexed.
Contiguous Allocation
 Contiguous Allocation requires that all blocks of a file be kept together contiguously.
 Performance is very fast, because reading successive blocks of the same file generally
requires no movement of the disk heads, or at most one small step to the next adjacent
cylinder.
 Storage allocation involves the same issues discussed earlier for the allocation of
contiguous blocks of memory (first fit, best fit, fragmentation problems, etc.) The
distinction is that the high time penalty required for moving the disk heads from spot to
spot may now justify the benefits of keeping files contiguously when possible.
 (Even file systems that do not by default store files contiguously can benefit from
certain utilities that compact the disk and make all files contiguous in the process.)
 Problems can arise when files grow, or if the exact size of a file is unknown at creation
time:
 Over-estimation of the file's final size increases external fragmentation and
wastes disk space.
 Under-estimation may require that a file be moved or a process aborted if the
file grows beyond its originally allocated space.
 If a file grows slowly over a long time period and the total final space must be
allocated initially, then a lot of space becomes unusable before the file fills the
space.
 A variation is to allocate file space in large contiguous chunks, called extents. When a
file outgrows its original extent, then an additional one is allocated. ( For example an
extent may be the size of a complete track or even cylinder, aligned on an appropriate
track or cylinder boundary. ) The high-performance files system Veritas uses extents to
optimize performance.

Fig 2.5 Contiguous allocation of disk space.
Linked Allocation
 Disk files can be stored as linked lists, with the expense of the storage space consumed
by each link. ( E.g. a block may be 508 bytes instead of 512. )
 Linked allocation involves no external fragmentation, does not require pre-known file
sizes, and allows files to grow dynamically at any time.
 Unfortunately linked allocation is only efficient for sequential access files, as random
access requires starting at the beginning of the list for each new location access.
 Allocating clusters of blocks reduces the space wasted by pointers, at the cost of
internal fragmentation.
 Another big problem with linked allocation is reliability if a pointer is lost or damaged.
Doubly linked lists provide some protection, at the cost of additional overhead and
wasted space.

Fig 2.6 - Linked allocation of disk space.
 The File Allocation Table, FAT, used by DOS is a variation of linked allocation, where all
the links are stored in a separate table at the beginning of the disk. The benefit of this
approach is that the FAT table can be cached in memory, greatly improving random
access speeds.
Fig 2.7 File-allocation table.
Indexed Allocation
Indexed Allocation combines all of the indexes for accessing each file into a common block (for
that file), as opposed to spreading them all over the disk or storing them in a FAT table.

Fig 2.8 - Indexed allocation of disk space.
Disk Scheduling Algorithms

I/O request issues a system call to the OS. If desired disk drive or controller is available, request
is served immediately. If busy, new request for service will be placed in the queue of pending
requests. When one request is completed, the OS has to choose which pending request to
service next.
FCFS Scheduling
Simplest, perform operations in order requested no reordering of work queue „ no starvation:
every request is serviced „ Does ’t p o ide fastest se ice E : a disk ueue ith e uests fo I/O
to blocks on cylinders 23, 89, 132, 42, 187 with disk head initially at 100
FCFS 23, 89, 132, 42, 187

Fig 2.9 FCFS Scheduling
If the requests for cylinders 23 and 42 could be serviced together, total head movement could
be decreased substantially.
SSTF Scheduling
Like SJF, select the disk I/O request that requires the least movement of the disk arm from its
current position, regardless of direction reduces total seek time compared to FCFS.
Disadvantages starvation is possible; stay in one area of the disk if very busy switching
directions slow things down not the most optimal.
Fig 2.10 SSTF Scheduling
SCAN
Go from the outside to the inside servicing requests and then back from the outside to the
inside servicing requests. Sometimes called the elevator algorithm Reduces variance compared
to SSTF. If a request arrives in the queue just in front of the head ‰ Just behind

Fig 2.11 SCAN Scheduling
C-SCAN
Circular SCAN „ moves inwards servicing requests until it reaches the innermost cylinder; then
jumps to the outside cylinder of the disk without servicing any requests. „ Why C-SCAN? ‰ Few
requests are in front of the head, since these cylinders have recently been serviced. Hence
provides a more uniform wait time.
Fig 2.12 C-SCAN Scheduling
LOOK
Like SCAN but stops moving inwards (or outwards) when no more requests in that direction
exist.

Fig 2.13 LOOK Scheduling
Compared to SCAN, LOOK saves going from 23 to 0 and then back. Most efficient for this
sequence of requests
File Protection
When information is stored in a computer system, we want to keep it safe from physical
damage (the issue of reliability) and improper access (the issue of protection). Reliability is
generally provided by duplicate copies of files. Many computers have systems programs that
automatically (or through computer-operator intervention) copy disk files to tape at regular
intervals (once per day or week or month) to maintain a copy should a file system be
accidentally destroyed. File systems can be damaged by hardware problems (such as errors in
reading or writing), power surges or failures, head crashes, dirt, temperature extremes, and
vandalism. Files may be deleted accidentally. Bugs in the file-system software can also cause file
contents to be lost. Protection can be provided in many ways. For a small single-user system,
we might provide protection by physically removing the floppy disks and locking them in a desk
drawer or file cabinet. In a multiuser system, however, other mechanisms are needed.
System calls for File Management
 System call OPEN

Opening or creating a file can be done using the system call open. The syntax is:
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int open(const char *path,
int flags,... /* mode_t mod */);
 System call CREAT

A new file can be created by:

#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int creat(const char *path, mode_t mod);
 System call READ

When we want to read a certain number of bytes starting from the current position in a file, we
use the read call. The syntax is:
#include <unistd.h>
ssize_t read(int fd, void* buf, size_t noct);
 System call WRITE

For writing a certain number of bytes into a file starting from the current position we use
the write call. Its syntax is:
#include <unistd.h>
ssize_t write(int fd, const void* buf, size_t noct);
 System call CLOSE

For closing a file and thus eliminating the assigned descriptor we use the system call close.
#include <unistd.h>
int close(int fd);
 System call LSEEK

To position a pointer that points to the current position in an absolute or relative way can be
done by calling the lseek function. Read and write operations are done relative to the current
position in the file. The syntax for lseek is:
#include <unistd.h>
off_t lseek(int fd, off_t offset, int ref);
 System call LINK

To link an existing file to another directory (or to the same directory) link can be used. To make
such a link in fact means to set a new name or a path to an existing file. The link system call
creates a hard link. Creating symbolic links can be done using symlink system call. The syntax of
link is:
#include <unistd.h>
int link(const char* oldpath, const char* newpath);
int symlink(const char* oldpath, const char* newpath);


Program : B.Tech
Semester: 4th
UNIT III
Processes Concept
Process
A process is basically a program in execution. The execution of a process must progress in a

sequential fashion.
A process is defined as an entity which represents the basic unit of work to be implemented in
the system.
To put it in simple terms, we write our computer programs in a text file and when we execute
this program, it becomes a process which performs all the tasks mentioned in the program.
When a program is loaded into the memory and it becomes a process, it can be divided into
fou se tio s ─ sta k, heap, te t a d data. The follo i g i age sho s a si plified la out of a
process inside main memory
Fig 3.1 Process
S.N. Component & Description
1 Stack - The process Stack contains the temporary data such as method/function
parameters, return address and local variables.
2 Heap - This is dynamically allocated memory to a process during its run time.
3 Text - This includes the current activity represented by the value of Program Counter

and the contents of the processor's registers.
4 Data - This section contains the global and static variables.
Program
A program is a piece of code which may be a single line or millions of lines. A computer program
is usually written by a computer programmer in a programming language. For example, here is
a si ple p og a itte i C p og a i g la guage −
#include<stdio.h>
intmain () {
printf("Hello, World! \n");
return0;
A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when executed
by a computer. When we compare a program with a process, we can conclude that a process is
a dynamic instance of a computer program.
A part of a computer program that performs a well-defined task is known as an algorithm. A

collection of computer programs, libraries and related data are referred to as software.
Scheduling Concepts
Definition
The process scheduling is the activity of the process manager that handles the removal of the
running process from the CPU and the selection of another process on the basis of a particular
strategy.
Process scheduling is an essential part of Multiprogramming operating systems. Such operating

systems allow more than one process to be loaded into the executable memory at a time and
the loaded process shares the CPU using time multiplexing.
Process Scheduling Queues
The OS maintains all PCBs in Process Scheduling Queues. The OS maintains a separate queue for
each of the process states and PCBs of all processes in the same execution state are placed in
the same queue. When the state of a process is changed, its PCB is unlinked from its current
queue and moved to its new state queue.
The Operating System ai tai s the follo i g i po ta t p o ess s heduli g ueues −
 Job queue− this ueue keeps all the p o esses i the s ste .
 Ready queue− this ueue keeps a set of all p o esses esidi g i ai e o , ead a d
waiting to execute. A new process is always put in this queue.

 Device queues− the p o esses hi h a e lo ked due to u a aila ilit of a I/O de i e

constitute this queue.
Fig 3.2 Process Scheduling Queues
The OS can use different policies to manage each queue (FIFO, Round Robin, Priority, etc.). The
OS scheduler determines how to move processes between the ready and run queues which can
only have one entry per processor core on the system; in the above diagram, it has been
merged with the CPU.
Two-State Process Model
Two-state process model refers to running and non- u i g states hi h a e des i ed elo −
S.N. State & Description
1 Running - When a new process is created, it enters into the system as in the
running state.
2 Not Running - Processes that are not running are kept in queue, waiting for their
turn to execute. Each entry in the queue is a pointer to a particular process. Queue
is implemented by using linked list. Use of dispatcher is as follows. When a process
is interrupted, that process is transferred in the waiting queue. If the process has
completed or aborted, the process is discarded. In either case, the dispatcher then
selects a process from the queue to execute.
Types of Schedulers
Schedulers are special system software which handles process scheduling in various ways. Their
main task is to select the jobs to be submitted into the system and to decide which process to
u . “ hedule s a e of th ee t pes −
 Long-Term Scheduler
 Short-Term Scheduler
 Medium-Term Scheduler

Long Term Scheduler
It is also called a job scheduler. A long-term scheduler determines which programs are
admitted to the system for processing. It selects processes from the queue and loads them into
memory for execution. Process loads into the memory for CPU scheduling.
The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of jobs, such as I/O
bound and processor bound. It also controls the degree of multiprogramming. If the degree of
multiprogramming is stable, then the average rate of process creation must be equal to the
average departure rate of processes leaving the system.
On some systems, the long-term scheduler may not be available or minimal. Time-sharing
operating systems have no long-term scheduler. When a process changes the state from new to
ready, then there is use of long-term scheduler.
Short Term Scheduler
It is also called as CPU scheduler. Its main objective is to increase system performance in
accordance with the chosen set of criteria. It is the change of ready state to running state of the
process. CPU scheduler selects a process among the processes that are ready to execute and
allocates CPU to one of them.
Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers, make the decision of which process to
execute next. Short-term schedulers are faster than long-term schedulers.
Medium Term Scheduler
Medium-term scheduling is a part of swapping. It removes the processes from the memory. It
reduces the degree of multiprogramming. The medium-term scheduler is in-charge of handling
the swapped out-processes.
A running process may become suspended if it makes an I/O request. Suspended processes
cannot make any progress towards completion. In this condition, to remove the process from
memory and make space for other processes, the suspended process is moved to the secondary
storage. This process is called swapping, and the process is said to be swapped out or rolled
out. Swapping may be necessary to improve the process mix.
Comparison among Scheduler
S.N. Long-Term Scheduler Short-Term Scheduler Medium-Term Scheduler
1 It is a job scheduler It is a CPU scheduler It is a process swapping

scheduler.
2 Speed is lesser than short Speed is fastest among Speed is in between both
term scheduler other two short and long term
scheduler.
3 It controls the degree of It provides lesser It reduces the degree of

multiprogramming control over degree of multiprogramming.
multiprogramming
4 It is almost absent or It is also minimal in time It is a part of Time sharing

minimal in time sharing sharing system systems.

system
5 It selects processes from It selects those It can re-introduce the

pool and loads them into processes which are process into memory and
memory for execution ready to execute execution can be continued.
Context Switch
A context switch is the mechanism to store and restore the state or context of a CPU in Process
Control block so that a process execution can be resumed from the same point at a later time.
Using this technique, a context switcher enables multiple processes to share a single CPU.
Context switching is an essential part of a multitasking operating system features.
When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to execute another, the
state from the current running process is stored into the process control block. After this, the
state for the process to run next is loaded from its own PCB and used to set the PC, registers,
etc. At that point, the second process can start executing.
Fig 3.3 Context Switch
Context switches are computationally intensive since register and memory state must be saved
and restored. To avoid the amount of context switching time, some hardware systems employ
two or more sets of processor registers. When the process is switched, the following
 Program Counter
information is stored for later use.
 Scheduling information



Base and limit register value

Currently used register

Changed State

I/O State information
Accounting information
Process Life Cycle & Process State diagram
When a process executes, it passes through different states. These stages may differ in
different operating systems, and the names of these states are also not standardized.
In general, a process can have one of the following five states at a time.
S.N. State & Description
1 Start - This is the initial state when a process is first started/ created.
2 Ready - The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor. Ready processes are

waiting to have the processor allocated to them by the operating system so that
they can run. Process may come into this state after Start state or while running it
by but interrupted by the scheduler to assign CPU to some other process.
3 Running - Once the process has been assigned to a processor by the OS scheduler,
the process state is set to running and the processor executes its instructions.
4 Waiting - Process moves into the waiting state if it needs to wait for a resource,
such as waiting for user input, or waiting for a file to become available.
5 Terminated or Exit - Once the process finishes its execution, or it is terminated by

the operating system, it is moved to the terminated state where it waits to be
removed from main memory.
Fig 3.4 Process State Diagram
Process Control Block (PCB)
A Process Control Block is a data structure maintained by the Operating System for every
process. The PCB is identified by an integer process ID (PID). A PCB keeps all the information
needed to keep track of a process as listed below in the table –

S.N. Information & Description
1 Process State - The current state of the process i.e., whether it is ready, running,
waiting, or whatever.
2 Process privileges - This is required to allow/disallow access to system resources.
3 Process ID - Unique identification for each of the process in the operating system.
4 Pointer - A pointer to parent process.
5 Program Counter - Program Counter is a pointer to the address of the next

instruction to be executed for this process.
6 CPU registers - Various CPU registers where process need to be stored for
execution for running state.
7 CPU Scheduling Information - Process priority and other scheduling information

which is required to schedule the process.
8 Memory management information - This includes the information of page table,

memory limits, Segment table depending on memory used by the operating
system.
9 Accounting information - This includes the amount of CPU used for process
execution, time limits, execution ID etc.
10 IO status information - This includes a list of I/O devices allocated to the process.
The architecture of a PCB is completely dependent on Operating System and may contain
diffe e t i fo atio i diffe e t ope ati g s ste s. He e is a si plified diag a of a PCB −
Fig 3.5 Process Control Block (PCB)
The PCB is maintained for a process throughout its lifetime, and is deleted once the process
terminates.

Scheduling Algorithms
A Process Scheduler schedules different processes to be assigned to the CPU based on
 Shortest-Job-Next (SJN) Scheduling

particular scheduling algorithms. There are six popular process scheduling algorithms
 Priority Scheduling
 Shortest Remaining Time
 Round Robin(RR) Scheduling
 Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling
 First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling
These algorithms are either non-preemptive or preemptive. Non-preemptive algorithms are
designed so that once a process enters the running state; it cannot be preempted until it
completes its allotted time, whereas the preemptive scheduling is based on priority where a
scheduler may preempt a low priority running process anytime when a high priority process
enters into a ready state.
First Come First Serve (FCFS)


Jobs are executed on first come, first serve basis.

It is a non-preemptive, pre-emptive scheduling algorithm.

Easy to understand and implement.

Its implementation is based on FIFO queue.
Poor in performance as average wait time is high.
Fig 3.6 First Come First Serve (FCFS)
Wait time of ea h p o ess is as follo s −
Process Wait Time: Service Time - Arrival Time
P0 0-0=0
P1 5-1=4
P2 8-2=6

P3 16 - 3 = 13
Average Wait Time: (0+4+6+13) / 4 = 5.75
Shortest Job Next (SJN)


This is also known as shortest job first, or SJF

This is a non-preemptive, pre-emptive scheduling algorithm.

Best approach to minimize waiting time.

Easy to implement in Batch systems where required CPU time is known in advance.

Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU time is not known.
The processes should know in advance how much time process will take.
Fig 3.7 Shortest Job Next (SJN)
P0 3-0=3
P1 0-0=0
P2 16 - 2 = 14
P3 8-3=5
Priority Based Scheduling
 Priority scheduling is a non-preemptive algorithm and one of the most common scheduling

algorithms in batch systems.
Each process is assigned a priority. Process with highest priority is to be executed first and

so on.

Processes with same priority are executed on first come first served basis.
Priority can be decided based on memory requirements, time requirements or any other
resource requirement.
Fig 3.8 Priority Based Scheduling
P0 9-0=9
P1 6-1=5
P2 14 - 2 = 12
P3 0-0=0
Shortest Remaining Time
 Shortest remaining time (SRT) is the preemptive version of the SJN algorithm.
 The processor is allocated to the job closest to completion but it can be preempted by a
 Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU time is not known.
newer ready job with shorter time to completion.
 It is often used in batch environments where short jobs need to give preference.
Round Robin Scheduling
 Round Robin is the preemptive process scheduling algorithm.

 Each process is provided a fix time to execute, it is called a quantum.
 Once a process is executed for a given time period, it is preempted and other process
 Context switching is used to save states of preempted processes.

executes for a given time period.

Fig 3.9 Round Robin Scheduling
P0 (0 - 0) + (12 - 3) = 9
P1 (3 - 1) = 2
P2 (6 - 2) + (14 - 9) + (20 - 17) = 12
P3 (9 - 3) + (17 - 12) = 11
Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling
Multiple-level queues are not an independent scheduling algorithm. They make use of other
existing algorithms to group and schedule jobs with common characteristics.
 Multiple queues are maintained for processes with common characteristics.

 Each queue can have its own scheduling algorithms.
 Priorities are assigned to each queue.
For example, CPU-bound jobs can be scheduled in one queue and all I/O-bound jobs in another
queue. The Process Scheduler then alternately selects jobs from each queue and assigns them
to the CPU based on the algorithm assigned to the queue.
Algorithm Evaluation
How do we select a CPU scheduling algorithm for a particular system?
There are many scheduling algorithms, each with its own parameters. As a result, selecting an
algorithm can be difficult. The first problem is defining the criteria to be used in selecting an
algorithm. Criteria are often defined in terms of CPU utilization, response time, or throughput.
To select an algorithm, we must first define the relative importance of these measures. Our
criteria may include several measures, such as:
 Maximizing CPU utilization under the constraint that the maximum response time is 1
second
 Maximizing throughput such that turnaround time is (on average) linearly proportional
to total execution time once the selection criteria have been defined, we want to
evaluate the algorithms under consideration. We next describe the various evaluation
methods we can use.

Deterministic Modeling
One major class of evaluation methods is analytic evaluation. Analytic evaluation uses the
given algorithm and the system workload to produce a formula or number that evaluates the
performance of the algorithm for that workload. One type of analytic evaluation is
deterministic modeling. This method takes a particular predetermined workload and defines
the performance of each algorithm for that workload. For example, assume that we have the
workload shown below. All five processes arrive at time 0, in the order given, with the length
of the CPU burst given in milliseconds:
Queuing Models
Another method of evaluating scheduling algorithms is to use queuing theory. Using data from
real processes we can arrive at a probability distribution for the length of a burst time and the
I/O times for a process. We can now generate these times with a certain distribution.
We can also generate arrival times for processes (arrival time distribution).
If we define a queue for the CPU and a queue for each I/O device we can test the various
scheduling algorithms using queuing theory.
Knowing the arrival rates and the service rates we can calculate various figures such as average
queue length, average wait time, CPU utilization etc.
One useful formula is Little’s Formula.
=λ
Where
n is the average queue length

λ is the average arrival rate for new processes (e.g. five a second)
w is the average waiting time in the queue
Knowing two of these values we can, obviously, calculate the third. For example, if we know
that eight processes arrive every second and there are normally sixteen processes in the queue
we can compute that the average waiting time per process is two seconds.
The main disadvantage of using queuing models is that it is not always easy to define realistic
distribution times and we have to make assumptions. This results in the model only being an
approximation of what actually happens.
Simulations
Rather than using queuing models we simulate a computer. A Variable, representing a clock is
incremented. At each increment the state of the simulation is updated.
Statistics are gathered at each clock tick so that the system performance can be analyzed.
The data to drive the simulation can be generated in the same way as the queuing model,
although this leads to similar problems.

Alternatively, we can use trace data. This is data collected from real processes on real machines
and is fed into the simulation. This can often provide good results and good comparisons over a
range of scheduling algorithms.
However, simulations can take a long time to run, can take a long time to implement and the
trace data may be difficult to collect and require large amounts of storage.
Implementation
The best way to compare algorithms is to implement them on real machines. This will give the
best results but does have a number of disadvantages.
 It is expensive as the algorithm has to be written and then implemented on real

hardware.
If typical workloads are to be monitored, the scheduling algorithm must be used in a live

situation. Users may not be happy with an environment that is constantly changing.
If we find a scheduling algorithm that performs well there is no guarantee that this
state will continue if the workload or environment changes.
System Calls for Process Management
Basic process management is done with a number of system calls, each with a single (simple)
purpose. These system calls can then be combined to implement more complex behaviors.
Fig: 3.10 System Calls for Process Management

The following system calls are used for basic process management.
 fork :A parent process uses fork to create a new child process. The child process is a
copy of the parent. After fork, both parent and child executes the same program but in

separate processes.
exec: Replaces the program executed by a process. The child may use exec after a fork
to epla e the p o ess’ e o spa e ith a e p og a e e uta le aki g the hild

execute a different program than the parent.

exit: Terminates the process with an exit status.
wait: The parent may use wait to suspend execution until a child terminates. Using wait
the parent can obtain the exit status of a terminated child.
Multiple Processor Schedulers:
In multiple-processor scheduling multiple CPU’s are available and hence Load Sharing becomes
possible. However multiple processor scheduling is more complex as compared to single
processor scheduling. In multiple processor scheduling there are cases when the processors are
identical i.e. HOMOGENEOUS, in terms of their functionality; we can use any processor
available to run any process in the queue.
Approaches to Multiple-Processor Scheduling
One approach is when all the scheduling decisions and I/O processing are handled by a single
processor which is called the Master Server and the other processors executes only the user
code. This is simple and reduces the need of data sharing. This entire scenario is
called Asymmetric Multiprocessing.
A second approach uses Symmetric Multiprocessing where each processor is self scheduling. All
processes may be in a common ready queue or each processor may have its own private queue
for ready processes. The scheduling proceeds further by having the scheduler for each
processor examine the ready queue and select a process to execute.
Processor Affinity
Processor Affinity means a process has an affinity for the processor on which it is currently
running. When a process runs on a specific processor there are certain effects on the cache
memory. The data most recently accessed by the process populate the cache for the processor
and as a result successive memory accesses by the process are often satisfied in the cache
memory. Now if the process migrates to another processor, the contents of the cache memory
must be invalidated for the first processor and the cache for the second processor must be
repopulated. Because of the high cost of invalidating and repopulating caches, most of the
SMP(symmetric multiprocessing) systems try to avoid migration of processes from one
processor to another and try to keep a process running on the same processor. This is known
 Soft Affinity – When an operating system has a policy of attempting to keep a process
as PROCESSOR AFFINITY.
running on the same processor but not guaranteeing it will do so, this situation is called
 Hard Affinity – Some systems such as Linux also provide some system calls that support
soft affinity.
Hard Affinity which allows a process to migrate between processors.

Thread
A thread is a flow of execution through the process code, with its own program counter that
keeps track of which instruction to execute next, system registers which hold its current
working variables, and a stack which contains the execution history.
A thread shares with its peer threads little information like code segment, data segment and
open files. When one thread alters a code segment memory item, all other threads see that.
A thread is also called a lightweight process. Threads provide a way to improve application
performance through parallelism. Threads represent a software approach to improving
performance of operating system by reducing the overhead thread is equivalent to a classical
process.
Each thread belongs to exactly one process and no thread can exist outside a process. Each
thread represents a separate flow of control. Threads have been successfully used in
implementing network servers and web server. They also provide a suitable foundation for
parallel execution of applications on shared memory multiprocessors. The following figure
shows the working of a single-threaded and a multithreaded process.
Fig 3.11 Thread Fig 3.12 Thread

Difference between Process and Thread
S.N. Process Thread
1 Process is heavy weight or resource intensive. Thread is light weight, taking lesser
resources than a process.
2 Process switching needs interaction with Thread switching does not need to
operating system. interact with operating system.
3 In multiple processing environments, each All threads can share same set of open
process executes the same code but has its files, child processes.
own memory and file resources.
4 If one process is blocked, then no other While one thread is blocked, and waiting,
process can execute until the first process is a second thread in the same task can run.
unblocked.
5 Multiple processes without using threads use Multiple threaded processes use fewer
more resources. resources.
6 In multiple processes, each process operates One thread can read, write or change
independently of the others. another thread's data.
Advantages of Thread


Threads minimize the context switching time.

Use of threads provides concurrency within a process.

Efficient communication.

It is more economical to create and context switch threads.
Threads allow utilization of multiprocessor architectures to a greater scale and efficiency.
Types of Thread
Th eads a e i ple e ted i follo i g t o a s −
 User Level Threads− Use a aged th eads.

 Kernel Level Threads− Ope ati g “ ste a aged th eads a ti g o ke el, a ope ati g
system core.
User Level Threads
In this case, the thread management kernel is not aware of the existence of threads. The thread
library contains code for creating and destroying threads, for passing message and data
between threads, for scheduling thread execution and for saving and restoring thread contexts.
The application starts with a single thread.

Fig 3.13 User Level Threads
Advantages


Thread switching does not require Kernel mode privileges.

User level thread can run on any operating system.

Scheduling can be application specific in the user level thread.
User level threads are fast to create and manage.
Disadvantages
 In a typical operating system, most system calls are blocking.

 Multithreaded application cannot take advantage of multiprocessing.
Kernel Level Threads
In this case, thread management is done by the Kernel. There is no thread management code in
the application area. Kernel threads are supported directly by the operating system. Any
application can be programmed to be multithreaded. All of the threads within an application
are supported within a single process.
The Ke el ai tai s o te t i fo atio fo the p o ess as a hole a d fo i di idual’s

threads within the process. Scheduling by the Kernel is done on a thread basis. The Kernel
performs thread creation, scheduling and management in Kernel space. Kernel threads are
generally slower to create and manage than the user threads.

Advantages
 Kernel can simultaneously schedule multiple threads from the same process on multiple
 If one thread in a process is blocked, the Kernel can schedule another thread of the same
processes.
 Kernel routines themselves can be multithreaded.

process.
Disadvantages
 Kernel threads are generally slower to create and manage than the user threads.
 Transfer of control from one thread to another within the same process requires a mode
switch to the Kernel.
Multithreading Models
Some operating system provides a combined user level thread and Kernel level thread facility.
Solaris is a good example of this combined approach. In a combined system, multiple threads
within the same application can run in parallel on multiple processors and a blocking system call
 Many too many relationships.

need not block the entire process. Multithreading models are three types
 Many to one relationship.

 One to one relationship.
Many too Many Model
The many-to-many model multiplexes any number of user threads onto an equal or smaller
number of kernel threads.
The following diagram shows the many-to-many threading model where 6 user level threads
are multiplexing with 6 kernel level threads. In this model, developers can create as many user
threads as necessary and the corresponding Kernel threads can run in parallel on a
multiprocessor machine. This model provides the best accuracy on concurrency and when a
thread performs a blocking system call, the kernel can schedule another thread for execution.
Fig 3.14 Many too Many Model

Many to One Model
Many-to-one model maps many user level threads to one Kernel-level thread. Thread
management is done in user space by the thread library. When thread makes a blocking system
call, the entire process will be blocked. Only one thread can access the Kernel at a time, so
multiple threads are unable to run in parallel on multiprocessors.
If the user-level thread libraries are implemented in the operating system in such a way that the
system does not support them, then the Kernel threads use the many-to-one relationship
modes.
Fig 3.15 Many to One Model
One to One Model
There is one-to-one relationship of user-level thread to the kernel-level thread. This model
provides more concurrency than the many-to-one model. It also allows another thread to run
when a thread makes a blocking system call. It supports multiple threads to execute in parallel
on microprocessors.
Disadvantage of this model is that creating user thread requires the corresponding Kernel
thread. OS/2, Windows NT and windows 2000 use one to one relationship model.

Fig 3.16 One to One Model
Difference between User-Level & Kernel-Level Thread
S.N. User-Level Threads Kernel-Level Thread
1 User-level threads are faster to create Kernel-level threads are slower to

and manage. create and manage.
2 Implementation is by a thread library at Operating system supports creation of

the user level. Kernel threads.
3 User-level thread is generic and can run Kernel-level thread is specific to the
on any operating system. operating system.
4 Multi-threaded applications cannot take Kernel routines themselves can be

advantage of multiprocessing. multithreaded.
Memory Management
Memory management is the functionality of an operating system which handles or manages

primary memory and moves processes back and forth between main memory and disk during
execution. Memory management keeps track of each and every memory location, regardless of
either it is allocated to some process or it is free. It checks how much memory is to be allocated
to processes. It decides which process will get memory at what time. It tracks whenever some
memory gets freed or unallocated and correspondingly it updates the status.
Process Address Space
The process address space is the set of logical addresses that a process references in its code.
For example, when 32-bit addressing is in use, addresses can range from 0 to 0x7fffffff; that is,
2^31 possible numbers, for a total theoretical size of 2 gigabytes.

The operating system takes care of mapping the logical addresses to physical addresses at the
time of memory allocation to the program. There are three types of addresses used in a
p og a efo e a d afte e o is allo ated −
S.N. Memory Addresses & Description
1 Symbolic addresses - The addresses used in a source code. The variable names,
constants, and instruction labels are the basic elements of the symbolic address
space.
2 Relative addresses - At the time of compilation, a compiler converts symbolic

addresses into relative addresses.
3 Physical addresses - The loader generates these addresses at the time when a
program is loaded into main memory.
Virtual and physical addresses are the same in compile-time and load-time address-binding
schemes. Virtual and physical addresses differ in execution-time address-binding scheme.
The set of all logical addresses generated by a program is referred to as a logical address space.
The set of all physical addresses corresponding to these logical addresses is referred to as a
physical address space.
The runtime mapping from virtual to physical address is done by the memory management unit
(MMU) which is a hardware device. MMU uses following mechanism to convert virtual address
to physical address.
 The value in the base register is added to every address generated by a user process, which
is treated as offset at the time it is sent to memory. For example, if the base register value is
10000, then an attempt by the user to use address location 100 will be dynamically
 The user program deals with virtual addresses; it never sees the real physical addresses.
reallocated to location 10100.
Memory Allocation (Partitioning)
Main memory usually has two pa titio s −
 Low Memory− Ope ati g s ste esides i this e o .

 High Memory− Use p o esses a e held i high e o .
Operating system uses the following memory allocation mechanism.
S.N. Memory Allocation & Description
1 Single-partition allocation - In this type of allocation, relocation-register scheme is

used to protect user processes from each other, and from changing operating-
system code and data. Relocation register contains value of smallest physical
address whereas limit register contains range of logical addresses. Each logical
address must be less than the limit register.
2 Multiple-partition allocation - In this type of allocation, main memory is divided

into a number of fixed-sized partitions where each partition should contain only
one process. When a partition is free, a process is selected from the input queue
and is loaded into the free partition. When the process terminates, the partition

becomes available for another process.
Fragmentation
As processes are loaded and removed from memory, the free memory space is broken into
little pieces. It happens after sometimes that processes cannot be allocated to memory blocks
considering their small size and memory blocks remains unused. This problem is known as
Fragmentation.
Fragmentation is of two types –
S.N. Fragmentation & Description
1 External fragmentation - Total memory space is enough to satisfy a request or to

reside a process in it, but it is not contiguous, so it cannot be used.
2 Internal fragmentation - Memory block assigned to process is bigger. Some portion

of memory is left unused, as it cannot be used by another process.
The following diagram shows how fragmentation can cause waste of memory and a compaction
technique can be used to create more free memory out of fragmented e o −
Fig 3.17 Fragmentation
External fragmentation can be reduced by compaction or shuffle memory contents to place all
free memory together in one large block. To make compaction feasible, relocation should be
dynamic.
The internal fragmentation can be reduced by effectively assigning the smallest partition but
large enough for the process.
Swapping
Swapping is mechanisms in which a process can be swapped temporarily out of main memory
(or move) to secondary storage (disk) and make that memory available to other processes. At

some later time, the system swaps back the process from the secondary storage to main
memory.
Though performance is usually affected by swapping process but it helps in running multiple
and big processes in parallel and that's the reason. Swapping is also known as a technique for
memory compaction.
Fig 3.18 Swapping
The total time taken by swapping process includes the time it takes to move the entire process
to a secondary disk and then to copy the process back to memory, as well as the time the
process takes to regain main memory.
Let us assume that the user process is of size 2048KB and on a standard hard disk where
swapping will take place has a data transfer rate around 1 MB per second. The actual transfer
of the 1000K process to or from memory will take
2048KB / 1024KB per second

= 2 seconds
= 2000 milliseconds
Now considering in and out time, it will take complete 4000 milliseconds plus other overhead
where the process competes to regain main memory.
Paging
A computer can address more memory than the amount physically installed on the system. This
extra memory is actually called virtual memory and it is a section of a hard that's set up to
emulate the computer's RAM. Paging technique plays an important role in implementing virtual
memory.
Paging is a memory management technique in which process address space is broken into
blocks of the same size called pages (size is power of 2, between 512 bytes and 8192 bytes).
The size of the process is measured in the number of pages.
Similarly, main memory is divided into small fixed-sized blocks of (physical) memory called
frames and the size of a frame is kept the same as that of a page to have optimum utilization of
the main memory and to avoid external fragmentation.
Fig 3.19 Paging
Address Translation
Page address is called logical address and represented by page number and the offset.

Logical Address = Page number + page offset
Frame address is called physical address and represented by a frame number and the offset.
Physical Address = Frame number + page offset
A data structure called page map table is used to keep track of the relation between a pages of
a process to a frame in physical memory.
Fig 3.20 Address Translation
When the system allocates a frame to any page, it translates this logical address into a physical
address and creates entry into the page table to be used throughout execution of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding pages are loaded into any available
memory frames. Suppose you have a program of 8Kb but your memory can accommodate only
5Kb at a given point in time, then the paging concept will come into picture. When a computer
runs out of RAM, the operating system (OS) will move idle or unwanted pages of memory to
secondary memory to free up RAM for other processes and brings them back when needed by
the program.
This process continues during the whole execution of the program where the OS keeps
removing idle pages from the main memory and write them onto the secondary memory and
bring them back when required by the program.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Paging


Paging reduces external fragmentation, but still suffers from internal fragmentation.

Paging is simple to implement and assumed as an efficient memory management technique.

Due to equal size of the pages and frames, swapping becomes very easy.
Page table requires extra memory space, so may not be good for a system having small RAM.

Segmentation
Segmentation is a memory management technique in which each job is divided into several
segments of different sizes, one for each module that contains pieces that perform related
functions. Each segment is actually a different logical address space of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding segmentation is loaded into non-

contiguous memory though every segment is loaded into a contiguous block of available
memory.
Segmentation memory management works very similar to paging but here segments are of
variable-length where as in paging pages are of fixed size.
A program segment contains the program's main function, utility functions, data structures, and
so on. The operating system maintains a segment map table for every process and a list of free
memory blocks along with segment numbers, their size and corresponding memory locations in
main memory. For each segment, the table stores the starting address of the segment and the
length of the segment. A reference to a memory location includes a value that identifies a
segment and an offset.
Fig 3.21 Segmentation
Segmented Paging
Pure segmentation is not very popular and not being used in many of the operating systems.
However, Segmentation can be combined with Paging to get the best features out of both the
techniques.

In Segmented Paging, the main memory is divided into variable size segments which are further
divided into fixed size pages.
1. Pages are smaller than segments.

2. Each Segment has a page table which means every program has multiple page tables.
3. The logical address is represented as Segment Number (base address), Page number and
page offset.
Seg e t Nu ber → It points to the appropriate Segment Number.
Page Nu ber → It Points to the exact page within the segment
Page Offset → Used as an offset within the page frame
Each Page table contains the various information about every page of the segment. The
Segment Table contains the information about every segment. Each segment table entry points
to a page table entry and every page table entry is mapped to one of the page within a
segment.
Fig. 3.22 Segmented Paging
Translation of logical address to physical address

The CPU generates a logical address which is divided into two parts: Segment Number and
Segment Offset. The Segment Offset must be less than the segment limit. Offset is further
divided into Page number and Page Offset. To map the exact page number in the page table,
the page number is added into the page table base.

The actual frame number with the page offset is mapped to the main memory to get the
desired word in the page of the certain segment of the process.
Fig. 3.23 Translation of logical address to physical address
Advantages of Segmented Paging

1. It reduces memory usage.
2. Page table size is limited by the segment size.
3. Segment table has only one entry corresponding to one actual segment.
4. External Fragmentation is not there.
5. It simplifies memory allocation.
Disadvantages of Segmented Paging

1. Internal Fragmentation will be there.
2. The complexity level will be much higher as compare to paging.
3. Page Tables need to be contiguously stored in the memory.

Comparison between Paging and Segmentation technique
Sr. No. Paging Segmentation
1 A page is a physical unit of information. A segment is a logical unit of

information.
2 A page is invisible to the user's program. A segment is visible to the user's

program.
3 A page is of fixed size e.g. 4Kbytes. A segment is of varying size.
4 The page size is determined by the A segment size is determined by

machine architecture. the user.
5 Fragmentation may occur. Segmentation eliminates

fragmentation.
6 Page frames on main memory are required. No frames are required.
Technique for Execution of large Programs: Overlay:
The main problem in fixed partitioning is the size of a process has to be limited by the
maximum size of the partition, which means a process can never be span over another. In order
to solve this problem, earlier people have used some solution which is called as Overlays.
The concept of overlays is that whenever a process is running it will not use the complete
program at the same time, it will use only some part of it. Then overlays concept says that
whatever part you required, you load it an once the part is done, then you just unload it, means
just pull it back and get the new part you required and run it.
The p o ess of transferring a block of program code or other data into internal memory,
epla i g hat is al ead sto ed .
Sometimes it happens that compare to the size of the biggest partition, the size of the program
will be even more, then, in that case, you should go with overlays. So overlay is a technique to
run a program that is bigger than the size of the physical memory by keeping only those
instructions and data that are needed at any given time. Divide the program into modules in
such a way that not all modules need to be in the memory at the same time.
Advantage –
 Reduce memory requirement
 Reduce time requirement
Disadvantage –
 Overlap map must be specified by programmer
 Programmer must know memory requirement
 Overlapped module must be completely disjoint
 Programming design of overlays structure is complex and not possible in all cases

Fig 3.24 Overlays for two pas Assembler
Static vs Dynamic Loading
The choice between Static or Dynamic Loading is to be made at the time of computer program
being developed. If you have to load your program statically, then at the time of compilation,
the complete programs will be compiled and linked without leaving any external program or
module dependency. The linker combines the object program with other necessary object
modules into an absolute program, which also includes logical addresses.
If you are writing a dynamically loaded program, then your compiler will compile the program
and for all the modules which you want to include dynamically, only references will be provided
and rest of the work will be done at the time of execution.
At the time of loading, with static loading, the absolute program (and data) is loaded into
memory in order for execution to start.
If you are using dynamic loading, dynamic routines of the library are stored on a disk in
relocatable form and are loaded into memory only when they are needed by the program.
Static vs Dynamic Linking
As explained above, when static linking is used, the linker combines all other modules needed
by a program into a single executable program to avoid any runtime dependency.
When dynamic linking is used, it is not required to link the actual module or library with the
program, rather a reference to the dynamic module is provided at the time of compilation and
linking. Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) in Windows and Shared Objects in UNIX are good examples
of dynamic libraries.

Virtual Memory
A computer can address more memory than the amount physically installed on the system. This
extra memory is actually called virtual memory and it is a section of a hard disk that's set up to
emulate the computer's RAM.
The main visible advantage of this scheme is that programs can be larger than physical memory.
Virtual memory serves two purposes. First, it allows us to extend the use of physical memory by
using disk. Second, it allows us to have memory protection, because each virtual address is
translated to a physical address.
Following are the situations, when entire program is not required to be loaded fully in main
memory.
 User written error handling routines are used only when an error occurred in the data or
 Certain options and features of a program may be used rarely.

computation.
 Many tables are assigned a fixed amount of address space even though only a small amount
 The ability to execute a program that is only partially in memory would counter many
of the table is actually used.
 Less number of I/O would be needed to load or swap each user program into memory.
benefits.
 A program would no longer be constrained by the amount of physical memory that is
 Each user program could take less physical memory; more programs could be run the same
available.
time, with a corresponding increase in CPU utilization and throughput.

Modern microprocessors intended for general-purpose use, a memory management unit, or
MMU, is built into the hardware. The MMU's job is to translate virtual addresses into physical
addresses. A asi e a ple is gi e elo −

Fig 3.25 Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand paging. It can also be implemented in a

segmentation system. Demand segmentation can also be used to provide virtual memory.
Demand Paging
A demand paging system is quite similar to a paging system with swapping where processes
reside in secondary memory and pages are loaded only on demand, not in advance. When a
o te t s it h o u s, the ope ati g s ste does ot op a of the old p og a ’s pages out
to the disk o a of the e p og a ’s pages i to the ai e o I stead, it just egi s
e e uti g the e p og a afte loadi g the fi st page a d fet hes that p og a ’s pages as
they are referenced.

Fig 3.26 Demand Paging
While executing a program, if the program references a page which is not available in the main
memory because it was swapped out a little ago, the processor treats this invalid memory
reference as a page fault and transfers control from the program to the operating system to
demand the page back into the memory.
Advantages
 Large virtual memory.

 More efficient use of memory.
 There is no limit on degree of multiprogramming.
Disadvantages
 Number of tables and the amount of processor overhead for handling page interrupts are
greater than in the case of the simple paged management techniques.

Page Replacement Algorithm
Page replacement algorithms are the techniques using which an Operating System decides
which memory pages to swap out, write to disk when a page of memory needs to be allocated.
Paging happens whenever a page fault occurs and a free page cannot be used for allocation
purpose accounting to reason that pages are not available or the number of free pages is lower
than required pages.
When the page that was selected for replacement and was paged out, is referenced again, it
has to read in from disk, and this requires for I/O completion. This process determines the
quality of the page replacement algorithm: the lesser the time waiting for page-ins, the better is
the algorithm.
A page replacement algorithm looks at the limited information about accessing the pages
provided by hardware, and tries to select which pages should be replaced to minimize the total
number of page misses, while balancing it with the costs of primary storage and processor time
of the algorithm itself. There are many different page replacement algorithms. We evaluate an
algorithm by running it on a particular string of memory reference and computing the number
of page faults,
Reference String
The string of memory references is called reference string. Reference strings are generated
artificially or by tracing a given system and recording the address of each memory reference.
The latter choice produces a large number of data, where we note two things.
 For a given page size, we need to consider only the page number, not the entire address.
 If we have a reference to a page p, then any immediately following references to page p will
never cause a page fault. Page p will be in memory after the first reference; the immediately
 Fo e a ple, o side the follo i g se ue e of add esses −

following references will not fault.
, , , , ,9
 If page size is 100, then the reference string is 1,2,6,12,0,0
First in First out (FIFO) algorithm
 Oldest page in main memory is the one which will be selected for replacement.
 Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages from the tail and add new pages at the head.
Fig 3.27 First in First out (FIFO) algorithm

Optimal Page algorithm
 An optimal page-replacement algorithm has the lowest page-fault rate of all algorithms.

An optimal page-replacement algorithm exists, and has been called OPT or MIN.
Replace the page that will not be used for the longest period of time. Use the time when
a page is to be used.
Fig 3.28 Optimal Page algorithm
Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm
 Page which has not been used for the longest time in main memory is the one which will be

selected for replacement.
Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages by looking back into time.
Fig 3.29 Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm
Page buffering algorithm


To get a process start quickly, keep a pool of free frames.

On page fault, select a page to be replaced.

Write the new page in the frame of free pool, mark the page table and restart the process.
Now write the dirty page out of disk and place the frame holding replaced page in free pool.

Least frequently Used (LFU) algorithm
 The page with the smallest count is the one which will be selected for replacement.
 This algorithm suffers from the situation in which a page is used heavily during the initial
phase of a process, but then is never used again.
Most frequently Used (MFU) algorithm
 This algorithm is based on the argument that the page with the smallest count was probably
just brought in and has yet to be used.


Program : B.Tech
Semester: 4th
UNIT-IV
Input / Output: Principles and Programming
One of the important jobs of an Operating System is to manage various I/O devices including
mouse, keyboards, touch pad, disk drives, display adapters, USB devices, Bit-mapped screen,
LED, Analog-to-digital converter, On/off switch, network connections, audio I/O, printers etc.
An I/O system is required to take an application I/O request and send it to the physical device,
then take whatever response comes back from the device and send it to the application. I/O
de i es a e di ided i to t o ategories −
 Block devices− A lo k de i e is o e ith hi h the dri er o u i ates sending entire

blocks of data. For example, Hard disks, USB cameras, Disk-On-Key etc.
 Character devices− a hara ter de i e is o e ith hi h the dri er o u i ates se di g
and receiving single characters (bytes, octets). For example, serial ports, parallel ports, sound
cards etc.
Device Controllers
Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a particular
device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O devices.
The Device Controller works like an interface between a device and a device driver. I/O units
(Keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) typically consist of a mechanical component and an electronic
component where electronic component is called the device controller.
There is always a device controller and a device driver for each device to communicate with the
Operating Systems. A device controller may be able to handle multiple devices. As an interface
its main task is to convert serial bit stream to block of bytes, perform error correction as
necessary.
Any device connected to the computer is connected by a plug and socket, and the socket is
connected to a device controller. Following is a model for connecting the CPU, memory,
controllers, and I/O devices where CPU and device controllers all use a common bus for
communication.

Fig 4.1 Device Controllers
Input /Output Problems
When we analyze device communication, we notice that communication is required at the

following three levels:
 The need for a human to input information and receive output from a computer.
 The need for a device to input information and receive output from a computer.
 The need for computers to communicate (receive/send information) over networks.
 The first kind of IO devices operate at rates good for humans to interact. These
may be character-oriented devices like a keyboard or an event-generating device
like a mouse. Usually, human input using a key board will be a few key
depressions at a time. This means that the communication is rarely more than a
few bytes. Also, the mouse events can be encoded by a small amount of
information (just a few bytes). Even though a human input is very small, it is
stipulated that it is very important, and therefore requires an immediate
response from the system. A communication which attempts to draw attention
often requires the use of an interrupt mechanism or a programmed data mode
of operation.
 The second kind of IO requirement arises from devices which have a very high
character density such as tapes and disks. With these characteristics, it is not
possible to regulate communication with devices on a character by character
basis. The information transfer, therefore, is regulated in blocks of information.
Additionally, sometimes this may require some kind of format control to
structure the information to suit the device and/or data characteristics. For
instance, a disk drive differs from a line printer or an image scanner. For each of
these devices, the format and structure of information is different. It should be
observed that the rate at which a device may provide data and the rates at
which an end application may consume it may be considerably different. In spite
of these differences, the OS should provide uniform and easy to use IO
mechanisms. Usually, this is done by providing a buffer. The OS manages this

buffer so as to be able to comply with the requirements of both the producer
and consumer of data.
 The third kind of IO requirements emanate from the need to negotiate system IO
with the communications infrastructure. The system should be able to manage
communications traffic across the network. This form of IO facilitates access to
internet resources to support e-mail, file-transfer amongst machines or Web
applications. Additionally now we have a large variety of options available as
access devices. These access devices may be in the form of Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA), or mobile phones which have infrared or wireless enabled
communications. This rapidly evolving technology makes these forms of
communications very challenging
Asynchronous Operations
 Synchronous I/O− I this s he e CPU e e utio aits hile I/O pro eeds
 Asynchronous I/O− I/O pro eeds o urre tl ith CPU e e utio
Communication to I/O Devices
The CPU must have a way to pass information to and from an I/O device. There are three
approaches available to communicate with the CPU and Device.
 Special Instruction I/O

 Memory-mapped I/O
 Direct memory access (DMA)
Special Instruction I/O
This uses CPU instructions that are specifically made for controlling I/O devices. These
instructions typically allow data to be sent to an I/O device or read from an I/O device.
Memory-mapped I/O
When using memory-mapped I/O, the same address space is shared by memory and I/O
devices. The device is connected directly to certain main memory locations so that I/O device
can transfer block of data to/from memory without going through CPU.

Fig 4.2 Memory-mapped I/O
While using memory mapped IO, OS allocates buffer in memory and informs I/O device to use
that buffer to send data to the CPU. I/O device operates asynchronously with CPU, interrupts
CPU when finished.
The advantage to this method is that every instruction which can access memory can be used to
manipulate an I/O device. Memory mapped IO is used for most high-speed I/O devices like
disks, communication interfaces.
I/O Interface (Interrupt and DMA Mode)
The method that is used to transfer information between internal storage and external I/O
devices is known as I/O interface. The CPU is interfaced using special communication links by
the peripherals connected to any computer system. These communication links are used to
resolve the differences between CPU and peripheral. There exists special hardware
components between CPU and peripherals to supervise and synchronize all the input and
output transfers that are called interface units.
Mode of Transfer:
The binary information that is received from an external device is usually stored in the memory
unit. The information that is transferred from the CPU to the external device is originated from
the memory unit. CPU merely processes the information but the source and target is always the
memory unit. Data transfer between CPU and the I/O devices may be done in different modes.
Data transfer to and from the peripherals may be done in any of the three possible ways
1. Programmed I/O.
2. Interrupt- initiated I/O.
3. Direct memory access (DMA).

1. Programmed I/O: It is due to the result of the I/O instructions that are written in the
computer program. Each data item transfer is initiated by an instruction in the program.
Usually the transfer is from a CPU register and memory. In this case it requires constant
monitoring by the CPU of the peripheral devices.
Example of Programmed I/O: In this case, the I/O device does not have direct access to
the memory unit. A transfer from I/O device to memory requires the execution of several
instructions by the CPU, including an input instruction to transfer the data from device to
the CPU and store instruction to transfer the data from CPU to memory. In programmed
I/O, the CPU stays in the program loop until the I/O unit indicates that it is ready for data
transfer. This is a time consuming process since it needlessly keeps the CPU busy. This
situation can be avoided by using an interrupt facility. This is discussed below.
2. Interrupt- initiated I/O: Since in the above case we saw the CPU is kept busy
unnecessarily. This situation can very well be avoided by using an interrupt driven
method for data transfer. By using interrupt facility and special commands to inform the
interface to issue an interrupt request signal whenever data is available from any device.
In the meantime the CPU can proceed for any other program execution. The interface
meanwhile keeps monitoring the device. Whenever it is determined that the device is
ready for data transfer it initiates an interrupt request signal to the computer. Upon
detection of an external interrupt signal the CPU stops momentarily the task that it was
already performing, branches to the service program to process the I/O transfer, and
then return to the task it was originally performing.
3. Direct Memory Access: The data transfer between a fast storage media such as magnetic
disk and memory unit is limited by the speed of the CPU. Thus we can allow the
peripherals directly communicate with each other using the memory buses, removing the
intervention of the CPU. This type of data transfer technique is known as DMA or direct
memory access. During DMA the CPU is idle and it has no control over the memory buses.
The DMA controller takes over the buses to manage the transfer directly between the I/O
devices and the memory unit.
Fig 4.3 CPU Bus signals for DMA transfer

Concurrent I/O
 In AIX® operating systems, you can use concurrent I/O in addition to direct I/O for
chunks that use cooked files. Concurrent I/O can improve performance, because it
allows multiple reads and writes to a file to occur concurrently, without the usual
serialization of noncompeting read and write operations.
 Concurrent I/O can be especially beneficial when you have data in a single chunk file
striped across multiple disks.
 Concurrent I/O, which you enable by setting the DIRECT_IO configuration parameter
to 2, includes the benefit of avoiding file system buffering and is subject to the same
limitations and use of KAIO as occurs if you use direct I/O without concurrent I/O. Thus,
when concurrent I/O is enabled, you get both un-buffered I/O and concurrent I/O.
Concurrent Processes
Concurrency is the ability of a database to allow multiple Processes to affect multiple

transactions. This is one of the main properties that separate a database from other forms of
data storage like spreadsheets.
The ability to offer concurrency is unique to databases. Spreadsheets or other flat file means of
storage are often compared to databases, but they differ in this one important regard.
Spreadsheets cannot offer several users the ability to view and work on the different data in
the same file, because once the first user opens the file it is locked to other users. Other users
can read the file, but may not edit data.
Concurrency
Distributed processing involves multiple processes on multiple systems. All of these involve
cooperation, competition, and communication between processes that either run
simultaneously or are interleaved in arbitrary ways to give the appearance of running
simultaneously. Concurrent processing is thus central to operating systems and their design.
Principles and Problems in Concurrency
Concurrency is the interleaving of processes in time to give the appearance of simultaneous

execution. Thus it differs from parallelism, which offers genuine simultaneous execution.
However the issues and difficulties raised by the two overlap to a large extent:
 Sharing global resources safely is difficult

 Optimal allocation of resources is difficult
 Locating programming errors can be difficult, because the contexts in which errors occur
cannot always be reproduced easily.
Parallelism also introduces the issue that different processors may run at different speeds,
but again this problem is mirrored in concurrency because different processes progress at
different rates.

A Simple Example
The fundamental problem in concurrency is processes interfering with each other while
accessing a shared global resource. This can be illustrated with a surprisingly simple
example:
chin = getchar();
chout = chin;
putchar(chout);
I agi e t o pro esses P a d P oth e e uti g this ode at the sa e ti e, with the
following interleaving due to multi-programming.
 P1 enters this code, but is interrupted after reading the character x into chin.
 P2 enters this code, and runs it to completion, reading and displaying the character
y.
 P1 is resumed, but chin now contains the character y, so P1 displays the wrong
character.
The essence of the problem is the shared global variable chin. P1 sets chin, but this write is
subsequently lost during the execution of P2. The general solution is to allow only one
process at a time to enter the code that accesses
chin: such code is often called a critical section. When one process is inside a critical section
of code, other processes must be prevented from entering that section. This requirement is
known as mutual exclusion.
Mutual Exclusion
Mutual exclusion is in many ways the fundamental issue in concurrency. It is the

requirement that when a process P is accessing a shared resource R, no other process
should be able to access R until P has finished with R. Examples of such resources includes
files, I/O devices such as printers, and shared data structures.
There are essentially three approaches to implementing mutual exclusion.
 Leave the responsibility with the processes themselves: this is the basis of most
software approaches. These approaches are usually highly error-prone and carry
high overheads.
 Allow access to shared resources only through special-purpose machine instructions:
i.e. a hardware approach. These approaches are faster but still do not offer a
complete solution to the problem, e.g. they cannot guarantee the absence of
deadlock and starvation.
 Provide support through the operating system, or through the programming
language. We shall outline three approaches in this category: semaphores, monitors,
and message passing.

Semaphores
The fu da e tal idea of se aphores is that pro esses o u i ate ia glo al

counters that are initialized to a positive integer and that can be accessed only through
two atomic operations
semSignal(x) increments the value of the semaphore x.
semWait(x) tests the value of the semaphore x: if x > 0, the process decrements x and
continues; if x = 0, the process is blocked until some other process performs a
semSignal, then it proceeds as above.
A critical code section is then protected by bracketing it between these two operations:
semWait (x);
<critical code section>
semSignal (x);
In general the number of processes that can execute this critical section simultaneously
is determined by the initial value given to x. If more than this number tries to enter the
critical section, the excess processes will be blocked until some processes exit. Most
often, semaphores are initialized to one.
Monitors
The principal problem with semaphores is that calls to semaphore operations tend to be
distributed across a program, and therefore these sorts of programs can be difficult to
get correct, and very difficult indeed to prove correct, Monitors address this problem by
imposing a higher-level structure on accesses to semaphore variables. A monitor is
essentially an object (in the Java sense) which has the semaphore variables as internal
(private) data and the semaphore operations as (public) operations. Mutual exclusion is
provided by allowing only o e pro ess to e e ute the o itor’s ode at a gi e ti e.
Monitors are sig ifi a tl easier to alidate tha are se aphores for at least two
reasons:
 All synchronization code is confined to the monitor
 Once the monitor is correct, any number of processes sharing the resource will
operate correctly.
Inter Process Communication
A process can be of two types:
 Independent process.
 Co-operating process.
An independent process is not affected by the execution of other processes while a co
operating process can be affected by other executing processes. Though one can think that
those processes, which are running independently, will execute very efficiently but in practical,

there are many situations when co-operative nature can be utilized for increasing
computational speed, convenience and modularity. Inter process communication (IPC) is a
mechanism which allows processes to communicate each other and synchronize their actions.
The communication between these processes can be seen as a method of co-operation
between them. Processes can communicate with each other using these two ways:
1. Shared Memory
2. Message passing
The Figure below shows a basic structure of communication between processes via shared
memory method and via message passing.
An operating system can implement both method of communication. First, we will discuss the
shared memory method of communication and then message passing. Communication
between processes using shared memory requires processes to share some variable and it
completely depends on how programmer will implement it. One way of communication using
shared memory can be imagined like this: Suppose process1 and process2 are executing
simultaneously and they share some resources or use some information from other process,
process1 generate information about certain computations or resources being used and keeps
it as a record in shared memory. When process2 need to use the shared information, it will
check in the record stored in shared memory and take note of the information generated by
process1 and act accordingly. Processes can use shared memory for extracting information as a
record from other process as well as for delivering any specific information to other process.
Let’s dis uss a e a ple of o u i atio et een processes using shared memory method.
Fig 4.4 Shared Memory
Process Synchronization
Process Synchronization means sharing system resources by processes in such a way that,
Concurrent access to shared data is handled thereby minimizing the chance of inconsistent
data. Maintaining data consistency demands mechanisms to ensure synchronized execution of
cooperating processes.
Process Synchronization was introduced to handle problems that arose while multiple process
executions. Some of the problems are discussed below.
Critical Section Problem

A Critical Section is a code segment that accesses shared variables and has to be executed as an
atomic action. It means that in a group of cooperating processes, at a given point of time, only
one process must be executing its critical section. If any other process also wants to execute its
critical section, it must wait until the first one finishes.
Solution to Critical Section Problem

A solution to the critical section problem must satisfy the following three conditions:
1. Mutual Exclusion
Out of a group of cooperating processes, only one process can be in its critical section at a given
point of time.
2. Progress
If no process is in its critical section, and if one or more threads want to execute their critical
section then any one of these threads must be allowed to get into its critical section.
3. Bounded Waiting
After a process makes a request for getting into its critical section, there is a limit for how many
other processes can get into their critical section, before this process's request is granted. So
after the limit is reached, system must grant the process permission to get into its critical
section.
Synchronization Hardware
Many systems provide hardware support for critical section code. The critical section problem
could be solved easily in a single-processor environment if we could disallow interrupts to occur
while a shared variable or resource is being modified.
In this manner, we could be sure that the current sequence of instructions would be allowed to
execute in order without pre-emption. Unfortunately, this solution is not feasible in a
multiprocessor environment.
Disabling interrupt on a multiprocessor environment can be time consuming as the message is

passed to all the processors.
This message transmission lag, delays entry of threads into critical section and the system
efficiency decreases.
Mutex Locks
As the synchronization hardware solution is not easy to implement for everyone, a strict
software approach called Mutex Locks was introduced. In this approach, in the entry section of
code, a LOCK is acquired over the critical resources modified and used inside critical section,
and in the exit section that LOCK is released.

As the resource is locked while a process executes its critical section hence no other process
can access it.
Semaphores
In 1965, Dijkstra proposed a new and very significant technique for managing concurrent
processes by using the value of a simple integer variable to synchronize the progress of
interacting processes. This integer variable is called semaphore. So it is basically a synchronizing
tool and is accessed only through two low standard atomic operations, Wait and Signal
by P(S) and V(S) respectively.
In very simple words, semaphore is a variable which can hold only a non-negative Integer value,
shared between all the threads, with operations wait and signal, which work as follow:
P “ : if “ ≥ the “ := “ - 1
else <block and enqueue the process>;
V(S): if <some process is blocked on the queue>

then <unblock a process>
else S := S + 1;
The classical definitions of wait and signal are:
 Wait: Decrements the value of its argument S, as soon as it would become non-negative
(greater than or equal to 1).
 Signal: Increments the value of its argument S, as there is no more process blocked on the
queue.
Properties of Semaphores
1. It's simple and always has a non-negative Integer value.

2. Works with many processes.
3. Can have many different critical sections with different semaphores.
4. Each critical section has unique access semaphores.
5. Can permit multiple processes into the critical section at once, if desirable.
Types of Semaphores
Semaphores are mainly of two types:
1. Binary Semaphore:
It is a special form of semaphore used for implementing mutual exclusion, hence it is often
called a Mutex. A binary semaphore is initialized to 1 and only takes the
values 0 and 1 during execution of a program.

2. Counting Semaphores:
These are used to implement bounded concurrency.
Example of Use
Here is a simple step wise implementation involving declaration and usage of semaphore.
Shared var mutex: semaphore = 1;

Process i
begin
.
.
P(mutex);
execute CS;
V(mutex);
.
.
End;
Limitations of Semaphores
1. Priority Inversion is a big limitation of semaphores.

2. Their use is not enforced, but is by convention only.
3. With improper use, a process may block indefinitely. Such a situation is called Deadlock.
We will be studying deadlocks in details in coming lessons.
Deadlock
Every process needs some resources to complete its execution. However, the resource is
granted in a sequential order.
1. The process requests for some resource.
2. OS grant the resource if it is available otherwise let the process waits.
3. The process uses it and release on the completion.
A Deadlock is a situation where each of the computer process waits for a resource which is
being assigned to some another process. In this situation, none of the process gets executed
since the resource it needs, is held by some other process which is also waiting for some other
resource to be released.

Deadlock Characterization
Deadlock can arise if four conditions hold simultaneously:
1. Mutual Exclusion: A resource can only be shared in mutually exclusive manner. It

implies, if two processes cannot use the same resource at the same time.
2. Hold and Wait: A process waits for some resources while holding another resource at
the same time.
3. No preemption: The process which once scheduled will be executed till the completion.
No other process can be scheduled by the scheduler meanwhile.
4. Circular Wait: All the processes must be waiting for the resources in a cyclic manner so
that the last process is waiting for the resource which is being held by the first process.
Deadlocks Prevention
Deadlocks can be prevented by prevent at least one of the four conditions, because all this four
conditions are required simultaneously to cause deadlock.
1. Mutual Exclusion
Resources shared such as read-only files do not lead to deadlocks but resources, such as
printers and tape drives, requires exclusive access by a single process.
2. Hold and Wait

In this condition processes must be prevented from holding one or more resources while
simultaneously waiting for one or more others.
3. No Preemption
Preemption of process resource allocations can avoid the condition of deadlocks, where
ever possible.
4. Circular Wait
Circular wait can be avoided if we number all resources, and require that processes request
resources only in strictly increasing (or decreasing) order.
Handling Deadlock
The above points focus on preventing deadlocks. But what to do once a deadlock has occured.
Following three strategies can be used to remove deadlock after its occurrence.
1. Preemption
We can take a resource from one process and give it to other. This will resolve the deadlock
situation, but sometimes it does causes problems.
2. Rollback
In situations where deadlock is a real possibility, the system can periodically make a record
of the state of each process and when deadlock occurs, roll everything back to the last

checkpoint, and restart, but allocating resources differently so that deadlock does not
occur.
3. Kill one or more processes

This is the simplest way, but it works.
Deadlock Avoidance
 The general idea behind deadlock avoidance is to prevent deadlocks from ever
happening, by preventing at least one of the aforementioned conditions.
 This requires more information about each process, AND tends to lead to low device
utilization. ( it is a conservative approach. )
 In some algorithms the scheduler only needs to know the maximum number of each
resource that a process might potentially use. In more complex algorithms the scheduler
can also take advantage of the schedule of exactly what resources may be needed in
what order.
 When a scheduler sees that starting a process or granting resource requests may lead to
future deadlocks, then that process is just not started or the request is not granted.
 A resource allocation state is defined by the number of available and allocated
resources and the maximum requirements of all processes in the system.
Safe State
 A state is safe if the system can allocate all resources requested by all processes ( up to
their stated maximums ) without entering a deadlock state.
 More formally, a state is safe if there exists a safe sequence of processes {P0, P1, P2, ...,
PN} such that all of the resource requests for Pi can be granted using the resources
currently allocated to Pi and all processes Pj where j < i. ( I.e. if all the processes prior to
Pi finish and free up their resources, then Pi will be able to finish also, using the
resources that they have freed up. )
 If a safe sequence does not exist, then the system is in an unsafe state, which MAY lead
to deadlock. (All safe states are deadlock free, but not all unsafe states lead to
deadlocks.)

Unsafe
Dead Lock
Safe
Fig: 4.5 Safe, unsafe, and deadlocked state spaces.
 For example, consider a system with 12 tape drives, allocated as follows. Is this a safe
state? What is the safe sequence?
Maximum Needs Current Allocation

P0 10 5
P1 4 2
P2 9 2
 What happens to the above table if process P2 requests and is granted one more tape
drive?
 Key to the safe state approach is that when a request is made for resources, the request
is granted only if the resulting allocation state is a safe one.
Resource-Allocation Graph Algorithm
 If resource categories have only single instances of their resources, then deadlock states
can be detected by cycles in the resource-allocation graphs.
 In this case, unsafe states can be recognized and avoided by augmenting the resource-
allocation graph with claim edges, noted by dashed lines, which point from a process to
a resource that it may request in the future.
 In order for this technique to work, all claim edges must be added to the graph for any
particular process before that process is allowed to request any resources.
(Alternatively, processes may only make requests for resources for which they have
already established claim edges, and claim edges cannot be added to any process that is
currently holding resources.)
 When a process makes a request, the claim edge Pi->Rj is converted to a request edge.
Similarly when a resource is released, the assignment reverts back to a claim edge.
 This approach works by denying requests that would produce cycles in the resource-
allocation graph, taking claim edges into effect.
 Consider for example what happens when process P2 requests resource R2:
Fig 4.6 Resource allocation graph for deadlock avoidance
 The resulting resource-allocation graph would have a cycle in it, and so the request
cannot be granted.
Fig. 4.6 An unsafe state in a resource allocation graph
Banker's Algorithm
 For resource categories that contain more than one instance the resource-allocation
graph method does not work, and more complex ( and less efficient ) methods must be
chosen.
 The Banker's Algorithm gets its name because it is a method that bankers could use to
assure that when they lend out resources they will still be able to satisfy all their clients.
( A banker won't loan out a little money to start building a house unless they are assured
that they will later be able to loan out the rest of the money to finish the house. )
 When a process starts up, it must state in advance the maximum allocation of resources
it may request, up to the amount available on the system.
 When a request is made, the scheduler determines whether granting the request would
leave the system in a safe state. If not, then the process must wait until the request can
be granted safely.
 The banker's algorithm relies on several key data structures: ( where n is the number of
processes and m is the number of resource categories. )
o Available[ m ] indicates how many resources are currently available of each type.
o Max[ n ][ m ] indicates the maximum demand of each process of each resource.
o Allocation[ n ][ m ] indicates the number of each resource category allocated to
each process.
o Need[ n ][ m ] indicates the remaining resources needed of each type for each
process. ( Note that Need[ i ][ j ] = Max[ i ][ j ] - Allocation[ i ][ j ] for all i, j. )
 For simplification of discussions, we make the following notations / observations:
o One row of the Need vector, Need[ i ], can be treated as a vector corresponding
to the needs of process i, and similarly for Allocation and Max.
o A vector X is considered to be <= a vector Y if X[ i ] <= Y[ i ] for all i.
Safety Algorithm
 In order to apply the Banker's algorithm, we first need an algorithm for determining
whether or not a particular state is safe.
 This algorithm determines if the current state of a system is safe, according to the
following steps:
1. Let Work and Finish be vectors of length m and n respectively.
 Work is a working copy of the available resources, which will be modified
during the analysis.
 Finish is a vector of Booleans indicating whether a particular process can
finish. ( or has finished so far in the analysis. )
 Initialize Work to Available, and Finish to false for all elements.

2. Find an i such that both (A) Finish[ i ] == false, and (B) Need[ i ] < Work. This
process has not finished, but could with the given available working set. If no
such i exists, go to step 4.
3. Set Work = Work + Allocation[ i ], and set Finish[ i ] to true. This corresponds to
process i finishing up and releasing its resources back into the work pool. Then
loop back to step 2.
4. If finish[ i ] == true for all i, then the state is a safe state, because a safe sequence
has been found.
 ( JTB's Modification:
1. In step 1. instead of making Finish an array of booleans initialized to false, make
it an array of ints initialized to 0. Also initialize an int s = 0 as a step counter.
2. In step 2, look for Finish[ i ] == 0.
3. In step 3, set Finish[ i ] to ++s. S is counting the number of finished processes.
4. For step 4, the test can be either Finish[ i ] > 0 for all i, or s >= n. The benefit of
this method is that if a safe state exists, then Finish[ ] indicates one safe
sequence ( of possibly many. ) )
Resource-Request Algorithm (The Bankers Algorithm)
 Now that we have a tool for determining if a particular state is safe or not, we are now
ready to look at the Banker's algorithm itself.
 This algorithm determines if a new request is safe, and grants it only if it is safe to do so.
 When a request is made (that does not exceed currently available resources ), pretend it
has been granted, and then see if the resulting state is a safe one. If so, grant the
request, and if not, deny the request, as follows:
1. Let Request[ n ][ m ] indicate the number of resources of each type currently
requested by processes. If Request[ i ] > Need[ i ] for any process i, raise an error
condition.
2. If Request[ i ] > Available for any process i, then that process must wait for
resources to become available. Otherwise the process can continue to step 3.
3. Check to see if the request can be granted safely, by pretending it has been
granted and then seeing if the resulting state is safe. If so, grant the request, and
if not, then the process must wait until its request can be granted safely.The
procedure for granting a request ( or pretending to for testing purposes ) is:
 Available = Available - Request
 Allocation = Allocation + Request
 Need = Need - Request
An Illustrative Example
 Consider the following situation:
 And now consider what happens if process P1 requests 1 instance of A and 2 instances
of C. ( Request[ 1 ] = ( 1, 0, 2 ) )
 What about requests of ( 3, 3,0 ) by P4? or ( 0, 2, 0 ) by P0? Can these be safely granted?
Why or why not?
Recovery from Deadlock
There are three basic approaches to recovery from deadlock:
1. Inform the system operator, and allow him/her to take manual intervention.
2. Terminate one or more processes involved in the deadlock
3. Preempt resources.

Process Termination
 Two basic approaches, both of which recover resources allocated to terminated
processes:
o Terminate all processes involved in the deadlock. This definitely solves the deadlock, but
at the expense of terminating more processes than would be absolutely necessary.
o Terminate processes one by one until the deadlock is broken. This is more conservative,
but requires doing deadlock detection after each step.
 In the latter case there are many factors that can go into deciding which processes to
terminate next:
1. Process priorities.
2. How long the process has been running, and how close it is to finishing.
3. How many and what type of resources is the process holding. ( Are they easy to
preempt and restore? )
4. How many more resources does the process need to complete.
5. How many processes will need to be terminated
6. Whether the process is interactive or batch.
7. (Whether or not the process has made non-restorable changes to any resource.)
Resource Preemption
When preempting resources to relieve deadlock, there are three important issues to be
addressed:
1. Selecting a victim - Deciding which resources to preempt from which processes involves
many of the same decision criteria outlined above.
2. Rollback - Ideally one would like to roll back a preempted process to a safe state prior to
the point at which that resource was originally allocated to the process. Unfortunately it
can be difficult or impossible to determine what such a safe state is, and so the only safe
rollback is to roll back all the way back to the beginning. ( I.e. abort the process and make
it start over. )
3. Starvation - How do you guarantee that a process won't starve because its resources are
constantly being preempted? One option would be to use a priority system, and increase
the priority of a process every time its resources get preempted. Eventually it should get
a high enough priority that it won't get preempted any more.

Difference between Starvation and Deadlock
Sr. Deadlock Starvation

1 Deadlock is a situation where no process Starvation is a situation where the
got blocked and no process proceeds low priority process got blocked and
the high priority processes proceed.
2 Deadlock is an infinite waiting. Starvation is a long waiting but not
infinite.
3 Every Deadlock is always a starvation. Every starvation need not be
deadlock.
4 The requested resource is blocked by The requested resource is
the other process. continuously be used by the higher
priority processes.
5 Deadlock happens when Mutual It occurs due to the uncontrolled
exclusion, hold and wait, No preemption priority and resource management.
and circular wait occurs simultaneously.
Livelock:
There is a variant of deadlock called livelock. This is a situation in which two or more processes
continuously change their state in response to changes in the other process without doing any
useful work. This is similar to deadlock in that no progress is made but differs in that neither
process is blocked or waiting for anything.
A human example of livelock would be two people who meet face-to-face in a corridor and
each move aside to let the other pass, but they end up swaying from side to side without
making any progress because they always move the same way at the same time.


Program : B.Tech
Semester: 4th
UNIT-V
Distributed Operating System
These types of operating system is a recent advancement in the world of computer technology
and are being widely accepted all-over the world and, that too, with a great pace. Various
autonomous interconnected computers communicate each other using a shared
communication network. Independent systems possess their own memory unit and CPU. These
are referred as loosely coupled systems or distributed systems. These systems processors differ
in sizes and functions. The major benefit of working with these types of operating system is that
it is always possible that one user can access the files or software which are not actually present
on his system but on some other system connected within this network i.e., remote access is
enabled within the devices connected in that network.
Fig. 5.1 Distributed Operating System
Advantages of Distributed Operating System:

 Failure of one will not affect the other network communication, as all systems are
independent from each other
 Electronic mail increases the data exchange speed
 Since resources are being shared, computation is highly fast and durable
 Load on host computer reduces
 These systems are easily scalable as many systems can be easily added to the network
 Delay in data processing reduces

Disadvantages of Distributed Operating System:

 Failure of the main network will stop the entire communication
 To establish distributed systems the language which are used are not well defined yet
 These types of systems are not readily available as they are very expensive. Not only that
the underlying software is highly complex and not understood well yet
Examples of Distributed Operating System are- LOCUS etc.
Network Operating System
These systems run on a server and provide the capability to manage data, users, groups,
security, applications, and other networking functions. These type of operating systems allows
shared access of files, printers, security, applications, and other networking functions over a
small private network. One more important aspect of Network Operating Systems is that all the
users are well aware of the underlying configuration, of all other users within the network, their
i di idual o e tio s et . a d that’s h these o puters are popularl k o as tightly
coupled systems.
Fig. 5.2 Network Operating System
Advantages of Network Operating System:

 Highly stable centralized servers
 Security concerns are handled through servers
 New technologies and hardware up-gradation are easily integrated to the system
 Server access are possible remotely from different locations and types of systems
Disadvantages of Network Operating System:
 Servers are costly
 User has to depend on central location for most operations
 Maintenance and updates are required regularly

Examples of Network Operating System are: Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft
Windows Server 2008, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, Novell NetWare, and BSD etc.
Differences between Network Operating System and Distributed Operating System
Sr. No. Network Operating System Distributed Operating System
1 A network operating system is made up A distributed operating system is an

of software and associated protocols ordinary centralized operating
that allow a set of computer network system but runs on multiple
to be used together. independent CPUs.
2 Environment users are aware of Environment users are not aware of

multiplicity of machines. multiplicity of machines.
3 Control over file placement is done It can be done automatically by the

manually by the user. system itself.
4 Performance is badly affected if certain It is more reliable or fault tolerant

part of the hardware starts i.e distributed operating system
malfunctioning. performs even if certain part of the
hardware starts malfunctioning.
5 Remote resources are accessed by Users access remote resources in

either logging into the desired remote the same manner as they access
machine or transferring data from the local resources.
remote machine to user's own
machines.
Multiprocessor Operating System
It refers to the use of two or more central processing units (CPU) within a
single computer system. These multiple CPUs are in a close communication sharing the
computer bus, memory and other peripheral devices. These systems are referred as tightly
coupled systems.
These types of systems are used when very high speed is required to process a large volume of
data. These systems are generally used in environment like satellite control, weather
forecasting etc. The basic organization of multiprocessing system is shown in fig.

Fig. 5.3 Multiprocessor Operating System
Multiprocessing system is based on the symmetric multiprocessing model, in which each

processor runs an identical copy of operating system and these copies communicate with each
other. In this system processor is assigned a specific task. A master processor controls the
system. This scheme defines a master-slave relationship. These systems can save money in
compare to single processor systems because the processors can share peripherals, power
supplies and other devices. The main advantage of multiprocessor system is to get more work
done in a shorter period of time. Moreover, multiprocessor systems prove more reliable in the
situations of failure of one processor. In this situation, the system with multiprocessor will not
halt the system; it will only slow it down.
In order to employ multiprocessing operating system effectively, the computer system must
have the followings:
1. Motherboard Support:
A motherboard capable of handling multiple processors. This means additional sockets or slots
for the extra chips and a chipset capable of handling the multiprocessing arrangement.
2. Processor Support:
Processors those are capable of being used in a multiprocessing system.
The whole task of multiprocessing is managed by the operating system, which allocates
different tasks to be performed by the various processors in the system.
Applications designed for the use in multiprocessing are said to be threaded, which means that
they are broken into smaller routines that can be run independently. This allows the operating

system to let these threads run on more than one processor simultaneously, which is
multiprocessing that results in improved performance.
Multiprocessor system supports the processes to run in parallel. Parallel processing is the ability
of the CPU to simultaneously process incoming jobs. This becomes most important in computer
system, as the CPU divides and conquers the jobs. Generally the parallel processing is used in
the fields like artificial intelligence and expert system, image processing, weather forecasting
etc.
Locking system: In order to provide safe access to the resources shared among multiple
processors, they need to be protected by locking scheme. The purpose of a locking is to
serialize accesses to the protected resource by multiple processors. Undisciplined use of locking
can severely degrade the performance of system. This form of contention can be reduced by
using locking scheme, avoiding long critical sections, replacing locks with lock-free algorithms,
or, whenever possible, avoiding sharing altogether.
Shared data: The continuous accesses to the shared data items by multiple processors (with
one or more of them with data write) are serialized by the cache coherence protocol. Even in a
moderate-scale system, serialization delays can have significant impact on the system
performance. In addition, bursts of cache coherence traffic saturate the memory bus or the
interconnection network, which also slows down the entire system. This form of contention can
be eliminated by either avoiding sharing or, when this is not possible, by using replication
techniques to reduce the rate of write accesses to the shared data.
False sharing: This form of contention arises when unrelated data items used by different
processors are located next to each other in the memory and, therefore, share a single cache
line: The effect of false sharing is the same as that of regular sharing bouncing of the cache line
among several processors. Fortunately, once it is identified, false sharing can be easily
eliminated by setting the memory layout of non-shared data.
Case Study: Linux:

Linux is one of popular version of UNIX operating System. It is open source as its source code is
freely available. It is free to use. Linux was designed considering UNIX compatibility. Its
functionality list is quite similar to that of UNIX.
Components of Linux System

Linux Operating System has primarily three components
 Kernel − Ker el is the ore part of Li u . It is respo si le for all ajor a ti ities of this
operating system. It consists of various modules and it interacts directly with the
underlying hardware. Kernel provides the required abstraction to hide low level
hardware details to system or application programs.
 System Library − “ ste li raries are spe ial fu tio s or progra s usi g hi h
application programs or system utilities accesses Kernel's features. These libraries

implement most of the functionalities of the operating system and do not requires
kernel module's code access rights.
 System Utility − “ ste Utilit progra s are respo si le to do spe ialized, i di idual
level tasks.
Fig. 5.4 Linux Operating System
Kernel Mode vs User Mode

Kernel component code executes in a special privileged mode called kernel mode with full
access to all resources of the computer. This code represents a single process, executes in
single address space and do not require any context switch and hence is very efficient and fast.
Kernel runs each process and provides system services to processes, provides protected access
to hardware to processes.
Support code which is not required to run in kernel mode is in System Library. User programs
and other system programs works in User Mode which has no access to system hardware and
kernel code. User programs/ utilities use System libraries to access Kernel functions to get
system's low level tasks.
Basic Features
Following are some of the important features of Linux Operating System.
 Portable − Porta ilit ea s soft are a orks o differe t t pes of hard are i
same way. Linux kernel and application programs support their installation on any kind
of hardware platform.
 Open Source − Li u sour e ode is freel a aila le a d it is o u it ased

development project. Multiple teams work in collaboration to enhance the capability of
Linux operating system and it is continuously evolving.
 Multi-User − Li u is a multiuser system means multiple users can access system

resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at same time.
 Multiprogramming − Li u is a ultiprogra i g s ste ea s ultiple appli atio s

can run at same time.
 Hierarchical File System − Li u provides a standard file structure in which system files/
user files are arranged.
 Shell − Li u pro ides a spe ial i terpreter progra hi h a e used to e e ute

commands of the operating system. It can be used to do various types of operations,
call application programs. etc.
 Security − Li u pro ides user se urit usi g authe ti atio features like pass ord
protection/ controlled access to specific files/ encryption of data.
Architecture
The following illustration shows the architecture of a Linux s ste −
Fig. 5.5 Linux Operating System Architecture
The ar hite ture of a Li u “ ste o sists of the follo i g la ers −
 Hardware layer − Hard are o sists of all peripheral de i es RAM/ HDD/ CPU et .
 Kernel − It is the ore o po e t of Operati g System, interacts directly with

hardware, provides low level services to upper layer components.
 Shell − A i terfa e to ker el, hidi g o ple it of ker el's fu tio s fro users. The
shell takes commands from the user and executes kernel's functions.
 Utilities − Utilit progra s that pro ide the user ost of the fu tio alities of a
operating systems.

The Shell
 The shell is the interface between the command language user and the OS
 The shell is a user interface and comes in many forms (Bourne Shell, sh; Berkeley C Shell,
csh; Korn Shell, ksh; Restricted Shell, rsh)
 User allowed to enter input when prompted ($ or %)
 System supports all shells running concurrently. Appropriate shell is loaded at login, but
user can usually (except in sh, rsh) dynamically change the shell
 A UNIX command takes the form of
executable_file [-options] arguments
 The shell runs a command interpretation loop

o accept command
o read command
o process command
o execute command
 Executing the command involves creating a child process running in another shell (an
environment within which the process can run). This is done by Forking.
 The parent process usually waits for the child to terminate before re-entering the
command interpretation loop
 Programs can be run in the background by suffixing the command-line entry with an
ampersand (&). Parent will not wait for child to terminate
The Processing Environment
Input and Output
 UNIX automatically opens three files for the process
STDIN - standard input (attached to keyboard)
STDOUT - standard output (attached to terminal)
STDERR - standard error (attached to terminal)
 Because UNIX treats I/O devices as special types of files, STDIO can be easily redirected
to other devices and files
who > list _of _users

The Kernel
 Central part of the OS which provides system services to application programs and the
shell
 The kernel manages processes, memory, I/O and the Timer - so this is not the same as
the kernel that we covered in Lecture 3!
 UNIX supports multiprogramming
 Processes have their own address space - for protection
 Each process's process environment is composed of an unmodifiable re-entrant text
(code) region, a modifiable data region and a stack region.
 The text region is shareable
 Processes can modify their environment only through calls to the OS
The File System
 UNIX uses HDS with root as its origin

 A directory is a special UNIX file which contains file names and their i-nodes (index
nodes)
 Subdirectories appear as file entries
 Directories cannot be modified directly, but can are changed by the operating system
when files and subdirectories are created and deleted
 File and Directory names must be unique within a particular directory (i.e., the path
name must be unique)
 The File System is a data structure that is resident on disk
 It contains a super block (definition of the file system); an array of i-nodes (definition of
the files in the system); the actual file data blocks; and a collection of free blocks
 Space allocation is performed in fixed-size blocks
The i-node contains:
the file owner's user-id and group-id
protection bits for owner, group, and world
the block locator
file size
accounting information
number of links to the file
file type
The Block Locator

 Consists of 13 fields
 First 10 fields points directly to first 10 file blocks
 11th field is an indirect block address
 12th field is a double-indirect block address
 13th field is a triple-indirect block address
Permissions
 Each UNIX file and directory has 3 sets of permission bits associated with it
 These give permissions for owner, group and world
 System files (inc. devices) are owned by root, wizard, or superuser (terminology!)
 Root has unlimited access to the entire installation - whoever owns the files!
Setuid
 When you need to change your password, you need to modify a file called /etc/passwd.
But this file is owned by root and nobody other than root has write permission!
 The passwd command (to change passwords) is owned by root, with execute permission
for world.
 The setuid is a bit which when set on an executable file temporarily gives the user the
same privileges as the owner of the file
 This is similar in concept to some OS commands executing in Supervisor mode to
perform a service for an otherwise unauthorised process
Process Management
 Description of Process Management in SunOS
Scheduling
 Priority-based pre-emptive scheduling. Priorities in range -20 to 20. Default 0.

 Priorities for runnable processes are recomputed every second
 Allows for ageing, but also increases or decreases process's priority based on past
behaviour
 I/O-bound processes receive better service
 CPU-bound processes do not suffer indefinite postponement because the algorithm
`forgets' 90% CPU usage in 5*n seconds (where n is the average number of runnable
processes in the past 60 seconds)
Signals
 Signals are software equivalents to hardware interrupts used to inform processes

asynchronously of the occurrence of an event
Interprocess Communication

 UNIX System V uses semaphores to control access to shared resources

 For processes to exchange data or communicate, pipes are used
 A pipe is a unidirectional channel between 2 processes
 UNIX automatically provides buffering, scheduling services and synchronisation to
processes in a pipe line
 The presence of a pipe causes the processes in the pipe line to share STDIO devices
who | grep cstaff
 The output from who is directed to a buffer. grep will take its input from this buffer. The
output from grep will be displayed on the terminal
Timers
 UNIX makes 3 interval timers available to each process

 Each counts down to zero and then generates a signal
 The first runs continuously
 The second runs while a process is executing process code
 The third runs while the process executes process code or kernel code
Memory Management
Address Mapping (Virtual Storage) - Paged MMS
 Virtual address V is dynamically translated to real address (P, D)

 Direct Mapping is used, with the Page Map held in a high-speed RAM cache
 Each Page Map Entry contains a modified bit, an accessed bit, a valid bit (if the page is
resident in PM) and protection bits
 The system maintains 8 page maps - 1 for the kernel (not available to processes) and 7
for processes (contexts)
 2 context registers are used - one points to the running process's page map and the
other to the kernel's page map
 The replacement strategy replaces the page that has not been active for longest (LRU)
Paging
 SunOS maintains 2 data structures to control paging

 The free list contains empty page frames
 The loop contains an ordered list of all allocated page frames (except for the kernel)
 The pager ensures that there is always free space in memory
 When a page is swapped out (not necessarily replaced) the system judges whether the
page is likely to be used again

 If the page contains a text region, the page is added to the bottom of the free list,
otherwise it is added to the top
 When a page fault occurs, if the page is still in the free list it is reclaimed
I/O
Data
 All data is treated as a byte stream

 UNIX does not impose any structure on data - the applications do
 So data can be manipulated in any way - but programmers must explicitly structure the
data
Devices
 A device is just a special type of file

 These files can have protection bits, so that a printer, e.g., cannot be read
 Permission to use sensitive devices, e.g., magnetic disk, is restricted to root and all other
users have to use system calls to executable files which have their setuid bit set
Case Study: Windows

 Windows OS, computer operating system (OS) developed by Microsoft Corporation to
run personal computers (PCs). Featuring the first graphical user interface (GUI) for IBM-
compatible PCs, the Windows OS soon dominated the PC market. Approximately 90
percent of PCs run some version of Windows.
 The first version of Windows, released in 1985, was simply a GUI offered as an extension
of Mi rosoft’s e isti g disk operati g s ste , or M“-DOS. Based in part on licensed
concepts that Apple Inc. had used for its Macintosh System Software, Windows for the
first time allowed DOS users to visually navigate a virtual desktop, opening graphical
i do s displa i g the o te ts of ele tro i folders a d files ith the li k of a
mouse button, rather than typing commands and directory paths at a text prompt.
 Subsequent versions introduced greater functionality, including native Windows File
Manager, Program Manager, and Print Manager programs, and a more dynamic
interface. Microsoft also developed specialized Windows packages, including the
networkable Windows for Workgroups and the high-powered Windows NT, aimed at
businesses. The 1995 consumer release Windows 95 fully integrated Windows and DOS
and offered built-in Internet support, including the World Wide Web browser Internet
Explorer.
 With the 2001 release of Windows XP, Microsoft united its various Windows packages
under a single banner, offering multiple editions for consumers, businesses, multimedia
developers, and others. Windows XP abandoned the long-used Windows 95 kernel (core
software code) for a more powerful code base and offered a more practical interface
and improved application and memory management. The highly successful XP standard
was succeeded in late 2006 by Windows Vista, which experienced a troubled rollout and
met with considerable marketplace resistance, quickly acquiring a reputation for being a
large, slow, and resource- o su i g s ste . Respo di g to Vista’s disappoi ti g
adoption rate, Microsoft developed Windows 7, an OS whose interface was similar to
that of Vista but was met with enthusiasm for its noticeable speed improvement and its
modest system requirements.
History of Windows:
Microsoft’s Wi dows operati g syste was first i troduced i 1 5.
Windows 1
Fig. 5.6 Windows 1

This is where it all started for Windows. The original Windows 1 was released in November
a d as Mi rosoft’s first true atte pt at a graphi al user i terfa e i -bit.
Development was spearheaded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and ran on top of MS-DOS,
which relied on command-line input.
Windows 2
Fig. 5.6 Windows 2

T o ears after the release of Wi do s , Mi rosoft’s Wi do s repla ed it i De e er

1987. The big innovation for Windows 2 was that windows could overlap each other, and it also
introduced the ability to minimise or maximise windows instead of i o isi g or zoo i g .
The control panel, where various system settings and configuration options were collected
together in one place, was introduced in Windows 2 and survives to this day.
Microsoft Word and Excel also made their first appearances running on Windows
Windows 3
Fig. 5.7 Windows 3

The first Windows that required a hard drive launched in 1990. Windows 3 was the first version
to see ore idespread su ess a d e o sidered a halle ger to Apple’s Ma i tosh a d the
Commodore Amiga graphical user interfaces, coming pre-installed on computers from PC-
compatible manufacturers including Zenith Data Systems.
Windows 3 introduced the ability to run MS-DOS programmes in windows, which brought
multitasking to legacy programmes, and supported 256 colors bringing a more modern, colorful
look to the interface.

Windows 3.1
Fig. 5.8 Windows 3.1
Windows 3.1 released in 1992 is notable because it introduced TrueType fonts making
Windows a viable publishing platform for the first time.
Minesweeper also made its first appearance. Windows 3.1 required 1MB of RAM to run and
allowed supported MS-DOS programs to be controlled with a mouse for the first time. Windows
3.1 was also the first Windows to be distributed on a CD-ROM, although once installed on a
hard drive it only took up 10 to 15MB (a CD can typically store up to 700MB).
Windows 95
Fig. 5.9 Windows 95

As the name implies, Windows 95 arrived in August 1995 and with it brought the first ever Start
button and Start menu.
Windows 98
Released in June 1998, Windows 98 built on Windows 95 and brought with it IE 4, Outlook
Express, Windows Address Book, Microsoft Chat and NetShow Player, which was replaced by
Windows Media Player 6.2 in Windows 98 Second Edition in 1999.
Windows ME
Considered a low point in the Windows series by many – at least, until they saw Windows Vista
– Windows Millennium Edition was the last Windows to be based on MS-DOS, and the last in
the Windows 9x line.
Released in September 2000, it was the consumer-aimed operating system twined with
Windows 2000 aimed at the enterprise market. It introduced some important concepts to
consumers, including more automated system recovery tools.
Windows 2000
The enterprise twin of ME, Windows 2000 was released in February 2000 and was based on
Mi rosoft’s usi ess-orientated system Windows NT and later became the basis for Windows
XP.
Windows XP
Arguably one of the best Windows versions, Windows XP was released in October 2001 and
rought Mi rosoft’s e terprise li e a d o su er li e of operati g s ste s u der o e roof.
It was based on Windows NT like Windows 2000, but brought the consumer-friendly elements
from Windows ME. The Start menu and task bar got a visual overhaul, bringing the familiar
green Start button, blue task bar and vista wallpaper, along with various shadow and other
visual effects.
Windows Vista
Windows XP stayed the course for close to six years before being replaced by Windows Vista in
January 2007. Vista updated the look and feel of Windows with more focus on transparent
ele e ts, sear h a d se urit . Its de elop e t, u der the ode a e Lo ghor , as
troubled, with ambitious elements abandoned in order to get it into production.
Windows 7
Considered by many as what Windows Vista should have been, Windows 7 was first released in
October 2009. It was intended to fix all the problems and criticism faced by Vista, with slight
tweaks to its appearance and a concentration on user-frie dl features a d less dialogue o
o erload .

Windows 8
Released in October 2012, Windows 8 as Mi rosoft’s ost radi al o erhaul of the Wi do s

interface, ditching the Start button and Start menu in favour of a more touch-friendly Start
screen.
The new tiled interface saw programme icons and live tiles, which displayed at-a-glance
i for atio or all asso iated ith idgets , repla e the lists of progra es a d i o s. A
desktop was still included, which resembled Windows 7.
Windows 8.1
A free point release to Windows 8 introduced in October 2013, Windows 8.1 marked a shift
to ards earl soft are updates fro Mi rosoft a d i luded the first step i Mi rosoft’s U-
turn around its new visual interface.
Windows 10
Announced on 30 September 2014, Windows 10 has only been released as a test version for
kee users to tr . The te h i al pre ie is er u h still a ork i progress.
Wi do s represe ts a other step i Mi rosoft’s U-turn, bringing back the Start menu and
more balance to traditional desktop computer users.
Windows operating system structure
The design of operating system architecture traditionally follows the separation of concerns
principle. This principle suggests structuring the operating system into relatively independent
parts that provide simple individual features, thus keeping the complexity of the design
manageable.
Besides managing complexity, the structure of the operating system can influence key features
such as robustness or efficiency:
 The operating system possesses various privileges that allow it to access otherwise
protected resources such as physical devices or application memory. When these
privileges are granted to the individual parts of the operating system that require them,
rather than to the operating system as a whole, the potential for both accidental and
malicious privileges misuse is reduced.
 Breaking the operating system into parts can have adverse effect on efficiency because
of the overhead associated with communication between the individual parts. This
overhead can be exacerbated when coupled with hardware mechanisms used to grant
privileges.

1. Simple Structure
Fig. 5.10 Simple Structure
In MS-DOS, applications may bypass the operating system.
 Operating systems such as MS-DOS and the original UNIX did not have well-defined
structures.
 There was no CPU Execution Mode (user and kernel), and so errors in applications could
cause the whole system to crash.
2. Monolithic Approach
 Functionality of the OS is invoked with simple function calls within the kernel, which is
one large program.
 Device drivers are loaded into the running kernel and become part of the kernel.
Fig. 5.11 Monolithic Structure

3. Layered Approach
This approach breaks up the operating system into different layers.
 This allows implementers to change the inner workings, and increases modularity.
 As lo g as the e ter al i terfa e of the routi es does ’t ha ge, de elopers ha e ore
freedom to change the inner workings of the routines.
 With the layered approach, the bottom layer is the hardware, while the highest layer is
the user interface.
 The main advantage is simplicity of construction and debugging.
 The main difficulty is defining the various layers.
 The main disadvantage is that the OS tends to be less efficient than other
implementations.
Fig. 5.12 Layered approach
The Microsoft Windows NT Operating System has the lowest level is a monolithic kernel, but
many OS components are at a higher level, but still part of the OS.
4. Microkernels
This structures the operating system by removing all nonessential portions of the kernel and
implementing them as system and user level programs.
 Generally they provide minimal process and memory management, and a

communications facility.
 Communication between components of the OS is provided by message passing.
The benefits of the microkernel are as follows:
 Extending the operating system becomes much easier.

 Any changes to the kernel tend to be fewer, since the kernel is smaller.
 The microkernel also provides more security and reliability.

Main disadvantage is poor performance due to increased system overhead from message
passing.
Fig. 5.13 Micro Kernel
Memory management
Every Windows administrator has to field user complaints about client performance. Client-
system performance can be affected by factors such as memory, CPU, disk and the network. Of
these factors, the most confusing is memory management, which admins need to understand
for making informed decisions and troubleshooting. Users typically equate adding memory to
resolving performance bottlenecks, and it's relatively cheap and easy to add memory.
Fig. 5.14 Memory management
Above Fig. shows the memory component of the Windows XP and Windows 7 Task Manager.
Note that there are fundamental differences between Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 Task
Manager versions.
It's important to know the difference between physical and virtual memory. Physical memory is
the amount of physical RAM available in the computer. Physical memory can be visualized as a

table shown in below Figure, where data is stored. Each cell shown in the table is a unique
"address" where data is stored.
Virtual memory essentially allows each process -- applications, dynamic link libraries (DLLs), etc.
To operate in a protected environment where it thinks it has its own private address space.
Figure 1 shows the virtual memory table for a process on a computer with 2 GB of RAM. The
CPU translates or maps the virtual addresses into physical addresses in RAM using page table
entries (PTEs).
Virtual memory limits
The virtual address space for 32-bit architecture has a physical limit of about 4 GB, regardless of
the amount of RAM in the computer. Windows divides this into two sections, as shown in
Figure 2: user space and kernel space. The addresses in the kernel space are reserved for
system processes. Only those in the user space are accessible for applications. So, each
application has a virtual memory limit of 2 GB. Again, this is regardless of physical RAM. That
means that no process can ever address more than 2 GB of virtual address space by default.
Exceeding this limit produces an "out of virtual memory" error and can occur even when plenty
of physical memory is available.
Note that, as shown in Figure 2, the use of virtual memory allows the three applications, each
with 2 GB of virtual address space, to share the 2 GB RAM in the computer. This is
accomplished by paging infrequently used data to disk, then paging it back to RAM when
needed.

Processes will run faster if they reside in memory as opposed to requiring the memory manager
page data in from the disk and put it back in memory. Thus, more memory in the system allows
more processes to reside in memory and reduces paging from disk.
4. Physical memory management
 Windows reports how much physical memory is currently installed on your computer along
with how much memory is available to the operating system and the hardware reserved
memory.
 Windows may show that the usable memory may be less than the installed memory (RAM).
The indicative Usable memory is a calculated amount of the total physical memory minus
hard are reser ed e or .
Physical Memory
O e of the ost fu da e tal resour es o a o puter is ph si al e or . Wi do s’ e or

manager is responsible with populating memory with the code and data of active processes,
device drivers, and the operating system itself. Because most systems access more code and
data than can fit in physical memory as they run, physical memory is in essence a window into
the code and data used over time. The amount of memory can therefore affect performance,
because when data or code a process or the operating system needs is not present, the
memory manager must bring it in from disk.
Besides affecting performance, the amount of physical memory impacts other resource limits.
For example, the amount of non-paged pool, operating system buffers backed by physical
memory, is obviously constrained by physical memory. Physical memory also contributes to the
system virtual memory limit, which is the sum of roughly the size of physical memory plus the
maximum configured size of any paging files. Physical memory also can indirectly limit the
a i u u er of pro esses, hi h I’ll talk a out i a future post o pro ess a d thread
limits.

To find out how memory is being used on your computer, type Resource Monitor in start
search and hit Enter.
Click the Memory tab, and view the Physical Memory section at the bottom of the page.

5. Memory management system calls.
System Calls
The system call provides an interface to the operating system services.
Application developers often do not have direct access to the system calls, but can access them
through an application programming interface (API). The functions that are included in the API
invoke the actual system calls. By using the API, certain benefits can be gained:
 Portability: as long a system supports an API, any program using that API can compile
and run.
 Ease of Use: using the API can be significantly easier then using the actual system call.
System Call Parameters
Three general methods exist for passing parameters to the OS:
1. Parameters can be passed in registers.

2. When there are more parameters than registers, parameters can be stored in a block
and the block address can be passed as a parameter to a register.
3. Parameters can also be pushed on or popped off the stack by the operating system.
Fig. 5.17 System Call
Types of System Calls
There are 5 different categories of system calls:
Process control, file manipulation, device manipulation, information maintenance and

communication.

Process Control
A running program needs to be able to stop execution either normally or abnormally. When
execution is stopped abnormally, often a dump of memory is taken and can be examined with a
debugger.
File Management
Some common system calls are create, delete, read, write, reposition, or close. Also, there
is a need to determine the file attributes – get and set file attribute. Many times the OS
provides an API to make these system calls.
Device Management
Process usually requires several resources to execute, if these resources are available, they
will be granted and control returned to the user process. These resources are also thought
of as devices. Some are physical, such as a video card, and others are abstract, such as a
file.
User programs request the device, and when finished they release the device. Similar to
files, we can read, write, and reposition the device.
Information Management
Some system calls exist purely for transferring information between the user program and
the operating system. An example of this is time, or date.
The OS also keeps information about all its processes and provides system calls to report
this information.
Communication
There are two models of interposes communication, the message-passing model and the
shared memory model.
 Message-passing uses a common mailbox to pass messages between processes.

 Shared memory use certain system calls to create and gain access to create and
gain access to regions of memory owned by other processes. The two processes
exchange information by reading and writing in the shared data.



Operating System Notes

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Operating System Notes

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CS405 Operating Systems

Examples-Some Popular Operating Systems include Linux Operating System, Windows

Fig 1.1Operating System

Desirable Characteristics & features of an Operating System

Following are some of important features of an operating System.

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Memory management refers to management of Primary Memory or Main Memory. Main

 Allocates the memory when a process requests it to do so.

 Allocates the processor (CPU) to a process.

 De-allocates processor when a process is no longer required.

 Allocates the device in the efficient way.

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 Decides who gets the resources.

 Allocates the resources.

Other Important Characteristics

Follo i g a e so e of the i po ta t a ti ities that a Ope ati g Syste pe fo s −

 Job accounting− Keepi g t a k of ti e a d esou es used y a ious jo s a d use s.

 Coordination between other software’s and users− Coo di atio a d assig e t of

Types of Operating System

Batch operating system

Time-sharing operating systems

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Advantages of Timesharing operating systems

 Provides the advantage of quick response.

Disadvantages of Time-sharing operating systems

Distributed operating System

The advantages of distributed systems

 Better service to the customers.

 Reduction of the load on the host computer.

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The disadvantages of network operating systems

 High cost of buying and running a server.

Real Time operating System

Hard real-time systems

Soft real-time systems

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Operating Systems Services: Types of Services

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Following are a few common services provided y a ope ati g syste −

File system manipulation

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 Program needs to read a file or write a file.

 Two processes often require data to be transferred between them

 The OS constantly checks for possible errors.

 The OS manages all kinds of resources using schedulers.

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Different ways of providing these Services –

 Process creation and management

 Main memory management

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Operating System - Properties

Fig 1.2Batch processing

 Difficult to debug program.

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 A job could enter an infinite loop.

 Multitasking Operating Systems are also known as Time-sharing systems.

 Each user has at least one separate program in memory.

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Fig 1.4 Multiprogramming

An OS does the following activities related to multiprogramming.

 High and efficient CPU utilization.

 CPU scheduling is required.

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 Provides the user an interface to interact with the system.

Real Time System

A distributed environment refers to multiple independent CPUs or processors in a computer

 The OS distributes computation logics among several physical processors.

other through various communication lines.

Spooling is an acronym for simultaneous peripheral operations on line. Spooling refers to

Fig 1.5 Spooling

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If you have any queries or you want to submit your

CS-405 Operating System

 These are the files that contain user information.

 These files are also known as device files.