Operating System

Operating System
An operating system is a program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a computer and the computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which a user can execute programs. The primary goal of an operating system is thus to make the computer system convenient to use. A secondary goal is to use the computer hardware in an efficient manner.

Operating System
An operating system is the most essential system software that utilises the computer system resources effectively and acts as an interface between the user and the hardware. An operating system is the most essential system software that manages the operation of a computer. Without an operating system, it is not possible to use the computer. You cant even make the computer ready to use, unless you provide it an operating system by a process called booting.

Operating System
When we switch on the computer, the instructions stored in ROM are automatically executed. These instructions help the computer to load the operating system from external storage device (disk) to internal storage (RAM). This process of loading operating system from disk to RAM is called booting.
Switch on the Computer

Automatic Execution of Instructions stored in ROM

DISK

RAM

Operating System
Functions of an Operating System
Processor Management is concerned with allocating CPU to various competing jobs/processes to ensure maximum output from the system. Input/Output or Device Management refers to coordination and control of various I/O devices and is an important function of the operating system. This involves receiving the request for I/O interrupts and communicating back to the requesting process.

Memory Management OS allocates memory to itself and its resident system programs, sets aside areas for application program and user partition, arranges the I/O buffers and reserves storage for specialized purposes.

Operating System
Functions of an Operating System File Management or Information Management computers use a lot of data/programs which are stored on secondary storage devices. File management function of an OS involves keeping track of all different files and maintaining the integrity of data stored in the files including file directory structure. Job Control: When the user wants to run an application program, he must communicate with the OS, telling it what to do. He does this by using the OS's job control language or number of OS commands, called system commands, that control the functioning of the operating system.

House Keeping includes all the support services necessary to ensure smooth operation of the computer system, viz., security, protection, and resource accounting, back-up and restoration, etc

Operating System
Types of Operating system.

Single User Single Processing System. Batch Processing Systems. Multiprogramming Operating System.

Time Sharing or Multitasking System

Parallel Systems Distributed Systems

Real Time Systems

Operating System
Single User Single Processing System.. The simplest of all the computer systems is a single user-single processor system. It has a single processor, runs a single program and interacts with a single user at a time. The operating system for this system is very simple to design and implement. However, the CPU is not utilized to its full potential, because it sits idle for most of the time. Eg MSDOS Application program user

operating system
hardware

Operating System
Batch Processing Systems. Batch processing system is to automatically keep executing one job to the next job in the batch. The main idea behind a batch processing system is to reduce the interference of the operator during the processing or execution of jobs by the computer. The batch monitor carries out all functions of a batch processing system. The batch monitor permanently resides in the low end of the main store.
Jobs/tasks Jobs/tasks

Jobs/tasks
Jobs/tasks operating system hardware

Operating System
Multiprogramming Operating System. The objective of a multiprogramming operating system is to increase the system utilization efficiency. However, it cannot reduce the idle time due to IO operations. multiprogramming operating system tries to eliminate such idle times by providing multiple computational tasks for the CPU to perform. This is achieved by keeping multiple jobs in the main store. A multiprogramming supervisor has a very difficult job of managing all the activities that take place simultaneously in the system. He has to monitor many different activities and react to a large number of different situations in the course of working.

Operating System
Time Sharing or Multitasking System Time sharing, or multitasking, is a logical extension of multiprogramming. Multiple jobs are executed by the CPU switching between them, but the switches occur so frequently that the users may interact with each program while it is running. Time-sharing systems were developed to provide interactive use of a computer system at a reasonable cost. A time-shared operating system uses CPU scheduling and multiprogramming to provide each user with a small portion of a time-shared computer. Time-sharing operating systems are even more complex than are multi-programmed operating systems.

Operating System
Parallel Systems Systems have more than one processor in close communication, sharing the computer bus, the clock, and sometimes memory and peripheral devices. These systems are referred to as tightly coupled systems. One advantage is increased throughput. By increasing the number of processors, we hope to get more work done in a shorter period of time. The speed-up ratio with n processors is not n, however, but rather is less than n. When multiple processors cooperate on a task, a certain amount of overhead is incurred in keeping all the parts working correctly.

Operating System
Distributed Systems The processors do not share memory or a clock. Instead, each processor has its own memory and clock. The processors communicate with one another through various communication lines, such as high-speed buses or telephone lines. The reasons for building distributed systems Resource sharing Computation speedup

Reliability.
Communication

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Real Time Systems A real-time system is used when there are rigid time requirements on the operation of a processor or the flow of data, and thus is often used as a control device in a dedicated application. A real-time operating system has welldefined, fixed time constraints. Processing must be done within the defined constraints, or the system will fail. A hard real-time system guarantees that critical tasks complete on time. Secondary storage of any sort is usually limited or missing, with data instead being stored in shortterm memory, or in read-only memory (ROM). A less restrictive type of real-time system is a soft realtime system

Operating System
Kernel Structure

Operating System
Kernel Structure

Operating System
Kernel : The central module of an operating system. It is the part of

the operating system that loads first, and it remains in main

memory. Because it stays in memory, it is important for the kernel to be as small as possible while still providing all the essential services required by other parts of the operating system and applications. Typically, the kernel is responsible for memory management, process and task management, and disk management.

Operating System
Kernel : In computing, the 'kernel' is the central component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware and software components).

Usually as a basic component of an operating system, a kernel can provide the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources (especially processors and I/O devices) that application software must control to perform its function. It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms and system calls.

Operating System
Kernel : Operating system tasks are done differently by different kernels, depending on their design and implementation. While monolithic kernels will try to achieve these goals by executing all the operating system code in the same address space to increase the performance of the system, micro kernels run most of the operating system services in user space as servers, aiming to improve maintainability and modularity of the operating system. A range of possibilities exists between these two extremes.

Operating System
Shell A shell is a piece of software that provides an interface for

users. Typically, the term refers to an operating system shell

which provides access to the services of a kernel. However, the term is also applied very loosely to applications and may include any software that is "built around" a particular component, such as web browsers and email clients that are "shells" for HTML rendering engines. The

name shell originates from shells being an outer layer of interface between the user and the innards of the operating

system (the kernel).

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Shell Operating system shells generally fall into one of two

categories: command-line and graphical. Command-line

shells provide a command-line interface (CLI) to the operating system, while graphical shells provide a graphical user interface (GUI). In either category the primary purpose of the shell is to invoke or "launch" another program; however, shells frequently have additional capabilities such as viewing the contents of directories.

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Shell

In expert systems, a shell is a piece of software that is an "empty" expert system without the knowledge base for any particular application.

Operating System
Shell The outermost layer of a program. Shell is another term for user interface. Operating systems and applications sometimes provide an alternative shell to make interaction with the program easier. For example, if the application is usually command driven, the shell might be a menudriven system that translates the user's selections into the appropriate commands. Sometimes called command shell, a shell is the command processor interface. The command processor is the program that executes operating system commands. The shell, therefore, is the part of the command processor that accepts commands. After verifying that the commands are valid, the shell sends them to another part of the command processor to be executed.

Operating System
BIOS Layers The BIOS layer allows the operating system to support all manners of hardware. Each piece of hardware comes with its own BIOS and/or driver, which become part of the system's BIOS.

Therefore, the BIOS layer is dynamic and changes to match the computer's hardware configuration. It serves to mask the differences between different hardware by presenting a common interface to the operating system.

Operating System
BIOS Layers The operating system only needs to know how to communicate with the BIOS layer. It is up to the BIOS layer to translate the operating system commands into action by the hardware.

Without the BIOS layer, there's no way the operating system can access the hardware layer. The BIOS layer is the operating system's key to the hardware layer. That's how important the BIOS layer is in the computer system.

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BIOS Layers