Introduction to OS

Chapter 1
Dr. Mageda Sharafeddin
 Chapter 1: Introduction
• What Operating Systems Do • Memory Management

• Computer-System Organization • Storage Management

• Computer-System Architecture • Protection and Security

• Operating-System Structure • Distributed Systems

• Operating-System Operations • Special-Purpose Systems

• Process Management • Computing Environments

• Open-Source Operating Systems
 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
 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
• Users
• People, machines, other computers
Four Components of a Computer System
 Operating System Definition

• 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
 Operating System Definition (Cont)
• No universally accepted definition
• “Everything a vendor ships when you order an operating
system” is good approximation
• But varies wildly
• “The one program running at all times on the computer” is the
kernel. Everything else is either a system program (ships with
the operating system) or an application program
 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
 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
 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
• 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
 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
• Incoming interrupts are disabled while another interrupt is being processed to
prevent a lost interrupt
• A trap is a software-generated interrupt caused either by an error or a user request
• An operating system is interrupt driven
 Interrupt Handling
• 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
Interrupt Timeline
 I/O Structure
• After I/O starts, control returns to user program only upon I/O completion
• Wait instruction idles the CPU until the next interrupt
• Wait loop (contention for memory access)
• At most one I/O request is outstanding at a time, no simultaneous I/O processing
• After I/O starts, control returns to user program without waiting for I/O
completion
• System call – request to the operating system to allow user to wait for I/O completion
• Device-status table contains entry for each I/O device indicating its type, address, and state
• Operating system indexes into I/O device table to determine device status and to modify
table entry to include interrupt
 Direct Memory Access Structure
• Used for high-speed I/O devices able to transmit information at close to
memory speeds
• 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
 Storage Structure
• Main memory – only large storage media that the CPU can access directly
• Secondary storage – extension of main memory that provides large
nonvolatile storage capacity
• Magnetic disks – 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
 Storage Hierarchy
• Storage systems organized in hierarchy
• Speed
• Cost
• Volatility
• Caching – copying information into faster storage system; main memory
can be viewed as a last cache for secondary storage
Storage-Device Hierarchy
 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
 Computer-System Architecture
• Most systems use a single general-purpose processor (PDAs through mainframes)
• Most systems have special-purpose processors as well
• Multiprocessors 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
2. Symmetric Multiprocessing
How a Modern Computer Works
Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture
A Dual-Core Design
 Clustered Systems
• Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems working together
• Usually sharing storage via a storage-area network (SAN)
• Provides a high-availability service which survives failures
• Asymmetric clustering has one machine in hot-standby mode
• Symmetric clustering has multiple nodes running applications, monitoring each other
• Some clusters are for high-performance computing (HPC)
• Applications must be written to use parallelization
• Multiprogramming needed for efficiency
• Single user cannot keep CPU and I/O devices busy at all times
• 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 it has to wait (for I/O for example), OS switches to another job
• Timesharing (multitasking) is logical extension in which 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 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
Memory Layout for Multiprogrammed System
 Operating-System Operations
• Interrupt driven by hardware
• Software error or request creates exception or trap
• Division by zero, request for operating system service
• Other process problems include infinite loop, processes modifying each other or the operating
system
• 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
 Transition from User to Kernel Mode
• Timer to prevent infinite loop /
process hogging resources
• Set interrupt after specific period
• Operating system decrements counter
• When counter zero generate an
interrupt
• Set up before scheduling process to
regain control or terminate program that
exceeds allotted time
 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
 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
 Memory Management
• All data in memory before and after processing
• All instructions in memory in order to execute
• Memory management determines what is in memory 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
• 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 dirs
• Mapping files onto secondary storage
• Backup files onto stable (non-volatile) storage media
• 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
• Free-space management
• Storage allocation
• Disk scheduling
• Some storage need not be fast
• Tertiary storage includes optical storage, magnetic tape
• Still must be managed
• Varies between WORM (write-once, read-many-times) and RW (read-write)
 Performance of Various Levels of Storage

• Movement between levels of storage hierarchy can be explicit or implicit

 Migration of Integer 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
• Various solutions covered in Chapter 17
 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)
• General device-driver interface
• Drivers for specific hardware devices
• Protection – any mechanism for controlling access of processes or users to resources
defined by the OS
• Security – defense of the system against internal and external attacks
• Huge range, including denial-of-service, worms, viruses, identity theft, theft of service
• Systems generally first distinguish among users, to determine who can do what
• User identities (user IDs, security IDs) include name and associated number, one per user
• User ID then associated with all files, processes of that user to determine access control
• Group identifier (group ID) allows set of users to be defined and controls managed, then also
associated with each process, file
• Privilege escalation allows user to change to effective ID with more rights
 Computing Environments
• Traditional computer
• Blurring over time
• Office environment
• PCs connected to a network, terminals attached to mainframe or minicomputers providing
batch and timesharing
• Now portals allowing networked and remote systems access to same resources
• Home networks
• Used to be single system, then modems
• Now firewalled, networked
 Client-Server Computing
 Dumb terminals supplanted by smart PCs
 Many systems now servers, responding to requests generated by clients
 Compute-server provides an interface to client to request services (i.e. database)
 File-server provides interface for clients to store and retrieve files
 Peer-to-Peer Computing
• Another model of distributed system
• P2P does not distinguish clients and servers
• Instead all nodes are considered peers
• May each act as client, server or both
• Node must join P2P network
• Registers its service with central lookup service on network, or
• Broadcast request for service and respond to requests for service via discovery protocol
• Examples include Napster and Gnutella
 Web-Based Computing
• Web has become ubiquitous
• PCs most prevalent devices
• More devices becoming networked to allow web access
• New category of devices to manage web traffic among similar servers: load
balancers
• Use of operating systems like Windows 95, client-side, have evolved into
Linux and Windows XP, which can be clients and servers
 Open-Source Operating Systems
• Operating systems made available in source-code format rather than just
binary closed-source
• Counter to the copy protection and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
movement
• Started by Free Software Foundation (FSF), which has “copyleft” GNU
Public License (GPL)
• Examples include GNU/Linux, BSD UNIX (including core of Mac OS X),
and Sun Solaris
 Chapter 2: Operating-System Structures

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition, Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 2: Operating-System Structures
• Operating System Services • Operating System Design and
Implementation
• User Operating System
Interface • Operating System Structure

• System Calls • Virtual Machines

• Operating System Debugging
• Types of System Calls
• Operating System Generation
• System Programs
• System Boot
 Objectives
• To describe the services an operating system provides to users, processes,
and other systems
• To discuss the various ways of structuring an operating system
• To explain how operating systems are installed and customized and how they
boot
• One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the user:
• User interface - Almost all operating systems have a user interface (UI)
• Varies between Command-Line (CLI), Graphics User Interface (GUI), Batch
• Program execution - The system must be able to load a program into memory and to run that
program, end execution, either normally or abnormally (indicating error)
• I/O operations - A running program may require I/O, which may involve a file or an I/O device
• File-system manipulation - The file system is of particular interest. Obviously, programs need to
read and write files and directories, create and delete them, search them, list file Information,
permission management.
A View of Operating System Services
• One set of operating-system services provides functions that are helpful to the user (Cont):
• Communications – Processes may exchange information, on the same computer or between
computers over a network
• Communications may be via shared memory or through message passing (packets moved by the OS)
• Error detection – OS needs to be constantly aware of possible errors
• May occur in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, in user program
• For each type of error, OS should take the appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent
computing
• Debugging facilities can greatly enhance the user’s and programmer’s abilities to efficiently use the
system
• Another set of OS functions exists for ensuring the efficient operation of the system itself via resource
sharing
• Resource allocation - When multiple users or multiple jobs running concurrently, resources must
be allocated to each of them
• Many types of resources - Some (such as CPU cycles, main memory, and file storage) may
have special allocation code, others (such as I/O devices) may have general request and release
code
• Accounting - To keep track of which users use how much and what kinds of computer resources
• Protection and security - The owners of information stored in a multiuser or networked
computer system may want to control use of that information, concurrent processes should not
interfere with each other
• Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled
• Security of the system from outsiders requires user authentication, extends to defending
external I/O devices from invalid access attempts
• If a system is to be protected and secure, precautions must be instituted throughout it. A chain
is only as strong as its weakest link.
 User Operating System Interface - CLI
Command Line Interface (CLI) or command interpreter allows direct command entry
• Sometimes implemented in kernel, sometimes by systems program
• Sometimes multiple flavors implemented – shells
• Primarily fetches a command from user and executes it
• Sometimes commands built-in, sometimes just names of programs
• If the latter, adding new features doesn’t require shell modification
 User Operating System Interface - GUI
• User-friendly desktop metaphor interface
• Usually mouse, keyboard, and monitor
• Icons represent files, programs, actions, etc
• Various mouse buttons over objects in the interface cause various actions (provide information, options,
execute function, open directory (known as a folder)
• Invented at Xerox PARC
• Many systems now include both CLI and GUI interfaces
• Microsoft Windows is GUI with CLI “command” shell
• Apple Mac OS X as “Aqua” GUI interface with UNIX kernel underneath and shells available
• Solaris is CLI with optional GUI interfaces (Java Desktop, KDE)
Bourne Shell Command Interpreter
The Mac OS X
GUI
 System Calls
• Programming interface to the services provided by the OS
• Typically written in a high-level language (C or C++)
• Mostly accessed by programs via a high-level Application Program 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)
• Why use APIs rather than system calls?
 Example of System Calls

• System call
sequence to copy
the contents of one
file to another file
 Example of Standard API

• Consider the ReadFile() function in the

• Win32 API—a function for reading from a file
• A description of the parameters passed to ReadFile()
• HANDLE file—the file to be read
• LPVOID buffer—a buffer where the data will be read into and written from
• DWORD bytesToRead—the number of bytes to be read into the buffer
• LPDWORD bytesRead—the number of bytes read during the last read
• LPOVERLAPPED ovl—indicates if overlapped I/O is being used
 System Call Implementation
• Typically, a number associated with each system call
• System-call interface maintains a table indexed according to these numbers
• The system call interface invokes intended system call in OS kernel and returns status
of the system call and any return values
• The caller need know nothing about how the system call is implemented
• Just needs to obey API and understand what OS will do as a result call
• Most details of OS interface hidden from programmer by API
• Managed by run-time support library (set of functions built into libraries included with compiler)
API – System Call – OS Relationship
 Standard C Library Example

• C program invoking printf() library call,

which calls write() system call
 System Call Parameter Passing
• Often, more information is required than simply identity of desired system call
• Exact type and amount of information vary according to OS and call
• Three general methods used to pass parameters to the OS
• Simplest: pass the parameters in registers
• In some cases, may be more parameters than registers
• Parameters stored in a block, or table, in memory, and address of block passed as a parameter in a
register
• This approach taken by Linux and Solaris
• Parameters placed, or pushed, onto the stack by the program and popped off the stack by the operating
system
• Block and stack methods do not limit the number or length of parameters being passed
 Parameter Passing via Table

One base-limit pair and two base-limit pairs

 Types of System Calls
• Process control
• File management
• Device management
• Information maintenance
• Communications
• Protection
Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls
MS-DOS execution

(a) At system startup (b) running a program

• System programs provide a convenient environment for program development
and execution. The can be divided into:
• File manipulation
• Status information
• File modification
• Programming language support
• Program loading and execution
• Communications
• Application programs
• Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by system programs, not
the actual system calls
 System Programs
• Provide a convenient environment for program development and execution
• Some of them are simply user interfaces to system calls; others are considerably more complex
• File management - Create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list, and generally manipulate files and directories
• Status information
• Some ask the system for info - date, time, amount of available memory, disk space, number of users
• Others provide detailed performance, logging, and debugging information
• Typically, these programs format and print the output to the terminal or other output devices
• Some systems implement a registry - used to store and retrieve configuration information
 System Programs (cont’d)
• File modification
• Text editors to create and modify files
• Special commands to search contents of files or perform transformations of the text
• Programming-language support - Compilers, assemblers, debuggers and interpreters
sometimes provided
• Program loading and execution- Absolute loaders, relocatable loaders, linkage editors, and
overlay-loaders, debugging systems for higher-level and machine language
• Communications - Provide the mechanism for creating virtual connections among
processes, users, and computer systems
• Allow users to send messages to one another’s screens, browse web pages, send electronic-mail
messages, log in remotely, transfer files from one machine to another
 Operating System Design and Implementation

• Design and Implementation of OS not “solvable”, but some approaches have proven
successful
• Internal structure of different Operating Systems can vary widely
• Start by defining goals and specifications
• Affected by choice of hardware, type of system
• User goals and System goals
• User goals – operating system should be convenient to use, easy to learn, reliable, safe, and fast
• System goals – operating system should be easy to design, implement, and maintain, as well as flexible,
reliable, error-free, and efficient
 Operating System Design and Implementation (Cont)

• Important principle to separate

Policy: What will be done?
Mechanism: How to do it?
• Mechanisms determine how to do something, policies decide what will be
done
• The separation of policy from mechanism is a very important principle, it allows
maximum flexibility if policy decisions are to be changed later
 Simple Structure
• MS-DOS – written to provide the most functionality in the least space
• Not divided into modules
• Although MS-DOS has some structure, its interfaces and levels of functionality are not
well separated
MS-DOS Layer Structure
 Layered Approach
• The operating system is divided into a number of layers (levels), each built
on top of lower layers. The bottom layer (layer 0), is the hardware; the
highest (layer N) is the user interface.
• With modularity, layers are selected such that each uses functions
(operations) and services of only lower-level layers
Traditional UNIX System Structure
 UNIX
• UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX operating system had
limited structuring. The UNIX OS consists of two separable parts
• Systems programs
• The kernel
• Consists of everything below the system-call interface and above the physical hardware
• Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and other operating-system functions; a
large number of functions for one level
Layered Operating
System
 Microkernel System Structure
• Moves as much from the kernel into “user” space
• 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
 Modules
• Most modern operating systems implement kernel modules
• Uses object-oriented approach
• Each core component is separate
• Each talks to the others over known interfaces
• Each is loadable as needed within the kernel
• Overall, similar to layers but with more flexible
 Virtual Machines
• A virtual machine takes the layered approach to its logical conclusion. It treats
hardware and the operating system kernel as though they were all hardware
• A virtual machine provides an interface identical to the underlying bare hardware
• The operating system host creates the illusion that a process has its own processor
and (virtual memory)
• Each guest provided with a (virtual) copy of underlying computer
 Virtual Machines History and Benefits
• First appeared commercially in IBM mainframes in 1972
• Fundamentally, multiple execution environments (different operating systems) can share the same
hardware
• Protect from each other
• Some sharing of file can be permitted, controlled
• Commutate with each other, other physical systems via networking
• Useful for development, testing
• Consolidation of many low-resource use systems onto fewer busier systems
• “Open Virtual Machine Format”, standard format of virtual machines, allows a VM to run within
many different virtual machine (host) platforms
Virtual Machines (Cont)

Non-virtual Machine Virtual Machine

(a) Nonvirtual machine (b) virtual machine

VMware Architecture
The Java Virtual Machine
 Operating-System Debugging
• Debugging is finding and fixing errors, or bugs
• OSes generate log files containing error information
• Failure of an application can generate core dump file capturing memory of the process
• Operating system failure can generate crash dump file containing kernel memory
• Beyond crashes, performance tuning can optimize system performance
• Kernighan’s Law: “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if
you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”
• DTrace tool in Solaris, FreeBSD, Mac OS X allows live instrumentation on production systems
• Probes fire when code is executed, capturing state data and sending it to consumers of those probes
 Operating System Generation
• Operating systems are designed to run on any of a class of machines; the
system must be configured for each specific computer site
• SYSGEN program obtains information concerning the specific
configuration of the hardware system
• Booting – starting a computer by loading the kernel
• Bootstrap program – code stored in ROM that is able to locate the kernel, load
it into memory, and start its execution
 System Boot
• Operating system must be made available to hardware so hardware can start
it
• Small piece of code – bootstrap loader, locates the kernel, loads it into memory, and
starts it
• Sometimes two-step process where boot block at fixed location loads bootstrap loader
• When power initialized on system, execution starts at a fixed memory location
• Firmware used to hold initial boot code
Some System
Calls
 Steps in
Making a
System Call

There are 11 steps in making the system call

read (fd, buffer, nbytes)
88
 mount syscall

(a) File system before the mount

(b) File system after the mount