Module 1

Introduction to OS
 What is an Operating System? 2

 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

Source: “Operating System Concepts: 9th Edition” by Silberschatz Galvin Gagne

 Introduction to OS 3

 Operating System(OS) manages computer hardware.

 Application Program runs on OS
 Computer User interacts with the OS which in turn interacts with
the hardware.
 Variety of OS depending on the tasks. Example:-

 Mainframe OS
 Optimize hardware utilization
 Computer standard OS
 Standard Application, Games, etc.
 Handheld OS -> Apps, etc.
4
 OS as a base for Application Programs 5

OS is a resource allocator
Manages all resources
Decides between conflicting requests for efficient and fair resource use
OS is a control program
Controls execution of programs to prevent errors and improper use of the computer

 Application program runs on a platform and that platform is an Operating systems.

 OS plays an important role to determine which application you need, because some
applications may exists only in some OS.

 Example:
 Words in windows
 Libre office in linux
 6

Schematic of Operating System Operations

Silberschatz, Gagne, Galvin: Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition

OS Services 7

 User Interface: There are different kinds, like touchscreen, GUI, and command-line.
 Program Execution: (Execute programs for users)
 I/O operations: It is much too difficult for users to operate the I/O hardware correctly
without help.
 File System Manipulation: The OS helps us store, organize, manage, and protect our
information.
 Communications: Users need their processes to exchange information. OSs help. The
two main ways to do it are with shared memory and by message passing.
 Error Detection: An OS continually checks to see if something is going wrong. The OS
is programmed to take appropriate action.
 Resource Allocation
 Logging:
 Records for accounting, fault detection, failure, protection, maintenance, update, security, etc.
 Protection and Security.
 Different types of OS 8

 Microsoft Windows

 Mainframe

 DOS

 OS/2

 Linux - Example Ubuntu

 Mac OS

 AmigaOS
Design Goals 9

 Design Goals:
 system that is convenient,
 reliable,
 safe, and
 fast.
 Implementation: The implementation of the operating system, that is
the manner in which the ideas of the design are written in programming
language(s).
 Assembly
 High Level Language
 Earlier assembly could make the code run faster but nowadays high-level
are translated to equivalently good assembly code.
 Instead performance of OS will increase if selection data structure and
algorithms are done rather than proper assembly code.
OS Design Issues 10

 Efficiency – amount of useful work wrt the time and resources

 Robustness – prolonged working hours without crashing
 Flexibility – ease of modification of components
 Portability – ability to run a program in different platforms
 Security – secure systems – authentication and authorization
 Compatibility – software runs on different models of the family.
Operating System Structures 11

 Simple
 Monolithic
 Micro-kernel models
 Layered (conceptual)
 Modular

Kernels may be classified mainly in three categories: -

Monolithic Kernel
Micro Kernel
Hybrid Kernel
 Simple Structure 12

Advantages of Simple structure:

 It delivers better application performance
because of the few interfaces between the
application program and the hardware.
 Easy for kernel developers to develop such
an operating system.
Disadvantages of Simple structure:
 The structure is very complicated as no
clear boundaries exists between modules.
 It does not enforce data hiding in the
operating system.

 Ex – MS DOS
 Monolithic Structure 13

 Monolithic Kernel
 value on speed and efficiency.
 Monolithic is a single static
binary file.
 It executes in a single address
space.
 Debugging and modification is
difficult
 Too many things packed in
one level
 Ex – Earlier Unix

Silberschatz, Gagne, Galvin: Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition

 Layered Structure 14

 Division into number of layers as shown in figure.

 Innermost layer is hardware
 Outermost layer is interface
 Advantages of Layered structure:
 Layering makes it easier to enhance the operating system as
implementation of a layer can be changed easily without
affecting the other layers.
 It is very easy to perform debugging and system verification.
 Hardware protection is provided by the layers above.
 Disadvantages of Layered structure:
 In this structure, the application performance is degraded as a
simple request might need to pass through many layers below
it.
 It requires careful planning for designing the layers as higher
layers use the functionalities of only the lower layers.

Silberschatz, Gagne, Galvin: Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition

 Microkernel Structure
15

 Keep only necessary component in kernel. Others are implemented as programs (system or user
level).
 Resulting in a kernel smaller in size.
 Minimal process management
 Minimal memory management
 Main role is that it facilitates communication between the client program and the various services
that are running in user space.
 Mach example of microkernel
 Mac OS X kernel (Darwin) partly based on Mach
 Communication takes place between user modules using message passing
 Benefits:
 Easier to extend a microkernel
 Easier to port the operating system to new architectures
 More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode)
 More secure
 Detriments:
 Performance overhead of user space to kernel space communication
16
Microkernel 17

Silberschatz, Gagne, Galvin: Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition

Microkernel vs Monolithic 18

Source: www.atg.world/Monolithic vs Microkernel

 19
BASIS FOR COMPARISON MICROKERNEL MONOLITHIC KERNEL
Basic In microkernel user services and In monolithic kernel, both user services
kernel, services are kept in separate and kernel services are kept in the same
address space. address space.

Size Microkernel are smaller in size. Monolithic kernel is larger than

microkernel.
Execution Slow execution. Fast execution.
Extendible The microkernel is easily extendible. The monolithic kernel is hard to extend.

Security If a service crashes, it does effect on If a service crashes, the whole system
working of microkernel. crashes in monolithic kernel.

Code To write a microkernel, more code is To write a monolithic kernel, less code
required. is required.

Example QNX, Symbian, L4Linux, Singularity, Linux, BSDs (FreeBSD, OpenBSD,

K42, Mac OS X, Integrity, PikeOS, NetBSD), Microsoft Windows
HURD, Minix, and Coyotos. (95,98,Me), Solaris, OS-9, AIX, HP-UX,
DOS, OpenVMS, XTS-400 etc.
 Modular 20

 Divided into different module.

 Typically employs:
 dynamic loadable kernel module (LKM). i.e.
Different modules communicate through
kernel (core part).

 LKM may be loaded during boot or when

required, and can be deleted also.

 An example would be a device driver

support module loaded when a new device
is plugged into the computer, and when the
device is unplugged, the module is deleted
because it is not needed any more.

Silberschatz, Gagne, Galvin: Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition

 System Calls 21

 Programming interface to the services provided by

the OS
 Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
 It is a programmatic way in which a computer
program requests a service from the kernel of the
OS
 Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level
Application Programming Interface (API) rather
than direct system call use
 Three most common APIs are Win32 API for
Windows, POSIX API for POSIX-based systems
(including virtually all versions of UNIX, Linux, and
Mac OS X), and Java API for the Java virtual machine
(JVM)
 System Calls - Example 22

 System call sequence to copy the contents of one file to another file
 23

API – System Call – OS

Example of a Standard API 24
System Call – Types 25

 Process control
 File manipulation
 Device Management
 Information Maintenance
 Communications
System Call – Types 26

 Process control
create process, terminate process
end, abort
load, execute
get process attributes, set process attributes
wait for time
wait event, signal event
allocate and free memory
Dump memory if error
Debugger for determining bugs, single step execution
Locks for managing access to shared data between processes
System Call – Types (Cont.) 27

 File management
create file, delete file
open, close file
read, write, reposition
get and set file attributes

 Device management
request device, release device
read, write, reposition
get device attributes, set device attributes
logically attach or detach devices
System Call – Types (Cont.) 28

 Information maintenance
get time or date, set time or date
get system data, set system data
get and set process, file, or device attributes
 Communications
create, delete communication connection
send, receive messages if message passing model to
host name or process name
• From client to server
Shared-memory model create and gain access to
memory regions
transfer status information
attach and detach remote devices
Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls
29
 Standard C Library Example 30

C program invoking printf()

library call, which calls
write() system call
Protection - Modes 31

 Dual-mode operation allows OS to protect itself and

other system components
 User mode and kernel mode
 Mode bit provided by hardware
 Provides ability to distinguish when system is running user code
or kernel code
 Some instructions designated as privileged, only executable in
kernel mode
 System call changes mode to kernel, return from call resets it to
user
 Increasingly CPUs support multi-mode operations
 i.e. virtual machine manager (VMM) mode for guest VMs
 Protection – Modes (Cont.) 32

 Timer to prevent infinite loop / process hogging resources

 Timer is set to interrupt the computer after some time period
 Keep a counter that is decremented by the physical clock.
 Operating system set the counter (privileged instruction)
 When counter zero generate an interrupt
 Set up before scheduling process to regain control or terminate program that exceeds allotted
time
Interrupt 33

 Interrupt transfers control to the interrupt service routine generally, through

the interrupt vector, which contains the addresses of all the service routines
 Interrupt architecture must save the address of the interrupted instruction
 A trap or exception is a software-generated interrupt caused either by an
error or a user request
 An operating system is interrupt driven
 Interrupt driven (hardware and software)
Hardware interrupt by one of the devices
Software interrupt (exception or trap):
 Software error (e.g., division by zero)
 Request for operating system service
 Other process problems include infinite loop, processes modifying each other or the
operating system
Interrupt Handling 34

 The operating system preserves the state of the CPU by storing registers and the
program counter
 Determines which type of interrupt has occurred:
 polling
 vectored interrupt system
 Separate segments of code determine what action should be taken for each type of
interrupt
A von Neumann Architecture 35
References
36

 Silberschatz, Gagne, Galvin: Operating System Concepts, 6th

Edition
 Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau - Operating
Systems_ Three Easy Pieces
 Ramez Elmasri, A Carrick, David Levine - Operating Systems_ A
Spiral Approach (2009, McGraw-Hill Science_Engineering_Math)
 https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Courses/CS162/
37