Introduction to operating system

An operating system is a program that manages

computer’s hardware. It also provides a basis for
application programs to run.
To make the things more clear!!
Let us look that , a computer system can roughly
be divided in to four parts-
Major components of computer
system
●
The hardware—provides the basic computing resources
for the System
●
Application programs—define the ways in which these
resources are used to solve users’ computing problems
●
Users
●
Operating Systems—This is what we will discuss now....
Operating system

SO, Operating system is one which

Provides the environment so that
application programs can run
USER
Goals of opertaing system
● Primary Goal: The primary goal of an Operating System is to provide a user-friendly and
convenient environment.
●
Secondary Goal: The secondary goal of an Operating System is efficiency. The Operating System
should perform all the management of resources in such a way that the resources are fully
utilized and no resource should be held idle if some request to that resource is there at that
instant of time.
User view of operating system
●
Personal computer- more importance is given to ease of
use ( great convenience).
●
Mainframe computer- Resources and hardware utilisation
●
Handheld Computer-Both covenience and effective
utilisation of hardware
System view
●
Viewed as ‘Resource Allocator’
●
A computer system has many resources that may be required
to solve a problem: CPU time, memory space, file-storage
space, I/O devices, and so on.
●
The operating system acts as the manager of these
resources and allocate them to specific programs and users
so that it can operate the computer system efficiently and
fairly
Computer system architecture
Based on the number of general purpose processors are
used , we have number of computer systems -
●
Single processor system- only 1 GPP
●
Multi-processor system-More than 1 GPP
*General purpose processor is the processor which is not
meant for a specific operation but it can perform all general
operations.
Advantages of multi- processor
system
●

● Enhanced Throughput If multiple processors are working in tandem, then the throughput of
the system increases i.e. number of processes getting executed per unit of time increase.
● More Economic Systems Multiprocessor systems are cheaper than single processor systems
in the long run because they share the data storage, peripheral devices, power supplies etc
● More reliable Systems In a multiprocessor system, even if one processor fails, the system
will not halt.
Types of multi processor system
There are mainly two types of multiprocessors i.e. symmetric and asymmetric
multiprocessors. Details about them are as follows −
● Asymmetric Multiprocessors -
In which each processor is assigned a specific task. A boss processor controls the system; the
other processors either look to the boss for instruction or have predefined tasks. This
scheme defines a boss–worker relationship.
● Symmetric Multiprocessors -
In which each processor performs all tasks within the operating system. Tht means all
processors are peers; no boss–worker relationship exists
between processors.
Clustered System
The are also known as loosely coupled system and main
difference between clustered and multi-processor system
is that in clustered system all processors have their
seprated memory and peripheralk devices.
Types of clustered system
● Asymmetric Clustering - In this, all these nodes are connected to the server and we have
actually two severs and among these two server, one server is said to be in hot standby
mode while the other server is providing services to the clients i.e. running the applications.
● Symmetric Clustering - In this, again two servers and both the servers provide services to
the clients i.e. , running applications, and they are also monitoring each other. This mode is
obviously more efficient, as it uses all of the available hardware.
● Parallel Clustering - Same program is divided into pieces and each piece is running on
separate nodes. Therefore each node has performed a part of the program and results from
each of those nodes can be sent back and combined to get the actual final result. It helps in
reducing the time which is taken to perform a particular program
Advantages of clusterd systems
● Benefits of Clustered Systems
The difference benefits of clustered systems are as follows −
● Performance
Clustered systems result in high performance as they contain two or more individual
computer systems merged together.
● Fault Tolerance
Clustered systems are quite fault tolerant and the loss of one node does not result in the loss
of the system.
● Scalability
Clustered systems are quite scalable as it is easy to add a new node to the system. There is
no need to take the entire cluster down to add a new node.
Multi- Programming
●
Main idea is that CPU should never sit idle.

Multi programing =>job pool(disk)=>main memory

(regain CPU)<=
=>operating system => I/O Devices
Multi-tasking/Time sharing
●
Main idea is to minimize response time
●
Multi tasks or user can access CPU
●
Alloted a particular time span called Time quantam
lets take and example of wall clock-