Introduction To Operating System
Introduction To Operating System
INTRODUCTION TO
OPERATING SYSTEM
CHAPTER1
PREPARED BY: INST. ZANDRO A. APOSTOL
• An operating system acts as an intermediary between the user of a computer
and computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide an
environment in which a user can execute programs in a convenient and efficient
manner.
• An operating system is a software that manages the computer hardware. The
hardware must provide appropriate mechanisms to ensure the correct operation
of the computer system and to prevent user programs from interfering with the
proper operation of the system.
OPERATING SYSTEM
Definition:
• An operating system is a program that controls the execution of application programs and
acts as an interface between the user of a computer and the computer hardware.
• A more common definition is that the operating system is the one program running at all
times on the computer (usually called the kernel), with all else being application programs.
• An operating system is concerned with the allocation of resources and services, such as
memory, processors, devices, and information. The operating system correspondingly
includes programs to manage these resources, such as a traffic controller, a scheduler,
memory management module, I/O programs, and a file system.
FUNCTIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEM
Operating system performs three functions:
• Convenience: An OS makes a computer more convenient to use.
• Efficiency: An OS allows the computer system resources to be used in an
efficient manner.
• Ability to Evolve: An OS should be constructed in such a way as to permit
the effective development, testing and introduction of new system functions at
the same time without interfering with service.
OPERATING SYSTEM AS USER INTERFACE –
• User
• System and application programs
• Operating system
• Hardware
Figure 1: Conceptual view of a computer system
I/O SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
The module that keeps track of the status of devices is called the I/O traffic
controller. Each I/O device has a device handler that resides in a separate
process associated with that device.
The I/O subsystem consists of:
• A memory Management component that includes buffering caching and
spooling.
• A general device driver interface.
DRIVERS FOR SPECIFIC HARDWARE
DEVICES
• Assembler – The input to an assembler is an assembly language program. The output is an object program plus
information that enables the loader to prepare the object program for execution. At one time, the computer programmer
had at their disposal a basic machine that interpreted, through hardware, certain fundamental instructions. The
programmer would program the computer by writing a series of ones and zeros (machine language), and place them into
the memory of the machine.
• Compiler/Interpreter – The high-level languages - for example C/C++, are processed by compilers and interpreters. A
compiler is a program that accepts source code written in a “high-level language “and produces a corresponding object
program. An interpreter is a program that directly executes a source program as if it was machine language.
• Loader – A loader is a routine that loads an object program and prepares it for execution. There are various loading
schemes: absolute, relocating and direct-linking. In general, the loader must load, relocate and link the object program.
The loader is a program that places programs into memory and prepares them for execution. In a simple loading scheme,
the assembler outputs the machine language translation of a program on a secondary device and a loader places it in the
core. The loader places into memory the machine language version of the user’s program and transfers control to it. Since
the loader program is much smaller than the assembler, those make more core available to the user’s program.
HISTORY OF OPERATING SYSTEM
Operating system has been evolving through the years. Following Table shows
the history of OS.