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Mainframe Operating Systems

The document discusses different types of operating systems including: 1) Mainframe operating systems which handle large numbers of jobs and I/O on room-sized computers. Examples include OS/390. 2) Server operating systems which run on servers and allow multiple users to share resources over a network. Examples include Solaris, Linux, and Windows Server. 3) Multiprocessor operating systems which coordinate communication between multiple CPUs, with variations of server OSs handling this. Many popular OSs now support multicore processors.

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Tayga Ina Apdyrahmaan
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384 views

Mainframe Operating Systems

The document discusses different types of operating systems including: 1) Mainframe operating systems which handle large numbers of jobs and I/O on room-sized computers. Examples include OS/390. 2) Server operating systems which run on servers and allow multiple users to share resources over a network. Examples include Solaris, Linux, and Windows Server. 3) Multiprocessor operating systems which coordinate communication between multiple CPUs, with variations of server OSs handling this. Many popular OSs now support multicore processors.

Uploaded by

Tayga Ina Apdyrahmaan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Mainframe Operating Systems

At the high end are the operating systems for mainframes, those room-sized
computers still found in major corporate data centers. These computers differ
from personal computers in terms of their I/O capacity. A mainframe with
1000 disks and millions of gigabytes of data is not unusual; a personal
computer with these specifications would be the envy of its friends.
Mainframes are also making some- thing of a comeback as high-end Web
servers, servers for large-scale electronic commerce sites, and servers for
business-to-business transactions.

The operating systems for mainframes are heavily oriented toward processing
many jobs at once, most of which need prodigious amounts of I/O. They
typically offer three kinds of services: batch, transaction processing, and
timesharing. A batch system is one that processes routine jobs without any
interactive user present. Claims processing in an insurance company or sales
reporting for a chain of stores is typically done in batch mode. Transaction-
processing systems handle large numbers of small requests, for example, check
processing at a bank or airline reservations. Each unit of work is small, but the
system must handle hundreds or thousands per second. Timesharing systems
allow multiple remote users to run jobs on the computer at once, such as
querying a big database. These functions are closely related; mainframe
operating systems often perform all of them. An example mainframe operating
system is OS/390, a descendant of OS/360. However, main- frame operating
systems are gradually being replaced by UNIX variants such as Linux.

2. Server Operating Systems

One level down are the server operating systems. They run on servers, which
are either very large personal computers, workstations, or even mainframes.
They serve multiple users at once over a network and allow the users to share
hardware and software resources. Servers can provide print service, file
service, or Web

and Websites use servers to store the Web pages and handle the incoming
requests. Typical server operating systems are Solaris, FreeBSD, Linux and
Windows Server 201x.

3. Multiprocessor Operating Systems

An increasingly common way to get major-league computing power is to con-


nect multiple CPUs into a single system. Depending on precisely how they are
connected and what is shared, these systems are called parallel computers,
multi- computers, or multiprocessors. They need special operating systems,
but often these are variations on the server operating systems, with special
features for com- munication, connectivity, and consistency.

With the recent advent of multicore chips for personal computers, even
conventional desktop and notebook operating systems are starting to deal
with at least small-scale multiprocessors and the number of cores is likely to
grow over time. Luckily, quite a bit is known about multiprocessor operating
systems from years of previous research, so using this knowledge in multicore
systems should not be hard. The hard part will be having applications make use
of all this comput- ing power. Many popular operating systems, including
Windows and Linux, run on multiprocessors.

4. Personal Computer Operating Systems

The next category is the personal computer operating system. Modern ones all
support multiprogramming, often with dozens of programs started up at boot
time. Their job is to provide good support to a single user. They are widely
used for word processing, spreadsheets, games, and Internet access. Common
examples are Linux, FreeBSD, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Apple’s OS X.
Personal computer operating systems are so widely known that probably little
introduction is needed. In fact, many people are not even aware that other
kinds exist.

5. Embedded Operating Systems

Embedded systems run on the computers that control devices that are not
gen- erally thought of as computers and which do not accept user-installed
software. Typical examples are microwave ovens, TV sets, cars, DVD recorders,
traditional phones, and MP3 players. The main property which distinguishes
embedded sys- tems from handhelds is the certainty that no untrusted
software will ever run on it. You cannot download new applications to your
microwave oven—all the software is in ROM. This means that there is no need
for protection between applications, leading to design simplification. Systems
such as Embedded Linux, QNX and VxWorks are popular in this domain.

6. Real-Time Operating Systems

Another type of operating system is the real-time system. These systems are
characterized by having time as a key parameter. For example, in industrial
proc- ess-control systems, real-time computers have to collect data about the
production process and use it to control machines in the factory. Often there
are hard deadlines that must be met. For example, if a car is moving down an
assembly line, certain actions must take place at certain instants of time. If, for
example, a welding robot welds too early or too late, the car will be ruined. If
the action absolutely must

system . Many of these are found in industrial process control, avionics,


military, and similar application areas. These systems must provide absolute
guarantees that

a certain action will occur by a certain time.


7. Smart Card Operating Systems

The smallest operating systems run on smart cards, which are credit-card-sized
devices containing a CPU chip. They have very severe processing power and
memory constraints. Some are powered by contacts in the reader into which
they are inserted, but contactless smart cards are inductively powered, which
greatly limits what they can do. Some of them can handle only a single
function, such as electronic payments, but others can handle multiple
functions. Often these are proprietary systems.

Some smart cards are Java oriented. This means that the ROM on the smart
card holds an interpreter for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Java applets
(small programs) are downloaded to the card and are interpreted by the JVM
interpreter. Some of these cards can handle multiple Java applets at the same
time, leading to multiprogramming and the need to schedule them. Resource
management and protection also become an issue when two or more applets
are present at the same time. These issues must be handled by the (usually
extremely primitive) operating system present on the card.

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