Overview of Operating System

 Introduction and Overview

 Operating System Structures

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 Computing Environments
 Real-time Embedded Systems
Most prevalent form of computers
Computers found everywhere
• Systems they run on are usually primitive
OS provides limited features
Limited to little or no user interface
• Vary considerably in their capabilities
 Embedded systems run real-time operating system
(RTOS)
o Rigid time requirements are imposed on
execution of certain functions
System fails if the time constraints are not met

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Operating System Structures

OS Services
Interface for users
Components and their interconnections

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Operating System Structures

 OS services
 Interface of user and OS
 OS functions provided through system calls
 Types of System calls
 Structure of OS
 Defining goals of OS
 Modularity and Layered approach
 Mechanisms and policies
 Microkernel and Monolithic OS

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Operating System Structures

 Viewan OS from several vintage points

Services offered by the OS
Interfaces made available to users and
programmers
Its components and their interconnections

 Viewpoints of users, programmers and OS

designers

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Operating-System Services
 Identifycommon class of services among all OS
 Set of services provided for the convenience of
user
 User Interface (UI)
Options are
Command-line Interface (CLI)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Touchscreen Interface
 Program Execution
The system must be able to load a program
and execute it, terminating normally or
abnormally
 I/O operations
OS must provide means to perform I/O
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A View of Operating System Services

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Operating-System Services
 File-system manipulation
File management and access control
management features should be provided
 Communications
 Processes need to communicate with one
another
This can be implemented through message
passing or shared memory
 Error detection
Detect errors and take appropriate action
to ensure correct and consistent computing
 Set of services for efficient working of system
 Resource allocation
Efficient allocation of resources without
error and deadlocks
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Operating-System Services
 Accounting
For record-keeping, usage statistics and
future planning
 Protection and Security
Processes should not interfere with each
other or with the OS processes
 Protection ensures that all accesses to system
resources are controlled
 Security ensures that only authorized and
authenticated users access the system and its
resources
 Defend all I/O devices from external threats and
invalid attempts

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User Operating-System Interface
 There are three approaches for users to
interface with the OS
Command Line Interface (CLI) or
Command Interpreter
Two approaches that use Graphical User
Interface (GUI)
 Command Interpreter
Allows users to directly enter commands to
be performed by the OS
 A number of interpreters may be available to
choose from
Shells: Bourne shell, Cshell of Unix
 How are commands implemented?
There are two ways to implement it
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User Operating-System Interface
 Command interpreter itself contains the code to
execute the command
Size is determined from the number of
commands
 Commands are implemented through system
programs
Interpreter only identifies which program
to load into memory
• Command Interpreter program is small and it
does not need to change when new commands
are added in the system
 Graphical User Interface using touchscreen or
mouse as the pointer
 Both CLI or GUI are personal preferences
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System Calls
 System calls provide an interface to the services
made available by the OS
 How are system calls used?
 APIs hide the details of all the operation
sequence
Invokes the functions on behalf of the
application programmer
Provides portability between different
systems
 Windows API, POSIX-API, Java API

 Systemcall interface (SCI)

Run-time support system for most
programming languages
Serves as the link to the system calls
made available by the OS
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 Example of how System Calls are used

Copy
from one
file to
another

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API – System Call – OS Relationship
The handling
of a user
application
invoking the
open() system
call

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System Calls
 Why API instead of system call?
Program portability
Handling of system calls in the RTE
 Many system calls need parameters to be
passed to the OS – three approaches are used
 Pass parameters in registers
Registers are fewer in number
 Place the parameters in a block or table in
memory
Place the address of the block in register
 Push the parameters onto the stack by the
calling program
Popped off by the OS routine
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Parameter Passing as a Table

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Types of System Calls
 Systems calls are grouped into six categories
Process control
File management
Device management
Information maintenance
Communications
Protection
 Process Control
end, abort load, execute
wait event, signal event
allocate and free memory
create process, terminate process
get process attributes, set process attributes
wait for time
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Examples of Windows and Unix System Calls

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System Calls for Process Control
end, abort
A running process may need to end normally
(end) or abnormally (abort)
Abnormal termination provides the error
code
load, execute
A process may want to load another process
for execution
 Where does control return as the new process
terminates?
Depends on whether the existing process is
lost, saved or allowed to continue execution
concurrently
 If the return is to the existing process, memory
image of the process should be saved
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System Calls for Process Control
create process, terminate process
New processes may be created by an existing process
set process attributes, get process attributes
This provides the ability to control and set the
attributes of a new process or to determine the
attributes of an existing process
wait for time
Wait for a certain amount of time for a process to
terminate
wait event, signal event
Wait for a specific event or the process itself signals
completion
 Other system calls are available for debugging,
getting memory dump, profiling, etc.
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Single-tasking in Arduino

system startup running a program

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FreeBSD Running Multiple Programs

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 File Management System Calls
create file, delete file
Requires the name of the file and its attributes
open, close
After creation, file should be opened for
specific operations
read, write, reposition
Operations that can be performed on open file
get file attributes, set file attributes
Get attributes of a file and possibly set them
if desired
Attributes are name, type, protection codes,
accounting information, etc.
 Some systems provide more file management
functions and system calls
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 Device Management System Calls
 Resources controlled by the OS are treated as
devices
Physical and virtual devices
request device, release device
If there are multiple users of various devices,
processes require to request for devices before
making use of it and release it after using it
read, write, reposition
Operations that can be performed on the
devices that are allocated
Get device attributes, set device attributes
Logically attach or detach devices
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Information Maintenance System Calls

 System calls that are used only to transfer

information between user and OS programs
get time or date, set time or date

get system data, set system data

get process, file or device attributes

set process, file or device attributes

 OS maintains information to respond to the
calls that are relevant

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 Communication System Calls
 Interprocess communication models
 Message-passing model
Processes exchange messages to transfer
information directly or indirectly
Requires the name of the processes
o Shared-memory model
For exchange of information through
common, shared memory areas
create, delete communication connection
A connection is established before messages
are exchanged between processes
send, receive messages
transfer status information
attach or detach remote devices
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 Protection Related System Calls

 Protectionprovides a mechanism for controlling

access to resources provided by a computer
system

Set_permission and get_permission

Manipulates permission settings of resources
such as files and disks

Allow_user and deny_user

Whether users be allowed or not allowed
access to certain resources

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System Services
 Provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution – system utilities
Varies from simple to complex ones
 Divided into a number of categories
 File management
Programs that manipulate files and directories
 Status information
Programs that format and print the output
from the status information system calls
Registry may be supported that store
and retrieve configuration information
 File modification
Several text editors may be available with
various options like search or
transformations
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A View of Operating System Services

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System Services
 Programming language support
Compilers, assemblers, debuggers and
interpreters for common programming
languages
 Program loading and execution
Used for loading and execution of programs
 Communications
Provide mechanism for creating virtual
connections among processes, users and
computer systems
 Other programs are supplied: perform common
operations: web browsers, spreadsheets, etc.
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Why are applications OS Specific?
 Each OS provides a unique set of system
calls
 An application can be made to run on multiple
OS through one of three ways:
1. Application can be written in an interpreted
language that has an interpreter available for
multiple OS
Python or Ruby
Features are limited
Performance suffers
2. Application is written in a language that
includes virtual machine running the
application
Java and JVM
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Why are applications OS Specific?

o Suffers from similar disadvantages as in the

first approach

3. Application developer can use a standard

language or API which generates binaries in a
machine- and OS-specific language
POSIX API and its set of standards

 Developing cross platform application is a

challenging task
 Other challenges exist at the lower levels of
the system

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Operating-System Design and Implementation
 Design Goals
 Define goals and specifications
Affected by the choice of hardware and the
type of system
General purpose or specific
 Next level requirements: user and system
goals
 User goals
System should be convenient to use
It should be reliable, safe and fast
How to achieve these objectives?
 System goals
System should be easy to design, implement
and maintain - It should be flexible, reliable,
error free and efficient
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 Mechanisms and Policies
 An important principle of OS design is to
separate policy from mechanism
Mechanisms determine how to do something
Policies determine what will be done
 This is important for flexibility
Policies are likely to change over time and
place
 A general mechanism insensitive to policy
changes is desirable
 Microkernel-based OS separate mechanisms
from policies
Implements basic set of primitive building
blocks that are totally policy free
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 Implementation
 Allcurrent generation OS is implemented in a
high-level language
Easier to write, understand and debug
Portability is achieved
 May suffer from reduced speed and increased
storage requirements
Performance improvement measures can be
used to offset the disadvantage
 Bottleneck routines can be identified and
replaced with assembly language equivalents
Bottleneck is identified through programs
that measure system behavior
Traces can be run to achieve the objectives
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Operating System Structure
 Designthe system by defining small
components or modules
Each module is a well-defined portion of
the system with carefully defined interfaces
and functions

 Monolithic Structure
 Simplest structure has no structure
Monolithic structure
 Original UNIX operating system had limited
structuring
Consists of two separable parts
The kernel and system programs
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Traditional UNIX System Structure

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Linux
System
Struct-
ure

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 Layered Approach
 Monolithic approach is a tightly coupled system
 A loosely coupled system is divided into
separate smaller components
Changes in one component affects only that
component
 Modular system can be designed using a number
of approaches
 Layered approach
OS is broken into a number of layers or levels
Bottom layer is the hardware and the
highest layer is the user interface
 An OS layer is an implementation of an
abstract object made up of data and the
operations that can manipulate those data
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Layered Operating System

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Layered Approach
 Advantages of layered approach
Simplicity of construction and debugging
Simplifies system verification
 Problems with layered approach
How to appropriately define the layers
Some layers may not be completely self-
contained violating the basic principle of
layered approach
Less efficient in terms of performance
 Recentdevelopments
Fewer layers with more functionality have
been designed to overcome the above
problems
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 Microkernels
 This method structures the kernel by removing
all nonessential components and implements
them as system and user-level programs
Results in smaller kernel
 Microkernel provides minimal process and
memory management and some communication
facility
Communication is through message passing
 Benefits of microkernel approach
Ease of extending the OS
Easier to port
It provides more security and reliability
Examples are Tru64 UNIX and QNX
 This approach suffers from performance losses

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Architecture of a Typical Microkernel

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Modules
 Current methodology is to use loadable kernel
modules (LKMs)
 Kernel has a set of core components
Links dynamically with additional services
during boot time or during run time
o Linux uses LKMs for dev. drivers and file system
 Current implementations of UNIX uses this
methodology
Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, etc.
 Hybrid Systems
Most of the operating systems are a hybrid of
the previously mentioned structures
 They address the issues of performance,
security and usability
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 Hybrid Systems

 Linux and Windows are primarily monolithic

New functionalities can be added to Linux
kernel dynamically
o Windows also support LKMs and has some
behavior of microkernel systems

 Operating Systems for mobile devices

iOS
Android
Reading Assignment

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 Part 2

Process Management
 Processes
 Threads
 Process Synchronization
 CPU Scheduling
 Deadlocks

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 Process Management

A process is a program in execution

Needs resources to accomplish its task
 System consists of a collection of processes
executing concurrently
OS processes and user processes
 Processes may be of single thread or may have
multiple threads
 The threads may run in parallel on systems with
multiple hardware processing cores
 Scheduling of threads on cores
 Several CPU schedulers are available to
programmers

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Process Concept

 Definitions
 States of a process
 Process Control Block
 Threads of a process
 Scheduling and schedulers
Scheduling queues
 Operations on processes
Process creation and termination
 Communication between processes
IPC using shared memory and message
passing

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 Process Concept
 All activities including OS programs and user
programs are termed as processes
Job and process are terms used
interchangeably
 A process comprises of
A program code or text section
Program counter content and content of
processor registers
Process stack and a data section
It may also contain a heap that is
dynamically allocated at run time
 Two processes may be associated with the
same program but are considered to be
separate processes
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Process in Memory

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Process State
 Processes change states as they execute
 New: The process is being created
 Running: Instructions are being executed
Only one process can be running on a single
core processor in system at any instant
 Waiting: The process is waiting for some
event to occur
 Ready: The process is waiting to be
assigned to the processor
Many processes may be ready and waiting
 Terminated: The process has completed
execution
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Diagram of Process State

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 Process Control Block
 Each process in the system is represented by a
task control or a process control block (PCB)
 PCB serves as the repository for information
that may vary from process to process
 Includes the following information
Process state
Program counter
CPU registers
Number and type depends on the
processor architecture
CPU scheduling information
Contains scheduling parameters
Memory management information
Accounting information
I/O status information
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Process Control Block (PCB)

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