MODULE 3

OPERATING SYSTEM
What are operating systems?

What are features of operating systems?

An operating system is software that enables applications to interact with computer hardware. The software that
contains the core components of the operating system is called the kernel. Operating systems can be found in
devices ranging from cell phones and automobiles to personal and main frame computers. In most computer
systems, a user requires that the computer perform action (e.g. execute an application or print a document) and
the operating system manages the software and hardware to produce the desired result.

To most users the operating system is a “black box” between the application and the hardware they run on, that
ensures proper result. Given appropriate inputs, operating systems are primarily resource managers. They manage
hardware, including processors, memory, input/ output devices and communication devices. They must also
manage applications and other software abstractions that unlike hardware are not physical objects.

General Motors Research Laboratories implemented the first operating systems in the early 1950 for its IBM 701
computer. It executed only one job at a time.

Operating System as a User/Computer Interface

The hardware and software used in providing applications to a user can be viewed in a layered or hierarchical
fashion as shown in the figure below. The application user is rarely concerned with computer hardware. Thus the
end user views a computer system as a set of applications.

Fig 1 Computer Hardware and Software Structure

An application can be expressed in a programming language and is developed by an application programmer.
Machine instructions are developed for controlling the computer hardware. Utilities and library programs are part
of system programs and they implement frequently used functions that assist in program creation, the management
of files and the control of I/O devices.

Operating System Components and Goals

Computer systems have evolved from early systems containing no operating system, to multi-programming machines to
time-sharing machines, to personal computers and finally to truly distributed systems. As the demand for new features and
improved efficiency grew and hardware changed, operating systems evolved to fill the new roles.

Core Operating System Components

A user interacts with the operating system via one or more user applications and often through a special application called
a shell, or command interpreter. Most of today’s shells are implemented as text-based interfaces that enable the user to issue
commands from a keyboard or as GUI (Graphical User Interface) that allows the user to point and click and drag and drop
icons to request services from the operating system (e.g. to open an application). Microsoft Windows XP provides a GUI
through which users can issue the commands. Alternatively, the user can open a command prompt window that accepts
typed commands.

The software that contains the core component of the operating system is referred to as the kernel. Typical
operating system core components include.

-The process scheduler, that determines when and for how long a process executes on a processor.

-The memory manager, which determines when and how memory is allocated to process and what to do
when main memory becomes full.

-The I/O manager which services input and output request form and to hardware devices respectively.

-The Inter Process Communication (IPC) manager which allows processes to communicate with one
another.

-The file system manager which organizes named collections of data on storage devices and provides an
interface for accessing data on those devices.

All modern operating systems support a multi-programmed environment in which multiple applications
can execute concurrently. One of the most fundamental responsibilities of an operating system is to determine
which processor executes a process and for how long that process executes.

Operating system
An operating system is a collection of programs that controls the overall operation of a computer. It allows users to format
disks, create, print, copy, delete and display files, read data from files, write data to files, control most input/output operation,
execute programs, allocate memory locations, process interrupts, etc. It provides users an interface to computing resources.
It processes user’s commands. In a multiuser system it allows several users to share CPU on the time-share basis. In short
an operating system monitors the execution of user programs and the use of resources.

Operating systems are large. Most of them are too large to be stored in the memory at a time. Therefore, they can be divided
into a number of parts. Some portions of the operating system must always be present in the memory. These sections perform
the basic operations such as starting and terminating user programs, allocation of memory and files, and basic input/output
operations. Interrupts are also handled by these resident portions of the operating system. The portion of the operating
system which is always present in the memory is called nucleus or kernel. The kernel is a master program of operating
system. It coordinates all other parts of the operating system. It is also called supervisor. Other portions of the operating
system which are brought into the memory when needed and removed when not needed are called transient programs.

Booting (or Bootstrapping)

The process of loading the operating system into memory is known as booting. When a computer is turned on
the operating system must be brought into the computer’s memory from the hard disk memory. The process is
normally started by a small program called bootstrap loader. This program resides in a ROM as firmware. A
computer is designed to fetch its very first instruction from the ROM when power is turned on. The first instruction
is bootstrap loader. It is very simple program sufficient only to direct the CPU to look for a specific file (i.e.
operating system file) on the disk memory and execute the instructions stored in the file. The file contains machine
codes of the operating system. The first part of instructions in the file contains codes to direct the CPU to continue
loading the rest of the operating system into the memory. When the operating system is fully loaded into the
memory, the computer is ready to accept user’s commands.

Some important operating systems are described in the following section

UNIX and XENIX

UNIX is a multitasking and multiuser operating system developed by Bell Telephone Research Laboratories
(which is now a part of AT and T information system) in 1969. It was developed for larger machines. Now it runs
on servers and super computers. It is also used with powerful 32-bit personal computers. In this system a user is
identified with a user ID. A user has to enter a password to get access to the computer.

XENIX is a version of UNIX. It has been developed by Microsoft.

UNIX is a multiuser operating system. It permits many users to share a CPU on a time-slice basis. Each users
program is known as a process. If multiple programs or tasks are to be processed by a CPU, a schedule must be
prepared so that they can be processed properly. The part of the operating system, which performs the task of the
scheduling, is called scheduler, dispatcher or supervisor.

Several versions of UNIX are available. These are XENIX, VENIX, MICRONIX, LINUX, UNIXWARE – 7 etc.

LINUX
It is a multitasking, multiuser operating system. It is a version of UNIX. It has been developed by hundreds of
programmers scattered around the world. The aim was to develop UNIX clone free of any commercially copy
righted software that the entire world can use. It was started by a computer science student, Linus Torvalds. It
includes most of the commands of UNIX.

Windows Family of Operating System

Microsoft developed its first GUI (Graphical User Interface) operating system WINDOWS-95, in the year 1995.
Before this MS-DOS was a popular operating system which was used in 1980’s. That was the text oriented
operating system. Users had to type commands using keyboard to get computers response. Improved versions of
WINDOWS family of operating system are WINDOWS-98, WINDOWS-Me (millennium), WINDOWS-XP,
WINDOWS-7, WINDOWS-8, WINDOWS-10 etc. These operating systems are suitable for desktop and laptop
computers (i.e. single user OS) Microsoft developed WINDOWS-NT operating system for servers (i.e. multiuser
OS). Its fifth version was renamed as WINDOWS-2000. Then, its improved version WINDOW-3000 was
developed WINDOWS server-3000 and WINDOWS server-8000 was developed.