ITFT _ Operating system
- 2. A computer is a system composed of two major components: hardware and software. Computer hardware is the physical equipment. Software is the collection of programs that allows the hardware to do its job. Computer software is divided into two broad categories: the operating system and application programs. Application programs use the computer hardware to solve users’ problems. The operating system, on the other hand, controls the access to hardware by users.
- 4. INTRODUCTION An operating system is complex, so it is difficult to give a simple universal definition. Instead, here are some common definitions: An operating system is an interface between the hardware of a computer and the user (programs or humans). An operating system is a program (or a set of programs) that facilitates the execution of other programs. An operating system acts as a general manager supervising the activity of each component in the computer system.
- 5. An operating system is an interface between the hardware of a computer and the user (programs or humans) that facilitates the execution of other programs and the access to hardware and software resources. Two major design goals of an operating system are: ❑ Efficient use of hardware. ❑ Ease of use of resources.
- 6. Bootstrap process The operating system, based on the above definitions, provides supports for other programs. For example, it is responsible for loading other programs into memory for execution. However, the operating system itself is a program that needs to be loaded into the memory and be run. The solution is a two-stage process. A very small section of memory is made of ROM and holds a small program called the bootstrap program. When the computer is turned on, the CPU counter is set to the first instruction of this bootstrap program and executes the instructions in this program.
- 8. EVOLUTION Operating systems have gone through a long history of evolution, which we summarize here. Batch systems Batch operating systems were designed in the 1950s to control mainframe computers. At that time, computers were large machines that used punched cards for input, line printers for output and tape drives for secondary storage media. Each program to be executed was called a job. A programmer who wished to execute a job sends a request to the operating system.
- 9. 7.9 Personal systems When personal computers were introduced, there was a need for an operating system for this new type of computer. During this era, single-user operating systems such as DOS (Disk Operating System) were introduced. Parallel systems The need for more speed and efficiency led to the design of parallel systems: multiple CPUs on the same machine. Each CPU can be used to serve one program or a part of a program, which means that many tasks can be accomplished in parallel instead of serially. The operating systems required for this are more complex than those that support single CPUs.
- 10. Time-sharing systems To use computer system resources efficiently, multiprogramming was introduced. The idea is to hold several jobs in memory at a time, and only assign a resource to a job that needs it on the condition that the resource is available. Multiprogramming brought the idea of time sharing: resources could be shared between different jobs, with each job being allocated a portion of time to use a resource. Because a computer is much faster than a human, time sharing is hidden from the user—each user has the impression that the whole system is serving them exclusively.
- 11. Distributed systems Networking and internetworking, as we saw in Chapter 6, have created a new dimension in operating systems. A job that was previously done on one computer can now be shared between computers that may be thousands of miles apart. Distributed systems combine features of the previous generation with new duties such as controlling security. Real-time systems A real-time system is expected to do a task within a specific time constraint. They are used with real- time applications, which monitor, respond to or control external processes or environments.
- 12. COMPONENTS Today’s operating systems are very complex. An operating system needs to manage different resources in a computer system. It resembles an organization with several managers at the top level. Each manager is responsible for managing their department, but also needs to cooperate with others and coordinate activities. A modern operating system has at least four duties: memory manager, process manager, device manager and file manager.
- 13. Components of an operating system
- 14. User interface Each operating system has a user interface, a program that accepts requests from users (processes) and interprets them for the rest of the operating system. A user interface in some operating systems, such as UNIX, is called a shell. In others, it is called a window to denote that it is menu driven and has a GUI (graphical user interface) component.
- 15. Memory manager One of the responsibilities of a modern computer system is memory management. Although the memory size of computers has increased tremendously in recent years, so has the size of the programs and data to be processed. Memory allocation must be managed to prevent applications from running out of memory. Operating systems can be divided into two broad categories of memory management: mono programming and multiprogramming.
- 16. Mono programming In mono programming, most of the memory capacity is dedicated to a single program; only a small part is needed to hold the operating system. In this configuration, the whole program is in memory for execution. When the program finishes running, the program area is occupied by another program. Monoprogramming
- 17. Multiprogramming In multiprogramming, more than one program is in memory at the same time, and they are executed concurrently, with the CPU switching rapidly between the programs. Multiprogramming
- 19. Partitioning
- 20. Paging