Operating Systems

Course Title: Operating Systems

Course Code: CS-362
Credits: 3
Instructor: Dr. Iftikhar H. Shah

• Recommended Books
1. Operating System Concepts by Silbertschatz, Galvin and Gagne (8TH edition) (Text
Book).
2. Modern Operating Systems by A.S. Tanenbaum (Pearson) 3rd Edition.
3. Operating Systems : Internals and Design Principles by Stalling, (Pearson) 8th
Edition.

SCOCS/ ihs/OS/Spring 2021

 Computer System
A computer system consists of two components:
a. Hardware
It consists of physical components consisting of circuits which facilitate reading,
storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying information efficiently.
b. Software
It consists of programs that:
1. drive the hardware components
2. provide facilities to the users.
Software is of two types:
1. Application Software
It helps users doing specific jobs; e.g. preparing presentations, word
processing, etc.

EX. Write down names of major hardware component in order of their importance.

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Operating
Operating Systems
Systems
Wk1: Introduction

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 Introduction (contd.)
2. Operating System (OS)
The O.S. consists of integrated set of programs that drive the computer. Hardware
provides raw computing power; O.S. makes this power available to the users. It is
an integral part of the modern computing environment and must be understood by
every computer user to some extent.
Please note that:
– It is the CPU which executes programs.
– CPU executes one program at a time instruction by instruction.
– CPU can execute only that program which has been loaded (completely or
partially) in the main memory.

SCOCS/ ihs/OS/Spring 2021

 Functions of the O.S.
• Management of the Hardware Components
 An O.S. manages all the hardware components; e.g. CPU,
Main Memory, Secondary Storage, Printer, etc.
• Provision of a user interface
 This interface allows the user to interact with the hardware; this interaction can
be through:
o Command language; e.g.
copy file1 file2 (DOS)
cp file1 file2 (Unix)
o Graphical user interface (GUI) (windows)
• Management of utility software
 Utility software includes editors, compilers, word processor, …
• There are many operating systems in use; these include DOS, Unix, Linux,
windows. MS has been creating new versions of Windows.

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Important Definitions
• Mono-programming
 Only one user program resides in the main memory at a time and
when it completes only then the next program is loaded.
 Main memory is shared by OS and the user program.

• Multiprogramming
 More than one user program are loaded into the main memory.
 When one program completes / stops (for input etc.) the CPU
starts running another program. In this case many programs are
active but only one program runs at a time.
 Main memory is shared by the O.S. and the user programs.

SCOCS/ ihs/OS/Spring 2021

Important Definitions
• Time-Sharing Systems
 CPU runs a program for a fixed quantum (interval) of time.
 If a program does not finish in the allocated quantum, the CPU is
taken away from this program and is allocated to next program. The
unfinished program is usually placed at the end of the queue
maintained by the OS for this purpose.
 Unfinished program may be sent to disk if there is not enough space
in the RAM.
 If a program requires I/O, it voluntarily relinquishes the CPU.

 Ex. Point out one similarity and one difference between

Multiprogramming and Time-sharing systems

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 Important Definitions (contd.)
Parallel Systems
 The system has more than one processor; this is also called physical
parallelism
 The memory and clock are shared by the processors
 Communication between the processors usually takes place through the shared
memory.
 Many processes can run at the same time
 Advantages of parallel system
 Increased throughput
 Economical

Real Time Systems

 These are time critical systems; if response to an event is not prompt, the
results can be disastrous.
 These are often used as a control device in a dedicated application such as
controlling scientific experiments, aeroplanes, industrial processes

SCOCS/ ihs/OS/Spring 2021

Main Memory
• Main memory is a sequence of bytes each having a unique address.
• Sometimes bytes are combined to form words but the addresses remain
the same; i.e. on byte basis.
(word = 1, 2, 4, 8, . . bytes)
• The fundamental unit for measuring memory is BYTE.
• The bigger units are:
KB = 210 Bytes, MB = 220 Bytes and GB = 230 Bytes, …4
• Now a days main memories of the size 8G, 16G,.. are available.
• Two major kinds of memory are
• RAM Random access memory; it is available to the users.
• ROM Read only memory; it is used by the manufacturers to store
instructions required by the start-up process.

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 Main Memory
• Performance of RAM
o Access Time; i.e. time taken to read data from RAM or to write data
on RAM is 9-70 nano seconds
o The performance also depends upon the processor speed; e.g. 32 bit
1600 MHz processor can process 4 bytes at a time & 1600 million
times per second.
• Importance of RAM
A program can be executed only if it has been loaded into the RAM
because the processor can interact with the RAM only.

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 Secondary storage
• The RAM is volatile; i.e. if power shuts off, everything in the RAM is lost.
• To store information for long time it must be stored on a semi-permanent device
called secondary storage such as Floppy Disk*, Hard Disk, CD, etc.
• Advantages
1. Non-volatility: the data remains intact
2. Large capacity: hard disk can store 100+ GB of data
3. Safe and Reliable but floppies are not reliable
4. Less Expensive
5. Re-usability
6. Portability
• Disadvantages

1. Slow in speed

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Hard Disk : Seek and Search

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Distributed Systems
• Computation is distributed among several physical processors.
• Loosely coupled system – each processor has its own local memory;
processors communicate with one another through various communications
lines, such as high-speed buses or telephone lines.
• Advantages of distributed systems.
– Resources Sharing
– Computation speed up – load sharing
– Reliability
– Communications

SCOCS/ ihs/OS/Spring 2021