CS3521-14 Operating Systems 1

Introduction

Operating System Concepts – 10h Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline

▪ What Operating Systems Do

▪ Computer-System Organization
▪ Computer-System Architecture
▪ Operating-System Operations
▪ Resource Management
▪ Security and Protection
▪ Virtualization

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 Objectives

▪ Describe the general organization of a computer system and the

role of interrupts
▪ Describe the components of a modern, multiprocessor computer
system
▪ Illustrate the transition from user mode to kernel mode
▪ Discuss how operating systems are used in various computing
environments

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 What Does the Term Operating System Mean?

▪ An operating system is ____________________

▪ What about:
• Program
• Hardware
• Compiler
• Etc.

• An OS is a program/software that manages the computer hardware and

other resources. It also provides a basis for application programs and acts
as an intermediary between the computer user and the computer
hardware [1].

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 What is an Operating System?

▪ 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

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 Computer System Structure

▪ Computer system can be divided into four components:

• Hardware – provides basic computing resources
 CPU, memory, I/O devices
• Operating system
 Controls and coordinates use of hardware among various
applications and users
• Application programs – define the ways in which the system
resources are used to solve the computing problems of the users
 Word processors, compilers, web browsers, database systems,
video games
 Business applications, etc.
• Users
 People, machines, other computers

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 Abstract View of Components of Computer

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 What Operating Systems Do
▪ Depends on the point of view
▪ Users want convenience, ease of use and good performance
• Don’t care about resource utilization
▪ But shared computer such as mainframe or minicomputer must keep
all users happy
• Resource utilization is a priority over ease of use
▪ Operating system is a resource allocator/manager and control
program making efficient use of HW and managing execution of user
programs

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 What Operating Systems Do (Cont.)
▪ Users of dedicated systems such as workstations have dedicated
resources but frequently use shared resources from servers.
▪ Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are resource-poor,
optimized for usability and battery life.
• Mobile user interfaces such as touch screens, and voice recognition.
▪ Some computers have little or no user interface, such as embedded
computers in devices and automobiles.
• Run primarily without user intervention.

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 Term OS Covers Many Roles
▪ Because of myriad designs and uses of OSes
▪ Present in toasters through ships, spacecraft, game
machines, TVs and industrial control systems, ATM
machines, etc.
▪ Born when fixed use computers for military became more
general purpose and needed resource management and
program control

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 Operating System Definition
▪ No universally accepted definition
▪ “Everything a vendor ships when you order an operating system” is a
good approximation
• But varies wildly
▪ “The one program running at all times on the computer” is the kernel,
which is part of the operating system
▪ Everything else is either
• A system program (ships with the operating system, but not part of
the kernel) , or
• An application program, all programs not associated with the
operating system
▪ Today’s OSes for general purpose and mobile computing also include
middleware – a set of software frameworks that provide additional
services to application developers such as databases, multimedia,
graphics

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 Operating System Definition
Middleware
▪ Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to
applications beyond those available from the operating system.
▪ Middleware exists to make it easier for software developers to implement
their applications while getting other general-purpose services from the
middleware or the OS.
• Allows developers to focus on the specific purposes of their
applications.
▪ Middleware enables communication and data management
▪ TCPI/IP model – defines middleware as those services found above
the transport layer but below the application layer.
▪ Middleware includes web servers, application servers, content
management systems, and similar tools that support application
development and delivery.

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 History of Operating Systems

Self-study

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 Overview of Computer System Structure

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 Computer System Organization
▪ Computer-system operation
• One or more CPUs, device controllers connect through common
bus providing access to shared memory
• Concurrent execution of CPUs and devices competing for memory
cycles

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 Computer-System Operation

▪ I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently

▪ Each device controller is in charge of a particular device type
▪ Each device controller has a local buffer
▪ Each device controller type has an operating system device driver
to manage it
▪ CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from local buffers
▪ I/O is from the device to local buffer of controller
▪ Device controller informs CPU that it has finished its operation by
causing an interrupt

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 Common Functions of Interrupts

▪ 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

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 Interrupt Timeline

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 Interrupt Handling

▪ The operating system preserves the state of the CPU by

storing the registers and the program counter (PC).
▪ Determines which type of interrupt has occurred: Sw vs Hw
interrupts.
▪ Separate segments of code to determine what action should
be taken for each type of interrupt

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 Interrupt-driven I/O Cycle

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 Computer Startup

▪ Bootstrap program is loaded at power-up or reboot

▪ Typically stored in ROM or EPROM, generally known as
firmware
▪ Initializes all aspects of system
▪ Loads operating system kernel and starts execution
▪ Loads first process - init

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 Storage Structure

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 Storage Structure
▪ Main memory – only large storage media that the CPU can
access directly
• Typically, volatile
• Typically, random-access memory in the form of
Dynamic Random-access Memory (DRAM)
▪ Secondary storage – extension of main memory that
provides large nonvolatile storage capacity

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 Storage Structure (Cont.)
▪ Hard Disk Drives (HDD) – rigid metal or glass platters
covered with magnetic recording material
• Disk surface is logically divided into tracks, which are
subdivided into sectors
• The disk controller determines the logical interaction
between the device and the computer
▪ Non-volatile memory (NVM) devices– faster than hard disks,
nonvolatile
• Various technologies
• Becoming more popular as capacity and performance
increases, price drops

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 Storage Definitions and Notation Review
The basic unit of computer storage is the bit . A bit can contain one of two
values, 0 and 1. All other storage in a computer is based on collections of bits.
Given enough bits, it is amazing how many things a computer can represent:
numbers, letters, images, movies, sounds, documents, and programs, to name
a few. A byte is 8 bits, and on most computers, it is the smallest convenient
chunk of storage. For example, most computers don’t have an instruction to
move a bit but do have one to move a byte. A less common term is word,
which is a given computer architecture’s native unit of data. A word is made
up of one or more bytes. For example, a computer that has 64-bit registers and
64-bit memory addressing typically has 64-bit (8-byte) words. A computer
executes many operations in its native word size rather than a byte at a time.

Computer storage, along with most computer throughput, is generally

measured and manipulated in bytes and collections of bytes. A kilobyte , or
KB , is 1,024 bytes; a megabyte , or MB , is 1,0242 bytes; a gigabyte , or GB , is
1,0243 bytes; a terabyte , or TB , is 1,0244 bytes; and a petabyte , or PB , is 1,0245
bytes. Computer manufacturers often round off these numbers and say that
a megabyte is 1 million bytes and a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. Networking
measurements are an exception to this general rule; they are given in bits
(because networks move data a bit at a time).

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 Storage Hierarchy
▪ Storage systems organized in hierarchy
• Speed
• Cost
• Volatility
▪ Caching – copying information into faster storage system; main memory
can be viewed as a cache for secondary storage
▪ Device Driver for each device controller to manage I/O
• Provides uniform interface between controller and kernel

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 Storage-Device Hierarchy

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 How a Modern Computer Works

A von Neumann architecture

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 Direct Memory Access Structure

▪ Used for high-speed I/O devices able to transmit information

at close to memory speeds. E.g. SSD
▪ Device controller transfers blocks of data from buffer storage
directly to main memory without CPU intervention
▪ Only one interrupt is generated per block, rather than the one
interrupt per byte

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 Multiprogramming (Batch system)
▪ Single user cannot always keep CPU and I/O devices busy
▪ Multiprogramming organizes jobs (code and data) so CPU
always has one to execute
▪ A subset of total jobs in system is kept in memory
▪ One job selected and run via job scheduling
▪ When job has to wait (for I/O for example), OS switches to
another job

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 Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System

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 Multitasking (Timesharing)
▪ A logical extension of Batch systems– the CPU switches jobs so
frequently that users can interact with each job while it is running,
creating interactive computing
• Response time should be < 1 second
• Each user has at least one program executing in memory,
which is called process
• If several jobs ready to run at the same time  CPU
scheduling
• If processes don’t fit in memory, swapping moves them in and
out to run
• Virtual memory allows execution of processes not completely
in memory

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 Dual-mode Operation
▪ 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.
• When a user is running ➔ mode bit is “user”
• When kernel code is executing ➔ mode bit is “kernel”
▪ Some instructions designated as privileged, only executable in
kernel mode

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 Transition from User to Kernel Mode

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 Dual-mode Operation (Cont.)
▪ How do we guarantee that user does not explicitly set the
mode bit to “kernel”?
▪ When the system starts executing it is in kernel mode
▪ When control is given to a user program the mode-bit changes
to “user mode”.
▪ When a user issues a system call it results in an interrupt,
which trap to the operating system. At that time, the mode–bit
is set to “kernel mode”.

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 Timer
▪ Timer to prevent infinite loop (or 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

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 Process Management
▪ A process is a program in execution. It is a unit of work within the
system. Program is a passive entity; process is an active entity.
▪ Process needs resources to accomplish its task
• CPU, memory, I/O, files
• Initialization data
▪ Process termination requires reclaim of any reusable resources
▪ Single-threaded process has one program counter specifying location
of next instruction to execute
• Process executes instructions sequentially, one at a time, until
completion
▪ Multi-threaded process has one program counter per thread
▪ Typically, system has many processes, some user, some operating
system running concurrently on one or more CPUs
• Concurrency by multiplexing the CPUs among the processes /
threads

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 Process Management Activities

The operating system is responsible for the following activities in

connection with process management:
▪ Creating and deleting both user and system processes
▪ Suspending and resuming processes
▪ Providing mechanisms for process synchronization
▪ Providing mechanisms for process communication
▪ Providing mechanisms for deadlock handling

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 Memory Management

▪ To execute a program all (or part) of the instructions must be in

memory
▪ All (or part) of the data that is needed by the program must be in
memory
▪ Memory management determines what is in memory and when
• Optimizing CPU utilization and computer response to users
▪ Memory management activities
• Keeping track of which parts of memory are currently being used
and by whom
• Deciding which processes (or parts thereof) and data to move into
and out of memory
• Allocating and deallocating memory space as needed

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 File-system Management
▪ OS provides uniform, logical view of information storage
• Abstracts physical properties to logical storage unit - file
• Each medium is controlled by device (i.e., disk drive, tape drive)
 Varying properties include access speed, capacity, data-
transfer rate, access method (sequential or random)

▪ File-System management
• Files usually organized into directories
• Access control on most systems to determine who can access
what
▪ OS activities include
 Creating and deleting files and directories
 Primitives to manipulate files and directories
 Mapping files onto secondary storage
 Backup files onto stable (non-volatile) storage media

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 Mass-Storage Management
▪ Usually, disks used to store data that does not fit in main memory or data
that must be kept for a “long” period of time
▪ Proper management is of central importance
▪ Entire speed of computer operation hinges on disk subsystem and its
algorithms
▪ OS activities with regard to mass-storage management:
• Mounting and unmounting
• Free-space management
• Storage allocation
• Disk scheduling
• Partitioning
• Protection

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 Caching

▪ Important principle, performed at many levels in a computer

(in hardware, operating system, software)
▪ Information in use copied from slower to faster storage
temporarily
▪ Faster storage (cache) checked first to determine if
information is there
• If it is, information used directly from the cache (fast)
• If not, data copied to cache and used there
▪ Cache smaller than storage being cached
• Cache management important design problem
• Cache size and replacement policy

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 Characteristics of Various Types of Storage

Movement between levels of storage hierarchy can be explicit or implicit

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 Migration of data “A” from Disk to Register

▪ Multitasking environments must be careful to use most recent value,

no matter where it is stored in the storage hierarchy

▪ Multiprocessor environment must provide cache coherency in

hardware such that all CPUs have the most recent value in their
cache
▪ Distributed environment situation even more complex
• Several copies of a datum can exist

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 I/O Subsystem
▪ One purpose of OS is to hide peculiarities of hardware devices from the
user
▪ I/O subsystem responsible for
• Memory management of I/O including:
 Buffering (storing data temporarily while it is being transferred)
 Caching (storing parts of data in faster storage for performance),
 Spooling (the overlapping of output of one job with input of other
jobs)
– To spool - transfer data intended for a peripheral device into
temporary storage
• General device-driver interface
• Drivers for specific hardware devices

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 Virtualization

▪ Allows operating systems to run applications within other OSes

• Vast and growing industry
▪ Emulation used when source CPU type different from target type
(i.e., PowerPC to Intel x86)
• Generally slowest method
• When computer language not compiled to native code –
Interpretation
▪ Virtualization – OS natively compiled for CPU, running guest OSes
also natively compiled
• Consider VMware running WinXP guests, each running
applications, all on native WinXP host OS
• VMM (virtual machine Manager) provides virtualization services

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 Virtualization (cont.)
▪ Use cases involve laptops and desktops running multiple OSes for
exploration or compatibility
• Apple laptop running Mac OS X host, Windows as a guest
• Developing apps for multiple OSes without having multiple
systems
• Quality assurance testing applications without having multiple
systems
• Executing and managing compute environments within data
centers
▪ VMM can run natively, in which case they are also the host
• There is no general-purpose host then (VMware ESX and Citrix
XenServer)

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 Virtualization Illustration

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 Computer-System Architecture

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 Computer-System Architecture

▪ Most systems use a single general-purpose processor

• Most systems have special-purpose processors as well
▪ Multiprocessor's systems growing in use and importance
• Also known as parallel systems, tightly-coupled systems
• Advantages include:
1. Increased throughput
2. Economy of scale
3. Increased reliability – graceful degradation or fault tolerance
• Two types:
1. Asymmetric Multiprocessing – each processor is assigned
a specie task.
2. Symmetric Multiprocessing – each processor performs all
tasks

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 Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture

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 Dual-Core Design
▪ Multi-chip and multicore
▪ Systems containing all chips
• Chassis containing multiple separate systems

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