Operating Systems 09/11/2022
SCC.211 Part II
Introduction
Dr Andrew Scott
[email protected]
Topics
• Wednesday • Friday
6. Introduction 6. Processes
7. Memory Allocation 7. Input and Output
8. Multi-process Systems 8. File-systems
9. Memory Protection 9. Paging
10. Virtual Memory 10. Emerging Issues
Delivery: Recorded Material
• Majority of core material pre-recorded
• Slides and videos released around time of first session of week
• Review material for next topic before next timetabled session
• So you should have watched first videos by the next timetabled session
…and videos for second topic by first session next week
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Example Topic on Moodle
• Slides and Media
• Video (with duration)
• Slides
• Reading
• Additional Reading
Delivery: Timetabled Sessions
• Run ½ week behind videos
• Some additional core content to get through
• Otherwise, more responsive
• Key slides available, only some/ parts recorded
• Typically limited to key content
• Look for sections in Moodle:
Delivery: Timetabled Sessions
• Typical structure
• Brief summary of previous topic
• Review key questions from Moodle forum
• May expand on topic, add context, give examples, etc.
• Possibly some new content
• Brief overview of next topic
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Reading
• You should/ need to read up on the topics covered
• Give you a more in-depth understanding
• There’s a limit to how much we can cover in lectures
• Important when explaining and justifying answers (in exams)
• Helps identify links between topics
• Actually makes things easier to follow/ understand
• Makes subject more concrete and more interesting
• May raise questions you’ve not thought of
• Have you misunderstood something?
• Do you understand the implications of design choices?
• Some questions in papers may test you’ve done further reading
• Strongly encouraged to have such questions by external examiners
Recommended Texts
• See Moodle page for details
• Available from library
• Recent editions okay
Main Support
• Taught material
• Moodle forum
• Review key forum questions in timetabled sessions
• Coursework
• Labs 2 hrs per week – must attend your timetabled session
• May be able to get support in other sessions if quiet – but please check with TAs first
• Moodle forum
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Lab Support
• Staff/ TAs there to help you design and debug
• Not there to just give you answers
• Remember: aim is to grow your confidence in these skills
• Please don’t hog support,
or try to ratchet a solution from multiple TAs
Summary
• Please try Moodle forum first
• More eyes checking
• Builds community
• Feel free to reply… but please don’t ask for, or post, solutions, key bits of code, etc.
• Helps everyone
Coursework
Assessed exercise 2
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Working on the Exercise
• (Constrained) real-world problem
• Given requirements, design and implement a solution
• Multi-week exercise
• Need to make a start
• Expected to work on exercise outside of timetabled sessions
• For you to make best use of help in labs
• If you’ve not kept up with your C, you’ll need to review first-year material
• Some additional pointers on Moodle
• Not purpose of these labs, so support may be limited to SCC.211 specific questions
The Task
• Implementation of FAT16 filesystem
• Tasks:
1. Reading specified parts of some file – suggest a text file, known content
2. Reading filesystem metadata, from given ‘disk’ image
• Boot Sector and BIOS Parameter Block
3. Scanning the File Allocation Table
4. Reading root directory
5. Reading a file
6. VFAT long filename support (i.e., not limited to old 8.3 format)
7. Handling the directory tree
FAT16 Filesystem Structure
• Metadata
• Boot Sector and BIOS Parameter Block
• File Allocation Table (duplicated for resilience, typically 2)
• Root Directory
• Data area
• Files and directories
Boot Sector
BIOS Parameter Reserved
FAT[n] Root Directory Data
Block Sectors
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Finding and Accessing Files
• Directory and File Allocation Table
• Given any cluster number, indicates next cluster in file
File Allocation Table (FAT)
Directory
Length Access 2
ABSTRACT.TXT 3500 R/W 1 4
EDITOR.EXE 66535 R,X 3 5
7
6
LAST
Note: files always formed from clusters (blocks), the last of which may not be full
8
-- use length to know actual end of file
LAST
Introduction to Topic 1
Introduction to Operating Systems
Operating System
• Machine does little without one, OS…
– Manages hardware and system resources
– Shares out and accounts for resources
– Offers secure environment for applications
– Provides common device or I/O system
• Includes kernel and system library interface
– Don’t consider *
• Applications and services
• Desktop environment
* In practice distinction can be hard to maintain
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Operating Systems
• Embedded/ Real-Time, emphasis on
– Proven long term reliability and strict timing guarantees
– Small footprint, no unnecessary code
– Certification process for safety critical systems
• Server, emphasis on
– Fairly sharing resources
– Reliability
Could be same OS code
running with different parameters
• Desktop, emphasis on
– Interactivity
– GUI and graphics/ media
Operating Systems
• There are many, but…
• Unix and Windows
– Dominate market and have huge application and support base
• Achieved ‘critical mass’
– User view driven by graphical interface
• Arguably not part of OS
• Can be quite different to underlying OS
– Not necessarily where we’d start from today
Altair Acorn Atom Acorn
Key OSs DEC
& influences BBC Micro
IBM PC
PDP11
Acorn
ARM
Gary Kildall Tim Paterson Archimedes
RT-11 CP/M DOS Windows ..ME Windows XP..
68000 processor
DEC VAX Dave Cutler
CTSS RSX-11M VMS Windows-NT, 2000
(MIT) SCO Unix/
MS Xenix
OpenServer
x86
Multics AT&T Richard Rashid
Ken Thompson Mach MacOS + iOS Android
BSD
Unix Linux
Linus Torvalds
Ingres PostgresSQL Intel (x86)
C Management
Engine
Minix
B BCPL Andy Tanenbaum Supervisor
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