BSC Semester 3 – Operating

Systems
Unit 1 - Chapter 1
 What is Operating System
Computer System = Hardware + Software

Software = Application Software + System Software(OS)

An Operating System is a system Software that acts as an

intermediary/interface between a user of a computer and the computer
hardware.
 What is Operating System
• A program that acts as an intermediary
between a user of a computer and the
computer hardware
• Operating system goals:
• Execute user programs and make solving
user problems easier
• Make the computer system convenient to
use
• Use the computer hardware in an
efficient manner
 Structure of Operating System
• Computer system can be divided into four components:
• Hardware – provides basic computing resources
• CPU, memory, I/O devices
• Operating system
• Controls and coordinates use of hardware among
various applications and users
• Application programs – define the ways in which the
system resources are used to solve the computing
problems of the users
• Word processors, software compilers, web
browsers, database systems, video games
• Users
• People, machines, other computers
Components of Computer System
 Operating System mode

• The User Mode is concerned with the actual interface between the
user and the system.
• It controls things like running applications and accessing files.
• The Kernel Mode is concerned with everything running in the
background.
• It controls things like accessing system resources, controlling
hardware functions and processing program instructions.
• System calls are used to change mode from User to Kernel.
 What Operating System can do
• Depends on the point of view
• Users want convenience, ease of use and good
performance
• Don’t care about resource utilization
• But shared computer such as mainframe or
minicomputer must keep all users happy
• Users of dedicate systems such as workstations have
dedicated resources but frequently use shared
resources from servers
• Handheld computers are resource poor, optimized for
usability and battery life
• Some computers have little or no user interface, such
as embedded computers in devices and automobiles
 Computer System Organization
• Computer-system operation
• One or more CPUs, device controllers connect through common
bus providing access to shared memory
• Concurrent execution of CPUs and devices competing for memory
cycles
 Computer system Operation

• I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently

• Each device controller is in charge of a particular device type

• Each device controller has a local buffer

• CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from local buffers

• I/O is from the device to local buffer of controller

• Device controller informs CPU that it has finished its

operation by causing an interrupt

 I/O Structure
• I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently
• Each device controller is in charge of a particular
device type
• Each device controller has a local buffer
• CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from
local buffers
• I/O is from the device to local buffer of controller
• Device controller informs CPU that it has finished
its operation by causing an interrupt
 Storage Structure
• Main memory – only large storage media that the CPU can access
directly
• Random access
• Typically volatile
• Secondary storage – extension of main memory that provides large
nonvolatile storage capacity
• Hard disks – rigid metal or glass platters covered with magnetic
recording material
• Disk surface is logically divided into tracks, which are subdivided
into sectors
• The disk controller determines the logical interaction between the
device and the computer
• Solid-state disks – faster than hard disks, nonvolatile
• Various technologies
• Becoming more popular
 Storage Hierarchy
• Storage systems organized in hierarchy
• Speed
• Cost
• Volatility
• Caching – copying information into faster storage system;
main memory can be viewed as a cache for secondary
storage
• Device Driver for each device controller to manage I/O
• Provides uniform interface between controller and
kernel
Storage Hierarchy
 Caching
• Important principle, performed at many levels in a
computer (in hardware, operating system,
software)
• Information in use copied from slower to faster
storage temporarily
• Faster storage (cache) checked first to determine if
information is there
• If it is, information used directly from the cache
(fast)
• If not, data copied to cache and used there
• Cache smaller than storage being cached
• Cache management important design problem
• Cache size and replacement policy
How Computer Work
 In summary-Operating System
 An Operating system (OS) is a software
which acts as an interface between the end
user and computer hardware.
 Every computer must have at least one OS
to run other programs.
 An application like Chrome, MS Word,
Games, etc needs some environment in
which it will run and perform its task.
 The OS helps you to communicate with the
computer without knowing how to speak the
computer's language.
 It is not possible for the user to use any
computer or mobile device without having
an operating system
 Features of Operating System 19

 Features of Operating System

Here is a list commonly found important
features of an Operating System:

 Protected and supervisor mode

 Allows disk access and file systems Device
drivers Networking Security
 Program Execution
 Memory management, Virtual Memory,
Multitasking
 Handling I/O operations
 Manipulation of the file system
 Error Detection and handling
 Resource allocation
 Information and Resource Protection
Functions of Operating System 20
 Functions of Operating System 21

• Process Management
• A process is a program in execution.
• A process needs certain resources, including CPU time, memory, files, and I/O devices to
accomplish its task.
• Simultaneous execution leads to multiple processes. Hence creation, execution and
termination of a process are the most basic functionality of an OS
• If processes are dependent, than they may try to share same resources. thus task of process
synchronization comes to the picture.
• If processes are independent, than a due care needs to be taken to avoid their overlapping in
memory area.
• Based on priority, it is important to allow more important processes to execute first than
others.
 Functions of Operating System 22

• Memory Management
• Memory is a large array of words or bytes, each with its own address.
• It is a repository of quickly accessible data shared by the CPU and I/O devices.
• Main memory is a volatile storage device. When the computer made turn off
everything stored in RAM will be erased automatically.
• In addition to the physical RAM installed in your computer, most modern operating
systems allow your computer to use a virtual memory system. Virtual memory allows
your computer to use part of a permanent storage device (such as a hard disk) as
extra memory.
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connections with
memory management:
Keep track of which parts of memory are currently being used and by whom.
Decide which processes to load when memory space becomes available.
Allocate and de-allocate memory space as needed.
 Functions of Operating System 23
• File Management
• A file is a collection of related information defined by its creator.
• File systems provide the conventions for the encoding, storage and management of data on a storage
device such as a hard disk.
 FAT12 (floppy disks)
 FAT16 (DOS and older versions of Windows)
 FAT32 (older versions of Windows)
 NTFS (newer versions of Windows)
 EXT3 (Unix/Linux)
 HFS+ (Max OS X)
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connections with file management:
✦ File creation and deletion.
✦ Directory creation and deletion.
✦ Support of primitives for manipulating files and directories.
✦ Mapping files onto secondary storage.
✦ File backup on stable (nonvolatile) storage media.
 Functions of Operating System 24

• Device Management
• Device controllers are components on the motherboard (or on expansion cards) that act as an interface
between the CPU and the actual device.
• Device drivers, which are the operating system software components that interact with the devices
controllers.
• A special device (inside CPU) called the Interrupt Controller handles the task of receiving interrupt
requests and prioritizes them to be forwarded to the processor.
• Deadlocks can occur when two (or more) processes have control of different I/O resources that are
needed by the other processes, and they are unwilling to give up control of the device.
• 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 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. 
 Functions of Operating System 25
• Security and Protection
• The operating system uses password protection to protect user data and similar
other techniques.
• It also prevents unauthorized access to programs and user data by assigning
access right permission to files and directories.
• The owners of information stored in a multiuser or networked computer system
may want to control use of that information, concurrent processes should not
interfere with each other.
 Functions of Operating System 26

• A user interface (UI) controls how you enter data and instructions and how
information is displayed on the screen
• There are two types of user interfaces
• Command Line Interface
• Graphical user Interface
 Functions of Operating System 27

Secondary-Storage Management:-
Systems have several levels of storage which includes primary storage, secondary storage, and
cache storage. Instructions and data must be stored in primary storage or cache so that a
running program can reference it.
Command interpretation:- This module is interpreting commands given by and acting system
resources to process that commands.
Networking:- A distributed system is a group of processors which do not share memory,
hardware devices, or a clock. The processors communicate with one another through the
network.
Job accounting:- Keeping track of time & resource used by various job and users.
Communication management:- Coordination and assignment of compilers, interpreters, and
another software resource of the various users of the computer systems.
 Resource Abstraction
 What is Resource?
 The OS treats any entity as a resource if it satisfies following
characteristics:
 A process must request that entity from the OS.
 A process must suspend its operation until the entity is allocated
to it.
 Anything like CPU cycle, Main memory, printer…..
 Similar resources can be abstracted to a common abstract resource
interface (i.e. system software may abstract floppy disks, hard-disks
and CD-ROMs into a single abstract disk interface).
 Abstraction generalizes the hardware behaviour but restricts the
flexibility.
 With abstraction, certain operations become easier to perform, other
may become impossible (such as specific hardware control).
 Different hardware components that a program may use are referred
to as resources.
 Any particular resource, such as a HDD has a generic interface that
defines how the programmer can make the resource perform a desired
operation.
 An abstraction can be made to be much simpler than the actual
resource interface.
 Resource Abstraction

 Resource abstraction is the process of "hiding the

details of how the hardware operates, thereby
making computer hardware relatively easy for an
application programmer to use".
 One way in which the operating system might
implement resource abstraction is to provide a single
abstract disk interface which will be the same for
both the hard disk and floppy disk.
 Such an abstraction saves the programmer from
needing to learn the details of both hardware
interfaces.
 Instead, the programmer only needs to learn the
disk abstraction provided by the operating system.
 Types of Operating System 30

1. Batch Operating System

2. Multiprogramming Operating System
3. Time-Sharing OS
4. Multiprocessing OS
5. Distributed OS
6. Network OS
7. Real Time OS
8. Embedded OS
 Types of Operating System 31
1. Batch Operating System
 Some computer processes are very lengthy and time-consuming.
 To speed the same process, a job with a similar type of needs are batched together
and run as a group.
 The user of a batch operating system never directly interacts with the computer.
 In this type of OS, every user prepares his or her job on an offline device like a punch
card and submit it to the computer operator.
 Types of Operating System 32

Advantages of Batch Operating System: 

 Processors of the batch systems know how long the job would be when it is in
queue
 Multiple users can share the batch systems
 The idle time for the batch system is very less
 It is easy to manage large work repeatedly in batch systems
Disadvantages of Batch Operating System:  
 The computer operators should be well known with batch systems
 Batch systems are hard to debug
 It is sometimes costly
 The other jobs will have to wait for an unknown time if any job fails
Examples of Batch based Operating System:
IBM's MVS
 Types of Operating System 33

2.Multiprogramming Operating System
• This type of OS is used to execute more than one jobs simultaneously by a single processor.
• It increases CPU utilization by organizing jobs so that the CPU always has one job to execute.
• Multiprogramming operating systems use the mechanism of job scheduling and CPU scheduling.
 Types of Operating System 34

2.Multiprogramming System

 Multiprogramming is also the ability of an operating system to execute more

than one program on a single processor machine.
 More than one task/program/job/process can reside into the main memory at
one point of time.
 A computer running Excel and Firefox browser simultaneously is
an example of multiprogramming.
 Types of Operating System 35

3. Multi-Tasking/Time-sharing Operating systems

• Each task is given some time to execute so that all the tasks work smoothly.
• These systems are also known as Multi-tasking Systems.
• The task can be from a single user or different users also.
• The time that each task gets to execute is called quantum.
• After this time interval is over OS switches over to the next task. 
 Types of Operating System 36

3. Multi-Tasking/Time-sharing Operating systems

 Time-sharing operating system enables people

located at a different terminal(shell) to use a single
computer system at the same time.
 The processor time (CPU) which is shared among
multiple users is termed as time sharing.
 In other words, time sharing refers to the allocation
of computer resources in time slots to several
programs simultaneously.
 For example a mainframe computer that has many
users logged on to it. Each user uses the resources of
the mainframe -i.e. memory, CPU etc.
 Types of Operating System 37

3. Multi-Tasking/Time-sharing Operating systems

Advantages of Time-Sharing OS:  

Each task gets an equal opportunity
Fewer chances of duplication of software
CPU idle time can be reduced
Disadvantages of Time-Sharing OS:  
Reliability problem
One must have to take care of the security and integrity of user programs and data
Data communication problem
Examples of Time-Sharing Oss
Multics, Unix, etc. 
 Types of Operating System 38

4. Multiprocessor operating systems

• Multiprocessor operating systems are also known as parallel OS or tightly coupled OS.
• Such operating systems have more than one processor in close communication that sharing
the computer bus, the clock and sometimes memory and peripheral devices.
• It executes multiple jobs at the same time and makes the processing faster.
• It supports large physical address space and larger virtual address space.
• If one processor fails then other processor should retrieve the interrupted process state so
execution of process can continue.
• Inter-processes communication mechanism is provided and implemented in hardware.
 Types of Operating System 39
5. Distributed Operating system
• Various autonomous interconnected computers communicate with each other using a
shared communication network.
• Independent systems possess their own memory unit and CPU.
• These are referred to as loosely coupled systems.
• Examples:- Locus, DYSEAC
 Types of Operating System 40
6. Networked Operating system
• These systems run on a server and provide the capability to manage data, users,
groups, security, applications, and other networking functions.
• These types of operating systems allow shared access of files, printers, security,
applications, and other networking functions over a small private network.
• The “ other" computers arc called client computers, and each computer that
connects to a network server must be running client software designed to request a
specific service.
• Popularly known as tightly coupled systems. 
 Types of Operating System 41
6. Networked Operating system
Advantages of Network Operating System:  
 Highly stable centralized servers
 Security concerns are handled through servers
 New technologies and hardware up-gradation are easily integrated into the system
 Server access is possible remotely from different locations and types of systems
Disadvantages of Network Operating System:  
 Servers are costly
 User has to depend on a central location for most operations
 Maintenance and updates are required regularly
Examples of Network Operating System are:
Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, Novell NetWare,
and BSD, etc. 
 Types of Operating System 42
7. Real time Operating system
• These types of OSs serve real-time
systems.
• The time interval required to process and
respond to inputs is very small.
• This time interval is called response time. 
• Real-time systems are used when there
are time requirements that are very strict
like
 missile systems,
 air traffic control systems,
 robots, etc. 
 Types of Operating System 43
7. Embedded Operating system
• An embedded operating system is one that is built into the circuitry of an electronic
device.
• Embedded operating systems are now found in automobiles, bar-code scanners, cell
phones, medical equipment, and personal digital assistants.
• The most popular embedded operating systems for consumer products, such as
PDAs, include the following:
 Windows XP Embedded
 Windows CE .NET:- it supports wireless communications, multimedia and Web
browsing. It also allows for the use of smaller versions of Microsoft Word,
Excel, and Outlook.
 Palm OS:- It is the standard operating system for Palm-brand PDAs as well as
other proprietary handheld devices.
 Symbian:- OS found in “ smart” cell phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson
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