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Unit 1 What Is Kernel in Operating System and What Are The Various

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Deependra Singh
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10 views

Unit 1 What Is Kernel in Operating System and What Are The Various

Uploaded by

Deependra Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Kernel in Operating System

A Kernel is a computer program that is the heart and core of an Operating


System. Since the Operating System has control over the system so, the
Kernel also has control over everything in the system. It is the most
important part of an Operating System. Whenever a system starts, the
Kernel is the first program that is loaded after the bootloader because the
Kernel has to handle the rest of the thing of the system for the Operating
System. The Kernel remains in the memory until the Operating System is
shut-down.

The Kernel is responsible for low-level tasks such as disk management,


memory management, task management, etc. It provides an interface
between the user and the hardware components of the system. When a
process makes a request to the Kernel, then it is called System Call.

A Kernel is provided with a protected Kernel Space which is a separate


area of memory and this area is not accessible by other application
programs. So, the code of the Kernel is loaded into this protected Kernel
Space. Apart from this, the memory used by other applications is called
the User Space. As these are two different spaces in the memory, so
communication between them is a bit slower.
Functions of a Kernel
Following are the functions of a Kernel:

 Access Computer resource: A Kernel can access various


computer resources like the CPU, I/O devices and other resources.
It acts as a bridge between the user and the resources of the system.
 Resource Management: It is the duty of a Kernel to share the
resources between various process in such a way that there is
uniform access to the resources by every process.
 Memory Management: Every process needs some memory space.
So, memory must be allocated and deallocated for its execution. All
these memory management is done by a Kernel.
 Device Management: The peripheral devices connected in the
system are used by the processes. So, the allocation of these
devices is managed by the Kernel.

Kernel Mode and User Mode


There are certain instructions that need to be executed by Kernel only.
So, the CPU executes these instructions in the Kernel Mode only. For
example, memory management should be done in Kernel-Mode only.
While in the User Mode, the CPU executes the processes that are given
by the user in the User Space.
Types of Kernel
In general, there are five types of Kernel. They are:

1. Monolithic Kernels

Monolithic Kernels are those Kernels where the user services and the
kernel services are implemented in the same memory space i.e. different
memory for user services and kernel services are not used in this case. By
doing so, the size of the Kernel is increased and this, in turn, increases the
size of the Operating System. As there is no separate User Space and
Kernel Space, so the execution of the process will be faster in Monolithic
Kernels.
Advantages:

 It provides CPU scheduling, memory scheduling, file management


through System calls only.
 Execution of the process is fast because there is no separate
memory space for user and kernel.
Disadvantages:

 If any service fails, then it leads to system failure.


 If new services are to be added then the entire Operating System
needs to be modified.
2. Microkernel

A Microkernel is different from Monolithic kernel because in a


Microkernel, the user services and kernel services are implemented into
different spaces i.e. we use User Space and Kernel Space in case of
Microkernels. As we are using User Space and Kernel Space separately,
so it reduces the size of the Kernel and this, in turn, reduces the size of
Operating System.
As we are using different spaces for user services and kernel service, so
the communication between application and services is done with the
help of message parsing and this, in turn, reduces the speed of execution.

Advantages:

 If new services are to be added then it can be easily added.


Disadvantages:

 Since we are using User Space and Kernel Space separately, so the
communication between these can reduce the overall execution
time.
3. Reentrant kernel

 A reentrant kernel is the one which allows multiple


processes to be executing in the kernel mode at any given
point of time and that too without causing any
consistency problems among the kernel data structures.
 Well, we know that in a single processor system only one
process can execute at any given instant but there could
be other processes blocked in kernel mode waiting to be
executed.
 For example, in a reentrant kernel a process waiting on a
‘read()’ call may decide to release CPU to a process which
is waiting for execution in kernel mode.

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