Operating Systems

Overview
Designed for 4th Semester Students of GTU
(Gujarat Technical University)
What is an Operating System
 An operating system (OS) is an interface
between hardware and user which is
responsible for the management and
coordination of activities and the sharing of
the resources of the computer that acts as a
host for computing applications run on the
machine.
 Software that controls the allocation and
usage of hardware resources such as
memory, CPU time, disk space, and input
and output devices.
 The foundation software of a machine; that
which schedules tasks, allocates storage,
and presents a default interface to the user
between applications.
Operating System Overview

User

Application

Operating System

Hardware
Operating System Functions
 Itmanages the hardware and software
resources of the system. In a desktop
computer, these resources include
the processor, memory, disk space and
many more (On a cell phone, they include
the keypad, the screen, the address
book,etc).
 It provides a stable, consistent way for
applications to deal with the hardware
without having to know all the details of the
hardware.

Types
Type
of Operating
Definition
SystemsExample of Use
Batch Processing System Data or programs are collected grouped and Payroll, stock control and billing systems.
processed at a later date.
Real-time Systems Inputs immediately affect the outputs. Timing is e.g. control of nuclear power plants, oil refining,
critical etc.
Real-time transaction Inputs immediately affect the outputs but timing Holiday and airline booking system.
is not critical.
Online processing Processing performed under the direct control of
the CPU
Offline processing Processing which is done away from CPU. e.g. batching together of lock cards, filling in
OMR forms.
Multi-access on-line Any users linked by workstations to a central Holiday or airline booking system. One person
computer such as in a must be locked out when another is updating the
Network. file.
Interactive processing The user has to be present and program cannot Select from a menu at
proceed until there is some input from the user ATM.
Distributed system Processing is carried out independently in more Databases e.g. libraries.
than one location, but with shared and
controlled access to some common facilities.
Multiprogramming: Ability to run many programs apparently at the Mainframe systems.
same time.
Multi tasking The ability to hold several programs in RAM at Usually uses GUI’s. Facilitates import and export
one time but the user switches between them. of data.
Examples of Operating Systems
 Microsoft Windows
 Mac OS X

 Unix and Unix-like operating systems

 BSD and its descendants

 Plan 9

 Linux and GNU

 Google Chrome OS


Concepts/Models of Operating System
 Monolithic Systems
 Layered Systems

 Virtual Machines

 Client Server System

Monolithic Operating Systems
 The components of monolithic operating system are organized
randomly and any module can call any other module without any
reservation. Similar to the other operating systems, applications in
monolithic OS are separated from the operating system itself.

Layered Operating System
 The components of layered operating system are organized into
modules and layers them one on top of the other. Each module
provide a set of functions that other module can call. Interface
functions at any particular level can invoke services provided by
lower layers but not the other way around.

Virtual Machines
 Virtual machines are separated into two major
categories, based on their use and degree of
correspondence to any real machine.
 A system virtual machine provides a complete
system platform which supports the execution of
a complete operating system.
 In contrast, a process virtual machine is designed
to run a single program, which means that it
supports a single process.
 An essential characteristic of a virtual machine is
that the software running inside is limited to the
resources and abstractions provided by the
virtual machine—it cannot break out of its virtual
world.
Client-Server System
 Client–server model of computing is a distributed
application structure that partitions tasks or
workloads between service providers, called
servers, and service requesters, called clients.
 Often clients and servers communicate over a
computer network on separate hardware, but
both client and server may reside in the same
system.
 A server machine is a host that is running one or
more server programs which share its resources
with clients. A client does not share any of its
resources, but requests a server's content or
service function. Clients therefore initiate
communication sessions with servers which
await (listen to) incoming requests.
Components of Operating Systems
 The user interface
 The kernel
 Program execution
 Interrupts
 Protected mode, supervisor mode, and virtual
modes
 Memory management
 Virtual memory
 Multitasking
 Disk access and file systems
 Device drivers
 Networking
 Security

 We will read details about these components in the next
chapters.
Operating System Tasks
 The operating system's tasks, in the most
general sense, fall into six categories:
 Processor management
 Memory management
 Device management
 Storage management
 Application interface
 User interface

We will read the details about these in the next



chapters.
Read it again and head for the next chapter