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Mac OS X Structure

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Mac OS X Structure
Computer Engineering MCA Operating System

The Mac OS is a graphical operating system


developed by Apple Inc. The tenth version of the Mac
OS is the Mac OS X which was launched in 2001.

The structure of the Mac OS X includes multiple


layers. The base layer is Darwin which is the Unix
core of the system. Next layer is the graphics system
which contains Quartz, OpenGL and QuickTime. Then
is the application layer which has four components,
namely Classic, Carbon, Cocoa and Java. The top
layer is Aqua, which is the user interface.

A diagram that demonstrates the structure of Mac OS


X is as follows −

Components of the Mac OS X


Structure
Details about the different components of the Mac OS
X structure as seen in the image above are as follows

Core OS
The Darwin Core is based on the BSD (Berkeley
Software Distribution) version of Unix. Mach is the
main part of the Darwin core and it performs
operations such as memory use, data Uow from and
to CPU etc. Darwin is also open source i.e. anyone
can obtain its source code and make modiWcations to
it. Different versions of Darwin can be used to
enhance the Mac OS X.

Some of the major features of the Darwin core are


protected memory, automatic memory management,
preemptive multitasking, advanced virtual memory
etc. It also provides I/O services for Mac OS X and
supports plug-and-play, hot-swapping and power
management.
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Graphics Subsystem
The graphics subsystem in the Mac OS X contains
three parts i.e. Quartz, OpenGL and QuickTime. The
2-D graphics in the graphics subsystem is managed
by Quartz. It provides fonts, interface graphics,
rendering of the images etc. OpenGL provides
support for 3-D graphics in the system such as
texture mapping, transparency, antialiasing,
atmospheric effects, special effects etc.

It is also used in Unix and Windows systems.


QuickTime is used for different digital media such as
digital video, audio and video streaming etc. It also
enables creative applications such as iMovie, iTunes
etc.

Application Subsystem
The application subsystem in Mac OS X provides the
classic environment to run classic applications.
Carbon, Cocoa and Java are the three application
development environments available.

The classic environment makes sure that applications


written for the previous versions of the operating
system can run smoothly. The carbon environment is
used to port existing applications to carbon
application program interfaces. This is called
carbonising the application. The cocoa environment
provides object-oriented application development
environment. The cocoa applications use the beneWts
of the Mac OS X Structure the most. The Java
applications and Java applets can be run using the
Java environment.
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User Interface
Aqua is the user interface of Mac OS X. It provides
good visual features as well as the tools to customize
the user interface as per the user requirements. Aqua
contains extensive use of colour and texture as well
as extremely detailed icons. It is both pleasant to
view and efWcient to use.

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