LYNDA VIMBAI GONESE

ND3 – PART-TIME

1a) An operating system is a piece of software that manages the allocation of computer
hardware. The coordination of the hardware must be appropriate to ensure the
correct working of the computer system and to prevent user programs from
interfering with the proper working of the system.
Example: Just like a boss gives order to his employee, in the similar way we request
or pass our orders to the Operating System. The main goal of the Operating System
is to thus make the computer environment more convenient to use and the
secondary goal is to use the resources in the most efficient manner.

1b) Objectives of an operating system

Convenient

The reason for an operation system to exist is to make computers more convenient
to use. An OS aims to wrap the underneath hardware resources and provides
services to end users in a systematic way. These services may be divided into two
types: services directly available for end users through all kinds of I/O devices, such
as mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer, and so on; and services for application
programs, which in turn provides services for end users.

Efficiency

It is not the OS itself but the hardware that makes all kinds of services possible and
available to application programs. An OS merely exploits the hardware to provide
easily accessible interfaces. Exploitation means management upon the hardware
resources, and thus also imposes control upon or manages the entities that use the
services so that the resources are used efficiently.
 Evolution of an OS

It does not suffice to simply consider an operating system an invariable unit. An OS

may evolve while time elapses due to the following reasons: hardware upgrades or
new types of hardware: With hardware technologies development, the OS also
needs to upgrade so as to utilize the new mechanisms introduced by new hardware.
For example, Pentium IV extended instruction set of Pentium III for multimedia
applications and internet transmission. An OS designed for the previous versions of
Intel x86 series will have to be upgraded to be able to accommodate these new
instructions; new services an OS may also expand to include more services in
response to user demand.

1. Security - The operating system uses password protection to protect user data and
similar other techniques. it also prevents unauthorized access to programs and user
data.

2. Control over system performance - Monitors overall system health to help improve
performance. records the response time between service requests and system
response to have a complete view of the system health. This can help improve
performance by providing important information needed to troubleshoot problems.

3. Job accounting - Operating System Keeps track of time and resources used by
various tasks and users, this information can be used to track resource usage for a
particular user or group of user.

4. Error detecting aids - Operating system constantly monitors the system to detect
errors and avoid the malfunctioning of computer system.

5. Coordination between other software and users- Operating systems also

coordinate and assign interpreters, compilers, assemblers and other software to the
various users of the computer systems.
6. Memory Management The operating system manages the Primary Memory or Main
Memory. Main memory is made up of a large array of bytes or words where each
byte or word is assigned a certain address. Main memory is a fast storage and it can
be accessed directly by the CPU. For a program to be executed, it should be first
loaded in the main memory. An Operating System performs the following activities
for memory management it keeps tracks of primary memory, i.e., which bytes of
memory are used by which user program. The memory addresses that have already
been allocated and the memory addresses of the memory that has not yet been
used. In multi programming, the OS decides the order in which process are granted
access to memory, and for how long. It Allocates the memory to a process when the
process requests it and deallocates the memory when the process has terminated or
is performing an I/O operation.

7. Processor Management - In a multi programming environment, the OS decides the

order in which processes have access to the processor, and how much processing
time each process has. This function of OS is called process scheduling. An Operating
System performs the following activities for processor management. Keeps tracks of
the status of processes. The program which perform this task is known as traffic
controller. Allocates the CPU that is processor to a process. De-allocates processor
when a process is no more required.

8. Device Management - An OS manages device communication via their respective

drivers. 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 the 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.

9. File Management - A file system is organized into directories for efficient or easy
navigation and usage. These directories may contain other directories and other
files. An Operating System carries out the following file management activities. It
 keeps track of where information is stored, user access settings and status of every
file and more… These facilities are collectively known as the file system.

2. Types of operating systems

Multiprocessor Systems

A Multiprocessor system consists of several processors that share a common

physical memory. Multiprocessor system provides higher computing power and
speed. In multiprocessor system all processors operate under single operating
system. Multiplicity of the processors and how they do act together are transparent
to the others. Multiprocessor systems execute applications with different
performance requirements. These applications exercise the hardware differently due
to the computation being carried out. The runtime approaches adapt to these
performance and workload variations using the power control levers or the
scheduling decisions to perform reliability management based on the continuous
feedback from the hardware performance monitoring unit at runtime. are being
used successfully today to improve performance in systems running multiple
programs concurrently. In addition, multiprocessor systems have shown the ability
to improve single-program performance significantly for certain applications
containing easily parallelized loops. The extraction of coarse-
grained parallelism from a software description and, indeed, the study of languages
used to describe parallel software are a flourishing area of research. Pre-emption
occurs when a task is made ready to run at the same time as a lower-priority task is
already running. In this event, the lower-priority task is suspended (context saved
into heaps), the higher-priority task is started (context restored or initialized), as are
any lower-priority tasks on other microprocessors. This is critical to maintain the
priority order of executing tasks.
Distributed Operating System

The motivation behind developing distributed operating systems is the availability of

powerful and inexpensive microprocessors and advances in communication
technology.

These advancements in technology have made it possible to design and develop

distributed systems comprising of many computers that are inter connected by
communication networks. The main benefit of distributed systems is its low
price/performance ratio. As distributed computing becomes more widespread, both
in high-energy physics and in other applications, centralized operating systems will
gradually give way to the distributed ones. Distributed operating systems have many
points in common with centralized ones, but they also have many distinctive
features of their own. Distributed Operating System is a model where distributed
applications are running on multiple computers linked by communications. A
distributed operating system is an extension of the network operating system that
supports higher levels of communication and integration of the machines on the
network. This system looks to its users like an ordinary centralized operating system
but runs on multiple, independent central processing units (CPUs). The key concept
here is transparency. Another way of expressing the same idea is to say that the user
views the system as a virtual uniprocessor not as a collection of distinct machines.
The distributed systems have to be designed carefully, since there are many pitfalls
for the unwary. A key issue is transparency i.e. hiding all the distribution from the
users and from the application programs. Another issue is flexibility. Other important
issues are reliability, performance, scalability, security and failure handling. As there
are multiple systems involved, user at one site can utilize the resources of systems at
other sites for resource-intensive tasks. The concept of distributed computing is the
most efficient way to achieve the optimization. A distributed system consists of
multiple computers that communicate through a computer network. It deals with
hardware and software systems that contain more than one processing / storage and
run in concurrently. Thus distributed computing has the chance to lead into new age
in terms of computer paradigm, resources sharing pattern and online collaboration.
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