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OPERATING SYSTEM I
CSC 125 (3 UNITS)
Lecture 1

OMIRINLEWO YINKA (MRS)

 Lecture Outline

• Introduction to Operating Systems

Role & Purpose of Operating Systems

The Evolution of Operating Systems
 Role & Purpose of Operating Systems
What is Operating System ?
• An operating system is a program on which application programs are executed

• An Operating system acts as a communication bridge (interface) between the user and the
computer hardware.

• An operating system provides a platform on which a user can execute programs in a convenient
and efficient manner.

• The main task of an operating system is to allocate resources and services, such as allocation of:
memory, devices, processors and information.

• The operating system also includes programs to manage these resources, such as a traffic
controller, a scheduler, memory management module, I/O programs, and a file system.
 Role & Purpose of Operating Systems
• An operating system is a piece of software that manages the allocation of computer hardware.

• The main goal of the Operating System is to make the computer environment more convenient to
use.

• The secondary goal of operating System is to use the resources in the most efficient manner.

• The coordination of the hardware must be appropriate to ensure the correct working of the computer
system and to prevent user programs from interfering with the proper working of the system.

• Example: Just like a boss gives order to his employee, in the similar way we request or pass our
orders to the Operating System.
Important functions of an operating System
• Security
The operating system uses password protection to protect user data and similar other techniques. it
also prevents unauthorized access to programs and user data.
• Control over system performance
- Monitors overall system health to help improve performance.
- records the response time between service requests and system response to have a complete
view of the system health.
- This can help improve performance by providing important information needed to troubleshoot
problems.
• Job accounting
• Operating system Keeps track of time and resources used by various tasks and users, this
information can be used to track resource usage for a particular user or group of user.
Important functions of an operating System cont.

• Error detecting aids

• Operating system constantly monitors the system to detect errors and avoid the
malfunctioning of computer system.
• Coordination between other software and users
• Operating systems also coordinate and assign interpreters, compilers, assemblers and
other software to the various users of the computer systems.
• Memory Management
• The operating system manages the Primary Memory or Main Memory.
• Main memory is made up of a large array of bytes or words where each byte or word
is assigned a certain address.
• Main memory is a fast storage and it can be accessed directly by the CPU.
• For a program to be executed, it should be first loaded in the main memory.
Important functions of an operating System cont.
• Memory Management cont.
• An Operating System performs the following activities for memory management:
 keeps tracks of primary memory, i.e., which bytes of memory are used by which user
program.
 The memory addresses that have already been allocated and the memory addresses of the
memory that has not yet been used.
 In multi programming, the OS decides the order in which process are granted access to
memory, and for how long.
 It Allocates the memory to a process when the process requests it and deallocates the
memory when the process has terminated or is performing an I/O operation.
Important functions of an operating System cont.
• Processor Management
In a multi programming environment, the OS decides the order in which
processes have access to the processor, and how much processing time each
process has.
 This function of OS is called process scheduling.
An Operating System performs the following activities for processor
management.
• Keeps tracks of the status of processes.
• The program which perform this task is known as traffic controller.
• Allocates the CPU that is processor to a process.
• De-allocates processor when a process is no more required.
Important functions of an operating System
cont.
• Device Management
• An OS manages device communication via their respective drivers.
• It performs the following activities for device management.
• Keeps tracks of all devices connected to system.
• designates a program responsible for every device known as the Input/Output
controller.
• Decides which process gets access to a certain device and for how long. Allocates
devices in an effective and efficient way.
• Deallocates devices when they are no longer required.
Important functions of an operating System cont.
• File Management
• A file system is organized into directories for efficient or easy navigation
and usage.
• These directories may contain other directories and other files.
• An Operating System carries out the following file management activities.
• It keeps track of where information is stored, user access settings and status
of every file and more… These facilities are collectively known as the file
system.
Important functions of an operating System
cont.
The Operating System provides certain services to the users which can be listed
in the following manner:
• Program Execution:
o The Operating System is responsible for execution of all types of
programs whether it be user programs or system programs.
o The Operating System utilizes various resources available for the efficient
running of all types of functionalities.
Important functions of an Operating System
cont.
• Handling Input/Output Operations:
• The Operating System is responsible for handling all sort of inputs, i.e,
from keyboard, mouse, desktop, etc.
• The Operating System does all interfacing in the most appropriate
manner regrading all kind of Inputs and Outputs.
• For example, there is difference in nature of all types of peripheral
devices such as mouse or keyboard, then Operating System is
responsible for handling data between them.
Important functions of an operating System cont.
• Manipulation of File System:
• The Operating System is responsible for making of decisions regarding the storage
of all types of data or files, i.e, floppy disk/hard disk/pen drive, etc.
• The Operating System decides as how should the data should be manipulated and
stored.

• Error Detection and Handling:

• The Operating System is responsible for detection of any types of error or bugs that
can occur while any task.
• The well secured OS sometimes also acts as countermeasure for preventing any sort
of breach to the Computer System from any external source and probably handling
them.
Important functions of an operating System cont.
• Resource Allocation:
• The Operating System ensures the proper use of all the resources available
by deciding which resource to be used by whom for how much time.
• All the decisions are taken by the Operating System.
• Accounting:
• The Operating System tracks an account of all the functionalities taking
place in the computer system at a time.
• All the details such as the types of errors occurred are recorded by the
Operating System.
Important functions of an operating System
cont.
• Information and Resource Protection:
• The Operating System is responsible for using all the information
and resources available on the machine in the most protected way.
• The Operating System must foil an attempt from any external
resource to hamper any sort of data or information.
The Evolution of Operating Systems

The first computers used batch operating systems, in which the computer ran
batches of jobs without stop.
• Programs were punched into cards that were usually copied to tape for processing.

• When the computer finished one job, it would immediately start the next one on the tape.

• Professional operators, not the users, interacted with the machine.

• Users dropped jobs off, then returned to pick up the results after their jobs had run.

• This was inconvenient for the users, but the expensive computer was kept busy with a steady
stream of jobs.
• Before 1960
The Evolution of Operating Systems

• In the 1960s, time-shared operating systems began replacing batch

systems.
• Users interacted directly with the computer via a printing terminal
like the Western Electric Teletype shown here.
• Several users shared the computer at the same time, and it spent a
fraction of a second on each one's job before moving on to the next.
The Evolution of Operating Systems
I. Printing terminals were later replaced by video terminals that could
only display fixed size characters.
II. Some could be used to create forms on the screen, but many simply
scrolled like a "glass Teletype.
III. "Personal computers became affordable in the mid-1970s.
IV. The Altair 8800, shown here, was the first commercially viable
personal computer marketed to individuals.
•
The Evolution of Operating Systems

 Beginning in January 1975, the Altair was sold to hobbyists in kit form.
• The Altair did not have an operating system, since it had only toggle switches and
light-emitting diodes for input and output.
• People soon connected terminals and floppy disk drives to Altairs.

• In 1976, Digital Research introduced the CP/M operating system for the Altair and
computers like it. CP/M and later DOS had CLIs that were similar to those of the
time-shared operating systems, but the computer was dedicated to a single user, not
shared.
The Evolution of Operating Systems
• As hardware prices fell, personal computers with bit-mapped displays
that could control individual pixels were developed.
• These made personal computer with graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
possible.The first commercial success was the Apple Macintosh which
was introduced in 1984.
• The initial Macintosh pushed the state of the hardware art, and was
restricted to a small, monochrome display.
• As hardware continued to evolve, larger, color Macs were developed
and Microsoft introduced Windows, their GUI operating system.
The Evolution of Operating Systems
• The Macintosh operating system was based on decades of research on
graphically-oriented personal computer operating systems and
applications.

• Sketchpad foreshadowed many of the characteristics of a modern GUI,

but the hardware cost millions of dollars and filled a room.
The Evolution of Operating Systems
• After many generations of research projects on large computers and
improvement in hardware, the Macintosh became economically
feasible.

• Research prototypes like Sketchpad are still being developed at

universities and in research labs.

• They will form the basis of future products.

The Evolution of Operating Systems
• Real Time Operating System : Real Time Operating System is a
special purpose Operating System, used when there are rigid time
requirements on the operation of a processor or the flow of data.
• Distributed Operating System : It is an interconnection of two or
more nodes, but the processors do not share memory. These Systems
are also called as loosely Coupled Systems.