MCS-203 Operating Systems

MCS-203
Operating Systems
Indira Gandhi National Open University
School of Computer and Information
Sciences (SOCIS)
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Block Title 1
MCS-203
Operating Systems
Indira Gandhi
National Open University
School of Computer and
Information Sciences
Block
1
INTRODUCTION TO OPERATING SYSTEMS
AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT
UNIT 1
Operating System: An Overview 7
UNIT 2
Processes 29
UNIT 3
Interprocess Communication and Synchronization 57
UNIT 4
Deadlocks 81
PROGRAMME/COURSE DESIGN COMMITTEE
Prof. Sanjeev K. Aggarwal, IIT, Kanpur Shri Sanjeev Thakur
Shri Navneet Aggarwal Amity School of Computer Sciences, Noida
Trinity BPM, New Delhi Shri Amrit Nath Thulal
Prof. M. Balakrishnan, IIT, Delhi Amity School of Engineering and Technology
Prof. Pandurangan, C., IIT, Madras New Delhi
Ms. Bhoomi Gupta Dr. Om Vikas(Retd), Ex-Sr. Director,
Sirifort College of Computer and Technology Ministry of ICT, Delhi
Management, New Delhi Shri Vishwakarma
Shri Manoj Kumar Gupta Amity School of Engineering and Technology
Keane India Ltd., New Delhi New Delhi
Shri Sachin Gupta Prof (Retd) S. K. Gupta, IIT Delhi
Delhi Institute of Advanced Studies, Prof. T.V. Vijaya Kumar, Dean, SC&SS,
New Delhi JNU, New Delhi
Prof. Harish Karnick, IIT, Kanpur Prof. Ela Kumar, Dean, CSE, IGDTUW, Delhi
Shri Anil Kumar Prof. Gayatri Dhingra, GVMITM, Sonipat
Amity School of Engineering and Technology
New Delhi Sh. Milind Mahajani Vice President,
Impressico Business Solutions, Noida, UP
Dr. Kapil Kumar, IIMT, Meerut
D r . Sachin Kumar, Prof. V. V. Subrahmanyam, Director
SOCIS, New Delhi
CCS University, Meerut
Prof. P. V. Suresh,
Ms. Manjulata
Amity School of Engineering and Technology SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
New Delhi Dr. Shashi Bhushan
Shri Ajay Rana SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Amity School of Computer Sciences, Noida Shri Akshay Kumar, Associate Prof.
Dr. Divya Sharma SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Bharati College, Delhi Shri M. P. Mishra, Associate Prof.
Shri Neeraj Sharma SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Havard Institute of Management Technology Dr. Sudhansh Sharma, Asst. Prof
Noida SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
BLOCK PREPARATION TEAM

Prof. D.P. Vidyarthi (Content Editor) Shri Sachin Gupta
Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi Institute of Advanced Studies
New Delhi New Delhi
Shri Akash Bajpai Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam
Deptt. of Technical Education SOCIS, IGNOU
Uttar Pradesh
Shri Kapil KumarIIMT, Dr. Nandini Sahu
(Language Editors)
Meerut &
Ms. Malathy. A
School of Humanities
IGNOU
Course Coordinator: Prof. V. V. Subrahmanyam

(The Units of Block-1, Unit 1 to Unit-4 were adapted from MCS-041 Operating Systems)
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March, 2021
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COURSE INTRODUCTION
The most fundamental of all system programs is the operating system, which controls
computer’s resources and provides the base on which application programs may be
written. A modern operating system manages one or more processors, processes,
files, a hierarchy of memory, clocks, disks, network interfaces, I/O devices, protection
and security. The operating system’s purpose is to provide an orderly and controlled
allocation of all of these resources among the programs competing for them.
This is a core course on Operating Systems covering the broader perspective of its
operation. Each unit includes presentation of the contents with examples and solved
problems. This course introduces the key mechanisms of the operating system like
process management, memory management, file systems, I/O management and
protection and security. The whole course is organised into 4 Blocks.
Block 1 covers the Introduction to Operating Systems, the role of processes, their
creation, process scheduling, interprocess communication and synchronization and
deadlocks.
Block 2 covers the study of storage management: static and dynamic allocation, paging
and segmentation, virtual memory and demand paging, page replacement of algorithms
and memory caches and their effect on performance followed by the File management
concepts, such as input/output hardware and software, files, directories and access
mechanisms, file allocation and access algorithms and performance. Finally, the
increasingly important areas of protection and security are discussed like the goals,
authentication, access mechanisms, protection domains, access control lists and
capabilities, and monitoring.
Block 3 covers the advanced topics in Operating Systems like Multiprocessor systems.
Distributed systems and Mobile Operating Systems.
Block 4 covers the case studies on Windows 10, Linux, Android and iOS.
There is a lab component associated with this course (i.e., Section-1 Windows 10 and
Section-2 Linux of MCSL-204 course).
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
The objective of this block is to familiarise you with the issues involved in the design
and implementation of modern operating systems. The course does not concentrate on
any particular operating system or hardware platform. The concepts discussed are
applicable to a variety of systems.
The block is organised into 4 units:
Unit 1 covers the introduction to operating systems;
Unit 2 covers the concept of processes, process states, process switch, threads, CPU
scheduling, various scheduling algorithms and their performance criteria;
Unit 3 covers the interprocess communication, concurrency and synchronization aspects
of the processes, and
Unit 4 covers the deadlocks, conditions for the deadlock, deadlock prevention,
avoidance and recovery.
Introduction to Operating
Systems and Process
Management
6
Operating System:
UNIT 1 OPERATING SYSTEM : AN An Overview
OVERVIEW
Structure
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Objectives
1.3 What is an Operating System?
1.4 Goals of an Operating System
1.5 Generations of Operating Systems
1.5.1 0th Generation
1.5.2 First Generation (1951-1956)
1.5.3 Second Generation (1956-1964)
1.5.4 Third Generation (1964-1979)
1.5.5 Fourth Generation (1979-Present)
1.6 Types of Operating Systems
1.6.1 Batch Processing Operating System
1.6.2 Time Sharing
1.6.3 Real Time Operating System (RTOS)
1.6.4 Multiprogramming Operating System
1.6.5 Multiprocessing System
1.6.6 Networking Operating System
1.6.7 Distributed Operating System
1.6.8 Operating Systems for Embedded Devices
1.7 Desirable Qualities of OS
1.8 Operating Systems : Some Examples
1.8.1 DOS
1.8.2 UNIX
1.8.3 Windows
1.8.4 Macintosh
1.9 Functions of OS
1.9.1 Process Management
1.9.2 Memory Management
1.9.3 Secondary Storage Management
1.9.4 I/O Management
1.9.5 File Management
1.9.6 Protection
1.9.7 Networking
1.9.8 Command Interpretation
1.10 Summary
1.11 Solutions/Answers
1.12 Further Readings 7
Systems and Process 1.1 INTRODUCTION
Management
Computer software can be divided into two main categories: application software and
system software. Application software consists of the programs for performing tasks
particular to the machine’s utilization. This software is designed to solve a particular
problem for users. Examples of application software include spreadsheets, database
systems, desktop publishing systems, program development software, and games.
On the other hand, system software is more transparent and less noticed by the typical
computer user. This software provides a general programming environment in which
programmers can create specific applications to suit their needs. This environment
provides new functions that are not available at the hardware level and performs tasks
related to executing the application program. System software acts as an interface
between the hardware of the computer and the application software that users need to
run on the computer. The most important type of system software is the operating
system.
An Operating System (OS) is a collection of programs that acts as an interface
between a user of a computer and the computer hardware. The purpose of an operating
system is to provide an environment in which a user may execute the programs.
Operating Systems are viewed as resource managers. The main resource is the computer
hardware in the form of processors, storage, input/output devices, communication
devices, and data. Some of the operating system functions are: implementing the user
interface, sharing hardware among users, allowing users to share data among themselves,
preventing users from interfering with one another, scheduling resources among users,
facilitating input/output, recovering from errors, accounting for resource usage, facilitating
parallel operations, organizing data for secure and rapid access, and handling network
communications.
This unit presents the definition of the operating system, goals of the operating system,
generations of OS, different types of OS and functions of OS.
1.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
 understand the purpose of an operating system;
 describe the general goals of an operating system;
 discuss the evolution of operating systems;
 describe various functions performed by the OS;
 list, discuss and compare various types of OS, and
 describe various structures of operating system.
1.3 WHAT IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM?

In a computer system, we find four main components: the hardware, the operating
system, the application software and the users. In a computer system the hardware
8 provides the basic computing resources. The applications programs define the way in
which these resources are used to solve the computing problems of the users. The Operating System:
An Overview
operating system controls and coordinates the use of the hardware among the various
systems programs and application programs for the various users.
We can view an operating system as a resource allocator. A computer system has
many resources (hardware and software) that may be required to solve a problem:
CPU time, memory space, files storage space, input/output devices etc. The operating
system acts as the manager of these resources and allocates them to specific programs
and users as necessary for their tasks. Since there may be many, possibly conflicting,
requests for resources, the operating system must decide which requests are allocated
resources to operate the computer system fairly and efficiently.
An operating system is a control program. This program controls the execution of
user programs to prevent errors and improper use of the computer. Operating systems
exist because: they are a reasonable way to solve the problem of creating a usable
computing system. The fundamental goal of a computer system is to execute user
programs and solve user problems.
While there is no universally agreed upon definition of the concept of an operating
system, the following is a reasonable starting point:
A computer’s operating system is a group of programs designed to serve two basic
purposes:
 To control the allocation and use of the computing system’s resources among
the various users and tasks, and
 To provide an interface between the computer hardware and the programmer
that simplifies and makes feasible the creation, coding, debugging, and
maintenance of application programs.
An effective operating system should accomplish the following functions:
 Should act as a command interpreter by providing a user friendly environment.
 Should facilitate communication with other users.
 Facilitate the directory/file creation along with the security option.
 Provide routines that handle the intricate details of I/O programming.
 Provide access to compilers to translate programs from high-level languages
to machine language
 Provide a loader program to move the compiled program code to the
computer’s memory for execution.
 Assure that when there are several active processes in the computer, each
will get fair and non-interfering access to the central processing unit for
execution.
 Take care of storage and device allocation.
 Provide for long term storage of user information in the form of files.
 Permit system resources to be shared among users when appropriate, and be
protected from unauthorised or mischievous intervention as necessary.
9
Introduction to Operating Though systems programs such as editors and translators and the various utility programs
Systems and Process
Management (such as sort and file transfer program) are not usually considered part of the operating
system, the operating system is responsible for providing access to these system
resources.
The abstract view of the components of a computer system and the positioning of OS
is shown in the Figure 1.
Figure 1: Abstract View of the Components of a Computer System
1.4 GOALS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM

The primary objective of a computer is to execute an instruction in an efficient manner
and to increase the productivity of processing resources attached with the computer
system such as hardware resources, software resources and the users. In other words,
we can say that maximum CPU utilisation is the main objective, because it is the main
device which is to be used for the execution of the programs or instructions. We can
brief the goals as:
 The primary goal of an operating system is to make the computer convenient
to use.
 The secondary goal is to use the hardware in an efficient manner.
1.5 GENERATIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

We have studied the definition and the goals of the operating systems.
Operating systems have been evolving over the years. We will briefly look at this
development of the operating systems with respect to the evolution of the hardware
/ architecture of the computer systems in this section. Since operating systems have
historically been closely tied with the architecture of the computers on which they run,
we will look at successive generations of computers to see what their operating systems
were like. We may not exactly map the operating systems generations to the generations
of the computer, but roughly it provides the idea behind them.
10 We can roughly divide them into five distinct generations that are characterized by
hardware component technology, software development, and mode of delivery of Operating System:
An Overview
computer services.
1.4.1 0th Generation

The term 0th generation is used to refer to the period of development of computing,
which predated the commercial production and sale of computer equipment. We
consider that the period might be way back when Charles Babbage invented the
Analytical Engine. Afterwards the computers by John Atanasoff in 1940; the Mark I,
built by HowardAiken and a group of IBM engineers at Harvard in 1944; the ENIAC,
designed and constructed at the University of Pencylvania by Wallace Eckert and John
Mauchly and the EDVAC, developed in 1944-46 by John Von Neumann, Arthur
Burks, and Herman Goldstine (which was the first to fully implement the idea of the
stored program and serial execution of instructions) were designed. The development
of EDVAC set the stage for the evolution of commercial computing and operating
system software. The hardware component technology of this period was electronic
vacuum tubes.
The actual operation of these early computers took place without the benefit of an
operating system. Early programs were written in machine language and each
contained code for initiating operation of the computer itself.
The mode of operation was called “open-shop” and this meant that users signed up for
computer time and when a user’s time arrived, the entire (in those days quite large)
computer system was turned over to the user. The individual user (programmer) was
responsible for all machine set up and operation, and subsequent clean-up and
preparation for the next user. This system was clearly inefficient and dependent on the
varying competencies of the individual programmer as operators.
1.4.2 First Generation (1951-1956)

The first generation marked the beginning of commercial computing, including the
introduction of Eckert and Mauchly’s UNIVAC I in early 1951, and a bit later, the
IBM 701 which was also known as the Defence Calculator. The first generation was
characterised again by the vacuum tube as the active component technology.
Operation continued without the benefit of an operating system for a time. The mode
was called “closed shop” and was characterised by the appearance of hired operators
who would select the job to be run, initial program load the system, run the user’s
program, and then select another job, and so forth. Programs began to be written in
higher level, procedure-oriented languages, and thus the operator’s routine expanded.
The operator now selected a job, ran the translation program to assemble or compile
the source program, and combined the translated object program along with any existing
library programs that the program might need for input to the linking program, loaded
and ran the composite linked program, and then handled the next job in a similar
fashion.
Application programs were run one at a time, and were translated with absolute computer
addresses that bound them to be loaded and run from these reassigned storage addresses
set by the translator, obtaining their data from specific physical I/O device. There was
no provision for moving a program to different location in storage for any reason.
Similarly, a program bound to specific devices could not be run at all if any of these
devices were busy or broken. 11
Introduction to Operating The inefficiencies inherent in the above methods of operation led to the development of
Systems and Process
Management the mono-programmed operating system, which eliminated some of the human
intervention in running job and provided programmers with a number of desirable
functions. The OS consisted of a permanently resident kernel in main storage, and a
job scheduler and a number of utility programs kept in secondary storage. User
application programs were preceded by control or specification cards (in those day,
computer program were submitted on data cards) which informed the OS of what
system resources (software resources such as compilers and loaders; and hardware
resources such as tape drives and printer) were needed to run a particular application.
The systems were designed to be operated as batch processing system.
These systems continued to operate under the control of a human operator who initiated
operation by mounting a magnetic tape that contained the operating system executable
code onto a “boot device”, and then pushing the IPL (Initial Program Load) or “boot”
button to initiate the bootstrap loading of the operating system. Once the system was
loaded, the operator entered the date and time, and then initiated the operation of the
job scheduler program which read and interpreted the control statements, secured the
needed resources, executed the first user program, recorded timing and accounting
information, and then went back to begin processing of another user program, and so
on, as long as there were programs waiting in the input queue to be executed.
The first generation saw the evolution from hands-on operation to closed shop operation
to the development of mono-programmed operating systems. At the same time, the
development of programming languages was moving away from the basic machine
languages; first to assembly language, and later to procedure oriented languages, the
most significant being the development of FORTRAN by John W. Backus in 1956.
Several problems remained, however, the most obvious was the inefficient use of system
resources, which was most evident when the CPU waited while the relatively slower,
mechanical I/O devices were reading or writing program data. In addition, system
protection was a problem because the operating system kernel was not protected
from being overwritten by an erroneous application program. Moreover, other user
programs in the queue were not protected from destruction by executing programs.
1.4.3 Second Generation (1956-1964)

The second generation of computer hardware was most notably characterised by
transistors replacing vacuum tubes as the hardware component technology. In addition,
some very important changes in hardware and software architectures occurred during
this period. For the most part, computer systems remained card and tape-oriented
systems. Significant use of random access devices, that is, disks, did not appear until
towards the end of the second generation. Program processing was, for the most part,
provided by large centralised computers operated under mono-programmed batch
processing operating systems.
The most significant innovations addressed the problem of excessive central processor
delay due to waiting for input/output operations. Recall that programs were executed
by processing the machine instructions in a strictly sequential order. As a result, the
CPU, with its high speed electronic component, was often forced to wait for completion
of I/O operations which involved mechanical devices (card readers and tape drives)
that were order of magnitude slower. This problem led to the introduction of the data
channel, an integral and special-purpose computer with its own instruction set, registers,
12 and control unit designed to process input/output operations separately and
asynchronously from the operation of the computer’s main CPU near the end of the Operating System:
An Overview
first generation, and its widespread adoption in the second generation.
The data channel allowed some I/O to be buffered. That is, a program’s input data
could be read “ahead” from data cards or tape into a special block of memory called
a buffer. Then, when the user’s program came to an input statement, the data could be
transferred from the buffer locations at the faster main memory access speed rather
than the slower I/O device speed. Similarly, a program’s output could be written another
buffer and later moved from the buffer to the printer, tape, or card punch. What made
this all work was the data channel’s ability to work asynchronously and concurrently
with the main processor. Thus, the slower mechanical I/O could be happening
concurrently with main program processing. This process was called I/O overlap.
The data channel was controlled by a channel program set up by the operating system
I/O control routines and initiated by a special instruction executed by the CPU. Then,
the channel independently processed data to or from the buffer. This provided
communication from the CPU to the data channel to initiate an I/O operation. It remained
for the channel to communicate to the CPU such events as data errors and the completion
of a transmission. At first, this communication was handled by polling – the CPU
stopped its work periodically and polled the channel to determine if there is any message.
Polling was obviously inefficient (imagine stopping your work periodically to go to the
post office to see if an expected letter has arrived) and led to another significant innovation
of the second generation – the interrupt. The data channel was able to interrupt the
CPU with a message – usually “I/O complete.” Infact, the interrupt idea was later
extended from I/O to allow signalling of number of exceptional conditions such as
arithmetic overflow, division by zero and time-run-out. Of course, interval clocks were
added in conjunction with the latter, and thus operating system came to have a way of
regaining control from an exceptionally long or indefinitely looping program.
These hardware developments led to enhancements of the operating system. I/O and
data channel communication and control became functions of the operating system,
both to relieve the application programmer from the difficult details of I/O programming
and to protect the integrity of the system to provide improved service to users by
segmenting jobs and running shorter jobs first (during “prime time”) and relegating
longer jobs to lower priority or night time runs. System libraries became more widely
available and more comprehensive as new utilities and application software components
were available to programmers.
In order to further mitigate the I/O wait problem, system were set up to spool the input
batch from slower I/O devices such as the card reader to the much higher speed tape
drive and similarly, the output from the higher speed tape to the slower printer. In this
scenario, the user submitted a job at a window, a batch of jobs was accumulated and
spooled from cards to tape “off line,” the tape was moved to the main computer, the
jobs were run, and their output was collected on another tape that later was taken to a
satellite computer for off line tape-to-printer output. User then picked up their output
at the submission windows.
Toward the end of this period, as random access devices became available, tape-
oriented operating system began to be replaced by disk-oriented systems. With the
more sophisticated disk hardware and the operating system supporting a greater portion
of the programmer’s work, the computer system that users saw was more and more
removed from the actual hardware-users saw a virtual machine. 13
Introduction to Operating The second generation was a period of intense operating system development.
Systems and Process
Management Also it was the period for sequential batch processing. But the sequential processing of
one job at a time remained a significant limitation. Thus, there continued to be low
CPU utilisation for I/O bound jobs and low I/O device utilisation for CPU bound jobs.
This was a major concern, since computers were still very large (room-size) and
expensive machines. Researchers began to experiment with multiprogramming and
multiprocessing in their computing services called the time-sharing system.Anoteworthy
example is the Compatible Time Sharing System (CTSS), developed at MIT during
the early 1960s.
1.4.4 Third Generation (1964-1979)

The third generation officially began in April 1964 with IBM’s announcement of its
System/360 family of computers. Hardware technology began to use integrated circuits
(ICs) which yielded significant advantages in both speed and economy.
Operating system development continued with the introduction and widespread adoption
of multiprogramming. This marked first by the appearance of more sophisticated I/O
buffering in the form of spooling operating systems, such as the HASP (Houston
Automatic Spooling) system that accompanied the IBM OS/360 system. These systems
worked by introducing two new systems programs, a system reader to move input
jobs from cards to disk, and a system writer to move job output from disk to printer,
tape, or cards. Operation of spooling system was, as before, transparent to the computer
user who perceived input as coming directly from the cards and output going directly
to the printer.
The idea of taking fuller advantage of the computer’s data channel I/O capabilities
continued to develop. That is, designers recognised that I/O needed only to be initiated
by a CPU instruction – the actual I/O data transmission could take place under control
of separate and asynchronously operating channel program. Thus, by switching control
of the CPU between the currently executing user program, the system reader program,
and the system writer program, it was possible to keep the slower mechanical I/O
device running and minimizes the amount of time the CPU spent waiting for I/O
completion. The net result was an increase in system throughput and resource utilisation,
to the benefit of both user and providers of computer services.
This concurrent operation of three programs (more properly, apparent concurrent
operation, since systems had only one CPU, and could, therefore execute just one
instruction at a time) required that additional features and complexity be added to the
operating system. First, the fact that the input queue was now on disk, a direct access
device, freed the system scheduler from the first-come-first-served policy so that it
could select the “best” next job to enter the system (looking for either the shortest job
or the highest priority job in the queue). Second, since the CPU was to be shared by
the user program, the system reader, and the system writer, some processor allocation
rule or policy was needed. Since the goal of spooling was to increase resource utilization
by enabling the slower I/O devices to run asynchronously with user program processing,
and since I/O processing required the CPU only for short periods to initiate data
channel instructions, the CPU was dispatched to the reader, the writer, and the program
in that order. Moreover, if the writer or the user program was executing when something
became available to read, the reader program would preempt the currently executing
program to regain control of the CPU for its initiation instruction, and the writer program
14 would preempt the user program for the same purpose. This rule, called the static
priority rule with preemption, was implemented in the operating system as a system Operating System:
An Overview
dispatcher program.
The spooling operating system in fact had multiprogramming since more than one
program was resident in main storage at the same time. Later this basic idea of
multiprogramming was extended to include more than one active user program in
memory at time. To accommodate this extension, both the scheduler and the dispatcher
were enhanced. The scheduler became able to manage the diverse resource needs of
the several concurrently active used programs, and the dispatcher included policies for
allocating processor resources among the competing user programs. In addition, memory
management became more sophisticated in order to assure that the program code for
each job or at least that part of the code being executed, was resident in main storage.
The advent of large-scale multiprogramming was made possible by several important
hardware innovations such as:
 The widespread availability of large capacity, high-speed disk units to
accommodate the spooled input streams and the memory overflow together
with the maintenance of several concurrently active program in execution.
 Relocation hardware which facilitated the moving of blocks of code within
memory without any undue overhead penalty.
 The availability of storage protection hardware to ensure that user jobs are
protected from one another and that the operating system itself is protected
from user programs.
 Some of these hardware innovations involved extensions to the interrupt system
in order to handle a variety of external conditions such as program malfunctions,
storage protection violations, and machine checks in addition to I/O interrupts.
In addition, the interrupt system became the technique for the user program
to request services from the operating system kernel.
 The advent of privileged instructions allowed the operating system to maintain
coordination and control over the multiple activities now going on with in the
system.
Successful implementation of multiprogramming opened the way for the development
of a new way of delivering computing services-time-sharing. In this environment, several
terminals, sometimes up to 200 of them, were attached (hard wired or via telephone
lines) to a central computer. Users at their terminals, “logged in” to the central system,
and worked interactively with the system. The system’s apparent concurrency was
enabled by the multiprogramming operating system. Users shared not only the system
hardware but also its software resources and file system disk space.
The third generation was an exciting time, indeed, for the development of both computer
hardware and the accompanying operating system. During this period, the topic of
operating systems became, in reality, a major element of the discipline of computing.
1.4.5 Fourth Generation (1979 – Present)

The fourth generation is characterized by the appearance of the personal computer
and the workstation. Miniaturization of electronic circuits and components continued
and large scale integration (LSI), the component technology of the third generation,
was replaced by very large scale integration (VLSI), which characterizes the fourth 15
Introduction to Operating generation. VLSI with its capacity for containing thousands of transistors on a small
Systems and Process
Management chip, made possible the development of desktop computers with capabilities exceeding
those that filled entire rooms and floors of building just twenty years earlier.
The operating systems that control these desktop machines have brought us back in a
full circle, to the open shop type of environment where each user occupies an entire
computer for the duration of a job’s execution. This works better now, not only because
the progress made over the years has made the virtual computer resulting from the
operating system/hardware combination so much easier to use, or, in the words of the
popular press “user-friendly.”
However, improvements in hardware miniaturisation and technology have evolved so
fast that we now have inexpensive workstation – class computers capable of supporting
multiprogramming and time-sharing. Hence the operating systems that supports today’s
personal computers and workstations look much like those which were available for
the minicomputers of the third generation. Examples are Microsoft’s DOS for IBM-
compatible personal computers and UNIX for workstation.
However, many of these desktop computers are now connected as networked or
distributed systems. Computers in a networked system each have their operating systems
augmented with communication capabilities that enable users to remotely log into any
system on the network and transfer information among machines that are connected to
the network. The machines that make up distributed system operate as a virtual single
processor system from the user’s point of view; a central operating system controls
and makes transparent the location in the system of the particular processor or
processors and file systems that are handling any given program.

Check Your Progress 1
1) What are the main responsibilities of an Operating System?
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1.5 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

In this section we will discuss about the different types of operating systems.
Modern computer operating systems may be classified into three groups, which are
distinguished by the nature of interaction that takes place between the computer user
and his or her program during its processing. The three groups are called batch, time-
sharing and real-time operating systems.
1.5.1 Batch Processing Operating System

In a batch processing operating system environment users submit jobs to a central
place where these jobs are collected into a batch, and subsequently placed on an input
16
queue at the computer where they will be run. In this case, the user has no interaction Operating System:
An Overview
with the job during its processing, and the computer’s response time is the turnaround
time-the time from submission of the job until execution is complete, and the results are
ready for return to the person who submitted the job.
1.5.2 Time Sharing

Another mode for delivering computing services is provided by time sharing operating
systems. In this environment a computer provides computing services to several or
many users concurrently on-line. Here, the various users are sharing the central
processor, the memory, and other resources of the computer system in a manner
facilitated, controlled, and monitored by the operating system. The user, in this
environment, has nearly full interaction with the program during its execution, and the
computer’s response time may be expected to be no more than a few second.
1.5.3 Real Time Operating System (RTOS)

The third class is the real time operating systems, which are designed to service those
applications where response time is of the essence in order to prevent error,
misrepresentation or even disaster. Examples of real time operating systems are those
which handle airlines reservations, machine tool control, and monitoring of a nuclear
power station. The systems, in this case, are designed to be interrupted by external
signals that require the immediate attention of the computer system.
These real time operating systems are used to control machinery, scientific instruments
and industrial systems.An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability, and
no end-user utilities. A very important part of an RTOS is managing the resources of
the computer so that a particular operation executes in precisely the same amount of
time every time it occurs. In a complex machine, having a part move more quickly just
because system resources are available may be just as catastrophic as having it not
move at all because the system is busy.
A number of other definitions are important to gain an understanding of operating

systems:
1.5.4 Multiprogramming Operating System

A multiprogramming operating system is a system that allows more than one active
user program (or part of user program) to be stored in main memory simultaneously.
Thus, it is evident that a time-sharing system is a multiprogramming system, but note
that a multiprogramming system is not necessarily a time-sharing system. A batch or
real time operating system could, and indeed usually does, have more than one active
user program simultaneously in main storage. Another important, and all too similar,
term is “multiprocessing”.
1.5.5 Multiprocessing System

A multiprocessing system is a computer hardware configuration that includes more
than one independent processing unit. The term multiprocessing is generally used to
refer to large computer hardware complexes found in major scientific or commercial
applications. More on multiprocessor system can be studied in Unit-1 of Block-3 of
this course. 17
Systems and Process
1.5.6 Networking Operating System
Management
A networked computing system is a collection of physical interconnected computers.
The operating system of each of the interconnected computers must contain, in addition
to its own stand-alone functionality, provisions for handing communication and transfer
of program and data among the other computers with which it is connected.
Network operating systems are not fundamentally different from single processor
operating systems. They obviously need a network interface controller and some low-
level software to drive it, as well as programs to achieve remote login and remote files
access, but these additions do not change the essential structure of the operating systems.
1.5.7 Distributed Operating System

A distributed computing system consists of a number of computers that are connected
and managed so that they automatically share the job processing load among the
constituent computers, or separate the job load as appropriate particularly configured
processors. Such a system requires an operating system which, in addition to the typical
stand-alone functionality, provides coordination of the operations and information flow
among the component computers. The networked and distributed computing
environments and their respective operating systems are designed with more complex
functional capabilities. In a network operating system, the users are aware of the
existence of multiple computers, and can log in to remote machines and copy files from
one machine to another. Each machine runs its own local operating system and has its
own user (or users).
A distributed operating system, in contrast, is one that appears to its users as a traditional
uni-processor system, even though it is actually composed of multiple processors. In a
true distributed system, users should not be aware of where their programs are being
run or where their files are located; that should all be handled automatically and efficiently
by the operating system.
True distributed operating systems require more than just adding a little code to a uni-
processor operating system, because distributed and centralised systems differ in critical
ways. Distributed systems, for example, often allow program to run on several
processors at the same time, thus requiring more complex processor scheduling
algorithms in order to optimise the amount of parallelism achieved. More on distributed
systems can be studied in Unit-2 of Block-3 of this course.
1.5.8 Operating Systems for Embedded Devices

As embedded systems (PDAs, cellphones, point-of-sale devices, VCR’s, industrial
robot control, or even your toaster) become more complex hardware-wise with every
generation, and more features are put into them day-by-day, applications they run
require more and more to run on actual operating system code in order to keep the
development time reasonable. Some of the popular OS are:
 Nexus’s Conix - an embedded operating system for ARM processors.
 Sun’s Java OS - a standalone virtual machine not running on top of any other
OS; mainly targeted at embedded systems.
 Palm Computing’s Palm OS - Currently the leader OS for PDAs, has many
applications and supporting companies.
18
 Microsoft’s Windows CE and Windows NT Embedded OS. Operating System:
An Overview
1.6 DESIRABLE QUALITIES OF OS

The desirable qualities of an operating system are in terms of: Usability, Facilities,
Cost, and Adaptability.
 Usability:
– Robustness
– Accept all valid inputs and can handle them.
– Consistency
– Proportionality
– Convenience
– Powerful with high level facilities.
 Facilities:
– Sufficient for intended use
– Complete
– Appropriate.
 Costs:
– Want low cost and efficient services.
– Good algorithms.
Make use of space/time tradeoffs, special hardware.
– Low overhead.
Cost of doing nothing should be low. E.g., idle time at a terminal.
– Low maintenance cost.
System should not require constant attention.
 Adaptability:
– Tailored to the environment.
Support necessary activities. Do not impose unnecessary restrictions.
What are the things people do most — make them easy.
– Changeable over time.
Adapt as needs and resources change. e.g., expanding memory and new
devices, or new user population.
– Extendible-Extensible
Adding new facilities and features - which look like the old ones. 19
Systems and Process 1.7 OPERATING SYSTEMS: SOME EXAMPLES
Management
In the earlier section we had seen the types of operating systems. In this section we will
study some popular operating systems.
1.7.1 DOS
DOS (Disk Operating System) was the first widely-installed operating system for
personal computers. It is a master control program that is automatically run when you
start your personal computer (PC). DOS stays in the computer all the time letting you
run a program and manage files. It is a single-user operating system from Microsoft for
the PC. It was the first OS for the PC and is the underlying control program for
Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME. Windows NT, 2000 and XP emulate DOS in order to
support existing DOS applications.
1.7.2 UNIX
UNIX operating systems are used in widely-sold workstation products from Sun
Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, IBM, and a number of other companies. The UNIX
environment and the client/server program model were important elements in the
development of the Internet and the reshaping of computing as centered in networks
rather than in individual computers. Linux, a UNIX derivative available in both “free
software” and commercial versions, is increasing in popularity as an alternative to
proprietary operating systems.
UNIX is written in C. Both UNIX and C were developed by AT&T and freely
distributed to government and academic institutions, causing it to be ported to a wider
variety of machine families than any other operating system.As a result, UNIX became
synonymous with “open systems”.
UNIX is made up of the kernel, file system and shell (command line interface). The
major shells are the Bourne shell (original), C shell and Korn shell. The UNIX vocabulary
is exhaustive with more than 600 commands that manipulate data and text in every
way conceivable. Many commands are cryptic, but just as Windows hid the DOS
prompt, the Motif GUI presents a friendlier image to UNIX users. Even with its many
versions, UNIX is widely used in mission critical applications for client/server and
transaction processing systems. The UNIX versions that are widely used are Sun’s
Solaris, Digital’s UNIX, HP’s HP-UX, IBM’s AIX and SCO’s UnixWare. A large
number of IBM mainframes also run UNIX applications, because the UNIX interfaces
were added to MVS and OS/390, which have obtained UNIX branding. Linux, another
variant of UNIX, is also gaining enormous popularity. More details can be studied in
Unit-3 of Block-3 of this course.
1.7.3 WINDOWS
Windows is a personal computer operating system from Microsoft that, together with
some commonly used business applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, has
become a de facto “standard” for individual users in most corporations as well as in
most homes. Windows contains built-in networking, which allows users to share files
and applications with each other if their PC’s are connected to a network. In large
enterprises, Windows clients are often connected to a network of UNIX and NetWare
servers. The server versions of Windows NT and 2000 are gaining market share,
20
providing a Windows-only solution for both the client and server. Windows is supported Operating System:
An Overview
by Microsoft, the largest software company in the world, as well as the Windows
industry at large, which includes tens of thousands of software developers.
This networking support is the reason why Windows became successful in the first
place. However, Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP are complicated operating
environments. Certain combinations of hardware and software running together can
cause problems, and troubleshooting can be daunting. Each new version of Windows
has interface changes that constantly confuse users and keep support people busy, and
Installing Windows applications is problematic too. Microsoft has worked hard to
make Windows 2000 and Windows XP more resilient to installation of problems and
crashes in general. More details on Windows 2000 can be studied in Unit-4 of Block
-3 of this course.
1.7.4 MACINTOSH
The Macintosh (often called “the Mac”), introduced in 1984 byApple Computer, was
the first widely-sold personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). The
Mac was designed to provide users with a natural, intuitively understandable, and, in
general, “user-friendly” computer interface. This includes the mouse, the use of icons
or small visual images to represent objects or actions, the point-and-click and click-
and-drag actions, and a number of window operation ideas. Microsoft was successful
in adapting user interface concepts first made popular by the Mac in its first Windows
operating system. The primary disadvantage of the Mac is that there are fewer Mac
applications on the market than for Windows. However, all the fundamental applications
are available, and the Macintosh is a perfectly useful machine for almost everybody.
Data compatibility between Windows and Mac is an issue, although it is often overblown
and readily solved.
The Macintosh has its own operating system, Mac OS which, in its latest version is
called Mac OS X. Originally built on Motorola’s 68000 series microprocessors, Mac
versions today are powered by the PowerPC microprocessor, which was developed
jointly by Apple, Motorola, and IBM. While Mac users represent only about 5% of
the total numbers of personal computer users, Macs are highly popular and almost a
cultural necessity among graphic designers and online visual artists and the companies
they work for.
In this section we will discuss some services of the operating system used by its users.
Users of operating system can be divided into two broad classes: command language
users and system call users. Command language users are those who can interact with
operating systems using the commands. On the other hand system call users invoke
services of the operating system by means of run time system calls during the execution
of programs.
More can be read from Block-4 of MCS-203 Operating Systems.

1) Discuss different views of the Operating Systems.
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2) Summarise the characteristics of the following operating systems:

21
 Batch Processing
Introduction to Operating  Time Sharing
Systems and Process
Management
 Real time
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1.8 FUNCTIONS OF OS
The main functions of an operating system are as follows:
 Process Management
 Memory Management
 Secondary Storage Management
 I/O Management
 File Management
 Protection
 Networking Management
 Command Interpretation.
1.8.1 Process Management

The CPU executes a large number of programs. While its main concern is the execution
of user programs, the CPU is also needed for other system activities. These activities
are called processes. A process is a program in execution. Typically, a batch job is a
process. A time-shared user program is a process. A system task, such as spooling, is
also a process. For now, a process may be considered as a job or a time-shared
program, but the concept is actually more general.
The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with
processes management:
 The creation and deletion of both user and system processes
 The suspension and resumption of processes.
 The provision of mechanisms for process synchronization
 The provision of mechanisms for deadlock handling.
More details can be studied in the Unit-2 of this course.
1.8.2 Memory Management

Memory is the most expensive part in the computer system. Memory is a large array of
words or bytes, each with its own address. Interaction is achieved through a sequence
of reads or writes of specific memory address. The CPU fetches from and stores in
memory.
There are various algorithms that depend on the particular situation to manage the
22 memory. Selection of a memory management scheme for a specific system depends
upon many factors, but especially upon the hardware design of the system. Each algorithm Operating System:
An Overview
requires its own hardware support.
The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with memory
management.
 Keep track of which parts of memory are currently being used and by whom.
 Decide which processes are to be loaded into memory when memory space
becomes available.
 Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed.
Memory management techniques will be discussed in great detail in Unit-1 of Block-2
of this course.
1.8.3 Secondary Storage Management

The main purpose of a computer system is to execute programs. These programs,
together with the data they access, must be in main memory during execution. Since
the main memory is too small to permanently accommodate all data and program, the
computer system must provide secondary storage to backup main memory. Most
modem computer systems use disks as the primary on-line storage of information, of
both programs and data. Most programs, like compilers, assemblers, sort routines,
editors, formatters, and so on, are stored on the disk until loaded into memory, and
then use the disk as both the source and destination of their processing. Hence the
proper management of disk storage is of central importance to a computer system.
There are few alternatives. Magnetic tape systems are generally too slow. In addition,
they are limited to sequential access. Thus tapes are more suited for storing infrequently
used files, where speed is not a primary concern.
The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with disk
management:
 Free space management

 Storage allocation
 Disk scheduling.
More details can be studied in Unit-3 of Block-2 of this course.
1.8.4 I/O Management

One of the purposes of an operating system is to hide the peculiarities or specific
hardware devices from the user. For example, in UNIX, the peculiarities of I/O devices
are hidden from the bulk of the operating system itself by the I/O system. The operating
system is responsible for the following activities in connection to I/O management:
 A buffer caching system
 To activate a general device driver code
 To run the driver software for specific hardware devices as and when required.
More details can be studied in the Unit-3 of Block-2 of this course.
23
Systems and Process
Management
File management is one of the most visible services of an operating system. Computers
can store information in several different physical forms: magnetic tape, disk, and drum
are the most common forms. Each of these devices has it own characteristics and
physical organisation.
For convenient use of the computer system, the operating system provides a uniform
logical view of information storage. The operating system abstracts from the physical
properties of its storage devices to define a logical storage unit, the file. Files are
mapped, by the operating system, onto physical devices.
A file is a collection of related information defined by its creator. Commonly, files

represent programs (both source and object forms) and data. Data files may be numeric,
alphabetic or alphanumeric. Files may be free-form, such as text files, or may be rigidly
formatted. In general a files is a sequence of bits, bytes, lines or records whose meaning
is defined by its creator and user. It is a very general concept.
The operating system implements the abstract concept of the file by managing mass
storage device, such as types and disks.Also files are normally organised into directories
to ease their use. Finally, when multiple users have access to files, it may be desirable
to control by whom and in what ways files may be accessed.
The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection to the file
management:
 The creation and deletion of files.

 The creation and deletion of directory.
 The support of primitives for manipulating files and directories.
 The mapping of files onto disk storage.

 Backup of files on stable (non volatile) storage.
 Protection and security of the files.
1.8.6 Protection
The various processes in an operating system must be protected from each other’s
activities. For that purpose, various mechanisms which can be used to ensure that the
files, memory segment, CPU and other resources can be operated on only by those
processes that have gained proper authorisation from the operating system.
For example, memory addressing hardware ensures that a process can only execute
within its own address space. The timer ensures that no process can gain control of the
CPU without relinquishing it. Finally, no process is allowed to do its own I/O, to
protect the integrity of the various peripheral devices. Protection refers to a mechanism
for controlling the access of programs, processes, or users to the resources defined by
a computer controls to be imposed, together with some means of enforcement.
Protection can improve reliability by detecting latent errors at the interfaces between
component subsystems. Early detection of interface errors can often prevent
contamination of a healthy subsystem by a subsystem that is malfunctioning. An
24
unprotected resource cannot defend against use (or misuse) by an unauthorised or Operating System:
An Overview
incompetent user. More on protection and security can be studied in Unit-4 of
Block-3.
1.8.7 Networking
A distributed system is a collection of processors that do not share memory or a clock.
Instead, each processor has its own local memory, and the processors communicate
with each other through various communication lines, such as high speed buses or
telephone lines. Distributed systems vary in size and function. They may involve
microprocessors, workstations, minicomputers, and large general purpose computer
systems.
The processors in the system are connected through a communication network, which
can be configured in the number of different ways. The network may be fully or partially
connected. The communication network design must consider routing and connection
strategies and the problems of connection and security.
A distributed system provides the user with access to the various resources the system
maintains.Access to a shared resource allows computation speed-up, data availability,
and reliability.
1.8.8 Command Interpretation

One of the most important components of an operating system is its command
interpreter. The command interpreter is the primary interface between the user and the
rest of the system.
Many commands are given to the operating system by control statements. When a
new job is started in a batch system or when a user logs-in to a time-shared system, a
program which reads and interprets control statements is automatically executed. This
program is variously called (1) the control card interpreter, (2) the command line
interpreter, (3) the shell (in Unix), and so on. Its function is quite simple: get the next
command statement, and execute it.
The command statements themselves deal with process management, I/O handling,
secondary storage management, main memory management, file system access,
protection, and networking.
The Figure 2 depicts the role of the operating system in coordinating all the functions.
Figure 2: Functions Coordinated by the Operating System 25

Systems and Process

Management
1) Mention the advantages and limitations of Multiuser Operating Systems
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2) What is a Multitasking system and mention its advantages.

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3) Illustrate a simple operating system for a security control system.

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1.9 SUMMARY
This Unit presented the principle operation of an operating system. In this unit we had
briefly described about the history, the generations and the types of operating systems.
An operating system is a program that acts as an interface between a user of a computer
and the computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide an
environment in which a user may execute programs. The primary goal of an operating
system is to make the computer convenient to use. And the secondary goal is to use
the hardware in an efficient manner.
Operating systems may be classified by both how many tasks they can perform
“simultaneously” and by how many users can be using the system “simultaneously”.
That is: single-user or multi-user and single-task or multi-tasking. A multi-user
system must clearly be multi-tasking. In the next unit we will discuss the concept of
processes and their management by the OS.
1.10 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS
1) The most important type of system software is the operating system.An operating
system has three main responsibilities:
 Perform basic tasks, such as recognising input from the keyboard, sending
output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk,
and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.
 Ensure that different programs and users running at the same time do not
interfere with each other.
26
 Provide a software platform on top of which other programs (i.e., application Operating System:
An Overview
software) can run.
The first two responsibilities address the need for managing the computer hardware
and the application programs that use the hardware. The third responsibility focuses
on providing an interface between application software and hardware so that application
software can be efficiently developed. Since the operating system is already responsible
for managing the hardware, it should provide a programming interface for application
developers.
1) The following are the different views of the operating system.
As a scheduler/allocator:
 The operating system has resources for which it is in charge.
 Responsible for handing them out (and later recovering them).
 Resources include CPU, memory, I/O devices, and disk space.
As a virtual machine:
 Operating system provides a “new” machine.
– This machine could be the same as the underlying machine.Allows many
users to believe they have an entire piece of hardware to themselves.
– This could implement a different, perhaps more powerful, machine. Or
just a different machine entirely. It may be useful to be able to completely
simulate another machine with your current hardware.
As a multiplexer:
 Allows sharing of resources, and provides protection from interference.
 Provides for a level of cooperation between users.
 Economic reasons: we have to take turns.
2) Batch Processing: This strategy involves reading a series of jobs (called a batch)
into the machine and then executing the programs for each job in the batch. This
approach does not allow users to interact with programs while they operate.
Time Sharing: This strategy supports multiple interactive users. Rather than
preparing a job for execution ahead of time, users establish an interactive session
with the computer and then provide commands, programs and data as they are
needed during the session.
Real Time: This strategy supports real-time and process control systems. These
are the types of systems which control satellites, robots, and air-traffic control.
The dedicated strategy must guarantee certain response times for particular
computing tasks or the application is useless.
1) The advantage of having a multi-user operating system is that normally the hardware
is very expensive, and it lets a number of users share this expensive resource. This 27
Introduction to Operating means the cost is divided amongst the users. It also makes better use of the
Systems and Process
Management resources. Since the resources are shared, they are more likely to be in use than
sitting idle being unproductive.
One limitation with multi-user computer systems is that as more users access it,
the performance becomes slower and slower. Another limitation is the cost of
hardware, as a multi-user operating system requires a lot of disk space and memory.
In addition, the actual software for multi-user operating systems tend to cost more
than single-user operating systems.
2) A multi-tasking operating system provides the ability to run more than one program
at once. For example, a user could be running a word processing package, printing
a document, copying files to the floppy disk and backing up selected files to a tape
unit. Each of these tasks the user is doing appears to be running at the same time.
A multi-tasking operating system has the advantage of letting the user run more
than one task at once, so this leads to increased productivity. The disadvantage is
that more programs that are run by the user, the more memory is required.
3) An operating system for a security control system (such as a home alarm system)
would consist of a number of programs. One of these programs would gain control
of the computer system when it is powered on, and initialise the system. The first
task of this initialise program would be to reset (and probably test) the hardware
sensors and alarms. Once the hardware initialisation was complete, the operating
system would enter a continual monitoring routine of all the input sensors. If the
state of any input sensor is changed, it would branch to an alarm generation routine.
1.11 FURTHER READINGS

1) Madnick and Donovan, Operating systems – Concepts and design, McGrawHill
Intl. Education.
2) Milan Milenkovic, Operating Systems, Concepts and Design, TMGH, 2000.
3) D.M. Dhamdhere, Operating Systems, A concept-based approach, TMGH,
2002.
4) Abraham Silberschatz and James L, Operating System Concepts.
Peterson,Addition Wesley Publishing Company.
5) Harvay M. Deital, Introduction to Operating Systems, Addition Wesley
Publishing Company.
6) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Operating System Design and Implementation, PHI.
28
Operating System:
UNIT 2 PROCESSES An Overview
Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Objectives
2.3 The Concept of Process
2.3.1 Implicit and Explicit Tasking
2.3.2 Processes Relationship
2.3.3 Process States
2.3.4 Implementation of Processes
2.3.5 Process Hierarchy
2.3.6 Threads
2.3.7 Levels of Threads
2.4 System Calls for Process Management
2.5 Process Scheduling
2.5.1 Scheduling Objectives
2.5.2 Types of Schedulers
2.5.3 Scheduling Criteria
2.6 Scheduling Algorithms
2.6.1 First Come First Serve (FCFS)
2.6.2 Shortest Job First (SJF)
2.6.3 Round Robin (RR)
2.6.4 Shortest Remaining Time Next (SRTN)
2.6.5 Priority Based Scheduling or Event Driven (ED) Scheduling
2.7 Performance Evaluation of the Scheduling Algorithms
2.8 Summary
2.10 Further Readings
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier unit we have studied the overview and the functions of an operating
system. In this unit we will have detailed discussion on the processes and their
management by the operating system. The other resource management features of
operating systems will be discussed in the subsequent units.
The CPU executes a large number of programs. While its main concern is the execution
of user programs, the CPU is also needed for other system activities. These activities
are called processes. A process is a program in execution. Typically, a batch job is a
process. A time-shared user program is a process. A system task, such as spooling, is
also a process. For now, a process may be considered as a job or a time-shared
program, but the concept is actually more general.
In general, a process will need certain resources such as CPU time, memory, files, I/O
devices, etc., to accomplish its task. These resources are given to the process when it 29
Introduction to Operating is created. In addition to the various physical and logical resources that a process
Systems and Process
Management obtains when it is created, some initialisation data (input) may be passed along. For
example, a process whose function is to display the status of a file, say F1, on the
screen, will get the name of the file F1 as an input and execute the appropriate program
to obtain the desired information.
We emphasize that a program by itself is not a process; a program is a passive entity,
while a process is an active entity. It is known that two processes may be associated
with the same program; they are nevertheless considered two separate execution
sequences.
A process is the unit of work in a system. Such a system consists of a collection of
processes, some of which are operating system processes, those that execute system
code, and the rest being user processes, those that execute user code. All of those
processes can potentially execute concurrently.
The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with
processes managed.
 The creation and deletion of both user and system processes;
 The suspension is resumption of processes;
 The provision of mechanisms for process synchronization, and
 The provision of mechanisms for deadlock handling.
We will learn the operating system view of the processes, types of schedulers, different
types of scheduling algorithms, in the subsequent sections of this unit.
2.2 OBJECTIVES
 understand the concepts of process, various states in the process and their
scheduling;
 define a process control block;
 classify different types of schedulers;
 understand various types of scheduling algorithms, and
 compare the performance evaluation of the scheduling algorithms.
2.3 THE CONCEPT OF PROCESS

The term “process” was first used by the operating system designers of the MULTICS
system way back in 1960s. There are different definitions to explain the concept of
process. Some of these are, a process is:
 An instance of a program in execution
 An asynchronous activity
 The “animated spirit” of a procedure
30
 The “locus of control” of a procedure in execution Processes
 The “dispatchable” unit

 Unit of work individually schedulable by an operating system.
Formally, we can define a process is an executing program, including the current
values of the program counter, registers, and variables. The subtle difference between
a process and a program is that the program is a group of instructions whereas the
process is the activity.
In multiprogramming systems, processes are performed in a pseudo-parallelism as if
each process has its own processor. In fact, there is only one processor but it switches
back and forth from process to process. Henceforth, by saying execution of a process,
we mean the processor’s operations on the process like changing its variables, etc.
and I/O work means the interaction of the process with the I/O operations like reading
something or writing to somewhere. They may also be named as “processor (CPU)
burst” and “I/O burst” respectively. According to these definitions, we classify
programs as:
 Processor- bound program: A program having long processor bursts
(execution instants)
 I/O- bound program: Aprogram having short processor bursts.
The operating system works as the computer system software that assists hardware in
performing process management functions. Operating system keeps track of all the
active processes and allocates system resources to them according to policies devised
to meet design performance objectives. To meet process requirements OS must
maintain many data structures efficiently. The process abstraction is fundamental
means for the OS to manage concurrent program execution. OS must interleave the
execution of a number of processes to maximize processor use while providing
reasonable response time. It must allocate resources to processes in conformance
with a specific policy. In general, a process will need certain resources such as CPU
time, memory, files, I/O devices etc. to accomplish its tasks. These resources are
allocated to the process when it is created. A single processor may be shared among
several processes with some scheduling algorithm being used to determine when to
stop work on one process and provide service to a different one which we will discuss
later in this unit.
Operating systems must provide some way to create all the processes needed. In
simple systems, it may be possible to have all the processes that will ever be needed be
present when the system comes up. In almost all systems however, some way is needed
to create and destroy processes as needed during operations. In UNIX, for instant,
processes are created by the fork system call, which makes an identical copy of the
calling process. In other systems, system calls exist to create a process, load its memory,
and start it running. In general, processes need a way to create other processes. Each
process has one parent process, but zero, one, two, or more children processes.
For an OS, the process management functions include:
 Process creation
 Termination of the process
31
Introduction to Operating  Controlling the progress of the process
Systems and Process
Management
 Process Scheduling
 Dispatching
 Interrupt handling / Exceptional handling
 Switching between the processes
 Process synchronization
 Interprocess communication support
 Management of Process Control Blocks.
2.2.1 Implicit and Explicit Tasking

A separate process at run time can be either–
 Implicit tasking and
 Explicit tasking.
Implicit tasking means that processes are defined by the system. It is commonly
encountered in general purpose multiprogramming systems. In this approach, each
program submitted for execution is treated by the operating system as an independent
process. Processes created in this manner are usually transient in the sense that they
are destroyed and disposed of by the system after each run.
Explicit tasking means that programs explicitly define each process and some of its
attributes. To improve the performance, a single logical application is divided into various
related processes. Explicit tasking is used in situations where high performance in desired
system programs such as parts of the operating system and real time applications are
common examples of programs defined processes.After dividing process into several
independent processes, a system programs defines the confines of each individual
process. A parent process is then commonly added to create the environment for and
to control execution of individual processes.
Common reasons for and uses of explicit tasking include:
 Speedup: Explicit tasking can result in faster execution of applications.
 Driving I/O devices that have latency: While one task is waiting for I/O
to complete, another portion of the application can make progress towards
completion if it contains other tasks that can do useful work in the interim.
 User convenience: By creating tasks to handle individual actions, a graphical
interface can allow users to launch several operations concurrently by clicking
on action icons before completion of previous commands.
 Multiprocessing and multicomputing: Aprogram coded as a collection of
tasks can be relatively easily posted to a multiprocessor system, where
individual tasks may be executed on different processors in parallel.
Distributed computing network server can handle multiple concurrent client sessions
by dedicating an individual task to each active client session.
32
2.2.2 Processes Relationship Processes
In the concurrent environment basically processes have two relationships, competition

and cooperation. In the concurrent environment, processes compete with each other
for allocation of system resources to execute their instructions. In addition, a collection
of related processes that collectively represent a single logical application cooperate
with each other. There should be a proper operating system to support these relations.
In the competition, there should be proper resource allocation and protection in address
generation.
We distinguish between independent process and cooperating process. A process is
independent if it cannot affect or be affected by other processes executing in the system.
Independent process: These type of processes have following features:
 Their state is not shared in any way by any other process.
 Their execution is deterministic, i.e., the results of execution depend only on
the input values.
 Their execution is reproducible, i.e., the results of execution will always be
the same for the same input.
 Their execution can be stopped and restarted without any negative effect.
Cooperating process: In contrast to independent processes, cooperating processes
can affect or be affected by other processes executing the system. They are characterised
by:
 Their states are shared by other processes.
 Their execution is not deterministic, i.e., the results of execution depend on
relative execution sequence and cannot be predicted in advance.
Their execution is irreproducible, i.e., the results of execution are not always the same
for the same input.
2.2.3 Process States

As defined, a process is an independent entity with its own input values, output values,
and internal state. A process often needs to interact with other processes. One process
may generate some outputs that other process uses as input. For example, in the shell
command
cat file1 file2 file3 | grep tree
The first process, running cat, concatenates and outputs three files. Depending on the
relative speed of the two processes, it may happen that grep is ready to run, but there
is no input waiting for it. It must then block until some input is available. It is also
possible for a process that is ready and able to run to be blocked because the operating
system is decided to allocate the CPU to other process for a while.
A process state may be in one of the following:
 New : The process is being created.
 Ready : The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor.
33
Introduction to Operating  Running : Instructions are being executed.
Systems and Process
Management
 Waiting/Suspended/Blocked : The process is waiting for some event to
occur.
 Halted/Terminated : The process has finished execution.
The transition of the process states are shown in Figure 1.and their corresponding
transition are described below:
Figure 1: Typical process states
As shown in Figure 1, four transitions are possible among the states.
Transition 1 appears when a process discovers that it cannot continue. In order to get
into blocked state, some systems must execute a system call block. In other systems,
when a process reads from a pipe or special file and there is no input available, the
process is automatically blocked.
Transition 2 and 3 are caused by the process scheduler, a part of the operating system.
Transition 2 occurs when the scheduler decides that the running process has run long
enough, and it is time to let another process have some CPU time. Transition 3 occurs
when all other processes have had their share and it is time for the first process to run
again.
Transition 4 appears when the external event for which a process was waiting was
happened. If no other process is running at that instant, transition 3 will be triggered
immediately, and the process will start running. Otherwise it may have to wait in ready
state for a little while until the CPU is available.
Using the process model, it becomes easier to think about what is going on inside the
system. There are many processes like user processes, disk processes, terminal
processes, and so on, which may be blocked when they are waiting for something to
happen. When the disk block has been read or the character typed, the process waiting
for it is unblocked and is ready to run again.
The process model, an integral part of an operating system, can be summarized as

follows. The lowest level of the operating system is the scheduler with a number of
processes on top of it.All the process handling, such as starting and stopping processes
are done by the scheduler. More on the schedulers can be studied is the subsequent
34 sections.
2.2.4 Implementation of Processes Processes
To implement the process model, the operating system maintains a table, an array of
structures, called the process table or process control block (PCB) or Switch frame.
Each entry identifies a process with information such as process state, its program
counter, stack pointer, memory allocation, the status of its open files, its accounting
and scheduling information. In other words, it must contain everything about the process
that must be saved when the process is switched from the running state to the ready
state so that it can be restarted later as if it had never been stopped. The following is
the information stored in a PCB.
 Process state, which may be new, ready, running, waiting or halted;
 Process number, each process is identified by its process number, called process
ID;
 Program counter, which indicates the address of the next instruction to be executed
for this process;
 CPU registers, which vary in number and type, depending on the concrete
microprocessor architecture;
 Memory management information, which include base and bounds registers or
page table;
 I/O status information, composed I/O requests, I/O devices allocated to this process,
a list of open files and so on;
 Processor scheduling information, which includes process priority, pointers to
scheduling queues and any other scheduling parameters;
 List of open files.
A process structure block is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Process Control Block Structure
Context Switch
A context switch (also sometimes referred to as a process switch or a task switch)
is the switching of the CPU (central processing unit) from one process or to another. 35
Introduction to Operating A context is the contents of a CPU’s registers and program counter at any point in
Systems and Process
Management time.
A context switch is sometimes described as the kernel suspending execution of one
process on the CPU and resuming execution of some other process that had previously
been suspended.
Context Switch: Steps
In a context switch, the state of the first process must be saved somehow, so that,
when the scheduler gets back to the execution of the first process, it can restore this
state and continue normally.
The state of the process includes all the registers that the process may be using, especially
the program counter, plus any other operating system specific data that may be necessary.
Often, all the data that is necessary for state is stored in one data structure, called a
process control block (PCB). Now, in order to switch processes, the PCB for the first
process must be created and saved. The PCBs are sometimes stored upon a per-
process stack in the kernel memory, or there may be some specific operating system
defined data structure for this information.
Let us understand with the help of an example. Suppose if two processes A and B are
in ready queue. If CPU is executing Process A and Process B is in wait state. If an
interrupt occurs for ProcessA, the operating system suspends the execution of the first
process, and stores the current information of Process A in its PCB and context to the
second process namely Process B. In doing so, the program counter from the PCB of
Process B is loaded, and thus execution can continue with the new process. The
switching between two processes, ProcessAand Process B is illustrated in the Figure
3 given below:
Figure 3: Process switching between two processes
2.2.5 Process Hierarchy

Modern general purpose operating systems permit a user to create and destroy
36 processes. A process may create several new processes during its time of execution.
The creating process is called parent process, while the new processes are called child Processes
processes. There are different possibilities concerning creating new processes:
 Execution: The parent process continues to execute concurrently with its
children processes or it waits until all of its children processes have terminated
(sequential).
 Sharing: Either the parent and children processes share all resources (likes
memory or files) or the children processes share only a subset of their parent’s
resources or the parent and children processes share no resources in common.
A parent process can terminate the execution of one of its children for one of these
reasons:
 The child process has exceeded its usage of the resources it has been allocated.
In order to do this, a mechanism must be available to allow the parent process
to inspect the state of its children processes.
 The task assigned to the child process is no longer required.
Let us discuss this concept with an example. In UNIX this is done by the fork system
call, which creates a child process, and the exit system call, which terminates the
current process.After a fork both parent and child keep running (indeed they have the
same program text) and each can fork off other processes. This results in a process
tree. The root of the tree is a special process created by the OS during startup. A
process can choose to wait for children to terminate. For example, if C issued a wait( )
system call it would block until G finished. This is shown in the Figure 4.
Figure 4: Process hierarchy
Old or primitive operating system like MS-DOS are not multiprogrammed so when
one process starts another, the first process is automatically blocked and waits until
the second is finished.
2.2.6 Threads
Threads, sometimes called lightweight processes (LWPs) are independently scheduled
parts of a single program. We say that a task is multithreaded if it is composed of
several independent sub-processes which do work on common data, and if each of
those pieces could (at least in principle) run in parallel.
If we write a program which uses threads – there is only one program, one executable
file, one task in the normal sense. Threads simply enable us to split up that program 37
Introduction to Operating into logically separate pieces, and have the pieces run independently of one another,
Systems and Process
Management until they need to communicate. In a sense, threads are a further level of object
orientation for multitasking systems. They allow certain functions to be executed in
parallel with others.
On a truly parallel computer (several CPUs) we might imagine parts of a program
(different subroutines) running on quite different processors, until they need to
communicate. When one part of the program needs to send data to the other part, the
two independent pieces must be synchronized, or be made to wait for one another.
But what is the point of this? We can always run independent procedures in a program
as separate programs, using the process mechanisms we have already introduced.
They could communicate using normal interprocesses communication. Why introduce
another new concept? Why do we need threads?
The point is that threads are cheaper than normal processes, and that they can be
scheduled for execution in a user-dependent way, with less overhead. Threads are
cheaper than a whole process because they do not have a full set of resources each.
Whereas the process control block for a heavyweight process is large and costly to
context switch, the PCBs for threads are much smaller, since each thread has only a
stack and some registers to manage. It has no open file lists or resource lists, no
accounting structures to update.All of these resources are shared by all threads within
the process. Threads can be assigned priorities – a higher priority thread will get put to
the front of the queue. Let’s define heavy and lightweight processes with the help of a
table.
Why use threads?

The sharing of resources can be made more effective if the scheduler knows known
exactly what each program was going to do in advance. Of course, the scheduling
algorithm can never know this – but the programmer who wrote the program does
know. Using threads it is possible to organise the execution of a program in such a way
that something is always being done, whenever the scheduler gives the heavyweight
process CPU time.
 Threads allow a programmer to switch between lightweight processes when
it is best for the program. (The programmer has control).
 A process which uses threads does not get more CPU time than an ordinary
process – but the CPU time it gets is used to do work on the threads. It is
possible to write a more efficient program by making use of threads.
 Inside a heavyweight process, threads are scheduled on a FCFS basis, unless
the program decides to force certain threads to wait for other threads. If there
is only one CPU, then only one thread can be running at a time.
 Threads context switch without any need to involve the kernel-the switching
is performed by a user level library, so time is saved because the kernel doesn’t
38 need to know about the threads.
2.2.7 Levels of Threads Processes
In modern operating systems, there are two levels at which threads operate: system or
kernel threads and user level threads. If the kernel itself is multithreaded, the scheduler
assigns CPU time on a thread basis rather than on a process basis. A kernel level
thread behaves like a virtual CPU, or a power-point to which user-processes can
connect in order to get computing power. The kernel has as many system level threads
as it has CPUs and each of these must be shared between all of the user-threads on the
system. In other words, the maximum number of user level threads which can be active
at any one time is equal to the number of system level threads, which in turn is equal to
the number of CPUs on the system.
Since threads work “inside” a single task, the normal process scheduler cannot normally
tell which thread to run and which not to run – that is up to the program. When the
kernel schedules a process for execution, it must then find out from that process which
is the next thread it must execute. If the program is lucky enough to have more than one
processor available, then several threads can be scheduled at the same time.
Some important implementations of threads are:
 The Mach System / OSF1 (user and system level)
 Solaris 1 (user level)
 Solaris 2 (user and system level)
 OS/2 (system level only)
 NT threads (user and system level)
 IRIX threads
 POSIX standardized user threads interface.

1) Explain the difference between a process and a thread with some examples.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Identify the different states a live process may occupy and show how a process
moves between these states.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3) Define what is meant by a context switch. Explain the reason many systems use
two levels of scheduling.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................ 39
Systems and Process 2.3 SYSTEM CALLS FOR PROCESS
Management
MANAGEMENT
In this section we will discuss system calls typically provided by the kernels of
multiprogramming operating systems for process management. System calls provide
the interface between a process and the operating system. These system calls are the
routine services of the operating system.As an example of how system calls are used,
consider writing a simple program to read data from one file and to copy them to
another file. There are two names of two different files in which one input file and the
other is the output file. One approach is for the program to ask the user for the names
of the two files. In an interactive system, this approach will require a sequence of
system calls, first to write a prompting message on the screen and then to read from the
keyboard the character that the two files have. Once the two file names are obtained
the program must open the input file and create the output file. Each of these operations
requires another system call and may encounter possible error conditions. When the
program tries to open the input file, it may find that no file of that name exists or that the
file is protected against access. In these cases the program should print the message on
the console and then terminate abnormally which require another system call. If the
input file exists then we must create the new output file. We may find an output file with
the same name. This situation may cause the program to abort or we may delete the
existing file and create a new one. After opening both files, we may enter a loop that
reads from input file and writes to output file. Each read and write must return status
information regarding various possible error conditions. Finally, after the entire file is
copied the program may close both files. Examples of some operating system calls are:
Create: In response to the create call the operating system creates a new process
with the specified or default attributes and identifier. Some of the parameters definable
at the process creation time include:
 level of privilege, such as system or user
 priority
 size and memory requirements
 maximum data area and/or stack size
 memory protection information and access rights
 other system dependent data.
Delete: The delete service is also called destroy, terminate or exit. Its execution causes
the operating system to destroy the designated process and remove it from the system.
Abort: It is used to terminate the process forcibly.Although a process could conceivably
abort itself, the most frequent use of this call is for involuntary terminations, such as
removal of malfunctioning process from the system.
Fork/Join:Another method of process creation and termination is by means of FORK/
JOIN pair, originally introduced as primitives for multiprocessor system. The FORK
operations are used to split a sequence of instruction into two concurrently executable
sequences. JOIN is used to merge the two sequences of code divided by the FORK
40 and it is available to a parent process for synchronization with a child.
Suspend: The suspend system call is also called BLOCK in some systems. The Processes
designated process is suspended indefinitely and placed in the suspend state. A

process may be suspended itself or another process when authorized to do so.
Resume: The resume system call is also called WAKEUP in some systems. This call
resumes the target process, which is presumably suspended. Obviously a suspended
process can not resume itself because a process must be running to have its operating
system call processed. So a suspended process depends on a partner process to issue
the resume.
Delay: The system call delay is also known as SLEEP. The target process is suspended
for the duration of the specified time period. The time may be expressed in terms of
system clock ticks that are system dependent and not portable or in standard time
units such as seconds and minutes. A process may delay itself or optionally, delay
some other process.
Get_Attributes: It is an enquiry to which the operating system responds by providing
the current values of the process attributes, or their specified subset, from the PCB.
Change Priority: It is an instance of a more general SET-PROCESS-ATTRIBUTES
system call. Obviously, this call is not implemented in systems where process priority is
static.
2.4 PROCESS SCHEDULING

Scheduling is a fundamental operating system function. All computer resources are
scheduled before use. Since CPU is one of the primary computer resources, its
scheduling is central to operating system design. Scheduling refers to a set of policies
and mechanisms supported by operating system that controls the order in which the
work to be done is completed. A scheduler is an operating system program (module)
that selects the next job to be admitted for execution. The main objective of scheduling
is to increase CPU utilisation and higher throughput. Throughput is the amount of
work accomplished in a given time interval. CPU scheduling is the basis of operating
system which supports multiprogramming concepts. By having a number of programs
in computer memory at the same time, the CPU may be shared among them. This
mechanism improves the overall efficiency of the computer system by getting more
work done in less time. In this section we will describe the scheduling objectives, the
three types of schedulers and performance criteria that schedulers may use in maximizing
system performance. Finally at the end of the unit, we will study various scheduling
algorithms.
2.4.1 Scheduling Objectives

The primary objective of scheduling is to improve system performance. Various
objectives of the scheduling are as follows:
 Maximize throughput: Scheduling should attempt to service the largest
possible number of processes per unit time.
 Maximize the number of interactive user receiving acceptable response times.
 Be predictable: A given job should utilize the same amount of time and
should cost the same regardless of the load on the system. 41
Introduction to Operating  Minimize overhead: Scheduling should minimize the wasted resources
Systems and Process
Management overhead.
 Balance resource use: The scheduling mechanisms should keep the
resources of the system busy. Processes that will use under utilized resources
should be favoured.
 Achieve a balance between response and utilisation: The best way to
guarantee good response times is to have sufficient resources available
whenever they are needed. In real time system fast responses are essential,
and resource utilisation is less important.
 Avoid indefinite postponement : It would be fair if all processes are treated
the same, and no process can suffer indefinite postponement.
 Enforce Priorities: In environments in which processes are given priorities,
the scheduling mechanism should favour the higher-priority processes.
 Give preference to processes holding key resources: Even though a
low priority process may be holding a key resource, the process may be in
demand by high priority processes. If the resource is not perceptible, then the
scheduling mechanism should give the process better treatment that it would
ordinarily receive so that the process will release the key resource sooner.
 Degrade gracefully under heavy loads: A scheduling mechanism should
not collapse under heavy system load. Either it should prevent excessive
loading by not allowing new processes to be created when the load in heavy
or it should provide service to the heavier load by providing a moderately
reduced level of service to all processes.
2.4.2 Types of Schedulers

If we consider batch systems, there will often be more processes submitted than the
number of processes that can be executed immediately. So, the incoming processes
are spooled onto a disk. There are three types of schedulers. They are:
 Short term scheduler
 Long term scheduler
 Medium term scheduler
Short term scheduler: The short-term scheduler selects the process for the processor
among the processes which are already in queue (in memory). The scheduler will
execute quite frequently (mostly at least once every 10 milliseconds). It has to be very
fast in order to achieve a better processor utilization. The short term scheduler, like all
other OS programs, has to execute on the processor. If it takes 1 millisecond to choose
a process that means ( 1 / ( 10 + 1 )) = 9% of the processor time is being used for short
time scheduling and only 91% may be used by processes for execution.
Long term scheduler: The long-term scheduler selects processes from the process
pool and loads selected processes into memory for execution. The long-term scheduler
executes much less frequently when compared with the short term scheduler. It controls
the degree of multiprogramming (no. of processes in memory at a time). If the degree
of multiprogramming is to be kept stable (say 10 processes at a time), the long-term
42
Scheduler may only need to be invoked till the process finishes execution. The long- Processes
term scheduler must select a good process mix of I/O-bound and processor bound
processes. If most of the processes selected are I/O-bound, then the ready queue will
almost be empty, while the device queue(s) will be very crowded. If most of the
processes are processor-bound, then the device queue(s) will almost be empty while
the ready queue is very crowded and that will cause the short-term scheduler to be
invoked very frequently. Time-sharing systems (mostly) have no long-term scheduler.
The stability of these systems either depends upon a physical limitation (no. of available
terminals) or the self-adjusting nature of users (if you can’t get response, you quit). It
can sometimes be good to reduce the degree of multiprogramming by removing
processes from memory and storing them on disk. These processes can then be
reintroduced into memory by the medium-term scheduler. This operation is also
known as swapping. Swapping may be necessary to improve the process mix or to
free memory.
2.4.3 Scheduling Criteria

The goal of scheduling algorithm is to identify the process whose selection will result in
the “best” possible system performance. There are different scheduling algorithms,
which has different properties and may favour one class of processes over another,
which algorithm is best, to determine this there are different characteristics used for
comparison. The scheduling algorithms which we will discuss in the next section,
determines the importance of each of the criteria.
In order to achieve an efficient processor management, OS tries to select the most
appropriate process from the ready queue. For selecting, the relative importance of
the following may be considered as performance criteria:
CPU Utilization: The key idea is that if the CPU is busy all the time, the utilization
factor of all the components of the system will be also high. CPU utilization is the ratio
of busy time of the processor to the total time passes for processes to finish.
Processor Utilization = (Processor busy time) / (Processor busy time + Processor
idle time)
Throughput: It refers to the amount of work completed in a unit of time. One way to
measure throughput is by means of the number of processes that are completed in a
unit of time. The higher the number of processes, the more work apparently is being
done by the system. But this approach is not very useful for comparison because this is
dependent on the characteristics and resource requirement of the process being
executed. Therefore to compare throughput of several scheduling algorithms it should
be fed into the process with similar requirements. The throughput can be calculated by
using the formula:
Throughput = (No. of processes completed) / (Time unit)
Turnaround Time : It may be defined as interval from the time of submission of a
process to the time of its completion. It is the sum of the periods spent waiting to get
into memory, waiting in the ready queue, CPU time and I/O operations.
Turnaround Time = t(Process completed) – t(Process submitted)
Waiting Time: This is the time spent in the ready queue. In multiprogramming operating
system several jobs reside at a time in memory. CPU executes only one job at a time.
43
Introduction to Operating The rest of jobs wait for the CPU. The waiting time may be expressed as turnaround
Systems and Process
Management time, less than the actual processing time.
Waiting time = Turnaround Time - Processing Time
But the scheduling algorithm affects or considers the amount of time that a process
spends waiting in a ready queue. Thus rather than looking at turnaround time waiting
time is usually the waiting time for each process.
Response time: It is most frequently considered in time sharing and real time operating
system. However, its characteristics differ in the two systems. In time sharing system
it may be defined as interval from the time the last character of a command line of a
program or transaction is entered to the time the last result appears on the terminal.
In real time system it may be defined as interval from the time an internal or external
event is signalled to the time the first instruction of the respective service routine is
executed.
Response time = t(first response) – t(submission of request)
One of the problems in designing schedulers and selecting a set of its performance
criteria is that they often conflict with each other. For example, the fastest response
time in time sharing and real time system may result in low CPU utilization.
Throughput and CPU utilization may be increased by executing the large number of
processes, but then response time may suffer. Therefore, the design of a scheduler
usually requires balance of all the different requirements and constraints. In the next
section we will discuss various scheduling algorithms.

1) Distinguish between a foreground and a background process in UNIX.
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........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Identify the information which must be maintained by the operating system for
each live process.
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2.5 SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS

Now let’s discuss some processor scheduling algorithms again stating that the goal is
to select the most appropriate process in the ready queue.
CPU scheduling deals with the problem of deciding which of the processes in the
ready queue is to be allocated to the CPU. There are several scheduling algorithms
which will be examined in this section. A major division among scheduling algorithms
is that whether they support pre-emptive or non-preemptive scheduling
discipline.
Preemptive scheduling: Preemption means the operating system moves a process Processes
from running to ready without the process requesting it. An OS implementing this
algorithms switches to the processing of a new request before completing the processing
of the current request. The preempted request is put back into the list of the pending
requests. Its servicing would be resumed sometime in the future when it is scheduled
again. Preemptive scheduling is more useful in high priority process which requires
immediate response. For example, in Real time system the consequence of missing
one interrupt could be dangerous.
Round Robin scheduling, priority based scheduling or event driven scheduling and
SRTN are considered to be the preemptive scheduling algorithms.
Non–Preemptive scheduling: A scheduling discipline is non-preemptive if once a

process has been allotted to the CPU, the CPU cannot be taken away from the process.
A non-preemptible discipline always processes a scheduled request to its completion.
In non-preemptive systems, jobs are made to wait by longer jobs, but the treatment of
all processes is fairer.
First come First Served (FCFS) and Shortest Job First (SJF), are considered to be
the non-preemptive scheduling algorithms.
The decision whether to schedule preemptive or not depends on the environment and
the type of application most likely to be supported by a given operating system.
2.5.1 First-Come First-Serve (FCFS)

The simplest scheduling algorithm is First Come First Serve (FCFS). Jobs are
scheduled in the order they are received. FCFS is non-preemptive. Implementation is
easily accomplished by implementing a queue of the processes to be scheduled or by
storing the time the process was received and selecting the process with the earliest
time.
FCFS tends to favour CPU-Bound processes. Consider a system with a CPU-bound

process and a number of I/O-bound processes. The I/O bound processes will tend to
execute briefly, then block for I/O.ACPU bound process in the ready should not have
to wait long before being made runable. The system will frequently find itself with all
the I/O-Bound processes blocked and CPU-bound process running. As the I/O
operations complete, the ready Queue fill up with the I/O bound processes.
Under some circumstances, CPU utilisation can also suffer. In the situation described
above, once a CPU-bound process does issue an I/O request, the CPU can return to
process all the I/O-bound processes. If their processing completes before the CPU-
bound process’s I/O completes, the CPU sits idle. So with no preemption, component
utilisation and the system throughput rate may be quite low.
Example:
Calculate the turn around time, waiting time, average turnaround time, average waiting
time, throughput and processor utilization for the given set of processes that arrive at a
given arrive time shown in the table, with the length of processing time given in
milliseconds:
45
Systems and Process
Management
If the processes arrive as per the arrival time, the Gantt chart will be
Average turn around time = (3+4+4+6+5) / 5 = 4.4

Average waiting time = (0+1+3+2+3) / 5 = 1.8
Processor utilization = (13/13)*100 = 100%
Throughput = 5/13 = 0.38
Note: If all the processes arrive at time 0, then the order of scheduling will be
P3, P5, P1, P2 and P4. By taking arrival time as 0 for all the processes, calculate
the above parameters and see the difference in the values.
2.5.2 Shortest-Job First (SJF)

This algorithm is assigned to the process that has smallest next CPU processing time,
when the CPU is available. In case of a tie, FCFS scheduling algorithm can be used. It
is originally implemented in a batch-processing environment. SJF relied on a time estimate
supplied with the batch job.
As an example, consider the following set of processes with the following processing
time which arrived at the same time.
Using SJF scheduling because the shortest length of process will first get execution, the
Gantt chart will be:
Because the shortest processing time is of the process P4, then process P1 and then
46
P3 and Process P2. The waiting time for process P1 is 3 ms, for process P2 is 16 ms, Processes
for process P3 is 9 ms and for the process P4 is 0 ms as –
Average turn around time = (3+9+16+24) / 4 = 13

Average waiting time = (0+3+9+16) / 4 = 7
Processor utilization = (24/24)*100 = 100%
2.5.3 Round Robin (RR)

Round Robin (RR) scheduling is a preemptive algorithm that relates the process that
has been waiting the longest. This is one of the oldest, simplest and widely used
algorithms. The round robin scheduling algorithm is primarily used in time-sharing and
a multi-user system environment where the primary requirement is to provide reasonably
good response times and in general to share the system fairly among all system users.
Basically the CPU time is divided into time slices.
Each process is allocated a small time-slice called quantum. No process can run for
more than one quantum while others are waiting in the ready queue. If a process needs
more CPU time to complete after exhausting one quantum, it goes to the end of ready
queue to await the next allocation. To implement the RR scheduling, Queue data structure
is used to maintain the Queue of Ready processes. A new process is added at the tail
of that Queue. The CPU schedular picks the first process from the ready Queue,
Allocate processor for a specified time Quantum. After that time the CPU schedular
will select the next process is the ready Queue.
Consider the following set of process with the processing time given in milliseconds.
If we use a time Quantum of 4 milliseconds then process P1 gets the first 4

milliseconds. Since it requires another 20 milliseconds, it is preempted after the first
time Quantum, and the CPU is given to the next process in the Queue, Process P2.
Since process P2 does not need and milliseconds, it quits before its time Quantum
expires. The CPU is then given to the next process, Process P3 one each process has
received 1 time Quantum, the CPU is returned to process P1 for an additional time
quantum. The Gantt chart will be:
47
Systems and Process
Management
Average turn around time = (30+7+10)/3 = 47/3 = 15.66

Average waiting time = (6+4+7)/3 = 17/3 = 5.66
Processor utilization = (30/30) * 100 = 100%
2.5.4 Shortest Remaining Time Next (SRTN)

This is the preemptive version of shortest job first. This permits a process that enters
the ready list to preempt the running process if the time for the new process (or for its
next burst) is less than the remaining time for the running process (or for its current
burst). Let us understand with the help of an example.
Consider the set of four processes arrived as per timings described in the table:
At time 0, only process P1 has entered the system, so it is the process that executes.
At time 1, process P2 arrives. At that time, process P1 has 4 time units left to execute
At this juncture process 2’s processing time is less compared to the P1 left out time (4
units). So P2 starts executing at time 1. At time 2, process P3 enters the system with
the processing time 5 units. Process P2 continues executing as it has the minimum
number of time units when compared with P1 and P3.At time 3, process P2 terminates
and process P4 enters the system. Of the processes P1, P3 and P4, P4 has the smallest
remaining execution time so it starts executing. When process P1 terminates at time
10, process P3 executes. The Gantt chart is shown below:
Turnaround time for each process can be computed by subtracting the time it terminated
from the arrival time.
Turn around Time = t(Process Completed)– t(Process Submitted)
The turnaround time for each of the processes is:
P1: 10 – 0 = 10
P2: 3–1= 2
P3: 15 – 2 = 13
P4: 6–3= 3
48
The average turnaround time is (10+2+13+3) / 4 = 7 Processes
The waiting time can be computed by subtracting processing time from turnaround
time, yielding the following 4 results for the processes as
P1: 10 – 5 = 5
P2: 2 – 2 = 0
P3: 13 – 5 = 8
P4: 3 – 3 = 0
The average waiting time = (5+0+8+0) / 4 = 3.25milliseconds
Four jobs executed in 15 time units, so throughput is 15 / 4 = 3.75 time units/job.
2.5.5 Priority Based Scheduling or Event-Driven (ED)

Scheduling
A priority is associated with each process and the scheduler always picks up the highest
priority process for execution from the ready queue. Equal priority processes are
scheduled FCFS. The level of priority may be determined on the basis of resource
requirements, processes characteristics and its run time behaviour.
A major problem with a priority based scheduling is indefinite blocking of a lost priority
process by a high priority process. In general, completion of a process within finite
time cannot be guaranteed with this scheduling algorithm. A solution to the problem
of indefinite blockage of low priority process is provided by aging priority. Aging
priority is a technique of gradually increasing the priority of processes (of low
priority) that wait in the system for a long time. Eventually, the older processes attain
high priority and are ensured of completion in a finite time.
As an example, consider the following set of five processes, assumed to have arrived
at the same time with the length of processor timing in milliseconds: –
Using priority scheduling we would schedule these processes according to the following
Gantt chart:
49
Introduction to Operating Average turn around time = (1+6+16+18+19) / 5 = 60/5 = 12
Systems and Process
Management
Average waiting time = (6+0+16+18+1) / 5 = 8.2
Processor utilization = (30/30) * 100 = 100%
Priorities can be defined either internally or externally. Internally defined priorities use
one measurable quantity or quantities to complete the priority of a process.
2.6 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE

SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS
Performance of an algorithm for a given set of processes can be analyzed if the
appropriate information about the process is provided. But how do we select a CPU-
scheduling algorithm for a particular system? There are many scheduling algorithms so
the selection of an algorithm for a particular system can be difficult. To select an
algorithm there are some specific criteria such as:
 Maximize CPU utilization with the maximum response time.
 Maximize throughput.
For example, assume that we have the following five processes arrived at time 0, in the
order given with the length of CPU time given in milliseconds.
First consider the FCFS scheduling algorithm for the set of processes.
For FCFS scheduling the Gantt chart will be:
Average Waiting Time: (0+10+39+42+49) / 5 = 28 milliseconds.
Now consider the SJF scheduling, the Gantt chart will be:
50
Processes
Average Waiting Time: (10+32+0+3+20)/5 = 13 milliseconds.

Now consider the Round Robin scheduling algorithm with a quantum of 10 milliseconds.
The Gantt chart will be:
Average waiting time = (0+32+20+23+40) / 5 = 23 milliseconds

Now if we compare average waiting time above algorithms, we see that SJF policy
results in less than one half of the average waiting time to that of FCFS scheduling; the
RR algorithm gives us an intermediate value.
So performance of algorithm can be measured when all the necessary information is
provided.

1) Explainthe difference between voluntary or co-operative scheduling and preemptive
scheduling. Give two examples of preemptive and of non-preemptive scheduling
algorithms.
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2) Outline how different process priorities can be implemented in a scheduling

algorithm. Explain why these priorities need to be dynamically adjusted.
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........................................................................................................................
3) Draw the Gantt chart for the FCFS policy, considering the following set of processes
that arrive at time 0, with the length of CPU time given in milliseconds.Also calculate
theAverage Waiting Time. 51
Introduction to Operating ........................................................................................................................
Systems and Process
Management
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
Process Processing Time

P1 13
P2 08
P3 83
4) For the given five processes arriving at time 0, in the order with the length of CPU
time in milliseconds:
Process Processing Time

P1 10
P2 29
P3 03
P4 07
Consider the FCFS, SJF and RR (time slice= 10 milliseconds) scheduling algorithms
for the above set of process which algorithm would give the minimum average
waiting time?
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2.7 SUMMARY
A process is an instance of a program in execution. A process can be defined by the
system or process is an important concept in modem operating system. Processes
provide a suitable means for informing the operating system about independent activities
that may be scheduled for concurrent execution. Each process is represented by a
process control block (PCB). Several PCB’s can be linked together to form a queue
of waiting processes. The selection and allocation of processes is done by a scheduler.
There are several scheduling algorithms. We have discussed FCFS, SJF, RR, SJRT
and priority algorithms along with the performance evaluation.
52 1) A process is an instance of an executing program and its data. For example, if you
were editing 3 files simultaneously, you would have 3 processes, even though they Processes
might be sharing the same code.

A thread is often called a lightweight process. It is a “child” and has all the state
information associated with a child process but does not run in a separate address
space i.e., doesn’t have its own memory. Since they share memory, each thread
has access to all variables and any change made by one thread impacts all the
others. Threads are useful in multi-client servers where each thread can service a
separate client connection. In some stand-alone processes where you can split the
processing such that one thread can continue processing while another is blocked
e.g., waiting for an I/O request or a timer thread can implement a regular repaint of
a graphics canvas.
This is how simple animations are accomplished in systems like NT and

Windows95. Unix is a single-threaded operating system and can’t do this at the
operating system level although some applications e.g., Java can support it via
software.
2) A process can be in one of the following states:
Ready i.e., in the scheduling queue waiting it’s turn for the CPU
Running i.e., currently occupying the CPU
Blocked i.e., sleeping waiting for a resource request to be satisfied.
Halted i.e., process execution is over.
 Aprocess moves from ready to running, when it is dispatched by the scheduler.
 Aprocess moves from running to ready, when it is pre-empted by the scheduler.
 A process moves from running to blocked when it issues a request for a
resource.
 A process moves from blocked to ready when completion of the request is
signaled.
3) A context switch occurs whenever a different process is moved into the CPU. The
current state of the existing process (register and stack contents, resources like
open files etc.) must be stored and the state of the new process restored. There is
a significant overhead in context switching. However, in a system with Virtual
Memory, some processes and some of the state information will be swapped to
disks. The overhead involved here is too great to undertake each quantum. Such
systems use a two-level scheduler. The high-level scheduler is responsible for
bring ready processes from disk into memory and adding them to ready queue.
This is done regularly (e.g., every 10 secs) but not each quantum (e.g., < every
100 msecs). The low level scheduler is responsible for the context switching between
CPU and ready queue.

1) Every process has a parent which invoked it. In the UNIX environment, the parent
can wait for the child to complete after invoking it (foreground child process) or
continue in a ready state (background child process).
53
Introduction to Operating 2) For each process, the operating system needs to maintain
Systems and Process
Management
 id information - process id, parent process id
 summary status - blocked, ready, running, swapped to disk
 owner information - user id, group id
 scheduling info - priority, nice value, CPU usage
 location info - resident or not, memory areas allocated
 state info - register values (instruction pointer etc.), stack, resources like open
files etc.

1) Preemptive multi-tasking means that the operating system decides when a process
has had its quantum of CPU, and removes it from the CPU to the ready queue.
This is present in UNIX, NT and Windows 95.
Voluntary and co-operative means that only the process itself decide to vacate the
CPU e.g., when it finishes or blocks on a request or yields the CPU. This is what
Windows3.x uses.
First Come First Served is a typical non-premptive algorithm.
Round Robin and Priority Queues are typical preemptive algorithms.

Shortest Job First can be either.
2) Some processes are more critical to overall operation than others e.g., kernel
activity. I/O bound processes, which seldom use a full quantum, need a boost
over compute bound tasks. This priority can be implemented by any combination
of higher positioning in the ready queue for higher priority more frequent occurrences
in the ready list for different priorities different quantum lengths for different
priorities. Priority scheduling is liable to starvation. Asuccession of high priority
processes may result in a low priority process never reaching the head of the
ready list. Priority is normal a combination of static priority (set by the user or the
class of the process) and a dynamic adjustment based on it’s history (e.g., how
long it has been waiting). NT and Linux also boost priority when processes return
from waiting for I/O.
3) If the process arrives in the order P1, P2 and P3, then the Gantt chart will be as:
Average Waiting Time: (0+13+21)/3 = 11.33 ms.

4) For FCFS algorithm the Gantt chart is as follows:
54
Processes
Average Waiting Time = (0+10+39+42+49) / 5 = 5
2. With SJF scheduling algorithm, we have
Average Waiting Time = (10+32+00+03+20)/5 = 13 milliseconds.
With round robin scheduling algorithm (time quantum = 10 milliseconds)
Average Waiting Time = (0+32+20+23+40)/5 = 23 milliseconds.
From the above calculations of average waiting time we found that SJF policy results
in less than one half of the average waiting time obtained from FCFS, while Round
Robin gives intermediate result.

1) Abraham Silberschatz and James L, Operating system Concepts.
Peterson,Addition Wesely Publishing Company.
2) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Operating System Design and Implementation,
PHI
3) D.M. Dhamdhere, Operating Systems, A Concept-based Approach, TMGH,
2002.
55
Introduction to Operating 4) Harvay M. Deital, Introduction to Operating Systems, Addition Wesely
Systems and Process
Management Publishing Company
5) Madnick and Donovan, Operating systems – Concepts and Design Mc GrawHill
Intl. Education.
56
Processes
UNIT 3 INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION
AND SYNCHRONIZATION
Structure
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Objectives
3.3 Interprocess Communication
3.3.1 Shared-Memory System
3.3.2 Message-Passing System
3.4 Interprocess Synchronization
3.4.1 Serialization
3.4.2 Mutexes: Mutual Exclusion
3.4.3 Critical Sections: The Mutex Solution
3.4.4 Dekker’s Solution for Mutual Exclusion
3.4.5 Bakery’s Algorithm
3.5 Semaphores
3.6 Classical Problems in Concurrent Programming
3.6.1 Producers/Consumers Problem
3.6.2 Readers and Writers Problem
3.6.3 Dining- Philosophers Problem
3.6.4 Sleeping Barber Problem
3.7 Locks
3.8 Monitors and Condition Variables
3.9 Summary
3.10 Solution/Answers
3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier unit we have studied the concept of processes. In addition to process
scheduling, another important responsibility of the operating system is process
synchronization. Synchronization involves the orderly sharing of system resources by
processes.
Concurrency specifies two or more sequential programs (a sequential program specifies
sequential execution of a list of statements) that may be executed concurrently as a
parallel process. For example, an airline reservation system that involves processing
transactions from many terminals has a natural specification as a concurrent program in
which each terminal is controlled by its own sequential process. Even when processes
are not executed simultaneously, it is often easier to structure as a collection of
cooperating sequential processes rather than as a single sequential program.
A simple batch operating system can be viewed as 3 processes-a reader process, an
executor process and a printer process. The reader reads cards from card reader and 57
Introduction to Operating places card images in an input buffer. The executor process reads card images from
Systems and Process
Management input buffer and performs the specified computation and store the result in an output
buffer. The printer process retrieves the data from the output buffer and writes them to
a printer. Concurrent processing is the basis of operating system which supports
multiprogramming.
The operating system supports concurrent execution of a program without necessarily

supporting elaborate form of memory and file management. This form of operation is
also known as multitasking. One of the benefits of multitasking is that several processes
can be made to cooperate in order to achieve their goals. To do this, they must do one
of the following:
Communicate: Interprocess communication (IPC) involves sending information from

one process to another. This can be achieved using a “mailbox” system, a socket
which behaves like a virtual communication network (loopback), or through the use of
“pipes”. Pipes are a system construction which enable one process to open another
process as if it were a file for writing or reading.
Share Data: A segment of memory must be available to both the processes. (Most
memory is locked to a single process).
Waiting: Some processes wait for other processes to give a signal before continuing.
This is an issue of synchronization.
In order to cooperate concurrently executing processes must communicate and

synchronize. Interprocess communication is based on the use of shared variables
(variables that can be referenced by more than one process) or message passing.
Synchronization is often necessary when processes communicate. Processes are

executed with unpredictable speeds. Yet to communicate one process must perform
some action such as setting the value of a variable or sending a message that the other
detects. This only works if the events perform an action or detect an action are
constrained to happen in that order. Thus one can view synchronization as a set of
constraints on the ordering of events. The programmer employs a synchronization
mechanism to delay execution of a process in order to satisfy such constraints.
In this unit, let us study the concept of interprocess communication and synchronization,
need of semaphores, classical problems in concurrent processing, critical regions,
monitors and message passing.
3.2 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
 identify the significance of interprocess communication and synchronization;
 describe the two ways of interprocess communication namely shared memory
and message passing;
 discuss the usage of semaphores, locks and monitors in interprocess and
synchronization, and
 solve classical problems in concurrent programming.
58
Interprocess Communication
3.3 INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION and Synchronization
Interprocess communication (IPC) is a capability supported by operating system that

allows one process to communicate with another process. The processes can be running
on the same computer or on different computers connected through a network. IPC
enables one application to control another application, and for several applications to
share the same data without interfering with one another. IPC is required in all
multiprogramming systems, but it is not generally supported by single-process operating
systems such as DOS. OS/2 and MS-Windows support an IPC mechanism called
Dynamic Data Exchange.
IPC allows the process to communicate and to synchronize their actions without sharing
the same address space. This concept can be illustrated with the example of a shared
printer as given below:
Consider a machine with a single printer running a time-sharing operation system. If a
process needs to print its results, it must request that the operating system gives it
access to the printer’s device driver. At this point, the operating system must decide
whether to grant this request, depending upon whether the printer is already being
used by another process. If it is not, the operating system should grant the request and
allow the process to continue; otherwise, the operating system should deny the request
and perhaps classify the process as a waiting process until the printer becomes available.
Indeed, if two processes were given simultaneous access to the machine’s printer, the
results would be worthless to both.
Consider the following related definitions to understand the example in a better way:
Critical Resource: It is a resource shared with constraints on its use (e.g., memory,
files, printers, etc).
Critical Section: It is code that accesses a critical resource.
Mutual Exclusion:At most one process may be executing a critical section with respect
to a particular critical resource simultaneously.
In the example given above, the printer is the critical resource. Let’s suppose that the
processes which are sharing this resource are called process A and process B. The
critical sections of process A and process B are the sections of the code which issue
the print command. In order to ensure that both processes do not attempt to use the
printer at the same, they must be granted mutually exclusive access to the printer
driver.
First we consider the interprocess communication part. There exist two complementary
inter-process communication types: a) shared-memory system and b) message-
passing system. It is clear that these two schemes are not mutually exclusive, and could
be used simultaneously within a single operating system.
3.3.1 Shared-Memory System

Shared-memory systems require communication processes to share some variables.
The processes are expected to exchange information through the use of these shared
variables. In a shared-memory scheme, the responsibility for providing communication
rests with the application programmers. The operating system only needs to provide
shared memory. 59
Introduction to Operating A critical problem occurring in shared-memory system is that two or more processes
Systems and Process
Management are reading or writing some shared variables or shared data, and the final results depend
on who runs precisely and when. Such situations are called race conditions. In order
to avoid race conditions we must find some way to prevent more than one process
from reading and writing shared variables or shared data at the same time, i.e., we
need the concept of mutual exclusion (which we will discuss in the later section). It
must be sure that if one process is using a shared variable, the other process will be
excluded from doing the same thing.
3.3.2 Message-Passing System

Message passing systems allow communication processes to exchange messages. In
this scheme, the responsibility rests with the operating system itself.
The function of a message-passing system is to allow processes to communicate with
each other without the need to resort to shared variable.An interprocess communication
facility basically provides two operations: send (message) and receive (message). In
order to send and to receive messages, a communication link must exist between two
involved processes. This link can be implemented in different ways. The possible basic
implementation questions are:
 How are links established?
 Can a link be associated with more than two processes?
 How many links can there be between every pair of process?
 What is the capacity of a link? That is, does the link have some buffer space?
If so, how much?
 What is the size of the message? Can the link accommodate variable size or
fixed-size message?
 Is the link unidirectional or bi-directional?
In the following we consider several methods for logically implementing a communication
link and the send/receive operations. These methods can be classified into two categories:
a) Naming, consisting of direct and indirect communication and b) Buffering, consisting
of capacity and messages proprieties.
Direct Communication
In direct communication, each process that wants to send or receive a message must
explicitly name the recipient or sender of the communication. In this case, the send and
receive primitives are defined as follows:
 send (P, message) To send a message to process P
 receive (Q, message) To receive a message from process Q
This scheme shows the symmetry in addressing, i.e., both the sender and the receiver
have to name one another in order to communicate. In contrast to this, asymmetry in
addressing can be used, i.e., only the sender has to name the recipient; the recipient is
not required to name the sender. So the send and receive primitives can be defined as
follows:
60
 send (P, message) To send a message to the process P Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
 receive (id, message) To receive a message from any process; id is set to
the name of the process with whom the
communication has taken place.
Indirect Communication
With indirect communication, the messages are sent to, and received from a mailbox.
A mailbox can be abstractly viewed as an object into which messages may be placed
and from which messages may be removed by processes. In order to distinguish one
from the other, each mailbox owns a unique identification.Aprocess may communicate
with some other process by a number of different mailboxes. The send and receive
primitives are defined as follows:
 send (A, message) To send a message to the mailbox A
 receive (A, message) To receive a message from the mailbox A
Mailboxes may be owned either by a process or by the system. If the mailbox is
owned by a process, then we distinguish between the owner who can only receive
from this mailbox and user who can only send message to the mailbox. When a process
that owns a mailbox terminates, its mailbox disappears. Any process that sends a
message to this mailbox must be notified in the form of an exception that the mailbox
no longer exists.
If the mailbox is owned by the operating system, then it has an existence of its own,
i.e., it is independent and not attached to any particular process. The operating system
provides a mechanism that allows a process to: a) create a new mailbox, b) send and
receive message through the mailbox and c) destroy a mailbox. Since all processes
with access rights to a mailbox may terminate, a mailbox may no longer be accessible
by any process after some time. In this case, the operating system should reclaim
whatever space was used for the mailbox.
Capacity Link
A link has some capacity that determines the number of messages that can temporarily
reside in it. This propriety can be viewed as a queue of messages attached to the link.
Basically there are three ways through which such a queue can be implemented:
Zero capacity: This link has a message queue length of zero, i.e., no message can
wait in it. The sender must wait until the recipient receives the message. The two
processes must be synchronized for a message transfer to take place. The zero-capacity
link is referred to as a message-passing system without buffering.
Bounded capacity: This link has a limited message queue length of n, i.e., at most n
messages can reside in it. If a new message is sent, and the queue is not full, it is placed
in the queue either by copying the message or by keeping a pointer to the message and
the sender should continue execution without waiting. Otherwise, the sender must be
delayed until space is available in the queue.
Unbounded capacity: This queue has potentially infinite length, i.e., any number of
messages can wait in it. That is why the sender is never delayed.
Bounded and unbounded capacity link provide message-passing system with automatic
buffering. 61
Introduction to Operating Messages
Systems and Process
Management
Messages sent by a process may be one of three varieties: a) fixed-sized, b) variable-
sized and c) typed messages. If only fixed-sized messages can be sent, the physical
implementation is straightforward. However, this makes the task of programming more
difficult. On the other hand, variable-size messages require more complex physical
implementation, but the programming becomes simpler.Typed messages, i.e., associating
a type with each mailbox, are applicable only to indirect communication. The messages
that can be sent to, and received from a mailbox are restricted to the designated type.
3.4 INTERPROCESS SYNCHRONIZATION

When two or more processes work on the same data simultaneously strange things
can happen. Suppose, when two parallel threads attempt to update the same variable
simultaneously, the result is unpredictable. The value of the variable afterwards depends
on which of the two threads was the last one to change the value. This is called a race
condition. The value depends on which of the threads wins the race to update the
variable. What we need in a mulitasking system is a way of making such situations
predictable. This is called serialization. Let us study the serialization concept in detail
in the next section.
3.4.1 Serialization
The key idea in process synchronization is serialization. This means that we have to
go to some pains to undo the work we have put into making an operating system
perform several tasks in parallel.As we mentioned, in the case of print queues, parallelism
is not always appropriate.
Synchronization is a large and difficult topic, so we shall only undertake to describe the
problem and some of the principles involved here.
There are essentially two strategies to serializing processes in a multitasking environment.
 The scheduler can be disabled for a short period of time, to prevent control
being given to another process during a critical action like modifying shared
data. This method is very inefficient on multiprocessor machines, since all
other processors have to be halted every time one wishes to execute a critical
section.
 A protocol can be introduced which all programs sharing data must obey.
The protocol ensures that processes have to queue up to gain access to shared
data. Processes which ignore the protocol ignore it at their own peril (and the
peril of the remainder of the system!). This method works on multiprocessor
machines also, though it is more difficult to visualize. The responsibility of
serializing important operations falls on programmers. The OS cannot impose
any restrictions on silly behaviour-it can only provide tools and mechanisms
to assist the solution of the problem.
3.4.2 Mutexes: Mutual Exclusion

When two or more processes must share some object, an arbitration mechanism is
needed so that they do not try to use it at the same time. The particular object being
shared does not have a great impact on the choice of such mechanisms. Consider the
62
following examples: two processes sharing a printer must take turns using it; if they Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
attempt to use it simultaneously, the output from the two processes may be mixed into
an arbitrary jumble which is unlikely to be of any use. Two processes attempting to
update the same bank account must take turns; if each process reads the current
balance from some database, updates it, and then writes it back, one of the updates
will be lost.
Both of the above examples can be solved if there is some way for each process to
exclude the other from using the shared object during critical sections of code. Thus
the general problem is described as the mutual exclusion problem. The mutual exclusion
problem was recognized (and successfully solved) as early as 1963 in the Burroughs
AOSP operating system, but the problem is sufficiently difficult widely understood for
some time after that. A significant number of attempts to solve the mutual exclusion
problem have suffered from two specific problems, the lockout problem, in which a
subset of the processes can conspire to indefinitely lock some other process out of a
critical section, and the deadlock problem, where two or more processes simultaneously
trying to enter a critical section lock each other out.
On a uni-processor system with non-preemptive scheduling, mutual exclusion is easily
obtained: the process which needs exclusive use of a resource simply refuses to relinquish
the processor until it is done with the resource. A similar solution works on a
preemptively scheduled uni-processor: the process which needs exclusive use of a
resource disables interrupts to prevent preemption until the resource is no longer
needed. These solutions are appropriate and have been widely used for short
critical sections, such as those involving updating a shared variable in main memory.
On the other hand, these solutions are not appropriate for long critical sections, for
example, those which involve input/ output. As a result, users are normally
forbidden to use these solutions; when they are used, their use is restricted to system
code.
Mutual exclusion can be achieved by a system of locks. A mutual exclusion lock is
colloquially called a mutex.You can see an example of mutex locking in the multithreaded
file reader in the previous section. The idea is for each thread or process to try to
obtain locked-access to shared data:
Get_Mutex(m);
// Update shared data
Release_Mutex(m);
This protocol is meant to ensure that only one process at a time can get past the
function Get_Mutex. All other processes or threads are made to wait at the function
Get_Mutex until that one process calls Release_Mutex to release the lock. A method
for implementing this is discussed below. Mutexes are a central part of multithreaded
programming.
3.4.3 Critical Sections: The Mutex Solution

A critical section is a part of a program in which is it necessary to have exclusive access
to shared data. Only one process or a thread may be in a critical section at any one
time. The characteristic properties of the code that form a Critical Section are:
 Codes that refer one or more variables in a “read-update-write” fashion while
63
any of those variables is possibly being altered by another thread.
Introduction to Operating  Codes that alter one or more variables that are possibly being referenced in
Systems and Process
Management “read-update-write” fashion by another thread.
 Codes use a data structure while any part of it is possibly being altered by
another thread.
 Codes alter any part of a data structure while it possibly in use by another
thread.
In the past it was possible to implement this by generalizing the idea of interrupt masks.
By switching off interrupts (or more appropriately, by switching off the scheduler) a
process can guarantee itself uninterrupted access to shared data. This method has
drawbacks:
i) Masking interrupts can be dangerous- there is always the possibility that
important interrupts will be missed;
ii) It is not general enough in a multiprocessor environment, since interrupts will
continue to be serviced by other processors-so all processors would have to
be switched off;
iii) It is too harsh. We only need to prevent two programs from being in their
critical sections simultaneously if they share the same data. Programs A and
B might share different data to programs C and D, so why should they wait
for C and D?
In 1981 G.L. Peterson discovered a simple algorithm for achieving mutual exclusion
between two processes with PID equal to 0 or 1. The code is as follows:
int turn;
int interested[2];
void Get_Mutex (int pid)
{
int other;
other = 1 - pid;
interested[process] = true;
turn = pid;
while (turn == pid && interested[other]) // Loop until no one
{ // else is interested
}
}
Release_Mutex (int pid)
{
interested[pid] = false;
}
Where more processes are involved, some modifications are necessary to this algorithm.
The key to serialization here is that, if a second process tries to obtain the mutex, when
64 another already has it, it will get caught in a loop, which does not terminate until the
other process has released the mutex. This solution is said to involve busy waiting-i.e., Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
the program actively executes an empty loop, wasting CPU cycles, rather than moving
the process out of the scheduling queue. This is also called a spin lock, since the
system ‘spins’ on the loop while waiting. Let us see another algorithm which handles
critical section problem for n processes.
3.4.4 Dekker’s solution for Mutual Exclusion

Mutual exclusion can be assured even when there is no underlying mechanism such as
the test-and-set instruction. This was first realised by T. J. Dekker and published (by
Dijkstra) in 1965. Dekker’s algorithm uses busy waiting and works for only two
processes. The basic idea is that processes record their interest in entering a critical
section (in Boolean variables called “need”) and they take turns (using a variable called
“turn”) when both need entry at the same time. Dekker’s solution is shown below:
type processid = 0..1;
var need: array [ processid ] of boolean { initially false };
turn: processid { initially either 0 or 1 };
procedure dekkerwait( me: processid );
var other: processid;
begin
other := 1 - me;
need[ me ] := true;
while need[ other ] do begin { there is contention }
if turn = other then begin
need[ me ] := false { let other take a turn };
while turn = other do { nothing };
need[ me ] := true { re-assert my interest };
end;
end;
end { dekkerwait };
procedure dekkersignal( me: processid );
begin
need[ me ] := false;
turn := 1 - me { now, it is the other’s turn };
end { dekkersignal };
Dekkers solution to the mutual exclusion problem requires that each of the contending
processes have a unique process identifier which is called “me” which is passed to the
wait and signal operations.Although none of the previously mentioned solutions require
this, most systems provide some form of process identifier which can be used for this
purpose.
It should be noted that Dekker’s solution does rely on one very simple assumption
about the underlying hardware; it assumes that if two processes attempt to write two
different values in the same memory location at the same time, one or the other value
will be stored and not some mixture of the two. This is called the atomic update 65
Introduction to Operating assumption. The atomically updatable unit of memory varies considerably from one
Systems and Process
Management system to another; on some machines, any update of a word in memory is atomic, but
an attempt to update a byte is not atomic, while on others, updating a byte is atomic
while words are updated by a sequence of byte updates.
3.4.5 Bakery’s Algorithm

Bakery algorithm handles critical section problem for n processes as follows:
 Before entering its critical section, process receives a number. Holder of the smallest
number enters the critical section.
 If processes P i and P j receive the same number, if i < j , then P i is served first;
else P j is served first.
 The numbering scheme always generates numbers in increasing order of
enumeration; i.e., 1,2,3,3,3,3,4,5...
 Notation <= lexicographical order (ticket #, process id #)
o (a,b) < (c,d) if a < c or if a = c and b < d
o max(a , . . . , a ) is a number, k , such that k >= a for i = 0, . . . , n - 1
0 n-1i
 Shared data
boolean choosing[n]; //initialise all to false
int number[n]; //initialise all to 0
 Data structures are initialized to false and 0, respectively.
The algorithm is as follows:
do
{
choosing[i] = true;
number[i] = max(number[0], number[1], ...,number[n-1]) + 1;
choosing[i] = false;
for(int j = 0; j < n; j++)
{
while (choosing[j]== true)
{
/*do nothing*/
}
while ((number[j]!=0) &&
(number[j],j)< (number[i],i))
// see Reference point
{
/*do nothing*/
}
}
66
do critical section Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
number[i] = 0;
do remainder section
} while (true)
In the next section we will study how the semaphores provides a much more organize
approach of synchronization of processes.
3.4 SEMAPHORES
Semaphores provide a much more organized approach to controlling the interaction of
multiple processes than would be available if each user had to solve all interprocess
communications using simple variables, but more organization is possible. In a sense,
semaphores are something like the goto statement in early programming languages;
they can be used to solve a variety of problems, but they impose little structure on the
solution and the results can be hard to understand without the aid of numerous comments.
Just as there have been numerous control structures devised in sequential programs to
reduce or even eliminate the need for goto statements, numerous specialized concurrent
control structures have been developed which reduce or eliminate the need for
semaphores.
Definition: The effective synchronization tools often used to realize mutual exclusion
in more complex systems are semaphores. A semaphore S is an integer variable which
can be accessed only through two standard atomic operations: wait and signal. The
definition of the wait and signal operations are:
wait(S): while S < 0 do skip;
S := S – 1;
signal(S): S := S + 1;
or in C language notation we can write it as:
wait(s)
{
while (S<=0)
{
/*do nothing*/
}
S= S-1;
}
signal(S)
{
S = S + 1;
}
It should be noted that the test (S < 0) and modification of the integer value of S which
is S := S – 1 must be executed without interruption. In general, if one process modifies
the integer value of S in the wait and signal operations, no other process can
simultaneously modify that same S value. We briefly explain the usage of semaphores
in the following example:
67
Introduction to Operating Consider two currently running processes: P1 with a statement S 1 and P2 with a
Systems and Process
Management statement S2. Suppose that we require that S 2be executed only after S 1has completed.
This scheme can be implemented by letting P 1 and P2 share a common semaphore
synch, initialised to 0, and by inserting the statements:
S1 ;
signal(synch);
in the process P1 and the statements:
wait(synch);
S2;
in the process P 2.
Since synch is initialised to 0, P2 will execute S2 only after P1 has involved signal
(synch), which is after S1.
The disadvantage of the semaphore definition given above is that it requires busy-
waiting, i.e., while a process is in its critical region, any either process it trying to enter
its critical region must continuously loop in the entry code. It’s clear that through busy-
waiting, CPU cycles are wasted by which some other processes might use those
productively.
To overcome busy-waiting, we modify the definition of the wait and signal operations.
When a process executes the wait operation and finds that the semaphore value is not
positive, the process blocks itself. The block operation places the process into a waiting
state. Using a scheduler the CPU then can be allocated to other processes which are
ready to run.
A process that is blocked, i.e., waiting on a semaphore S, should be restarted by the
execution of a signal operation by some other processes, which changes its state from
blocked to ready. To implement a semaphore under this condition, we define a
semaphore as:
struct semaphore
{
int value;
List *L; //a list of processes
}
Each semaphore has an integer value and a list of processes. When a process must
wait on a semaphore, it is added to this list. A signal operation removes one process
from the list of waiting processes, and awakens it. The semaphore operation can be
now defined as follows:
wait(S)
{
S.value = S.value -1;
if (S.value <0)
{
add this process to S.L;
block;
68 }
} Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
signal(S)
{
S.value = S.value + 1;
if (S.value <= 0)
{
remove a process P from S.L;
wakeup(P);
}
}
The block operation suspends the process. The wakeup(P) operation resumes the
execution of a blocked process P. These two operations are provided by the operating
system as basic system calls.
One of the almost critical problem concerning implementing semaphore is the situation
where two or more processes are waiting indefinitely for an event that can be only
caused by one of the waiting processes: these processes are said to be deadlocked.
To illustrate this, consider a system consisting of two processes P1 and P2, each accessing
two semaphores S and Q, set to the value one:
P1 P2
wait(S); wait(Q);
wait(Q); wait(S);
... ...
signal(S); signal(Q);
signal(Q); signal(S);
Suppose P1 executes wait(S) and then P2 executes wait(Q). When P1 executes wait(Q),
it must wait until P 2 executes signal(Q). It is no problem, P 2 executes wait(Q), then
signal(Q). Similarly, when P2 executes wait(S), it must wait until P1 executes signal(S).
Thus these signal operations cannot be carried out, P 1 and P2 are deadlocked. It is
clear, that a set of processes are in a deadlocked state, when every process in the set
is waiting for an event that can only be caused by another process in the set.
3.5 CLASSICAL PROBLEMS IN

CONCURRENT PROGRAMMING
In this section, we present a large class of concurrency control problems. These
problems are used for testing nearly every newly proposed synchronization scheme.
3.5.1 Producers/Consumers Problem

Producer – Consumer processes are common in operating systems. The problem
definition is that, a producer (process) produces the information that is consumed by a
consumer (process). For example, a compiler may produce assembly code, which is
consumed by an assembler. A producer can produce one item while the consumer is 69
Introduction to Operating consuming another item. The producer and consumer must be synchronized. These
Systems and Process
Management problems can be solved either through unbounded buffer or bounded buffer.
 With an unbounded buffer
The unbounded-buffer producer- consumer problem places no practical limit on
the size of the buffer .The consumer may have to wait for new items, but the
producer can always produce new items; there are always empty positions in the
buffer.
 With a bounded buffer
The bounded buffer producer problem assumes that there is a fixed buffer size. In
this case, the consumer must wait if the buffer is empty and the producer must wait
if the buffer is full.
Shared Data
char item; //could be any data type
char buffer[n];
semaphore full = 0; //counting semaphore
semaphore empty = n; //counting semaphore
semaphore mutex = 1; //binary semaphore
char nextp,nextc;
Producer Process
do
{
produce an item in nextp
wait (empty);
wait (mutex);
add nextp to buffer
signal (mutex);
signal (full);
}
while (true)
Consumer Process
do
{
wait( full );
wait( mutex );
remove an item from buffer to nextc
signal( mutex );
signal( empty );
consume the item in nextc;
}
70
3.5.2 Readers and Writers Problem Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
The readers/writers problem is one of the classic synchronization problems. It is often
used to compare and contrast synchronization mechanisms. It is also an eminently
used practical problem.Acommon paradigm in concurrent applications is isolation of
shared data such as a variable, buffer, or document and the control of access to that
data. This problem has two types of clients accessing the shared data. The first type,
referred to as readers, only wants to read the shared data. The second type, referred
to as writers, may want to modify the shared data. There is also a designated central
data server or controller. It enforces exclusive write semantics; if a writer is active then
no other writer or reader can be active. The server can support clients that wish to
both read and write. The readers and writers problem is useful for modeling processes
which are competing for a limited shared resource. Let us understand it with the help of
a practical example:
An airline reservation system consists of a huge database with many processes that
read and write the data. Reading information from the database will not cause a problem
since no data is changed. The problem lies in writing information to the database. If no
constraints are put on access to the database, data may change at any moment. By the
time a reading process displays the result of a request for information to the user, the
actual data in the database may have changed. What if, for instance, a process reads
the number of available seats on a flight, finds a value of one, and reports it to the
customer? Before the customer has a chance to make their reservation, another process
makes a reservation for another customer, changing the number of available seats to
zero.
The following is the solution using semaphores:
Semaphores can be used to restrict access to the database under certain conditions. In
this example, semaphores are used to prevent any writing processes from changing
information in the database while other processes are reading from the database.
semaphore mutex = 1; // Controls access to the reader count
semaphore db = 1; // Controls access to the database
int reader_count; // The number of reading processes accessing the data
Reader()
{
while (TRUE) { // loop forever
down(&mutex); // gain access to reader_count
reader_count = reader_count + 1; // increment the reader_count
if (reader_count == 1)
down(&db); //If this is the first process to read the database,
// a down on db is executed to prevent access to the
// database by a writing process
up(&mutex); // allow other processes to access reader_count
read_db(); // read the database
down(&mutex); // gain access to reader_count
reader_count = reader_count - 1; // decrement reader_count
if (reader_count == 0) 71
Introduction to Operating up(&db); // if there are no more processes reading from the
Systems and Process
Management // database, allow writing process to access the data
up(&mutex); // allow other processes to access
reader_countuse_data();
// use the data read from the database (non-critical)
}
Writer()
{
while (TRUE) { // loop forever
create_data(); // create data to enter into database (non-critical)
down(&db); // gain access to the database
write_db(); // write information to the database
up(&db); // release exclusive access to the database
}
3.5.3 Dining- Philosophers Problem

Five philosophers sit around a circular table. Each philosopher spends his life alternatively
thinking and eating. In the centre of the table is a large bowl of rice. A philosopher
needs two chopsticks to eat. Only 5 chop sticks are available and a chopstick is
placed between each pair of philosophers. They agree that each will only use the
chopstick to his immediate right and left. From time to time, a philosopher gets hungry
and tries to grab the two chopsticks that are immediate left and right to him. When a
hungry philosopher has both his chopsticks at the same time, he eats without releasing
his chopsticks. When he finishes eating, he puts down both his chopsticks and starts
thinking again.
Here’s a solution for the problem which does not require a process to write another
process’s state, and gets equivalent parallelism.
#define N 5 /* Number of philosphers */
#define RIGHT(i) (((i)+1) %N)
#define LEFT(i) (((i)==N) ? 0 : (i)+1)
typedef enum { THINKING, HUNGRY, EATING } phil_state;
phil_state state[N];
semaphore mutex =1;
semaphore s[N];
/* one per philosopher, all 0 */
void get_forks(int i) {
state[i] = HUNGRY;
while ( state[i] == HUNGRY ) {
P(mutex);
if ( state[i] == HUNGRY &&
state[LEFT] != EATING &&
state[RIGHT(i)] != EATING ) {
72 state[i] = EATING;
V(s[i]); Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
}
V(mutex);
P(s[i]);
}
}
void put_forks(int i) {
P(mutex);
state[i]= THINKING;
if ( state[LEFT(i)] == HUNGRY ) V(s[LEFT(i)]);
if ( state[RIGHT(i)] == HUNGRY) V(s[RIGHT(i)]);
V(mutex);
}
void philosopher(int process) {
while(1) {
think();
get_forks(process);
eat();
put_forks();
}
}
3.5.4 Sleeping Barber Problem

A barber shop consists of a waiting room with chairs, and the barber room containing
the barber chair. If there are no customers to be served, the barber goes to sleep. If a
customer enters the barber shop and all chairs are occupied, then the customer leaves
the shop. if the barber is busy, but chairs are available, then the customer sits in one of
the free chairs. If the barber is asleep, the customer wakes up the barber.
The following is a sample solution for the sleeping barber problem.
# define CHAIRS 5 // chairs for waiting customers
typedef int semaphore; // use this for imagination
semaphore customers = 0; // number of customers waiting for service
semaphore barbers – 0; // number of barbers waiting for customers
semaphore mutex = 1; // for mutual exclusion
int waiting = 0; //customers who are waiting for a haircut
void barber(void)
{
while (TRUE) {
down(&customers); //go to sleep if no of customers are zero
down(&mutex); //acquire access to waiting
waiting = waiting -1 ; //decrement count of waiting customers 73
Introduction to Operating up(&barbers); //one barber is now ready for cut hair
Systems and Process
Management up(&mutex); //release waiting
cut_hair(); //this is out of critical region for hair cut
}
}
void customer(void)
{
down(&mutex); //enter critical region
if (waiting < CHAIRS) //if there are no free chairs, leave
{
waiting = waiting +1; //increment count of waiting customers
up(&customers); //wake up barber if necessary
up(&mutex); //release access to waiting
down(&barbers); //go to sleep if no of free barbers is zero
get_haircut(); //be seated and be serviced
} else
{
up (&mutex); // shop is full: do no wait
}
}
Explanation:
 This problem is similar to various queuing situations
 The problem is to program the barber and the customers without getting into race
conditions
– Solution uses three semaphores:
 customers; counts the waiting customers
 barbers; the number of barbers (0 or 1)
 mutex; used for mutual exclusion
 also need a variable waiting; also counts the waiting customers; (reason;
no way to read the current value of semaphore)
– The barber executes the procedure barber, causing him to block on the
semaphore customers (initially 0);
– The barber then goes to sleep;
– When a customer arrives, he executes customer, starting by acquiring mutex
to enter a critical region;
– If another customer enters, shortly thereafter, the second one will not be able
to do anything until the first one has released mutex;
– The customer then checks to see if the number of waiting customers is less
74 than the number of chairs;
– If not, he releases mutex and leaves without a haircut; Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
– If there is an available chair, the customer increments the integer variable,
waiting;
– Then he does an up on the semaphore customers;
– When the customer releases mutex, the barber begins the haircut.
3.6 LOCKS
Locks are another synchronization mechanism. A lock has got two atomic
operations (similar to semaphore) to provide mutual exclusion. These two operations
are Acquire and Release. A process will acquire a lock before accessing a shared
variable, and later it will be released. A process locking a variable will run the
following code:
Lock-Acquire();
critical section
Lock-Release();
The difference between a lock and a semaphore is that a lock is released only by the
process that have acquired it earlier.As we discussed above any process can increment
the value of the semaphore. To implement locks, here are some things you should keep
inmind:
 To make Acquire () and Release () atomic
 Build a wait mechanism.
 Making sure that only the process that acquires the lock will release the lock.
3.7 MONITORS AND CONDITION VARIABLES

When you are using semaphores and locks you must be very careful, because a simple
misspelling may lead that the system ends up in a deadlock. Monitors are written to
make synchronization easier and correctly. Monitors are some procedures, variables,
and data structures grouped together in a package.
An early proposal for organising the operations required to establish mutual exclusion
is the explicit critical section statement. In such a statement, usually proposed in the
form “critical x do y”, where “x” is the name of a semaphore and “y” is a statement, the
actual wait and signal operations used to ensure mutual exclusion were implicit and
automatically balanced. This allowed the compiler to trivially check for the most obvious
errors in concurrent programming, those where a wait or signal operation was
accidentally forgotten. The problem with this statement is that it is not adequate for
many critical sections.
A common observation about critical sections is that many of the procedures for
manipulating shared abstract data types such as files have critical sections making up
their entire bodies. Such abstract data types have come to be known as monitors, a
term coined by C. A. R. Hoare. Hoare proposed a programming notation where the
critical sections and semaphores implicit in the use of a monitor were all implicit. All
75
Introduction to Operating that this notation requires is that the programmer encloses the declarations of the
Systems and Process
Management procedures and the representation of the data type in a monitor block; the compiler
supplies the semaphores and the wait and signal operations that this implies. Using
Hoare’s suggested notation, shared counters might be implemented as shown below:
var value: integer;
procedure increment;
begin
value := value + 1;
end { increment };
end { counter };
var i, j: counter;
Calls to procedures within the body of a monitor are done using record notation; thus,
to increment one of the counters declared in above example, one would call
“i.increment”. This call would implicitly do a wait operation on the semaphore implicitly
associated with “i”, then execute the body of the “increment” procedure before doing
a signal operation on the semaphore. Note that the call to “i.increment” implicitly passes
a specific instance of the monitor as a parameter to the “increment” procedure, and
that fields of this instance become global variables to the body of the procedure, as if
there was an implicit “with” statement.
There are a number of problems with monitors which have been ignored in the above
example. For example, consider the problem of assigning a meaning to a call from
within one monitor procedure to a procedure within another monitor. This can easily
lead to a deadlock. For example, when procedures within two different monitors each
calling the other. It has sometimes been proposed that such calls should never be
allowed, but they are sometimes useful! We will study more on deadlocks in the next
units of this course.
The most important problem with monitors is that of waiting for resources when they
are not available. For example, consider implementing a queue monitor with internal
procedures for the enqueue and dequeue operations. When the queue empties, a call
to dequeue must wait, but this wait must not block further entries to the monitor through
the enqueue procedure. In effect, there must be a way for a process to temporarily
step outside of the monitor, releasing mutual exclusion while it waits for some other
process to enter the monitor and do some needed action.
Hoare’s suggested solution to this problem involves the introduction of condition
variables which may be local to a monitor, along with the operations wait and signal.
Essentially, if s is the monitor semaphore, and c is a semaphore representing a condition
variable, “wait c” is equivalent to “signal(s); wait(c); wait(s)” and “signal c” is equivalent
to “signal(c)”. The details of Hoare’s wait and signal operations were somewhat more
complex than is shown here because the waiting process was given priority over other
processes trying to enter the monitor, and condition variables had no memory; repeated
signalling of a condition had no effect and signaling a condition on which no process
was waiting had no effect. Following is an example monitor:
monitor synch
integer i;
76 condition c;
procedure producer(x); Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
.
.
end;
procedure consumer(x);
.
.
end;
end monitor;
There is only one process that can enter a monitor, therefore every monitor has its own
waiting list with process waiting to enter the monitor.
Let us see the dining philosopher’s which was explained in the above section with
semaphores, can be re-written using the monitors as:
Example: Solution to the Dining Philosophers Problem using Monitors
monitor dining-philosophers
{
enum state {thinking, hungry, eating};
state state[5];
condition self[5];
void pickup (int i)
{
state[i] = hungry;
test(i);
if (state[i] != eating)
self[i].wait;
}
void putdown (int i)
{
state[i] = thinking;
test(i+4 % 5);
test(i+1 % 5);
}
void test (int k)
{
if ((state[k+4 % 5] != eating) && (state[k]==hungry)
&& state[k+1 % 5] != eating))
{
state[k] = eating;
self[k].signal;
}
} 77
Introduction to Operating init
Systems and Process
Management {
for (int i = 0; i< 5; i++)
state[i] = thinking;
}
}
Condition Variables
If a process cannot enter the monitor it must block itself. This operation is provided by
the condition variables. Like locks and semaphores, the condition has got a wait and a
signal function. But it also has the broadcast signal. Implementation of condition variables
is part of a synch.h; it is your job to implement it. Wait (), Signal () and Broadcast ()
have the following semantics:
 Wait() releases the lock, gives up the CPU until signaled and then re-acquire
the lock.
 Signal() wakes up a thread if there are any waiting on the condition variable.
 Broadcast() wakes up all threads waiting on the condition.
When you implement the condition variable, you must have a queue for the processes
waiting on the condition variable.

1) What are race conditions? How race conditions occur in Operating Systems?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) What is a critical section? Explain.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3) Provide the solution to a classical synchronization problem namely “cigarette

smoker’s problem”. The problem is defined as follows:
There are four processes in this problem: three smoker processes and an
agent process. Each of the smoker processes will make a cigarette and smoke
it. To make a cigarette requires tobacco, paper, and matches. Each smoker
process has one of the three items. i.e., one process has tobacco, another has
paper, and a third has matches. The agent has an infinite supply of all three.
The agent places two of the three items on the table, and the smoker that has
the third item makes the cigarette.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3.8 SUMMARY
Interprocess communication provides a mechanism to allow process to communicate
78 with other processes. Interprocess communication system is best provided by a message
passing system. Message systems can be defined in many different ways. If there are a Interprocess Communication
and Synchronization
collection of cooperating sequential processes that share some data, mutual exclusion
must be provided. There are different methods for achieving the mutual exclusion.
Different algorithms are available for solving the critical section problem which we
have discussion in this unit. The bakery algorithm is used for solving the n process
critical section problem.
Interprocess synchronization provides the processes to synchronize their activities.
Semaphores can be used to solve synchronization problems. Semaphore can only be
accessed through two atomic operations and can be implemented efficiently. The two
operations are wait and signal.
There are a number of classical synchronization problems which we have discussed in
this unit (such as producer- consumer problem, readers – writers problem and d dining
– philosophers problem). These problems are important mainly because they are
examples for a large class of concurrency-control problems. In the next unit we will
study an important aspect called as “Deadlocks”
1) Processes that are working together share some common storage (main memory,
file etc.) that each process can read and write. When two or more processes are
reading or writing some shared data and the final result depends on who runs
precisely when, are called race conditions. Concurrently executing threads that
share data need to synchronize their operations and processing in order to avoid
race condition on shared data. Only one “customer” thread at a time should be
allowed to examine and update the shared variable.
Race conditions are also possible in Operating Systems. If the ready queue is
implemented as a linked list and if the ready queue is being manipulated during the
handling of an interrupt, then interrupts must be disabled to prevent another interrupt
before the first one completes. If interrupts are not disabled than the linked list
could become corrupt.
2) The most synchronization problem confronting cooperating processes, is to control
the access between the shared resources. Suppose two processes share access
to a file and at least one of these processes can modify the data in this shared area
of memory. That part of the code of each program, where one process is reading
from or writing to a shared memory area, is a critical section of code; because
we must ensure that only one process execute a critical section of code at a time.
The critical section problem is to design a protocol that the processes can use to
coordinate their activities when one wants to enter its critical section of code.
3) This seems like a fairly easy solution. The three smoker processes will make a
cigarette and smoke it. If they can’t make a cigarette, then they will go to sleep.
The agent process will place two items on the table, and wake up the appropriate
smoker, and then go to sleep. All semaphores except lock are initialised to 0.
Lock is initialised to 1, and is a mutex variable.
Here’s the code for the agent process.
do forever {
P( lock ); 79
Introduction to Operating randNum = rand(1,3); // Pick a random number from 1-3
Systems and Process
Management if (randNum == 1) {
// Put tobacco on table
// Put paper on table
V(smoker_match); // Wake up smoker with match
}
else if (randNum == 2) {
// Put tobacco on table
// Put match on table
V(smoker_paper); // Wake up smoker with paper
}
else {
// Put match on table
// Put paper on table
V(smoker_tobacco);
} // Wake up smoker with tobacco
V(lock);
P(agent); // Agent sleeps
} // end forever loop
The following is the code for one of the smokers. The others are analogous.
do forever {
P(smoker_tobacco); // Sleep right away
P(lock);
// Pick up match
// Pick up paper
V(agent);
V(lock);
// Smoke
}

1) Milenkovic, Milan, “Operating Systems Concepts and Design”, McGraw-Hill,
2nd Edition.
2) Tanenbaum, Andrew, Modern Operating Systems, Prentice-Hall.
3) Silberschatz,Abraham and Galvin Peter, “Operating System Concepts”,Addison-
Wesley.
4) D.M. Dhamdhere, “Operating Systems A concept-based Approach”, Tata
McGraw-Hill.
5) William Stalling, “Operating System”, Prentice Hall.
6) Deitel, Harvey M. , “An introduction to Operating System”, 4th ed., Addison-
80 Wesley.
UNIT 4 DEADLOCKS and Synchronization
Structure
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Objectives
4.3 Deadlocks
4.4 Characterization of a Deadlock
4.4.1 Mutual Exclusion Condition
4.4.2 Hold and Wait Condition
4.4.3 No-Preemptive Condition
4.4.4 Circular Wait Condition
4.5 Resource Allocation Graph
4.6 Dealing with Deadlock Situations
4.6.1 Deadlock Prevention
4.6.2 Deadlock Avoidance
4.6.3 Deadlock Detection and Recovery
4.7 Summary
4.1 INTRODUCTION
In a computer system, we have a finite number of resources to be distributed among a
number of competing processes. These system resources are classified in several types
which may be either physical or logical. Examples of physical resources are Printers,
Tape drivers, Memory space, and CPU cycles. Examples of logical resources are
Files, Semaphores and Monitors. Each resource type can have some identical instances.
A process must request a resource before using it and release the resource after using
it. It is clear that the number of resources requested cannot exceed the total number of
resources available in the system.
In a normal operation, a process may utilize a resource only in the following sequence:
 Request: if the request cannot be immediately granted, then the requesting process
must wait until it can get the resource.
 Use: the requesting process can operate on the resource.
 Release: the process releases the resource after using it.
Examples for request and release of system resources are:
 Request and release the device,
 Opening and closing file,
 Allocating and freeing the memory.
81
Introduction to Operating The operating system is responsible for making sure that the requesting process has
Systems and Process
Management been allocated the resource.Asystem table indicates if each resource is free or allocated,
and if allocated, to which process. If a process requests a resource that is currently
allocated to another process, it can be added to a queue of processes waiting for this
resource.
In some cases, several processes may compete for a fixed number of resources. A
process requests resources and if the resources are not available at that time, it enters
a wait state. It may happen that it will never gain access to the resources, since those
resources are being held by other waiting processes.
For example, assume a system with one tape drive and one plotter. Process P1 requests
the tape drive and process P2 requests the plotter. Both requests are granted. Now PI
requests the plotter (without giving up the tape drive) and P2 requests the tape drive
(without giving up the plotter). Neither request can be granted so both processes enter
a situation called the deadlock situation.
A deadlock is a situation where a group of processes is permanently blocked as a
result of each process having acquired a set of resources needed for its completion
and having to wait for the release of the remaining resources held by others thus making
it impossible for any of the deadlocked processes to proceed.
In the earlier units, we have gone through the concept of process and the need for the
interprocess communication and synchronization. In this unit we will study about the
deadlocks, its characterisation, deadlock avoidance and its recovery.
4.2 OBJECTIVES
 define a deadlock;
 understand the conditions for a deadlock;
 know the ways of avoiding deadlocks, and
 describe the ways to recover from the deadlock situation.
4.3 DEADLOCKS
Before studying about deadlocks, let us look at the various types of resources. There
are two types of resources namely: Pre-emptable and Non-pre-emptable Resources.
 Pre-emptable resources: This resource can be taken away from the process
with no ill effects. Memory is an example of a pre-emptable resource.
 Non-Preemptable resource: This resource cannot be taken away from the
process (without causing ill effect). For example, CD resources are not preemptable
at an arbitrary moment.
Reallocating resources can resolve deadlocks that involve preemptable resources.
Deadlocks that involve nonpreemptable resources are difficult to deal with. Let us see
how a deadlock occurs.
Definition: A set of processes is in a deadlock state if each process in the set is
82 waiting for an event that can be caused by only another process in the set. In other
words, each member of the set of deadlock processes is waiting for a resource that Deadlocks
can be released only by a deadlock process. None of the processes can run, none of
them can release any resources and none of them can be awakened. It is important to
note that the number of processes and the number and kind of resources possessed
and requested are unimportant.
Let us understand the deadlock situation with the help of examples.
Example 1: The simplest example of deadlock is where process 1 has been allocated
a non-shareable resource A, say, a tap drive, and process 2 has been allocated a non-
sharable resource B, say, a printer. Now, if it turns out that process 1 needs resource
B (printer) to proceed and process 2 needs resource A (the tape drive) to proceed and
these are the only two processes in the system, each has blocked the other and all
useful work in the system stops. This situation is termed as deadlock.
The system is in deadlock state because each process holds a resource being requested
by the other process and neither process is willing to release the resource it holds.
Example 2: Consider a system with three disk drives. Suppose there are three
processes, each is holding one of these three disk drives. If each process now requests
another disk drive, three processes will be in a deadlock state, because each process
is waiting for the event “disk drive is released”, which can only be caused by one of the
other waiting processes. Deadlock state involves processes competing not only for the
same resource type, but also for different resource types.
Deadlocks occur most commonly in multitasking and client/server environments and
are also known as a “Deadly Embrace”. Ideally, the programs that are deadlocked or
the operating system should resolve the deadlock, but this doesn’t always happen.
From the above examples, we have understood the concept of deadlocks. In the
examples we were given some instances, but we will study the necessary conditions
for a deadlock to occur, in the next section.
4.4 CHARACTERIZATION OF A DEADLOCK

Coffman (1971) identified four necessary conditions that must hold simultaneously
for a deadlock to occur.
4.4.1 Mutual Exclusion Condition

The resources involved are non-shareable. At least one resource must be held in a
non-shareable mode, that is, only one process at a time claims exclusive control of the
resource. If another process requests that resource, the requesting process must be
delayed until the resource has been released.
4.4.2 Hold and Wait Condition

In this condition, a requesting process already holds resources and waiting for the
requested resources. A process, holding a resource allocated to it waits for an
additional resource(s) that is/are currently being held by other processes.
4.4.3 No-Preemptive Condition

Resources already allocated to a process cannot be preempted. Resources cannot be 83
Introduction to Operating removed forcibly from the processes.After completion, they will be released voluntarily
Systems and Process
Management by the process holding it.
4.4.4 Circular Wait Condition

The processes in the system form a circular list or chain where each process in the list
is waiting for a resource held by the next process in the list.
Let us understand this by a common example. Consider the traffic deadlock shown in
the Figure 1.
Figure 1: Traffic Deadlock
Consider each section of the street as a resource. In this situation:

 Mutual exclusion condition applies, since only one vehicle can be on a section of
the street at a time.
 Hold-and-wait condition applies, since each vehicle is occupying a section of the
street, and waiting to move on to the next section of the street.
 Non-preemptive condition applies, since a section of the street that is occupied by
a vehicle cannot be taken away from it.
 Circular wait condition applies, since each vehicle is waiting for the next vehicle to
move. That is, each vehicle in the traffic is waiting for a section of the street held by
the next vehicle in the traffic.
The simple rule to avoid traffic deadlock is that a vehicle should only enter an intersection
if it is assured that it will not have to stop inside the intersection.
It is not possible to have a deadlock involving only one single process. The deadlock
involves a circular “hold-and-wait” condition between two or more processes, so
“one” process cannot hold a resource, yet be waiting for another resource that it is
holding. In addition, deadlock is not possible between two threads in a process, because
it is the process that holds resources, not the thread, that is, each thread has access to
the resources held by the process.
4.4 RESOURCE ALLOCATION GRAPH

The idea behind the resource allocation graph is to have a graph which has two different
types of nodes, the process nodes and resource nodes (process represented by circles,
resource node represented by rectangles). For different instances of a resource, there
84
is a dot in the resource node rectangle. For example, if there are two identical printers, Deadlocks
the printer resource might have two dots to indicate that we don’t really care which is
used, as long as we acquire the resource.
The edges among these nodes represent resource allocation and release. Edges are
directed, and if the edge goes from resource to process node that means the process
has acquired the resource. If the edge goes from process node to resource node that
means the process has requested the resource.
We can use these graphs to determine if a deadline has occurred or may occur. If for
example, all resources have only one instance (all resource node rectangles have one
dot) and the graph is circular, then a deadlock has occurred. If on the other hand some
resources have several instances, then a deadlock may occur. If the graph is not circular,
a deadlock cannot occur (the circular wait condition wouldn’t be satisfied).
The following are the tips which will help you to check the graph easily to predict the
presence of cycles.
 If no cycle exists in the resource allocation graph, there is no deadlock.
 If there is a cycle in the graph and each resource has only one instance, then there
is a deadlock. In this case, a cycle is a necessary and sufficient condition for
deadlock.
 If there is a cycle in the graph, and each resource has more than one instance,
there may or may not be a deadlock. (A cycle may be broken if some process
outside the cycle has a resource instance that can break the cycle). Therefore, a
cycle in the resource allocation graph is a necessary but not sufficient condition for
deadlock, when multiple resource instances are considered.
Example:
Figure 2: Resource Allocation Graph Showing Deadlock
The above graph shown in Figure 2 has a cycle and is in Deadlock.
85
Introduction
and Process
Systems and
Management
Managem ent
Figure 3: Resource Allocation Graph having a cycle and not in a Deadlock
The above graph shown in Figure 3 has a cycle and is not in Deadlock.
(Resource 1 has one instance shown by a star)
(Resource 2 has two instances a and b, shown as two stars)
R1 P1 P1 R2 (a)
R2 (b) P2 P2 R1
If P1 finishes, P2 can get R1 and finish, so there is no Deadlock.
4.5 DEALING WITH DEADLOCK SITUATIONS

There are possible strategies to deal with deadlocks. They are:
 Deadlock Prevention
 Deadlock Avoidance
 Deadlock Detection and Recovery
Let’s examine each strategy one by one to evaluate their respective strengths and
weaknesses.
4.5.1 Deadlock Prevention

Havender in his pioneering work showed that since all four of the conditions are
necessary for deadlock to occur, it follows that deadlock might be prevented by denying
any one of the conditions. Let us study Havender’s algorithm.
Havender’s Algorithm
Elimination of “Mutual Exclusion” Condition

The mutual exclusion condition must hold for non-shareable resources. That is, several
processes cannot simultaneously share a single resource. This condition is difficult to
eliminate because some resources, such as the tap drive and printer, are inherently
non-shareable. Note that shareable resources like read-only-file do not require mutually
exclusive access and thus cannot be involved in deadlock.
86
Elimination of “Hold and Wait” Condition Deadlocks
There are two possibilities for the elimination of the second condition. The first alternative
is that a process request be granted all the resources it needs at once, prior to execution.
The second alternative is to disallow a process from requesting resources whenever it
has previously allocated resources. This strategy requires that all the resources a process
will need must be requested at once. The system must grant resources on “all or
none” basis. If the complete set of resources needed by a process is not currently
available, then the process must wait until the complete set is available. While the
process waits, however, it may not hold any resources. Thus the “wait for” condition is
denied and deadlocks simply cannot occur. This strategy can lead to serious waste of
resources.
For example, a program requiring ten tap drives must request and receive all ten drives
before it begins executing. If the program needs only one tap drive to begin execution
and then does not need the remaining tap drives for several hours then substantial
computer resources (9 tape drives) will sit idle for several hours. This strategy can
cause indefinite postponement (starvation), since not all the required resources may
become available at once.
Elimination of “No-preemption” Condition
The nonpreemption condition can be alleviated by forcing a process waiting for a

resource that cannot immediately be allocated, to relinquish all of its currently held
resources, so that other processes may use them to finish their needs. Suppose a
system does allow processes to hold resources while requesting additional resources.
Consider what happens when a request cannot be satisfied. A process holds
resources a second process may need in order to proceed, while the second
process may hold the resources needed by the first process. This is a deadlock.
This strategy requires that when a process that is holding some resources is denied
a request for additional resources, the process must release its held resources and, if
necessary, request them again together with additional resources. Implementation
of this strategy denies the “no-preemptive” condition effectively.
High Cost
When a process releases resources, the process may lose all its work to that point.
One serious consequence of this strategy is the possibility of indefinite postponement
(starvation).A process might be held off indefinitely as it repeatedly requests and
releases the same resources.
Elimination of “Circular Wait” Condition
The last condition, the circular wait, can be denied by imposing a total ordering on all
of the resource types and than forcing all processes to request the resources in order
(increasing or decreasing). This strategy imposes a total ordering of all resource types,
and requires that each process requests resources in a numerical order of enumeration.
With this rule, the resource allocation graph can never have a cycle.
For example, provide a global numbering of all the resources, as shown in the given
Table 1:
87
Introduction to Operating Table 1: Numbering the resources
Systems and Process
Management
Number Resource
1 Floppy drive
2 Printer
3 Plotter
4 Tape Drive
5 CD Drive
Now we will see the rule for this:

Rule: Processes can request resources whenever they want to, but all requests must
be made in numerical order. A process may request first printer and then a tape drive
(order: 2, 4), but it may not request first a plotter and then a printer (order: 3, 2). The
problem with this strategy is that it may be impossible to find an ordering that satisfies
everyone.
This strategy, if adopted, may result in low resource utilization and in some cases
starvation is possible too.
4.5.2 Deadlock Avoidance

This approach to the deadlock problem anticipates a deadlock before it actually occurs.
This approach employs an algorithm to access the possibility that deadlock could
occur and act accordingly. This method differs from deadlock prevention, which
guarantees that deadlock cannot occur by denying one of the necessary conditions of
deadlock. The most famous deadlock avoidance algorithm, from Dijkstra [1965], is
the Banker’s algorithm. It is named as Banker’s algorithm because the process is
analogous to that used by a banker in deciding if a loan can be safely made a not.
The Banker’s Algorithm is based on the banking system, which never allocates its
available cash in such a manner that it can no longer satisfy the needs of all its customers.
Here we must have the advance knowledge of the maximum possible claims for each
process, which is limited by the resource availability. During the run of the system we
should keep monitoring the resource allocation status to ensure that no circular wait
condition can exist.
If the necessary conditions for a deadlock are in place, it is still possible to avoid
deadlock by being careful when resources are allocated. The following are the features
that are to be considered for avoidance of the deadlock s per the Banker’s Algorithms.
 Each process declares maximum number of resources of each type that it may
need.
 Keep the system in a safe state in which we can allocate resources to each process
in some order and avoid deadlock.
 Check for the safe state by finding a safe sequence: <P1, P2, ..., Pn> where
resources that Pi needs can be satisfied by available resources plus resources held
by Pj where j < i.
88
 Resource allocation graph algorithm uses claim edges to check for a safe state. Deadlocks
The resource allocation state is now defined by the number of available and allocated
resources, and the maximum demands of the processes. Subsequently the system can
be in either of the following states:
 Safe state: Such a state occur when the system can allocate resources to each
process (up to its maximum) in some order and avoid a deadlock. This state will
be characterised by a safe sequence. It must be mentioned here that we should
not falsely conclude that all unsafe states are deadlocked although it may eventually
lead to a deadlock.
 Unsafe State: If the system did not follow the safe sequence of resource allocation
from the beginning and it is now in a situation, which may lead to a deadlock, then
it is in an unsafe state.
 Deadlock State: If the system has some circular wait condition existing for some
processes, then it is in deadlock state.
Let us study this concept with the help of an example as shown below:
Consider an analogy in which 4 processes (P1, P2, P3 and P4) can be compared with
the customers in a bank, resources such as printers etc. as cash available in the bank
and the Operating system as the Banker.
Table 2
Processes Resources Maximum
used resources
P1 0 6
P2 0 5
P3 0 4
P4 0 7
Let us assume that total available resources = 10

In the above table, we see four processes, each of which has been granted a number of
maximum resources that can be used. The Operating system reserved only 10 resources
rather than 22 units to service them.At a certain moment, the situation becomes:
Table 3
used resources
P1 1 6
P2 1 5
P3 2 4
P4 4 7
Available resources = 2 89
Introduction to Operating Safe State: The key to a state being safe is that there is at least one way for all users
Systems and Process
Management to finish. In other words the state of Table 2 is safe because with 2 units left, the
operating system can delay any request except P3, thus letting P3 finish and release all
four resources. With four units in hand, the Operating system can let either P4 or P2
have the necessary units and so on.
Unsafe State: Consider what would happen if a request from P2 for one more unit
was granted in Table 3. We would have following situation as shown in Table 4.
Table 4
used resources
P1 1 6
P2 2 5
P3 2 4
P4 4 7
Available resource = 1
This is an unsafe state.
If all the processes request for their maximum resources respectively, then the operating
system could not satisfy any of them and we would have a deadlock.
Important Note: It is important to note that an unsafe state does not imply the existence
or even the eventual existence of a deadlock. What an unsafe state does imply is
simply that some unfortunate sequence of events might lead to a deadlock.
The Banker’s algorithm is thus used to consider each request as it occurs, and see if
granting it leads to a safe state. If it does, the request is granted, otherwise, it is postponed
until later. Haberman [1969] has shown that executing of the algorithm has a complexity
proportional to N2 where N is the number of processes and since the algorithm is
executed each time a resource request occurs, the overhead is significant.
Limitations of the Banker’s Algorithm
There are some problems with the Banker’s algorithm as given below:
 It is time consuming to execute on the operation of every resource.
 If the claim information is not accurate, system resources may be underutilized.
 Another difficulty can occur when a system is heavily loaded. Lauesen states that
in this situation “so many resources are granted away that very few safe sequences
remain, and as a consequence, the jobs will be executed sequentially”. Therefore,
the Banker’s algorithm is referred to as the “Most Liberal” granting policy; that is,
it gives away everything that it can without regard to the consequences.
 New processes arriving may cause a problem.
– The process’s claim must be less than the total number of units of the resource
in the system. If not, the process is not accepted by the manager.
90
– Since the state without the new process is safe, so is the state with the new Deadlocks
process. Just use the order you had originally and put the new process at the
end.
– Ensuring fairness (starvation freedom) needs a little more work, but isn’t too
hard either (once every hour stop taking new processes until all current
processes finish).
 A resource becoming unavailable (e.g., a tape drive breaking), can result in an
unsafe state.
4.5.3 Deadlock Detection and Recovery

Detection of deadlocks is the most practical policy, which being both liberal and cost
efficient, most operating systems deploy. To detect a deadlock, we must go about in a
recursive manner and simulate the most favoured execution of each unblocked process.
 An unblocked process may acquire all the needed resources and will execute.
 It will then release all the acquired resources and remain dormant thereafter.
 The now released resources may wake up some previously blocked process.
 Continue the above steps as long as possible.
 If any blocked processes remain, they are deadlocked.
Recovery from Deadlock
Recovery by process termination
In this approach we terminate deadlocked processes in a systematic way taking into
account their priorities. The moment, enough processes are terminated to recover
from deadlock, we stop the process terminations. Though the policy is simple, there
are some problems associated with it.
Consider the scenario where a process is in the state of updating a data file and it is
terminated. The file may be left in an incorrect state by the unexpected termination of
the updating process. Further, processes should be terminated based on some criterion/
policy. Some of the criteria may be as follows:
 Priority of a process
 CPU time used and expected usage before completion
 Number and type of resources being used (can they be preempted easily?)
 Number of resources needed for completion
 Number of processes needed to be terminated
 Are the processes interactive or batch?
Recovery by Checkpointing and Rollback (Resource preemption)
Some systems facilitate deadlock recovery by implementing checkpointing and
rollback. Checkpointing is saving enough state of a process so that the process can
be restarted at the point in the computation where the checkpoint was taken.Autosaving
file edits are a form of checkpointing. Checkpointing costs depend on the underlying 91
Introduction to Operating algorithm. Very simple algorithms (like linear primality testing) can be checkpointed
Systems and Process
Management with a few words of data. More complicated processes may have to save all the
process state and memory.
If a deadlock is detected, one or more processes are restarted from their last checkpoint.
Restarting a process from a checkpoint is called rollback. It is done with the expectation
that the resource requests will not interleave again to produce deadlock.
Deadlock recovery is generally used when deadlocks are rare, and the cost of recovery
(process termination or rollback) is low.
Process checkpointing can also be used to improve reliability (long running
computations), assist in process migration, or reduce startup costs.

1) What is a deadlock and what are the four conditions that will create the deadlock
situation?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) How can deadlock be avoided? Explain with the help of an example.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4.6 SUMMARY
A deadlock occurs a process has some resource and is waiting to acquire another
resource, while that resource is being held by some process that is waiting to acquire
the resource that is being held by the first process.
A deadlock needs four conditions to occur: Mutual Exclusion, Hold and Wait, Non-
Preemption and Circular Waiting.
We can handle deadlocks in three major ways: We can prevent them, handle them
when we detect them, or simply ignore the whole deadlock issue altogether.
1) A set of processes is in a deadlock state when every process in the set is waiting
for an event that can only be caused by another process in the set. A deadlock
situation can arise if the following four conditions hold simultaneously in a system:
92
 Mutual Exclusion: At least one resource must be held in a non-shareable Deadlocks
mode; that is, only one process at a time can use the resource. If another
process requests the resource, the requesting process must be delayed until
the resource has been released.
 Hold and Wait: A process must be holding at least one resource and waiting
to acquire additional resources that are currently being held by other
processes.
 No Preemption: Resources cannot be preempted; that is, a resource can be

released only voluntarily by the process holding it, after that process has
completed its task.
 Circular Wait: A set {P0, P1, P2, …, Pn} of waiting processes must exist
such that P0 is waiting for a resource that is held by P1, P1 is waiting for a
resource that is held by P2, …, Pn-1 is waiting for a resource that is held by
Pn, and Pn is waiting for a resource that is held by P0.
2) Deadlock avoidance deals with processes that declare before execution how many
resources they may need during their execution. Given several processes and
resources, if we can allocate the resources in some order as to prevent a deadlock,
the system is said to be in a safe state. If a deadlock is possible, the system is said
to be in an unsafe state. The idea of avoiding a deadlock is to simply not allow the
system to enter an unsafe state which may cause a deadlock. We can define what
makes an unsafe state.
For example, consider a system with 12 tape drives and three processes: P0, P1
and P2. P0 may require 10 tape drives during execution, P1 may require 4, and
P2 may require up to 9. Suppose that at some moment in time, P0 is holding on to
5 tape drives, P1 holds 2 and P2 holds 2 tape drives. The system is said to be in
a safe state, since there is a safe sequence that avoids the deadlock. This sequence
implies that P1 can instantly get all of its needed resources (there are 12 total tape
drives, and P1 already has 2, so the maximum it needs is 2, which it can get since
there are 3 free tape drives). Once it finishes executing, it releases all 4 resources,
which makes for 5 free tape drives, at which point, P0 can execute (since the
maximum it needs is 10), after it finishes, P2 can proceed since the maximum it
needs is 9.
Now, here’s an unsafe sequence: Let’s say at some point of time P2 requests one
more resource to make its holding resources 3. Now the system is in an unsafe
state, since only P1 can be allocated resources, and after it returns, it will only
leave 4 free resources, which is not enough for either P0 or P2, so the system
enters a deadlock.

1) Madnick and Donovan, Operating systems – Concepts and Design, McGrawHill
Intl. Education.
93
Introduction to Operating 3) D.M. Dhamdhere, Operating Systems, A concept-based approach, TMGH,
Systems and Process
Management 2002.
4) Abraham Silberschatz and James L, Operating System Concepts.
Peterson,Addition Wesely Publishing Company, New Delhi.
5) Harvay M. Deital, Introduction to Operating systems,Addition Wesely Publishing
Company, New Delhi.
6) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Operating System Design and Implementation, PHI,
New Delhi.
94
MCS--203
O
Operati
ing Systeems
In
ndira Gandhi
Naational Open University
U
Scchool of Compuuter and
In
nformation Scieences
Block
B
2
MEMORY
M Y MANA
AGEMEN NT, FILE
E
MANAGE
M EMENT AND
A SE
ECURITY Y
UNIT
U 1
Memory
M M
Managemen nt 5
UNIT
U 2
Virtual
V Meemory 23
UNIT
U 3
I//O and Fille Management 42
UNIT
U 4
Seecurity an
nd Protecttion 67
Shri Anil Kumar
Prof. Gayatri Dhingra, GVMITM, Sonipat
Dr. Kapil Kumar, IIMT, Meerut Impressico Business Solutions, Noida, UP
Dr. Sachin Kumar, Prof. V. V. Subrahmanyam, Director
SOCIS, New Delhi
CCS University,
Meerut Ms. Manjulata Prof. P. V. Suresh,

Prof. D.P. Vidyarthi (Content Editor) Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi SOCIS, IGNOU
Ms. Bhoomi Gupta Prof. Nandini Sahu

Sirifort College of Computer and &
Technology Management, New Delhi Ms. Malathy. A
Editorial Unit, SOH, IGNOU
Shri Sachin Kumar (Language
CCS University, Meerut Prof. A.K. Verma Editors)
Professor & Head (Retired)
Ms. Manjulata Indian Institute of Mass
Amity School of Engineering and Communication, Delhi
Technology New Delhi

(The Units of Block-2, Unit 1 to Unit-4 were adapted from MCS-041 Operating Systems)
PRINT PRODUCTION
March, 2021
Printed at :
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
The objective of this block is to familiarize you with the issues involved in the
memory management, I/O management, File management and Security by the
Operating System.
The block is organized into 4 units.
Unit 1 covers the single process monitor, overlays, memory allocation methods,
paging and segmentation schemes.
Unit 2 covers the concept of virtual memory, demand paging, demand
segmentation and combined systems like segmented paging and paged
segmentation.
Unit 3 covers the I/O management and issues related to file management.
Unit 4 covers the very important and critical aspect namely security and protection.
Memory Management, File
Management and Security
4
Memory Management
UNIT 1 MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Overlays and Swapping
1.3 Logical and Physical Address Space
1.4 Single Process Monitor
1.5 Contiguous Allocation Methods
1.5.1 Single Partition System
1.5.2 Multiple Partition System
1.6 Paging
1.6.1 Principles of Operation
1.6.2 Page Allocation
1.6.3 Hardware Support for Paging
1.6.4 Protection and Sharing
1.7 Segmentation
1.7.2 Address Translation
1.8 Summary
1.9 Solution/Answers
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In Block 1 we have studied about introductory concepts of the OS, process
management and deadlocks. In this unit, we will go through another important
function of the Operating System – the memory management.
Memory is central to the operation of a modern computer system. Memory is a
large array of words or bytes, each location with its own address. Interaction is
achieved through a sequence of reads/writes of specific memory address. The
CPU fetches from the program from the hard disk and stores in memory. If a
program is to be executed, it must be mapped to absolute addresses and loaded
into memory.
In a multiprogramming environment, in order to improve both the CPU utilization
and the speed of the computer’s response, several processes must be kept in
memory. There are many different algorithms depending on the particular situation
to manage the memory. Selection of a memory management scheme for a specific
system depends upon many factors, but especially upon the hardware design of
the system. Each algorithm requires its own hardware support.
The Operating System is responsible for the following activities in connection
with memory management: 5
Memory Management, File  Keep track of which parts of memory are currently being used and by whom.
 Decide which processes are to be loaded into memory when memory space
becomes available.
 Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed.
In the multiprogramming environment operating system dynamically allocates
memory to multiple processes. Thus memory plays a significant role in the
important aspects of computer system like performance, S/W support, reliability
and stability.
Memory can be broadly classified into two categories–the primary memory (like
cache and RAM) and the secondary memory (like magnetic tape, disk etc.). The
memory is a resource that needs effective and efficient management. The part of
OS that perform this vital task of memory management is known as memory
manager. In multiprogramming system, as available memory is shared among
number of processes, so the allocation speed and the efficient memory utilization
(in terms of minimal overheads and reuse/relocation of released memory block)
are of prime concern. Protection is difficult to achieve with relocation requirement,
as location of process and absolute address in memory is unpredictable. But at
run-time, it can be done. Fortunately, we have mechanisms supporting protection
like processor (hardware) support that is able to abort the instructions violating
protection and trying to interrupt other processes.
This unit collectively depicts such memory management related responsibilities
in detail by the OS. Further we will discuss, the basic approaches of allocation
are of two types:
Contiguous Memory Allocation: Each programs data and instructions are
allocated a single contiguous space in memory.
Non-Contiguous Memory Allocation: Each programs data and instructions are
allocated memory space that is not continuous. This unit focuses on contiguous
memory allocation scheme.
1.1 OBJECTIVES
 describe the various activities handled by the operating system while
performing the memory management function;
 to allocate memory to the processes when they need it;
 reallocation when processes are terminated;
 logical and physical memory organization;
 memory protection against unauthorized access and sharing;
 to manage swapping between main memory and disk in case main storage is
small to hold all processes;
 to summarize the principles of memory management as applied to paging
6 and segmentation;
 compare and contrast paging and segmentation techniques, and Memory Management
 analyse the various memory portioning/partitioning techniques including

overlays, swapping, and placement and replacement policies.
1.2 OVERLAYS AND SWAPPING

Usually, programs reside on a disk in the form of executable files and for their
execution they must be brought into memory and must be placed within a process.
Such programs form the ready queue. In general scenario, processes are fetched
from ready queue, loaded into memory and then executed. During these stages,
addresses may be represented in different ways like in source code addresses or
in symbolic form (ex. LABEL). Compiler will bind this symbolic address to
relocatable addresses (for example, 16 bytes from base address or start of module).
The linkage editor will bind these relocatable addresses to absolute addresses.
Before we learn a program in memory we must bind the memory addresses that
the program is going to use. Binding is basically assigning which address the
code and data are going to occupy. You can bind at compile-time, load-time or
execution time.
Compile-time: If memory location is known a priori, absolute code can be
generated.
Load-time: If it is not known, it must generate relocatable at complete time.
Execution-time: Binding is delayed until run-time; process can be moved during
its execution. We need H/W support for address maps (base and limit registers).
For better memory utilization all modules can be kept on disk in a relocatable
format and only main program is loaded into memory and executed. Only on
need the other routines are called, loaded and address is updated. Such scheme is
called dynamic loading, which is user’s responsibility rather than OS.But
Operating System provides library routines to implement dynamic loading.
In the above discussion we have seen that entire program and its related data is
loaded in physical memory for execution. But what if process is larger than the
amount of memory allocated to it? We can overcome this problem by adopting a
technique called as Overlays. Like dynamic loading, overlays can also be
implemented by users without OS support. The entire program or application is
divided into instructions and data sets such that when one instruction set is
needed it is loaded in memory and after its execution is over, the space is released.
As and when requirement for other instruction arises it is loaded into space that
was released previously by the instructions that are no longer needed. Such
instructions can be called as overlays, which are loaded and unloaded by the
program.
Definition: An overlay is a part of an application, which has been loaded at same
origin where previously some other part(s) of the program was residing.
A program based on overlay scheme mainly consists of following:
 A “root” piece which is always memory resident
 Set of overlays.
7
Memory Management, File Overlay
O givees the prograam a way to extend limitted main storrage. An impportant
Mana
agement and Security
aspect
a d to overlays identificatioon in program
related m is concept of
o mutual excclusion
i..e., routines which do nnot invoke each e other and
a are not loaded
l in mmemory
simultaneoussly.
For
F example,, suppose tottal available memory is 1140K. Considder a program m with
four
fo subroutinnes named aas: Read ( ), Function1(( ), Function2( ) and Dispplay( ).
First,
F Read is invoked thhat reads a set s of data. Based on thhis data set values,
v
conditionally
c y either one oof routine Function1
F or Function2 is
i called. Annd then
Display
D is caalled to outpuut results. Heere, Functionn1 and Funcction2 are mutually
m
exclusive
e annd are not required sim multaneoussly in memoory. The memory
m
reequirement can
c be shownn as in Figurre 1:
Figure 1: Example of oveerlay
Without
W the overlay
o it requires 180 K of memoryy and with thhe overlay support
s
memory
m requ
uirement is 1330K. Overlaay manager/ddriver is responsible for looading
and
a unloadinng on overlayy segment as per requireement. But thist scheme suffers
from
fr followinng limitationns:
 Require careful
c and ttime-consum
ming planningg.
 Programm mer is responnsible for orrganising oveerlay structuure of program m with
the help of
o file structuures etc. andd also to ensuure that piecee of code is already
a
loaded when
w it is callled.
 Operatinng System proovides the faacility to loadd files into overlay
o region.
Swapping
S
Swapping
S is an approachh for memoryy managemeent by bringiing each process in
entirety,
e runn
ning it and thhen putting itt back on thee disk, so thaat another prrogram
may
m be loaded into that sppace. Swappiing is a technnique that letss you use a ddisk file
as
a an extensioon of memory ry. Lower priority user proocesses are swapped
s to backing
b
store (disk) when
w they are waiting for I/O
I or some oother event liike arrival off higher
priority
p proceesses. This is Rollout Swap
apping. Swappping the process back intto store
when
w some evvent occurs oor when needded (may be in i a differentt partition) is known
as
a Roll-in swa apping. Figuure 2 depicts technique off swapping:
8 Figuree 2: Swapping
Major benefits of using swapping are: Memory Management
 Allows higher degree of multiprogramming.

 Allows dynamic relocation, i.e., if address binding at execution time is being
used we can swap in different location else in case of compile and load time
bindings processes have to be moved to same location only.
 Better memory utilization.

 Less wastage of CPU time on compaction, and
 Can easily be applied on priority-based scheduling algorithms to improve
performance.
Though swapping has these benefits but it has few limitations also like entire
program must be resident in store when it is executing. Also processes with
changing memory requirements will need to issue system calls for requesting
and releasing memory. It is necessary to know exactly how much memory a user
process is using and also that it is blocked or waiting for I/O.
If we assume a data transfer rate of 1 megabyte/sec and access time of 10

milliseconds, then to actually transfer a 100Kbyte process we require:
Transfer Time = 100K / 1,000 = 1/10 seconds
= 100 milliseconds
Access time = 10 milliseconds
Total time = 110 milliseconds
As both the swap out and swap in should take place, the total swap time is then
about 220 milliseconds (above time is doubled). A round robin CPU scheduling
should have a time slot size much larger relative to swap time of 220 milliseconds.
Also if process is not utilising memory space and just waiting for I/O operation
or blocked, it should be swapped.
1.3 LOGICAL AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS SPACE

The computer interacts via logical and physical addressing to map memory.
Logical address is the one that is generated by CPU, also referred to as virtual
address. The program perceives this address space. Physical address is the actual
address understood by computer hardware i.e., memory unit. Logical to physical
address translation is taken care by the Operating System. The term virtual memory
refers to the abstraction of separating LOGICAL memory (i.e., memory as seen
by the process) from PHYSICAL memory (i.e., memory as seen by the processor).
Because of this separation, the programmer needs to be aware of only the logical
memory space while the operating system maintains two or more levels of physical
memory space.
In compile-time and load-time address binding schemes these two tend to be the
same. These differ in execution-time address binding scheme and the MMU
(Memory Management Unit) handles translation of these addresses.
9
Memory Management, File Definition:
D M
MMU (as shhown in the Figure
F 3) iss a hardwaree device thatt maps
Mana
loogical addreess to the phhysical addreess. It maps the virtual address to thhe real
store locationn. The simple MMU sch heme adds thhe relocation register coontents
too the base address
a of thhe program that is geneerated at thee time it is ssent to
memory.
m
Figure 3: Role of MMU

U
The
T entire seet of logicall addresses forms
f logicaal address sppace and sett of all
correspondin
c ng physical adddresses mak
akes physicall address spaace.
1
1.4 SING
GLE PR
ROCESS MONITOR
(MO
ONOPROOGRAMMMING)
In
n the simpleest case of sinngle-user sysstem everythhing was easy as at a tim
me there
was
w just one process in memory and no addresss translationn was done by the
operating
o sysstem dynamiically duringg execution. Protection
P o OS (or parrt of it)
of
can
c be achievved by keepiing it in ROM M.We can allso have a seeparate OS address
a
space only acccessible in supervisor
s mode
m as show
wn in Figure 4.
The
T user can employ oveerlays if mem mory requirem
ment by a prrogram exceeeds the
size of physical memory.. In this apprroach only one
o process at a time cann be in
ruunning statee in the systtem. Examplle of such ssystem is MS-DOS whicch is a
single tasking g system haaving a com mmand interppreter. Such an arrangem
ment is
liimited in cappability and pperformancee.
F
Figure 4: Sing
gle Partition System
S
1
1.5 CON
NTIGUO
OUS ALL
LOCATIO
ON MET
THODS
In
n a practical scenario Operating Systeem could be divided
d into several categgories
as
a shown in the
t hierarchiccal chart giv
ven below:
1) Single prrocess system

m
2)
2 Multiple process systeem with two types:
t Fixedd partition meemory and vaariable
partition memory.
10
Memory M
Management
Fu
urther we will learn thesee schemes inn next sectionn.
Pa
artitioned Memory
M allo
ocation:
Thhe concept of
o multiproggramming em
mphasizes onn maximizinng CPU utilizzation
byy overlapping CPU and I/O.
I Memory y may be alloocated as:
 Single larg
ge partition for
f processes to use or
 Multiple partitions
p wiith a single process
p usingg a single parrtition.
1..5.1 Single-Partition
n System
Thhis approach h keeps the Operating
O Syystem in the lower part of o the memorry and
otther user proocesses in thee upper part.. With this sccheme, Operrating System m can
bee protected from
fr updatingg in user proocesses. Reloocation-register scheme kknown
ass dynamic rellocation is usseful for this purpose. It nnot only proteects user proccesses
froom each othher but also from changging OS code and data. Two registeers are
ussed: relocatioon register, contains value of the smalllest physicall address andd limit
register, contaains logical adddresses rang ge. Both thesse are set by Operating Syystem
wh hen the job starts.
s At loadd time of proogram (i.e., when
w it has too be relocateed) we
must
m establishh “addressabbility” by adj djusting the rrelocation reegister conteents to
th
he new startin ng address foor the prograam. The scheeme is shown n in Figure 55.
Figure 5: Dyn
namic Relocattion
Thhe contents of
o a relocation
n register aree implicitly added
a to any address
a referrences
geenerated by the
t program. Some system ms use base registers as relocation
r reegister
fo
or easy addreessability as these are wiithin program mmer’s contrrol. Also, in some
sy
ystems, reloccation is man
naged and accessed by Opperating Sysstem only.
Too summarize this, we can say, in dynam mic relocatioon scheme if the t logical adddress
sp
pace range iss 0 to Max thent physicaal address sppace range is i R+0 to R+ +Max
(w
where R is rellocation regiister contentss). Similarly,, a limit regisster is checkeed by
11
Memory Management, File H/W
H to be suure that logiccal address generated
g by CPU is not bigger than size of
Mana
thhe program.
1
1.5.2 Multtiple Partiition Systeem: Fixed--sized parttition
This
T is also known
k as staatic partitionning schemee as shown inn Figure 6. S Simple
memory
m management scheme is to divvide memory into n (possiibly unequal)) fixed-
sized partitio
ons, each off which can hold exactlly one proceess. The deggree of
multiprogram
m mming is depeendent on thee number of ppartitions. IBM used this sscheme
for
fo systems 360
3 OS/MFT (Multipro ogramming w with a fixed number of tasks).
The
T partitionn boundaries are not movvable (must reboot to moove a job). We W can
have
h one queeue per partittion or just a single queuee for all the partitions.
p
F
Figure 6: Multtiple Partition System
Innitially, whoole memory iis available forf user proccesses and iss like a largee block
of
o available memory.
m Opeerating System keeps detaails of availaable memory blocks
and
a occupiedd blocks in tabbular form. OS O also keepss track on meemory requireements
of
o each proccess. As proccesses enter into the inpput queue annd when suffficient
space for it iss available, process is alloocated spacee and loaded. After its exeecution
iss over it releeases its occuupied space and
a OS fills this space with
w other proocesses
inn input queu ue. The blocck of availab ble memory is known ass a Hole. Hooles of
various
v sizes are scattered throughou ut the memory ry. When anyy process arrrives, it
iss allocated memory
m from
m a hole thaat is large ennough to acccommodate it. i This
example
e is shhown in Figuure 7:
Figgure 7: Fixed-sized Partition

n Scheme
Iff a hole is too large, it is divided intoo two parts:

1) One that is allocated to next proccess of input queue
2)
2 Added with
w set of hooles.
Within
W a parttition if two holes are addjacent then they can be merged to mmake a
12 single large hole.
h But thiss scheme sufffers from fraagmentation problem. Sttorage
fraagmentation n occurs either becausee the user pprocesses doo not completely Memory M
Management
acccommodate the allotted partition or partition rem mains unusedd, if it is too small
to hold any process
p fromm input queuue. Main meemory utilizaation is extreemely
nefficient. Anny program, no matter ho
in ow small, occcupies entirre partition. IIn our
exxample, proccess B takes 150K of parrtition2 (2000K size). Wee are left withh 50K
sizzed hole. Thiis phenomen non, in which there is wastted space inteernal to a parrtition,
is known as innternal fragm mentation. Itt occurs becaause initially
y process is looaded
n partition thaat is large en
in nough to holdd it (i.e., allocated memory may be sllightly
larrger than reqquested mem mory). “Internnal” here meeans memory y that is interrnal to
a partition,
p buut is not in usse.
1..5.3 Variable-sized d Partition
Th his scheme is also known n as dynamicc partitioninng. In this sccheme, bounddaries

arre not fixed. Processes accommodate
a e memory acccording to their
t requireement.
Thhere is no waastage as parttition size is exactly
e samee as the size of
o the user process.
In
nitially when processes sttart this wasttage can be avoided
a but later
l on whenn they
terrminate theyy leave holes in the main storage.
s Otheer processes can accomm modate
th
hese, but evenntually they become too small to accommodate new n jobs as sshown
in
n Figure 8.
Fiigure 8: Variaable sized parttitions
IB
BM used this technique fo or OS/MVT (Multiprogra
( amming with a Variable nuumber
off Tasks) as thee partitions are
a of variablee length and number. But still fragmenntation
an
nomaly existts in this schheme. As tim me goes on aand processees are loadeed and
removed from m memory, fraagmentation increases annd memory uttilization decclines.
Thhis wastage of memory, which is exxternal to paartition, is knownk as extternal
fraagmentationn. In this, thoough there iss enough totaal memory too satisfy a reequest
buut as it is no
ot contiguou us and it is fragmented
f into small ho
oles, that cann’t be
uttilized.
Exxternal fragm
mentation prooblem can bee resolved byy coalescing holes and storage
co
ompaction. Coalescing
C holes
h is proccess of merging existing hole adjacennt to a
w terminatee and free its allocated sppace. Thus, new
prrocess that will n adjacent holes
an
nd existing holes
h can bee viewed as a single largge hole and can be efficciently
uttilized.
Thhere is anothher possibiliity that holees are distribbuted throughhout the meemory.
Foor utilising such
s scattereed holes, shuuffle all occuupied areas of
o memory tto one
en
nd and leave all free mem mory space as a single large block, which
w can fu
further
bee utilized. This
T mechan nism is know wn as Storagge Compacttion, as show wn in
Fiigure 9.
13
Mana
Figure 9: Storage Compaction
But
B storage compaction
c aalso has its liimitations ass shown belo
ow:
1) It requirees extra overhheads in term
ms of resourcee utilization and
a large respponse
time.
2)
2 Compacttion is requiired frequenntly because jobs terminnate rapidly.. This
enhancess system resoource consum
mption and makes
m compaaction expennsive.
3)
3 Compacttion is possiible only if dynamic rellocation is being b used (aat run-
time). Thhis is becausee the memorry contents thhat are shufffled (i.e., reloocated)
and execuuted in new location requ uire all interrnal addressees to be reloccated.
Inn a multiprogramming syystem memo ory is dividedd into a nummber of fixed size or
variable
v sizedd partitions oor regions, which
w are alloocated to runnning processses. For
example:
e a prrocess needss m words off memory maay run in a partition
p of n words
where
w n is grreater than oor equal to m.m The variaable size parrtition schem me may
reesult in a situuation wheree available memory
m is nott contiguous, but fragmenntation
and
a external fragmentatio
f on. The differrence (n-m) iis called inteernal fragmenntation,
memory
m which is internaal to a partittion but is notn being usse. If a partiition is
unused
u and available,
a butt too small too be used byy any waiting g process, thhen it is
accounted
a forr external fraagmentation.. These mem mory fragmennts cannot be used.
In
n order to soolve this probblem, we cann either com
mpact the mem mory making large
free
fr memoryy blocks, or implement paging p scheeme which allows
a a program’s
memory
m to bee noncontiguuous, thus peermitting a prrogram to bee allocated phhysical
memory
m wherrever it is avvailable.

 Check Your
Y Progresss 1
1) What aree the four impportant taskss of a memorry manager?
........................................................................................................................
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........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2)
2 What aree the three triicks used to resolve
r absoolute addresses?
........................................................................................................................
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14
............................................................................................................................. Memory Management
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
3)) What are the problem

ms that arisse with absoolute addressses in term
ms of
swapping?
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1..6 PAG
GING
We
W will see thhe principles of operationn of the paginng in the nexxt section.
Paaging scheme solves the problem
p faced in variablle sized partiitions like exxternal
fraagmentationn.
1..6.1 Princciples of Operation

O
In
n a paged systtem, logical memory
m is diivided into a number of fiixed sizes ‘chhunks’
caalled pages. The
T physical memory is also a predivideed into same fixed sized bblocks
(aas is the size of
o pages) callled page fraames. The paage sizes (alsso the frame sizes)
arre always pow wers of 2, annd vary betwween 512 bytees to 8192 byytes per pagee. The
reason behind d this is impllementation of paging m mechanism using page nuumber
annd page offseet. This is disscussed in deetail in the foollowing secctions:
Figuree 10: Principlee of operation

n of paging
Eaach process page

p is loadeed to some memory
m fram
me. These paages can be looaded
in
nto contiguouus frames in memory or into nonconntiguous fram mes also as sshown
in
n Figure 10. The
T externall fragmentatiion is alleviaated since proocesses are looaded
in
nto separate holes.
h
1..6.2 Page Allocation

n
In
n variable sizeed partitioninng of memorry every timee when a proccess of size n is to
bee loaded it iss important to know the best
b locationn from the list of availablee/free 15
Memory Management, File holes.
h This dynamic
d storrage allocation is necesssary to increease efficienncy and
Mana
thhroughput off system. Most commonlyy used strateggies to make such selectioon are:
1)
1 Best-fit Policy:
P Allocaating the holee in which thee process fits most “tightlyy” i.e.,
the differeence betweenn the hole sizze and the proocess size is th
he minimum one.
2)
2 First-fit Policy: Alllocating the first available hole (acco
ording to meemory
order), which
w is big eenough to acccommodate the new proccess.
3)
3 Worst-fiit Policy: Allocating the laargest hole thhat will leave maximum am
mount
of unused
d space i.e., leftover spacce is maximuum after alloocation.
Now,
N questioon arises which strategy is likely to bee used? In prractice, best--fit and
first-fit
fi are better
b than wworst-fit. Botth these are efficient in terms of timme and
storage requiirement. Besst-fit minimiize the leftovver space, crreate smallest hole
thhat could bee rarely used. First-fit onn the other haand requires least overheeads in
itts implemenntation becauuse of its sim mplicity. Posssibly worst--fit also som
metimes
leeaves large holes
h that coould further be used to accommodaate other processes.
Thus
T all thesee policies haave their ownn merits and demerits.
1.6.3
1 Hard
dware Sup
pport for Paging
P
Every
E logicall page in pagging scheme is divided innto two partss:
1) A page number
n (p) inn logical addrress space
2)
2 The displlacement (orr offset) in paage p at whicch item residdes (i.e., from
m start
of page).
This
T is knownn as Addresss Translationn scheme. For example, a 16-bit addreess can
be
b divided ass given in Figgure below:
Here,
H as pagee number takees 5bits, so raange of valuees is 0 to 31(ii.e. 25-1). Sim
milarly,
offset
o value uses
u 11-bits, so range is 0 to 2023(i.ee., 2 –1). Suummarizing this
11
t we
can
c say pagin ng scheme usses 32 pages, each with 22024 locationns.
The
T table, wh hich holds virrtual address to physical aaddress transllations, is callled the
page
p table. As
A displacemeent is constan nt, so only traanslation of virtual
v page number
n
too physical paage is requireed. This can be
b seen diagrrammaticallyy in Figure 111.
16 Figgure 11: Addreess Translatioon scheme

Paage number is used as ann index intoo a page tablle and the laatter containss base Memory M
Management
adddress of each corresponding physiical memoryy page numb ber (Frame).. This
reeduces dynammic relocatiion efforts. The Pagingg hardware support
s is shown
s
diiagrammaticaally in Figurre 12:
Figu
ure 12: Direct Mapping
Pa
aging addreess Translatiion by direcct mapping
Thhis is the casee of direct mapping as paage table sendds directly too physical meemory
paage. This is shown
s in Fig
gure 12. But disadvantaage of this sccheme is its speed
off translation.. This is becaause page taable is kept iin primary sttorage and itts size
caan be considderably largge which inccreases instrruction execcution time (also
acccess time) and
a hence decreases
d sysstem speed. To overcom me this addittional
haardware suppport of regiisters and buffers can bbe used. Thiis is explainned in
neext section.
Pa
aging Addreess Translattion with Associative M
Mapping
Th his scheme is based on n the use of dedicated rregisters with h high speed and
effficiency. Theese small, faast-lookup caache help to pplace the enttire page tablle into
a content-addr
c resses associiative storagee, hence speeed-up the loo okup problem m with
a cache.
c Thesee are known asa associativee registers or Translation Look-aside
L B
Buffers
(T
TLB’s). Eachh register connsists of two entries:
1)) Key, whicch is matchedd with logicaal page p.
2)) Value whiich returns paage frame nuumber corressponding to p.
It is similar too direct mappping schemee but here as TLB’s contaain only few w page
tabble entries, so
s search is fast. But it isi quite expeensive due to o register suppport.
Soo, both direcct and associiative mappiing schemess can also bee combined to get
more
m benefitss. Here, pag ge number is i matched w with all associative reggisters
sim
multaneouslyy. The perceentage of thhe number oof times the page is fouund in
TLLB’s is calleed hit ratio. If it is not fou
und, it is searrched in pagge table and added
a
in
nto TLB. Buut if TLB is already fulll then page replacemennt policies can be
ussed. Entries in TLB cann be limited only. This ccombined schheme is shown in
Fiigure 13.
17
agement and Seeccurity
Mana urity
Figure 133: Combined Associative/

A D
Direct Mappingg
1.6.4
1 Prottection and
d Sharing
Paging
P hardwware typically also conttains some pprotection mechanism.
m Inn page
taable corresponding to eaach frame a protection
p biit is associateed. This bit can
c tell
iff page is readd-only or reaad-write. Shaaring code aand data takees place if tw wo page
taable entries in different processes point
p to samee physical page,
p the proocesses
share the mem mory. If one pprocess writes the data, othher process will
w see the chhanges.
Itt is a very efficient
e wayy to communnicate. Shariing must alsso be controolled to
protect
p modification and accessing data d in one process by annother process. For
thhis programss are kept seeparately as procedures
p aand data, where procedurres and
data
d that are non-modifia
n able (pure/reeentrant code)) can be sharred. Reentrannt code
cannot
c modiffy itself and mmust make suure that it hass a separate copy
c of per-pprocess
global
g variabbles. Modifiiable data and a proceduures cannot be b shared w without
concurrency
c controls. NNon-modifiaable proceduures are alsso known as a pure
procedures
p orr reentrant coodes (can’t chhange duringg execution). For examplle, only
one
o copy of editor or coompiler codee can be keppt in memoryy, and all edditor or
compiler
c proccesses can exxecute that single
s copy oof the code. This
T helps memory
m
utilization.
u Major
M advantaages of pagin ng scheme arre:
1) Virtual adddress space must be greaater than maiin memory siize.i.e., can execute
e
program with large loogical addresss space as ccompared witth physical address
a
space.
2)
2 Avoid exxternal fragm
mentation and
d hence storaage compactiion.
3)
3 Full utilizzation of avaailable main storage.
Disadvantag
D ges of pagingg include intternal fragm
mentation prooblem i.e., wastage
w
within
w allocaated page whhen process is smaller thhan page bouundary. Alsoo, extra
reesource conssumption and overheads for paging hardware
h andd virtual adddress to
physical
p addrress translation takes placce.
1.7
1 SEG
GMENTA
ATION
In
n the earlierr section we have seen th
he memory management
m t scheme called as
18 paging.
p
In
n general, a user or a proggrammer preffers to view ssystem memory as a colleection Memory M
Management
off variable-sizzed segmentss rather thann as a linear array of worrds. Segmenntation
is a memory management
m scheme thatt supports thiis view of memory.
m
1..7.1 Princciples of Operation

O
Seegmentation presents ann alternativee scheme forr memory management.
m . This
sccheme dividees the logical address spaces into vvariable lenggth chunks, ccalled
seegments, withh no proper ordering
o among them. Each segmentt has a name and a
lenngth. For sim
mplicity, segmments are refferred by a seegment numb ber, rather thhan by
a name.
n Thus,, the logical addresses arre expressedd as a pair off segment nuumber
annd offset witthin segmentt. It allows a program too be broken down into loogical
paarts accordingg to the user view of the memory,
m whicch is then maapped into phhysical
memory.
m Though logical addresses are a two-dim mensional bu ut actual phyysical
adddresses are still one-dimmensional arrray of bytes oonly.
1..7.2 Addrress Transllation

Thhis mappingg between tw wo is done by segment table, which contains seggment
baase and its liimit. The seggment base has starting physical adddress of seggment,
an
nd segment limit
l providees the lengthh of segmennt. This scheeme is depictted in
Fiigure 14.
Figure 14: Ad
ddress Translaation
Thhe offset d must

m range between
b 0 annd segment limit/length,, otherwise iit will
geenerate addreess error. Forr example, consider situaation shown in Figure 155.
Figure 15: Principle pf operation of rrepresentation

n 19
Memory Management, File This scheme is similar to variable partition allocation method with improvement
that the process is divided into parts. For fast retrieval we can use registers as in
paged scheme. This is known as a segment-table length register (STLR). The
segments in a segmentation scheme correspond to logical divisions of the process
and are defined by program names. Extract the segment number and offset from
logical address first. Then use segment number as index into segment table to
obtain segment base address and its limit /length. Also, check that the offset is
not greater than given limit in segment table. Now, general physical address is
obtained by adding the offset to the base address.

This method also allows segments that are read-only to be shared, so that two
processes can use shared code for better memory efficiency. The implementation
is such that no program can read from or write to segments belonging to another
program, except the segments that have been set up to be shared. With each
segment-table entry protection bit specifying segment as read-only or execute
only can be used. Hence illegal attempts to write into a read-only segment can be
prevented.
Sharing of segments can be done by making common /same entries in segment
tables of two different processes which point to same physical location.
Segmentation may suffer from external fragmentation i.e., when blocks of free
memory are not enough to accommodate a segment. Storage compaction and
coalescing can minimize this drawback.

1) What is the advantage of using Base and Limit registers?
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2) How does lookup work with TLB’s?

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3) Why is page size always powers of 2?

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20 ........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................ Memory Management
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4) A system with 18-bit address uses 6 bits for page number and next 12 bits for
offset. Compute the total number of pages and express the following address
according to paging scheme 001011(page number) and 000000111000
(offset)?
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1.8 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have learnt how memory resource is managed and how processes
are protected from each other. The previous two sections covered memory
allocation techniques like swapping and overlays, which tackle the utilization of
memory. Paging and segmentation was presented as memory management
schemes. Both have their own merits and demerits. We have also seen how paging
is based on physical form of process and is independent of the programming
structures, while segmentation is dependent on logical structure of process as
viewed by user. We have also considered fragmentation (internal and external)
problems and ways to tackle them to increase level of multiprogramming and
system efficiency. Concept of relocation and compaction helps to overcome
external fragmentation.
1.9 SOLUTIONS / ANSWERS

1) i) Keep track of which parts of memory are in use.
ii) Allocate memory to processes when they require it.
iii) Protect memory against unauthorised accesses.
iv) Simulate the appearance of a bigger main memory by moving data
automatically between main memory and disk.
2) i) Position Independent Code [PIC]
ii) Dynamic Relocation
iii) Base and Limit Registers. 21
Memory Management, File 3) When a program is loaded into memory at different locations, the absolute
addresses will not work without software or hardware tricks.
1) These help in dynamic relocation. They make a job easy to move in memory.
2) With TLB support steps determine page number and offset first. Then look
up page number in TLB. If it is there, add offset to physical page number and
access memory location. Otherwise, trap to OS. OS performs check, looks
up physical page number, and loads translation into TLB.Then restart the
instruction.
3) Paging is implemented by breaking up an address into a page and offset
number. It is efficient to break address into X page bits and Y offset bits,
rather than calculating address based on page number and offset. Because
each bit position represents a power of 2, splitting an address between bits
results in a page size that is a power of 2.
4) Page Number (6 Bits)=001011 = 11(decimal)
Page Number range= (26–1) = 63
Displacement (12 Bits)=000000111000 = 56(decimal)

1) H.M.Deitel, Operating Systems, published by Pearson Education Asia, New
Delhi.
2) Abraham Silberschatz and Peter Baer Galvin, Operating System Concepts,
Wiley and Sons (Asia) Publications, New Delhi.
3) Andrew S.Tanenbaum, Operating Systems- Design and Implementation,
published by Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
4) Colin Ritchie, Operating Systems incorporating UNIX and Windows, BPB
Publications, New Delhi.
22
Virtual Memory
UNIT 2 VIRTUAL MEMORY
Structure
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Virtual Memory
2.2.2 Virtual Memory Management
2.3 Demand Paging
2.4 Page Replacement Policies
2.4.1 First In First Out (FIFO)
2.4.2 Second Chance (SC)
2.4.3 Least Recently Used (LRU)
2.4.4 Optimal Algorithm (OPT)
2.4.5 Least Frequently Used (LFU)
2.5 Thrashing
2.5.1 Working-Set Model
2.5.2 Page-Fault Rate
2.6 Demand Segmentation
2.7 Combined Systems
2.7.1 Segmented Paging
2.7.2 Paged Segmentation
2.8 Summary
2.0 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier unit, we have studied Memory Management covering topics like
the overlays, contiguous memory allocation, static and dynamic partitioned
memory allocation, paging and segmentation techniques. In this unit, we will
study an important aspect of memory management known as Virtual memory.
Storage allocation has always been an important consideration in computer
programming due to the high cost of the main memory and the relative abundance
and lower cost of secondary storage. Program code and data required for execution
of a process must reside in the main memory but the main memory may not be
large enough to accommodate the needs of an entire process. Early computer
programmers divided programs into the sections that were transferred into the
main memory for the period of processing time. As the program proceeded, new
sections moved into the main memory and replaced sections that were not needed
at that time. In this early era of computing, the programmer was responsible for
devising this overlay system. 23
Memory Management, File As higher-level languages became popular for writing more complex programs
and the programmer became less familiar with the machine, the efficiency of
complex programs suffered from poor overlay systems. The problem of storage
allocation became more complex.
Two theories for solving the problem of inefficient memory management emerged
— static and dynamic allocation. Static allocation assumes that the availability
of memory resources and the memory reference string of a program can be
predicted. Dynamic allocation relies on memory usage increasing and decreasing
with actual program needs, not on predicting memory needs.
Program objectives and machine advancements in the 1960s made the predictions
required for static allocation difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, the dynamic
allocation solution was generally accepted, but opinions about implementation
were still divided. One group believed the programmer should continue to be
responsible for storage allocation, which would be accomplished by system calls
to allocate or deal locate memory. The second group supported automatic storage
allocation performed by the operating system, because of increasing complexity
of storage allocation and emerging importance of multiprogramming. In 1961,
two groups proposed a one-level memory store. One proposal called for a very
large main memory to alleviate any need for storage allocation. This solution
was not possible due to its very high cost. The second proposal is known as
virtual memory.
In this unit, we will go through virtual memory and related topics.
2.1 OBJECTIVES
 discuss why virtual memory is needed;
 define virtual memory and its underlying concepts;
 describe the page replacement policies like Optimal, FIFO and LRU;
 discuss the concept of thrashing, and
 explain the need of the combined systems like Segmented paging and Paged
segmentation.
2.2 VIRTUAL MEMORY

It is common for modern processors to be running multiple processes at one
time. Each process has an address space associated with it. To create a whole
complete address space for each process would be much too expensive,
considering that processes may be created and killed often, and also considering
that many processes use only a tiny bit of their possible address space. Last but
not the least, even with modern improvements in hardware technology, machine
resources are still finite. Thus, it is necessary to share a smaller amount of physical
memory among many processes, with each process being given the appearance
of having its own exclusive address space.
24
The most common way of doing this is a technique called virtual memory, which Virtual Memory
has been known since the 1960s but has become common on computer systems
since the late 1980s. The virtual memory scheme divides physical memory into
blocks and allocates blocks to different processes. Of course, in order to do this
sensibly it is highly desirable to have a protection scheme that restricts a process
to be able to access only those blocks that are assigned to it. Such a protection
scheme is thus a necessary, and somewhat involved, aspect of any virtual memory
implementation.
One other advantage of using virtual memory that may not be immediately
apparent is that it often reduces the time taken to launch a program, since not all
the program code and data need to be in physical memory before the program
execution can be started.
Although sharing the physical address space is a desirable end, it was not the
sole reason that virtual memory became common on contemporary systems. Until
the late 1980s, if a program became too large to fit in one piece in physical
memory, it was the programmer’s job to see that it fit. Programmers typically did
this by breaking programs into pieces, each of which was mutually exclusive in
its logic. When a program was launched, a main piece that initiated the execution
would first be loaded into physical memory, and then the other parts, called
overlays, would be loaded as needed.
It was the programmer’s task to ensure that the program never tried to access
more physical memory than was available on the machine, and also to ensure
that the proper overlay was loaded into physical memory whenever required.
These responsibilities made for complex challenges for programmers, who had
to be able to divide their programs into logically separate fragments, and specify
a proper scheme to load the right fragment at the right time. Virtual memory
came about as a means to relieve programmers creating large pieces of software
of the wearisome burden of designing overlays.
Virtual memory automatically manages two levels of the memory hierarchy,
representing the main memory and the secondary storage, in a manner that is
invisible to the program that is running. The program itself never has to bother
with the physical location of any fragment of the virtual address space. A
mechanism called relocation allows for the same program to run in any location
in physical memory, as well. Prior to the use of virtual memory, it was common
for machines to include a relocation register just for that purpose. An expensive
and messy solution to the hardware solution of a virtual memory would be software
that changed all addresses in a program each time it was run. Such a solution
would increase the running times of programs significantly, among other things.
Virtual memory enables a program to ignore the physical location of any desired
block of its address space; a process can simply seek to access any block of its
address space without concern for where that block might be located. If the block
happens to be located in the main memory, access is carried out smoothly and
quickly; else, the virtual memory has to bring the block in from secondary storage
and allow it to be accessed by the program.
The technique of virtual memory is similar to a degree with the use of processor
caches. However, the differences lie in the block size of virtual memory being 25
Memory Management, File typically much larger (64 kilobytes and up) as compared with the typical processor
cache (128 bytes and up). The hit time, the miss penalty (the time taken to retrieve
an item that is not in the cache or primary storage), and the transfer time are all
larger in case of virtual memory. However, the miss rate is typically much smaller.
(This is no accident-since a secondary storage device, typically a magnetic storage
device with much lower access speeds, has to be read in case of a miss, designers
of virtual memory make every effort to reduce the miss rate to a level even much
lower than that allowed in processor caches).
Virtual memory systems are of two basic kinds—those using fixed-size blocks
called pages, and those that use variable-sized blocks called segments.
Suppose, for example, that a main memory of 64 megabytes is required but only
32 megabytes is actually available. To create the illusion of the larger memory
space, the memory manager would divide the required space into units called
pages and store the contents of these pages in mass storage. A typical page size is
no more than four kilobytes. As different pages are actually required in main
memory, the memory manager would exchange them for pages that are no longer
required, and thus the other software units could execute as though there were
actually 64 megabytes of main memory in the machine.
In brief we can say that virtual memory is a technique that allows the execution
of processes that may not be completely in memory. One major advantage of this
scheme is that the program can be larger than physical memory. Virtual memory
can be implemented via demand paging and demand segmentation.

The purpose of virtual memory is to enlarge the address space, the set of addresses
a program can utilise. For example, virtual memory might contain twice as many
addresses as main memory. A program using all of virtual memory, therefore,
would not be able to fit in main memory all at once. Nevertheless, the computer
could execute such a program by copying into the main memory those portions
of the program needed at any given point during execution.
To facilitate copying virtual memory into real memory, the operating system
divides virtual memory into pages, each of which contains a fixed number of
addresses. Each page is stored on a disk until it is needed. When the page is
needed, the operating system copies it from disk to main memory, translating the
virtual addresses into real addresses.
Addresses generated by programs are virtual addresses. The actual memory cells
have physical addresses. A piece of hardware called a memory management
unit (MMU) translates virtual addresses to physical addresses at run-time. The
process of translating virtual addresses into real addresses is called mapping.
The copying of virtual pages from disk to main memory is known as paging or
swapping.
Some physical memory is used to keep a list of references to the most recently
accessed information on an I/O (input/output) device, such as the hard disk. The
optimisation it provides is that it is faster to read the information from physical
memory than use the relevant I/O channel to get that information. This is called
caching. It is implemented inside the OS.
26
2..2.2 Virtu
ual Memorry Manageement Virtu
ual Memory
Thhis section prrovides the description

d off how the virttual memory manager proovides
virtual memoryy. It explains how the logiical and physsical address spaces
s are m
mapped
to one anotherr and when itt is required to use the seervices proviided by the V
Virtual
Memory
M Manaager.
Beefore going into
i the details of the maanagement off the virtual memory,
m let us
u see
th
he functions of
o the virtuall memory maanager. It is rresponsible to:
t
 Make porttions of the lo
ogical addreess space resiident in physsical RAM
 Make porttions of the logical
l addreess space im
mmovable in physical
p RAM
 Map logiccal to physicaal addresses
 Defer execution of appplication-deffined interruupt code untill a safe time..
Figure 1:
1 Abstract mo
odel of Virtuall to Physical address
a mappiing
Beefore considdering the methods

m that various operrating system ms use to suupport
viirtual memorry, it is usefu
ul to considerr an abstractt model that is
i not clutterred by
too much detaail.
As the processor executess a program it reads an instruction from f memorry and

deecodes it. In decoding th
he instructionn it may needd to fetch or store the conntents
off a location of operandds in the meemory. The processor then t executees the
in
nstruction and d moves ontto the next innstruction inn the programm. In this waay the
prrocessor is allways accesssing memoryy either to fettch instructio
ons or to fetcch and
stoore data.
In
n a virtual memory system m all of thesse addressess are virtual addresses annd not
phhysical addreesses. These virtual addreesses are connverted into physical
p addrresses
byy the processsor based onn informationn held in a set of tables maintained
m bby the
opperating system.
Too make this translation easier, virtual and physiical memoryy are dividedd into
sm
mall blocks called pages. These pagess are all of thee same size. (It
( is not neceessary
th
hat all the pag
ges should be
b of same siize but if theey were not, the system would
w
bee very hard to administerr). Linux on Alpha AXP systems uses 8 Kbytes ppages 27
Memory Management, File and on Intel x86 systems it uses 4 Kbytes pages. Each of these pages is given a
unique number; the page frame number (PFN) as shown in the Figure 1.
In this paged model, a virtual address is composed of two parts, an offset and a
virtual page frame number. If the page size is 4 Kbytes, bits 11:0 of the virtual
address contain the offset and bits 12 and above are the virtual page frame number.
Each time the processor encounters a virtual address it must extract the offset
and the virtual page frame number. The processor must translate the virtual page
frame number into a physical one and then access the location at the correct
offset into that physical page. To do this the processor uses page tables.
The Figure1 shows the virtual address spaces of two processes, process X and
process Y, each with their own page tables. These page tables map each processes
virtual pages into physical pages in memory. This shows that process X’s virtual
page frame number 0 is mapped into memory in physical page frame number 1
and that process Y’s virtual page frame number 1 is mapped into physical page
frame number 4. Each entry in the theoretical page table contains the following
information:
 Valid flag : This indicates if this page table entry is valid.
 PFN : The physical page frame number that this entry is describing.
 Access control information : This describes how the page may be used. Can
it be written to? Does it contain executable code?
The page table is accessed using the virtual page frame number as an offset.
Virtual page frame 5 would be the 6th element of the table (0 is the first element).
To translate a virtual address into a physical one, the processor must first work
out the virtual addresses page frame number and the offset within that virtual
page. By making the page size a power of 2 this can be easily done by masking
and shifting. Looking again at the Figure1 and assuming a page size of 0x2000
bytes (which is decimal 8192) and an address of 0x2194 in process Y’s virtual
address space then the processor would translate that address into offset 0x194
into virtual page frame number 1.
The processor uses the virtual page frame number as an index into the processes
page table to retrieve its page table entry. If the page table entry at that offset is
valid, the processor takes the physical page frame number from this entry. If the
entry is invalid, the process has accessed a non-existent area of its virtual memory.
In this case, the processor cannot resolve the address and must pass control to the
operating system so that it can fix things up.
Just how the processor notifies the operating system that the correct process has
attempted to access a virtual address for which there is no valid translation is
specific to the processor. However, the processor delivers it, this is known as a
page fault and the operating system is notified of the faulting virtual address and
the reason for the page fault. A page fault is serviced in a number of steps:
i) Trap to the OS.
ii) Save registers and process state for the current process.
iii) Check if the trap was caused because of a page fault and whether the page
28 reference is legal.
ivv) If yes, dettermine the lo
ocation of thhe required page
p on the backing
b storee. Virtu
ual Memory
v)) Find a free frame.

vi) Read the required
r pagge from the backing
b storee into the freee frame. (Duuring
this I/O, th
he processorr may be scheduled to somme other proocess).
vii) When I/OO is completeed, restore reegisters and process statte for the proocess
which cauused the pagee fault and savve state of thee currently ex
xecuting process.
viii)Modify th
he correspond
ding PT entrry to show thhat the recenttly copied paage is
now in meemory.
ixx) Resume execution witth the instrucction that cauused the pag
ge fault.
Assuming thatt this is a vaalid page tabble entry, the processor taakes that phhysical
paage frame nu umber and multiplies
m it by
b the page size to get the
t address of o the
baase of the paage in physiccal memory. Finally,
F the pprocessor addds in the offfset to
th
he instructionn or data thatt it needs.
Using the abov ve example again,
a processs Y’s virtual ppage frame nuumber 1 is maapped
to physical pag ge frame num mber 4 whichh starts at 0xx8000 (4 x 0xx2000). Addding in
he 0x194 bytte offset givees us a final physical adddress of 0x88194. By maapping
th
viirtual to physsical addresses this way, the
t virtual m memory can be b mapped innto the
sy
ystem’s physiical pages inn any order.
2..2.3 Proteection and Sharing

Memory
M proteection in a pagged environm ment is realiseed by protecttion bits associated
with each pagee, which are normally stoored in the page table. Eaach bit determ mines
a page to be read-only
r orr read/write. At the samee time the ph hysical addrress is
caalculated witth the help of o the page table, the protection
p biits are checkked to
veerify whetherr the memory y access typee is correct or
o not. For exxample, an atttempt
to write to a read-only
r memory
m page generates a trap to the operating syystem
ndicating a memory
in m proteection violatiion.
We
W can definee one more protection
p biit added to each
e entry inn the page taable to
deetermine an invalid
i progrram-generated address. T This bit is caalled valid/innvalid
biit, and is used to generate a trap to th
he operating system. Vallid/invalid biits are
also used to alllow and disaallow accesss to the correesponding paage. This is sshown
n Figure 2.
in
Figure 2: Prrotection bit in

n the page table Shared pagges 29
Memory Management, File The
T paging schemes suppports the posssibility of shharing commmon program m code.
Mana
For
F example,, a system thaat supports 40 4 users, eachh of them exeecutes a text editor.
Iff the text ediitor consists of 30 KB off code and 5 KB of data, we need 14000 KB.
Iff the code isi reentrant, i.e., it neveer changes by b any writee operation during
execution
e (no
on-self-modifying code) it i could be shhared as pressented in Figgure 3.
Only
O one coppy of the ediitor needs to be stored inn the physicaal memory. IIn each
page
p he included editor page is mapped oonto the sam
table, th me physical copy
c of
thhe editor, bu
ut the data pages are mappped onto diffferent framess. So, to suppport 40
users,
u we onlly need one copy of the editor, i.e., 330 KB, plus 40 copies oof the 5
KB
K of data pagesp per user; the total required space is now 230
2 KB insttead of
1400 KB.
Other
O heavilyy used prograams such as assembler, compiler,
c dattabase system ms etc.
can
c also be shared
s amonng different users.
u The oonly conditioon for it is thhat the
code
c must bee reentrant. Itt is crucial too correct thee functionalitty of shared paging
scheme so that the pages are unchangged. If one uuser wants to change a location,
itt would be ch
hanged for aall other userrs.
Fig
gure 3: Pagingg scheme supp
porting the shaaring of progrram code
2.3
2 DEM
MAND PA
AGING
In
n a multiprogramming syystem memo ory is dividedd into a numb ber of fixed--size or
variable-sized
v d partitions or regions th hat are alloccated to runnning processees. For
example:
e a prrocess needss m words off memory maay run in a partition
p of n words
where
w n m. The variablle size partittion scheme may result inn a situationn where
available
a memmory is not ccontiguous, but
b fragmentted into manny scattered blocks.
b
We
W distinguissh between innternal fragm mentation annd external fragmentatio
f on. The
difference
d (n – m) is callled internal fragmentatio
f on, memory thatt is internnal to a
partition
p but is not beingg used. If a partition is unused and d available, but
b too
small to be used
u by anyy waiting prrocess, then it is accoun nted for extternal
fragmentation
fr n. These mem mory fragmeents cannot bbe used.
30
In order to solve this problem, we can either compact the memory making large Virtual Memory
free memory blocks, or implement paging scheme which allows a program’s
memory to be non-contiguous, thus permitting a program to be allocated to
physical memory.
Physical memory is divided into fixed size blocks called frames. Logical memory
is also divided into blocks of the same, fixed size called pages. When a program
is to be executed, its pages are loaded into any available memory frames from
the disk. The disk is also divided into fixed sized blocks that are the same size as
the memory frames.
A very important aspect of paging is the clear separation between the user’s view
of memory and the actual physical memory. Normally, a user believes that memory
is one contiguous space containing only his/her program. In fact, the logical
memory is scattered through the physical memory that also contains other
programs. Thus, the user can work correctly with his/her own view of memory
because of the address translation or address mapping. The address mapping,
which is controlled by the operating system and transparent to users, translates
logical memory addresses into physical addresses.
Because the operating system is managing the memory, it must be sure about the
nature of physical memory, for example: which frames are available, which are
allocated; how many total frames there are, and so on. All these parameters are
kept in a data structure called frame table that has one entry for each physical
frame of memory indicating whether it is free or allocated, and if allocated, to
which page of which process.
As there is much less physical memory than virtual memory the operating system
must be careful that it does not use the physical memory inefficiently. One way
to save physical memory is to load only virtual pages that are currently being
used by the executing program. For example, a database program may be run to
query a database. In this case not the entire database needs to be loaded into
memory, just those data records that are being examined. Also, if the database
query is a search query then it is not necessary to load the code from the database
that deals with adding new records. This technique of only loading virtual pages
into memory as they are accessed is known as demand paging.
When a process attempts to access a virtual address that is not currently in memory
the CPU cannot find a page table entry for the virtual page referenced. For example,
in Figure 1, there is no entry in Process X’s page table for virtual PFN 2 and so
if Process X attempts to read from an address within virtual PFN 2 the CPU
cannot translate the address into a physical one. At this point the CPU cannot
cope and needs the operating system to fix things up. It notifies the operating
system that a page fault has occurred and the operating system makes the process
wait whilst it fixes things up. The CPU must bring the appropriate page into
memory from the image on disk. Disk access takes a long time, and so the process
must wait quite a while until the page has been fetched. If there are other processes
that could run then the operating system will select one of them to run. The
fetched page is written into a free physical page frame and an entry for the virtual
PFN is added to the processes page table. The process is then restarted at the
point where the memory fault occurred. This time the virtual memory access is
made, the CPU can make the address translation and so the process continues to
31
Memory Management, File run. This is known as demand paging and occurs when the system is busy but
also when an image is first loaded into memory. This mechanism means that a
process can execute an image that only partially resides in physical memory at
any one time.
The valid/invalid bit of the page table entry for a page, which is swapped in, is
set as valid. Otherwise it is set as invalid, which will have no effect as long as the
program never attempts to access this page. If all and only those pages actually
needed are swapped in, the process will execute exactly as if all pages were
brought in.
If the process tries to access a page, which was not swapped in, i.e., the valid/
invalid bit of this page table, entry is set to invalid, then a page fault trap will
occur. Instead of showing the “invalid address error” as usually, it indicates the
operating system’s failure to bring a valid part of the program into memory at the
right time in order to minimize swapping overhead.
In order to continue the execution of process, the operating system schedules a

disk read operation to bring the desired page into a newly allocated frame. After
that, the corresponding page table entry will be modified to indicate that the page
is now in memory. Because the state (program counter, registers etc.) of the
interrupted process was saved when the page fault trap occurred, the interrupted
process can be restarted at the same place and state. As shown, it is possible to
execute programs even though parts of it are not (yet) in memory.
In the extreme case, a process without pages in memory could be executed. Page
fault trap would occur with the first instruction. After this page was brought into
memory, the process would continue to execute. In this way, page fault trap would
occur further until every page that is needed was in memory. This kind of paging
is called pure demand paging. Pure demand paging says that “never bring a
page into memory until it is required”.
2.4 PAGE REPLACEMENT POLICIES

Basic to the implementation of virtual memory is the concept of demand paging.
This means that the operating system, and not the programmer, controls the
swapping of pages in and out of main memory, as the active processes require
them. When a process needs a non-resident page, the operating system must
decide which resident page is to be replaced by the requested page. The part
of the virtual memory which makes this decision is called the replacement
policy.
There are many approaches to the problem of deciding which page is to replace
but the object is the same for all-the policy that selects the page that will not be
referenced again for the longest time. A few page replacement policies are
described below.
2.4.1 First In First Out (FIFO)

The First In First Out (FIFO) replacement policy chooses the page that has been
in the memory the longest to be the one replaced.
32
Beelady’s Anomaly Virtu
ual Memory
Normally, as the number of page fram mes increasees, the numb

ber of page faults
hould decreaase. Howeveer, for FIFO there are caases where this
sh t generalisation
will fail! This is called Beelady’s Anom
maly. Notice that OPT’s never
n sufferss from
Beelady’s anommaly.
2..4.2 Secon
nd Chancee (SC)
Th he Second Chance
C (SC)) policy is a slight moddification of FIFO in ordder to
avvoid the probblem of replaacing a heaviily used pagee. In this poliicy, a referennce bit
R is used to keeep track of pages
p that haave been receently referen nced. This bitt is set
to 1 each time the page is referenced.
r P
Periodically, all the refereence bits aree set to
0 by the operrating system m to distinguuish pages thhat have not been referrenced
reecently from
m those that have been. Using this bit, b the operrating system m can
deetermine wheether old pagges are still being used (i.e.,
( R = 1).. If so, the page is
moved
m to the end
e of the lisst of pages, annd its load tiime is updateed as though it had
ju
ust arrived in
n memory. Th hen the searcch continues. Thus heaviily accessed pages
arre given a “seecond chance.”
2..4.3 Leastt Recentlyy Used (LR

RU)
Thhe Least Reccently Used (LRU)
( replaacement policcy chooses too replace thee page
wh hich has nott been referrenced for thhe longest tiime. This poolicy assumees the
recent past wiill approximaate the immeediate futuree. The operatting system keeps
traack of when each page was
w referenceed by recordiing the time of referencee or by
maintaining
m a stack of refeerences.
2..4.4 Optim
mal Algoriithm (OPT
T)
Opptimal algorrithm is defined as replaace the pagee that will noot be used fo
for the
longest periodd of time. It
I is optimall in the perfformance buut not feasibble to
im
mplement beccause we can nnot predict future time.
Exxample:
Leet us consideer a 4 framess example
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2,, 3, 4, 5
In
n the above Figure,
F we haave 6 page faaults.
2..4.5 Leastt Frequenttly Used (L

LFU)
Th he Least Frrequently Used
U (LFU) replacemennt policy seelects a pagge for
reeplacement if the page had not beeen used oftften in the past.
p This ppolicy
keeeps count of
o the number of times that a page is accessed. Pages withh the 33
Memory Management, File lowest counts are replaced while pages with higher counts remain in primary
memory.
2.5 THRASHING
Thrashing occurs when a system spends more time processing page faults than
executing transactions. While processing page faults it is necessary to be in order
to appreciate the benefits of virtual memory, thrashing has a negative effect on
the system.
As the page fault rate increases, more transactions need processing from the
paging device. The queue at the paging device increases, resulting in increased
service time for a page fault. While the transactions in the system are waiting for
the paging device, CPU utilization, system throughput and system response time
decrease, resulting in below optimal performance of a system.
Thrashing becomes a greater threat as the degree of multiprogramming of the
system increases.
Figure 4: Degree of Multiprogramming
The graph in Figure 4 shows that there is a degree of multiprogramming that is

optimal for system performance. CPU utilization reaches a maximum before a
swift decline as the degree of multiprogramming increases and thrashing occurs
in the over-extended system. This indicates that controlling the load on the system
is important to avoid thrashing. In the system represented by the graph, it is
important to maintain the multiprogramming degree that corresponds to the peak
of the graph.
The selection of a replacement policy to implement virtual memory plays an
important part in the elimination of the potential for thrashing. A policy based on
the local mode will tend to limit the effect of thrashing. In local mode, a transaction
will replace pages from its assigned partition. Its need to access memory will
not affect transactions using other partitions. If other transactions have enough
page frames in the partitions they occupy, they will continue to be processed
efficiently.
34
A replacement policy based on the global mode is more likely to cause thrashing. Virtual Memory
Since all pages of memory are available to all transactions, a memory-intensive
transaction may occupy a large portion of memory, making other transactions
susceptible to page faults and resulting in a system that thrashes. To prevent
thrashing, we must provide a processes as many frames as it needs. There are
two techniques for this-Working-Set Model and Page-Fault Rate.
2.5.1 Working-Set Model

Principle of Locality
Pages are not accessed randomly. At each instant of execution a program tends
to use only a small set of pages. As the pages in the set change, the program is
said to move from one phase to another. The principle of locality states that most
references will be to the current small set of pages in use. The examples are
shown below:
Examples:
1) Instructions are fetched sequentially (except for branches) from the same
page.
2) Array processing usually proceeds sequentially through the array functions
repeatedly, access variables in the top stack frame.
Ramification
If we have locality, we are unlikely to continually suffer page-faults. If a page
consists of 1000 instructions in self-contained loop, we will only fault once (at
most) to fetch all 1000 instructions.
Working Set Definition
The working set model is based on the assumption of locality. The idea is to
examine the most recent page references in the working set. If a page is in active
use, it will be in the Working-set. If it is no longer being used, it will drop from
the working set.
The set of pages currently needed by a process is its working set.
WS(k) for a process P is the number of pages needed to satisfy the last k page
references for process P.
WS(t) is the number of pages needed to satisfy a process’s page references for the
last t units of time.
Either can be used to capture the notion of locality.
Working Set Policy
Restrict the number of processes on the ready queue so that physical memory can
accommodate the working sets of all ready processes. Monitor the working sets
of ready processes and, when necessary, reduce multiprogramming (i.e. swap) to
avoid thrashing.
Note: Exact computation of the working set of each process is difficult, but it
can be estimated, by using the reference bits maintained by the hardware to
implement an aging algorithm for pages.
35
Memory Management, File When
W loadinng a process for executioon, pre-load certain pagees. This prevvents a
Mana
process
p from having to “ffault into” itss working sett. May be onnly a rough gguess at
start-up, but can
c be quite accurate on swap-in.
2.5.2
2 Pagee-Fault Raate
The
T workingg-set model is i successful, and knowleedge of the working w set can be
useful
u for pree-paging, butt it is a scatteered way to control thrasshing. A pagge-fault
frequency
fr (page-fault ratte) takes a more
m direct approach. Inn this we esstablish
upper
u and lowwer bound onn the desired d pagefault rate.
r If the acctual page fauult rate
exceeds
e the upper
u limit, w
we allocate thet process aanother fram me. If the pagge fault
raate falls beloow the lowerr limit, we reemove a Fram me from thee process. Thhus, we
can
c directly measure
m and control the page
p fault raate to preventt thrashing.
Figure 5: Page-fault frequ

uency
Establish
E “accceptable” paage-fault ratee.
 If actual rate
r too low,, process loses frame.
 If actual rate
r too highh, process gaains frame.
2.6
2 DEM
MAND SEGMEN
NTATION
N
Segmentatio
S on
Programs
P gennerally dividde up their memory
m usagge by functiion. Some memory
m
holds
h instrucctions, somee static data, some dynaamically allocated data,, some
execution
e fraames. All of these memoory types havve different protection,
p g
growth,
and
a sharing requirementss. In the monolithic memoory allocatioon of classic Virtual
V
Memory
M systtems, this moodel isn’t weell supported.
Segmentation
S n addresses thhis by providding multiplee sharable, prootectable, groowable
address
a spacees that proceesses can acccess.
In
n pure segmeentation archhitecture, seg
gments are alllocated like variable parttitions,
although
a the memory maanagement haardware is innvolved in decoding
d adddresses.
Pure
P segmenntation addreesses replacee the page iddentifier in the
t virtual address
a
with
w a segmeent identifierr, and find the t proper seegment (not page) to whhich to
apply
a the offsset.
36
The segment table is managed like the page table, except that segments explicitly Virtual Memory
allow sharing. Protections reside in the segment descriptors, and can use keying
or explicit access control lists to apply them.
Of course, the segment name space must be carefully managed, and thus OS
must provide a method of doing this. The file system can come to the rescue
here-a process can ask for a file to be mapped into a segment and have the OS
return the segment register to use. This is known as memory mapping files. It is
slightly different from memory mapping devices, because one file system
abstraction (a segment) is providing an interface to another (a file). Memory
mapped files may be reflected into the file system or not and may be shared or
not at the process’s discretion.
The biggest problem with segmentation is the same as with variable sized real
memory allocation: managing variable sized partitions can be very inefficient,
especially when the segments are large compared to physical memory. External
fragmentation can easily result in expensive compaction when a large segment is
loaded, and swapping large segments (even when compaction is not required)
can be costly.
Demand Segmentation
Same idea as demand paging applied to segments.
If a segment is loaded, base and limit are stored in the Segment Table Entry
(STE) and the valid bit is set in the Page Table Entry (PTE). The PTE is accessed
for each memory reference. If the segment is not loaded, the valid bit is unset.
The base and limit as well as the disk address of the segment is stored in the OS
table. R eference to a non-loaded segment generates a segment fault (analogous
to page fault). To load a segment, we must solve both the placement question
and the replacement question (for demand paging, there is no placement
question).
2.7 COMBINED SYSTEMS

The combined systems are of two types. They are:
 Segmented Paging
 Paged Segmentation
2.7.1 Segmented Paging

In a pure paging scheme, the user thinks in terms of a contiguous linear address
space, and internal fragmentation is a problem when portions of that address
space include conservatively large estimates of the size of dynamic structures.
Segmented paging is a scheme in which logically distinct (e.g., dynamically-
sized) portions of the address space are deliberately given virtual addresses a
LONG way apart, so we never have to worry about things bumping into each
other, and the page table is implemented in such a way that the big unused sections
don’t cost us much. Basically the only page table organization that doesn’t work
well with segmented paging is a single linear array. Trees, inverted (hash) tables, 37
Memory Management, File and linked lists work fine. If we always start segments at multiples of some large
power of two, we can think of the high-order bits of the virtual address as
specifying a segment, and the low-order bits as specifying an offset within the
segment. If we have tree-structured page tables in which we use k bits to select a
child of the root, and we always start segments at some multiple of 2^(word size-
k), then the top level of the tree looks very much like a segment table. The only
difference is that its entries are selected by the high-order address bits, rather
than by some explicit architecturally visible mechanism like segment registers.
Basically all modern operating systems on page-based machines use segmented
paging.
2.7.2 Paged Segmentation

In a pure segmentation scheme, we still have to do dynamic space management
to allocate physical memory to segments. This leads to external fragmentation
and forces us to think about things like compaction. It also doesn’t lend itself to
virtual memory. To address these problems, we can page the segments of a
segmented machine. This is paged segmentation. Instead of containing base/bound
pairs, the segment table entries of a machine with paged segmentation indicate
how to find the page table for the segment. In MULTICS, there was a separate
page table for each segment. The segment offset was interpreted as consisting of
a page number and a page offset. The base address in the segment table entry is
added to the segment offset to produce a “linear address” that is then partitioned
into a page number and page offset, and looked up in the page table in the normal
way. Note that in a machine with pure segmentation, given a fast way to find
base/bound pairs (e.g., segment registers), there is no need for a TLB. Once we
go to paged segmentation, we need a TLB. The difference between segmented
paging and paged segmentation lies in the user’s programming model, and in the
addressing modes of the CPU. On a segmented architecture, the user generally
specifies addresses using an effective address that includes a segment register
specification. On a paged architecture, there are no segment registers. In practical
terms, managing segment registers (loading them with appropriate values at
appropriate times) is a bit of a nuisance to the assembly language programmer or
compiler writer. On the other hand, since it only takes a few bits to indicate a
segment register, while the base address in the segment table entry can have
many bits, segments provide a means of expanding the virtual address space
beyond 2^(word size). We can’t do segmented paging on a machine with 16-bit
addresses. It’s beginning to get problematical on machines with 32-bit addresses.
We certainly can’t build a MULTICS-style single level store, in which every file
is a segment that can be accessed with ordinary loads and stores, on a 32-bit
machine. Segmented architectures provide a way to get the effect we want (lots
of logically separate segments that can grow without practical bound) without
requiring that we buy into very large addresses. As 64-bit architectures become
more common, it is possible that segmentation will become less popular. One
might think that paged segmentation has an additional advantage over segmented
paging: protection information is logically associated with a segment, and could
perhaps be specified in the segment table and then left out of the page table.
Unfortunately, protection bits are used for lots of purposes other than simply
making sure we cannot write your code or execute your data.
38

Check Your Progress 1 Virtual Memory
1) What are the steps that are followed by the Operating system in order to
handle the page fault?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) What is demand paging?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3) How can you implement the virtual memory?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4) When do the following occurs?
i) A Page Fault
ii) Thrashing
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
5) What should be the features of the page swap algorithm?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
6) What is a working set and what happens when the working set is very different
from the set of pages that are physically resident in memory?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2.8 SUMMARY
With previous schemes, all the code and data of a program have to be in main
memory when the program is running. With virtual memory, only some of the
code and data have to be in main memory: the parts needed by the program now.
The other parts are loaded into memory when the program needs them without
the program having to be aware of this. The size of a program (including its data)
can thus exceed the amount of available main memory.
There are two main approaches to virtual memory: paging and segmentation.
Both approaches rely on the separation of the concepts virtual address and physical
address. Addresses generated by programs are virtual addresses. The actual
memory cells have physical addresses. A piece of hardware called a memory 39
Memory Management, File management unit (MMU) translates virtual addresses to physical addresses at
run-time.
In this unit we have discussed the concept of Virtual memory, its advantages,
demand paging, demand segmentation, Page replacement algorithms and
combined systems.

1) The list of steps that are followed by the operating system in handling a page
fault:
a) If a process refers to a page which is not in the physical memory then an
internal table kept with a process control block is checked to verify
whether a memory reference to a page was valid or invalid.
b) If the memory reference to a page was valid, but the page is missing, the
process of bringing a page into the physical memory starts.
c) Free memory location is identified to bring a missing page.
d) By reading a disk, the desired page is brought back into the free memory
location.
e) Once the page is in the physical memory, the internal table kept with the
process and page map table is updated to indicate that the page is now in
memory.
f) Restart the instruction that was interrupted due to the missing page.
2) In demand paging pages are loaded only on demand, not in advance. It is
similar to paging system with swapping feature. Rather than swapping the
entire program in memory, only those pages are swapped which are required
currently by the system.
3) Virtual memory can be implemented as an extension of paged or segmented
memory management scheme, also called demand paging or demand
segmentation respectively.
4) A Page Fault occurs when a process accesses an address in a page which is
not currently resident in memory. Thrashing occurs when the incidence of
page faults becomes so high that the system spends all its time swapping
pages rather than doing useful work. This happens if the number of page
frames allocated is insufficient to contain the working set for the process
either because there is inadequate physical memory or because the program
is very badly organised.
5) A page swap algorithm should
a) Impose the minimum overhead in operation
b) Not assume any particular hardware assistance
c) Try to prevent swapping out pages which are currently referenced (since
40 they may still be in the Working Set)
d) Try to avoid swapping modified pages (to avoid the overhead of rewriting Virtual Memory
pages from memory to swap area).
6) The working Set is the set of pages that a process accesses over any given
(short) space of time. If the Working Set is very different from the set of
pages that are physically resident in memory, there will be an excessive
number of page faults and thrashing will occur.

2) H.M.Deitel, Operating Systems, Pearson Education Asia, New Delhi.
Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
4) Achyut S. Godbole, Operating Systems, Second Edition, TMGH, 2005, New
Delhi.
5) Milan Milenkovic, Operating Systems, TMGH, 2000, New Delhi.
6) D. M. Dhamdhere, Operating Systems – A Concept Based Approach, TMGH,
2002, New Delhi.
7) William Stallings, Operating Systems, Pearson Education, 2003, New Delhi.
41
Management and Security UNIT 3 I/O AND FILE MANAGEMENT
Structure
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Organisation of the I/O Function
3.3 I/O Buffering
3.4 Disk Organisation
3.4.1 Device Drivers and IDs
3.4.2 Checking Data Consistency and Formatting
3.5 Disk Scheduling
3.5.1 FCFS Scheduling
3.5.2 SSTF Scheduling
3.5.3 SCAN Scheduling
3.5.4 C-SCAN Scheduling
3.5.5 LOOK and C-LOOK Scheduling
3.6 RAID
3.7 Disk Cache
3.8 Command Language User’s View of the File System
3.9 The System Programmer’s View of the File System
3.10 The Operating System’s View of File Management
3.10.1 Directories
3.10.2 Disk Space Management
3.10.3 Disk Address Translation
3.10.4 File Related System Services
3.10.5 Asynchronous Input/Output
3.11 Summary
3.12 Solutions /Answers
3.0 INTRODUCTION
Input and output devices are components that form part of the computer system.
These devices are controlled by the operating system. Input devices such as
keyboard, mouse, and sensors provide input signals such as commands to the
operating system. These commands received from input devices instruct the
operating system to perform some task or control its behaviour. Output devices
such as monitors, printers and speakers are the devices that receive commands or
information from the operating system.
In the earlier unit, we had studied the memory management of primary memory.
The physical memory, as we have already seen, is not large enough to
42 accommodate all of the needs of a computer system. Also, it is not permanent.
Secondary storage consists of disk units and tape drives onto which data can be I/O and File Management
moved for permanent storage. Though there are actual physical differences
between tapes and disks, the principles involved in controlling them are the same,
so we shall only consider disk management here in this unit.
The operating system implements the abstract concept of the file by managing
mass storage devices, such as types and disks. For convenient use of the computer
system, the operating system provides a uniform logical view of information
storage. The operating system abstracts from the physical properties of its storage
devices to define a logical storage Unit, the file. Files are mapped by the operating
system, onto physical devices.
Definition: A file is a collection of related information defined by its creator.
Commonly, files represent programs (both source and object forms) and data.
Data files may be numeric, alphabetic or alphanumeric. Files may be free-form,
such as text files, or may be rigidly formatted. In general, a file is a sequence of
bits, bytes, lines or records whose meaning is defined by its creator and user.
File management is one of the most visible services of an operating system.
Computers can store information in several different physical forms among which
magnetic tape, disk, and drum are the most common forms. Each of these devices
has their own characteristics and physical organization.
Normally files are organized into directories to ease their use. When multiple
users have access to files, it may be desirable to control by whom and in what
ways files may be accessed. The operating system is responsible for the following
activities in connection with file management:
 The creation and deletion of files.
 The creation and deletion of directory.
 The support of primitives for manipulating files and directories.
 The mapping of files onto disk storage.
 Backup of files on stable (non volatile) storage.
The most significant problem in I/O system is the speed mismatch between I/O
devices and the memory and also with the processor. This is because I/O system
involves both H/W and S/W support and there is large variation in the nature of
I/O devices, so they cannot compete with the speed of the processor and memory.
A well-designed file management structure makes the file access quick and easily
movable to a new machine. Also it facilitates sharing of files and protection of
non-public files. For security and privacy, file system may also provide encryption
and decryption capabilities. This makes information accessible to the intended
user only.
In this unit we will study the I/O and the file management techniques used by the
operating system in order to manage them efficiently.
3.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to: 43
Memory Management, File  describe the management of the I/O activities independently and
simultaneously with processor activities;
 summarize the full range of views that support file systems, especially the
operating system view;
 compare and contrast different approaches to file organisations;
 discuss the disk scheduling techniques, and
 know how to implement the file system and its protection against unauthorized
usage.
3.2 ORGANISATION OF THE I/O FUNCTION

The range of I/O devices and the large variation in their nature, speed, design,
functioning, usage etc. makes it difficult for the operating system to handle them
with any generality. The key concept in I/O software designing is device
independence achieved by using uniform naming.
The name of the file or device should simply be a string or an integer and not
dependent on the device in any way. Another key issue is sharable versus dedicated
devices. Many users can share some I/O devices such as disks, at any instance of
time. The devices like printers have to be dedicated to a single user until that user
has finished an operation.
The basic idea is to organise the I/O software as a series of layers with the lower
ones hiding the physical H/W and other complexities from the upper ones that
present simple, regular interface interaction with users. Based on this I/O software
can be structured in the following four layers given below with brief descriptions:
(i) Interrupt handlers: The CPU starts the transfer and goes off to do something
else until the interrupt arrives. The I/O device performs its activity
independently and simultaneously with CPU activity. This enables the I/O
devices to run asynchronously with the processor. The device sends an
interrupt to the processor when it has completed the task, enabling CPU to
initiate a further task. These interrupts can be hidden with the help of device
drivers discussed below as the next I/O software layer.
(ii) Device Drivers: Each device driver handles one device type or group of
closely related devices and contains a device dependent code. It accepts
individual requests from device independent software and checks that the
request is carried out. A device driver manages communication with a specific
I/O device by converting a logical request from a user into specific commands
directed to the device.
(iii) Device-independent Operating System Software: Its basic responsibility
is to perform the I/O functions common to all devices and to provide interface
with user-level software. It also takes care of mapping symbolic device names
onto the proper driver. This layer supports device naming, device protection,
error reporting, allocating and releasing dedicated devices etc.
(iv) User level software: It consists of library procedures linked together with
user programs. These libraries make system calls. It makes I/O call, format I/
44
O and alsoo support spoooling. Spoooling is a wayy of dealing with dedicatted I/ I/O and File Management
O devicess like printerss in a multiprogrammingg environmennt.
3..3 I/O BUFFER

B RING
A buffer is an n intermediaate memory area under ooperating syystem controol that
ores data in transit
sto t between two devicces or betweeen user’s worrk area and ddevice.
It allows compputation to proceed
p in paarallel with I//O.
In
n a typical unbuffered
u trransfer situattion the proccessor is idlle for most oof the
tim
me, waiting for data trannsfer to comp plete and tottal read-proccessing time is the
su
um of all the transfer/readd time and prrocessor timme as shown in i Figure 1.
Figure 1: Unb
buffered Transsfers
In
n case of sinngle-bufferedd transfer, bllocks are firsst read into a buffer andd then
moved
m to the user’s workk area. Whenn the move is i complete, the next bloock is
read into the buffer
b and prrocessed in parallel
p withh the first bloock. This heelps in
minimizing
m sppeed mismatcch between devices
d and tthe processorr. Also, this aallows
prrocess compuutation in paarallel with innput/output as
a shown in Figure
F 2.
Figure 2: Single
S Bufferin
ng
Double bufferring is an imp provement over o this. A pair

p of buffers is used; bllocks/
records generaated by a runnning process are initiallyy stored in th he first bufferr until
it is full. Thenn from this buuffer it is traansferred to tthe secondarry storage. D
During
his transfer thhe other blocks generateed are depossited in the second
th s buffeer and
wh hen this second buffer is i also full and a first bufffer transfer is completee, then
traansfer from the
t second buffer
b is initiiated. This pprocess of alternation bettween
buuffers contin nues which h allows I/O O to occur in parallel with a proccess’s
coomputation. This schem me increasees the compplexity but yields imprroved
peerformance as a shown in Figure
F 3.
Figure 3: Double Bufferin

ng
3..4 DISK
K ORGAN
NISATIO
ON
Disks come inn different sh
hapes and sizes. The mostt obvious disstinction betwween
oppy disks, diskettes
flo d andd hard disks is: floppy disks and diskkettes consistt, of a 45
Memory Management, File single disk of
o magnetic m material, whhile hard-disks normallyy consist of several
s
Mana
stacked on toop of one anoother. Hard disks
d are totaally enclosedd devices whhich are
much
m more fiinely engineered and theerefore requirre protection n from dust. A hard
disk
d spins at a constant sppeed, while the t rotation of o floppy driives is switched on
and
a off. On thhe Macintoshh machine, flo oppy drives have
h a variab
ble speed opeeration,
whereas
w most floppy drivves have onlyy a single sppeed of rotatiion. As hardd drives
and
a tape unitts become morem efficiennt and cheapper to produuce, the role of the
floppy
fl disk iss diminishingg. We look thherefore maiinly at hard drives.
d
F
Figure 4: Hard
d Disk with 3 p
platters
Looking
L at thhe Figure 4, we see that a hard disk iss composed of several phhysical
disks
d stackedd on top of eaach other. Thhe disk show wn in the Figuure 4 has 3 platters
p
and
a 6 recordiing surfaces (two on each h platter). A separate reaad head is provided
for
fo each surfa face. Althouggh the disks are made off continuous magnetic material, m
thhere is a limiit to the denssity of informmation whichh can be stored on the dissk. The
heads
h are controlled by a stepper motor m which moves them m in fixed-distance
inntervals acrooss each surfaace. i.e., theree is a fixed nuumber of traccks on each surface.
s
The
T tracks onn all the surfa faces are aliggned, and thee sum of all thet tracks at a fixed
distance
d fromm the edge off the disk is called a cyliinder. To maake the disk access
quicker,
q trackks are usuallly divided upp into sectorrs- or fixed size regionss which
liie along traccks. When w writing to a disk, data aare written inn units of a whole
number
n of secctors. (In this respect, theey are similaar to pages orr frames in phhysical
memory).
m On n some diskss, the sizes of sectors aree decided by y the manufaacturers
inn hardware. On other syystems (ofteen microcom mputers) it might
m be choosen in
software wheen the disk is prepared forr use (formatting). Becau use the headss of the
disk
d move toogether on all a surfaces, we can inccrease read-w write efficienncy by
allocating
a bllocks in parrallel across all surfaces. Thus, if a file is stoored in
consecutive
c b
blocks, on a disk with n surfaces
s and n heads, it could
c read n sectors
s
per-track
p withhout any heaad movementt. When a disk is suppliedd by a manufaacturer,
thhe physical properties
p of the disk (nnumber of traacks, numbeer of heads, sectors
s
per
p track, speeed of revoluution) are prrovided withh the disk. Ann operating system
must
m be able to adjust to ddifferent types of disk. C Clearly sectorrs per track iis not a
constant,
c norr is the numbber of trackss. The numbeers given aree just a convvention
used
u to work out a consisttent set of adddresses on a disk and mayy not have annything
too do with thee hard and faast physical limits
l of the disk. To adddress any porrtion of
a disk, we need a three component address connsisting of (ssurface, tracck and
sector).
46
The seek time is the time required for the disk arm to move the head to the I/O and File Management
cylinder with the desired sector. The rotational latency is the time required for
the disk to rotate the desired sector until it is under the read-write head.
3.4.1 Device drivers and IDs

A hard-disk is a device, and as such, an operating system must use a device
controller to talk to it. Some device controllers are simple microprocessors which
translate numerical addresses into head motor movements, while others contain
small decision making computers of their own. The most popular type of drive
for larger personal computers and workstations is the SCSI drive. SCSI
(pronounced scuzzy) (Small Computer System Interface) is a protocol and now
exists in four variants SCSI 1, SCSI 2, fast SCSI 2, and SCSI 3. SCSI disks live
on a data bus which is a fast parallel data link to the CPU and memory, rather
like a very short network. Each drive coupled to the bus identifies itself by a
SCSI address and each SCSI controller can address up to seven units. If more
disks are required, a second controller must be added. SCSI is more efficient at
multiple accesses sharing than other disk types for microcomputers. In order to
talk to a SCSI disk, an operating system must have a SCSI device driver. This is
a layer of software which translates disk requests from the operating system’s
abstract command-layer into the language of signals which the SCSI controller
understands.
3.4.2 Checking Data Consistency and Formatting

Hard drives are not perfect: they develop defects due to magnetic dropout and
imperfect manufacturing. On more primitive disks, this is checked when the disk
is formatted and these damaged sectors are avoided. If the sector becomes damaged
under operation, the structure of the disk must be patched up by some repair
program. Usually the data are lost.
On more intelligent drives, like the SCSI drives, the disk itself keeps a defect list
which contains a list of all bad sectors. Anew disk from the manufacturer contains
a starting list and this is updated as time goes by, if more defects occur. Formatting
is a process by which the sectors of the disk are:
 (If necessary) created by setting out ‘signposts’ along the tracks,
 Labelled with an address, so that the disk controller knows when it has found
the correct sector.
On simple disks used by microcomputers, formatting is done manually. On other
types, like SCSI drives, there is a low-level formatting already on the disk when
it comes from the manufacturer. This is part of the SCSI protocol, in a sense.
High level formatting on top of this is not necessary, since an advanced enough
filesystem will be able to manage the hardware sectors. Data consistency is
checked by writing to disk and reading back the result. If there is disagreement,
an error occurs. This procedure can best be implemented inside the hardware of
the disk-modern disk drives are small computers in their own right. Another
cheaper way of checking data consistency is to calculate a number for each sector,
based on what data are in the sector and store it in the sector. When the data are
read back, the number is recalculated and if there is disagreement then an error is
signalled. This is called a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) or error correcting 47
Memory Management, File code.
c Some device
d contrrollers are inntelligent ennough to be able to deteect bad
Mana
sectors and move
m data to a spare ‘goood’ sector if tthere is an errror. Disk deesign is
still a subjectt of consideraable researchh and disks aare improving g both in speeed and
reeliability by leaps and boounds.
3.5
3 DISK
K SCHEDULING
G
The
T disk is a resource whhich has to bee shared. It iis therefore has
h to be schheduled
for
fo use, accoording to som me kind of scheduling
s ssystem. The secondary sstorage
media
m structuure is one of the vital parts
p of the ffile system. Disks are thhe one,
providing
p lott of the secoondary storaage. As comppared to maagnetic tapess, disks
have
h very fasst access tim
me and disk bandwidth.
b T
The access time has twoo major
constituents:
c seek time annd the rotatioonal latency.
The
T seek tim me is the timme required forf the disk arm to movve the head to the
cylinder
c withh the desiredd sector. The rotational llatency is thee time requirred for
thhe disk to rotate the desirred sector unntil it is undeer the read-w
write head. Thhe disk
bandwidth
b is the total nummber of bytees transferredd per unit timme.
Both
B the acceess time andd the bandwiidth can be iimproved byy efficient diisk I/O
reequests scheeduling. Diskk drivers aree large singlee dimensionaal arrays of logical
blocks
b to be transferred. Because of large usagge of disks, proper scheeduling
algorithms
a arre required.
A schedulingg policy shoould attemptt to maximize throughpput (defined as the
number
n of requests servicced per unit time) and allso to minim
mize mean response
tiime (i.e., aveerage waiting time plus service
s time)). These schheduling algoorithms
are
a discussedd below:
3.5.1
3 FCF
FS Schedulling
First-Come,
F First-Servedd (FCFS) is the basis off this simpleest disk scheeduling
teechnique. Th
here is no reoordering of thhe queue. Supppose the reqquests for inpputting/
outputting
o to blocks on tthe cylinderss have arriveed, forming the followinng disk
queue:
q
50, 91, 1150, 42, 130,, 18, 140, 700, 60
Also
A assume that the diskk head is initiially at cylindder 50 then it
i moves to 91,
9 then
too 150 and so
s on. The ttotal head movement
m in this schemee is 610 cyllinders,
which
w makess the system slow becausse of wild sw wings. Propeer schedulingg while
moving
m towaards a particcular directiion could deecrease this. This will further
immprove perfformance. FC
CFS scheme is clearly deepicted in Fig gure 5.
48 Figure 5: FCFS
F Schedulling
3..5.2 SSTF
F Schedulin
ng I/O and File Management
Thhe basis for this algorithhm is Shortesst-Seek-Timee-First (SST

TF) i.e., serviice all
th
he requests close
c to the current headd position annd with minnimum seekss time
froom current head
h positionn.
In
n the previous disk queuee sample the cylinder
c closse to critical head positioon i.e.,
500, is 42 cylinnder, next clo
osest request is at 60. Froom there, thee closest one is 70,
th
hen 91,130,140,150 and then t finally 18-cylinder.. This schem me has reduceed the
total head mo ovements to 248 cylindeers and hencce improved the perform mance.
Liike SJF (Shorrtest Job Firsst) for CPU sccheduling SS STF also suffefers from starvvation
prroblem. Thiss is because requests
r mayy arrive at anny time. Sup ppose we havve the
requests in diisk queue fo or cylinders 18 and 150, and while servicing thhe 18-
cyylinder requeest, some othher request closest
c to it aarrives and it
i will be serrviced
neext. This cann continue fuurther also making
m the request at 1500-cylinder waait for
long. Thus a continual sttream of reqquests near oone another could arrivve and
keeep the far away
a requesst waiting inndefinitely. The
T SSTF is not the opptimal
sccheduling du ue to the starrvation probblem. This w whole scheduuling is shown in
Fiigure 6.
Figure 6: SS
STF Schedulin
ng
3..5.3 SCAN
N Schedulling
Th he disk arm starts at onee end of the disk
d and servvice all the requests
r in itts way
towards the otther end, i.ee., until it reaaches the othher end of th
he disk wheere the
heead movemennt is reversed and continnue servicingg in this reverrse directionn. This
sccanning is doone back andd forth by thee head continnuously.
In
n the example problem tw wo things mu ust be knowwn before starrting the scaanning
prrocess. Firstlly, the initiaal head posittion i.e., 50 and then thee head moveement
diirection (let it
i towards 0, starting cyliinder). Consiider the diskk queue againn:
91, 150, 42, 130
0, 18, 140, 70,
7 60
Sttarting from 50 it will moove towards 0,0 servicing rrequests 42 and
a 18 in betwween.
Att cylinder 0 the directionn is reversedd and the arm
m will move towards the other
en
nd of the diskk servicing thhe requests at
a 60, 70, 91,130,140 andd then finally 150.
As the arm actts like an elevator in a buuilding, the SSCAN algoritthm is also kknown
ass elevator alggorithm someetimes. The liimitation of tthis scheme is that few reqquests
neeed to wait foor a long timee because of reversal of head
h directionn. This schedduling
alggorithm resu ults in a total head movem
ment of only 200 cylinderrs. Figure 7 showss
th
his scheme:
49
Mana
Figure 7: SCAN
S Schedulling
3.5.4
3 C-SC
CAN Scheduling
Similar
S to SC CAN algorithhm, C-SCAN N also movess head from one
o end to the other
servicing all the requestss in its way. The differeence here is that after thhe head
reeaches the ennd it immeddiately returnns to beginninng, skipping
g all the requests on
thhe return tripp. The serviccing of the requests
r is ddone only aloong one pathh. Thus
comparativel
c ly this schem
me gives uniiform wait tiime becausee cylinders aare like
circular
c lists that
t wrap aroound from thhe last cylindder to the firsst one.
3.5.5
3 LOO
OK and C--LOOK Sccheduling
These
T are jusst improvemeents of SCAAN and C-SC CAN but diffficult to impllement.
Here
H the headd moves onlyy till final request in eachh direction (first and lastt ones),
and
a immediaately reversees direction without going to end of o the disk. Before
moving
m towaards any direection the reequests are loooked, avoidding the fulll width
disk
d movemeent by the arm m.
The
T performaance and chooice of all thhese schedulling algorithm ms depend heavily
h
on
o the number and type of requests and on the nature of diisk usage. The T file
allocation
a meethods like contiguous,
c l
linked or inddexed, also affect
a the requests.
For
F example, a contiguously allocated d file will gennerate nearbyy requests andd hence
reeduce head movements whereas link ked or indexxed files may y generate reequests
from
fr blocks that are scatttered throug ghout the dissk and hencee increase thhe head
movements.
m W
While searchhing for filess the directorries will be frrequently acccessed,
hence
h locatioon of directoories and alsoo blocks of ddata in them are also impportant
criteria.
c All thhese peculiarrities force th
he disk scheeduling algorrithms to be written
w
as
a a separate module
m of thhe operating system, so thhat these cann easily be repplaced.
For
F heavily used u disks thhe SCAN / LOOKL algorrithms are well
w suited because
b
thhey take caree of the hardw ware and acccess requestss in a reasonaable order. T There is
no
n real dangeer of starvatioon, especiallly in the C-SCAN case. The T arrangem ment of
data
d on a diskk plays an im mportant role in deciding the t efficiency y of data-retrrieval.
3.6
3 RAIID
Disks
D have hiigh failure raates and hencce there is the risk of losss of data andd lots of
downtime
d foor restoring and disk reeplacement. To improvee disk usagee many
teechniques haave been im mplemented. One O such tecchnology is RAID (Reddundant
Array
A of Ineexpensive Disks).
D Its orrganization is based onn disk stripiing (or
innterleaving),, which uses a group of disks
d as one storage unit.. Disk stripinng is a
50 way
w of increasing the disk transfer rate r up to a factor of N,, by splittingg files
across N different disks. Instead of saving all the data from a given file on one I/O and File Management
disk, it is split across many. Since the N heads can now search independently, the
speed of transfer is, in principle, increased manifold. Logical disk data/blocks
can be written on two or more separate physical disks which can further transfer
their sub-blocks in parallel. The total transfer rate system is directly proportional
to the number of disks. The larger the number of physical disks striped together,
the larger the total transfer rate of the system. Hence, the overall performance
and disk accessing speed is also enhanced. The enhanced version of this scheme
is mirroring or shadowing. In this RAID organisation a duplicate copy of each
disk is kept. It is costly but a much faster and more reliable approach. The
disadvantage with disk striping is that, if one of the N disks becomes damaged,
then the data on all N disks is lost. Thus striping needs to be combined with a
reliable form of backup in order to be successful.
Another RAID scheme uses some disk space for holding parity blocks. Suppose,
three or more disks are used, then one of the disks will act as a parity block,
which contains corresponding bit positions in all blocks. In case some error occurs
or the disk develops a problems all its data bits can be reconstructed. This technique
is known as disk striping with parity or block interleaved parity, which increases
speed. But writing or updating any data on a disk requires corresponding
recalculations and changes in parity block. To overcome this the parity blocks
can be distributed over all disks.
3.7 DISK CACHE

Disk caching is an extension of buffering. Cache is derived from the French
word cacher, meaning to hide. In this context, a cache is a collection of blocks
that logically belong on the disk, but are kept in memory for performance reasons.
It is used in multiprogramming environment or in disk file servers, which maintain
a separate section of main memory called disk cache. These are sets of buffers
(cache) that contain the blocks that are recently used. The cached buffers in
memory are copies of the disk blocks and if any data here is modified only its
local copy is updated. So, to maintain integrity, updated blocks must be transferred
back to the disk. Caching is based on the assumption that most shortly accessed
blocks are likely to be accessed again soon. In case some new block is required
in the cache buffer, one block already there can be selected for “flushing” to the
disk. Also to avoid loss of updated information in case of failures or loss of
power, the system can periodically flush cache blocks to the disk. The key to disk
caching is keeping frequently accessed records in the disk cache buffer in primary
storage.

1) Indicate the major characteristics which differentiate I/O devices.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Explain the term device independence. What is the role of device drivers in
this context? 51
Memory Management, File ........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3) Describe the ways in which a device driver can be implemented?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4) What is the advantage of the double buffering scheme over single buffering?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
5) What are the key objectives of the I/O system?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
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3.8 COMMAND LANGUAGE USER’S VIEW

OF THE FILE SYSTEM
The most important aspect of a file system is its appearance from the user’s point
of view. The user prefers to view the naming scheme of files, the constituents of
a file, what the directory tree looks like, protection specifications, file operations
allowed on them and many other interface issues. The internal details like, the
data structure used for free storage management, number of sectors in a logical
block etc. is of less interest to the users. From a user’s perspective, a file is the
smallest allotment of logical secondary storage. Users should be able to refer to
their files by symbolic names rather than having to use physical device names.
The operating system allows users to define named objects called files which
can hold interrelated data, programs or any other thing that the user wants to
store/save.
3.9 THE SYSTEM PROGRAMMER’S VIEW

OF THE FILE SYSTEM
As discussed earlier, the system programmer’s and designer’s view of the file
system is mainly concerned with the details/issues like whether linked lists or
simple arrays are used for keeping track of free storage and also the number of
52 sectors useful in any logical block. But it is rare that physical record size will
exactly match the length of desired logical record. The designers are mainly I/O and File Management
interested in seeing how disk space is managed, how files are stored and how to
make everything work efficiently and reliably.
3.10 THE OPERATING SYSTEM’S VIEW OF FILE

MANAGEMENT
As discussed earlier, the operating system abstracts (maps) from the physical
properties of its storage devices to define a logical storage unit i.e., the file. The
operating system provides various system calls for file management like creating,
deleting files, read and write, truncate operations etc. All operating systems focus
on achieving device-independence by making the access easy regardless of the
place of storage (file or device). The files are mapped by the operating system
onto physical devices. Many factors are considered for file management by the
operating system like directory structure, disk scheduling and management, file
related system services, input/output etc. Most operating systems take a different
approach to storing information. Three common file organisations are byte
sequence, record sequence and tree of disk blocks. UNIX files are structured in
simple byte sequence form. In record sequence, arbitrary records can be read or
written, but a record cannot be inserted or deleted in the middle of a file. CP/M
works according to this scheme. In tree organisation each block hold n keyed
records and a new record can be inserted anywhere in the tree. The mainframes
use this approach. The OS is responsible for the following activities in regard to
the file system:
 The creation and deletion of files
 The creation and deletion of directory
 The support of system calls for files and directories manipulation
 The mapping of files onto disk
 Backup of files on stable storage media (non-volatile).
The coming sub-sections cover these details as viewed by the operating system.
3.10.1 Directories
A file directory is a group of files organised together. An entry within a directory
refers to the file or another directory. Hence, a tree structure/hierarchy can be
formed. The directories are used to group files belonging to different applications/
users. Large-scale time sharing systems and distributed systems store thousands
of files and bulk of data. For this type of environment a file system must be
organised properly. A File system can be broken into partitions or volumes. They
provide separate areas within one disk, each treated as separate storage devices
in which files and directories reside. Thus directories enable files to be separated
on the basis of user and user applications, thus simplifying system management
issues like backups, recovery, security, integrity, name-collision problem (file
name clashes), housekeeping of files etc.
The device directory records information like name, location, size, and type for
all the files on partition. A root refers to the part of the disk from where the root
directory begins, which points to the user directories. The root directory is distinct 53
Memory Management, File from
fr sub-directories in that
t it is in a fixed posittion and of fixed size. So,
S the
Mana
directory
d is liike a symboll table that co
onverts file nnames into thheir correspoonding
directory
d entrries. The opeerations perfformed on a ddirectory or file
f system are:
a
1) Create, delete
d and moodify files.
2)
2 Search fo
or a file.
3 Mechanissms for sharring files should providee controlledd access like read,
3)
write, exeecute or variious combinaations.
4)
4 List the files
f in a direectory and also contents oof the directo
ory entry.
5)
5 Renaminng a file whenn its contentss or uses channge or file po
osition needss to be
changed.
6)
6 Backup anda recoveryy capabilitiees must be provided
p to prevent
p acciddental
loss or malicious
m desttruction of innformation.
7)
7 Traverse the file systeem.
The
T most com
mmon schem
mes for descriibing logicall directory sttructure are:
(ii) Single-leevel directorry
All the files
f are inside the sam me directory, which is siimple and easy e to
understannd; but the liimitation is that
t all files must
m have unnique namess. Also,
even witth a single uuser as the number
n of fi
files increasees, it is diffiicult to
remembeer and to tracck the namess of all the files.
fi This hieerarchy is deepicted
in Figuree 8.
Figure 8: Sin
ngle-level direcctory
(iii) Two-leveel directory

We can overcome the limitations of o the previouus scheme by y creating a seeparate
directoryy for each useer, called Usser File Direcctory (UFD)). Initially whhen the
user logss in, the systeem’s Master File Directoory (MFD) iss searched whichw is
indexed with
w respectt to usernamee/account annd UFD reference for thaat user.
Thus difffferent users may have saame file nam mes but with hin each UFD D they
should bee unique. Thhis resolves name-collisiion problem m up to some extent
but this directory
d structure isolatess one user froom another, which
w is not desired
d
sometimees when useers need to shares or coopperate on so ome task. Fiigure 9
shows this scheme cllearly.
54 Figure 9: Tw
wo-level directory
(iiii) Tree-stru
uctured direcctory I/O and File Management
The two-level directorry structure is

i like a 2-levvel tree. Thuss to generalisse, we
can extendd the directo
ory structure to a tree of arbitrary
a height. Thus the user
can createe his/her ow
wn directory and subdireectories and can also orgganise
files. Onee bit in eachh directory entry definees entry as a file (0) orr as a
subdirectoory (1).
The tree has
h a root direectory and evvery file in itt has a uniqu
ue path namee (path
from roott, through alll subdirectoories, to a sspecified filee). The pathhname
prefixes th
he filename, helps to reaach the requiired file travversed from a base
directory. The pathnam mes can be ofo 2 types: abbsolute path names or reelative
path namees, dependinng on the base directory. A An absolute path name bbegins
at the root and followws a path to a particular file. It is a full
f pathnam me and
uses the rooot directoryy. Relative defines
d the paath from the current direectory.
For exampple, if we assume that thhe current dirrectory is /HHello2 then thhe file
F4.doc haas the absolutte pathname /Hello/Hello2
/ 2/Test2/F4.ddoc and the reelative
pathname is /Test2/F44.doc. The pathname is uused to simpplify the searrching
of a file in a tree-structured dirrectory hierrarchy. Figuure 10 show ws the
layout:
Figgure 10: Tree-structured dirrectory
(ivv) Acyclic-ggraph directory:

As the nam me suggests, this schemee has a graphh with no cyycles allowedd in it.
This schem me added the concept off shared commmon subdireectory / file wwhich
exists in file
f system inn two (or moore) places att once. Havinng two copiees of a
file does not
n reflect chhanges in onne copy correesponding too changes maade in
the other copy.
c
But in a shhared file, onnly one actuaal file is used and hence ch hanges are viisible.
Thus an accyclic graph is i a generalissation of a treee-structuredd directory schheme.
This is useeful in a situuation where several peopple are workking as a team m, and
need acceess to shared d files kept toogether in onne directory.. This schem me can
be implem mented by crreating a new directory entry know wn as a link w which
points to another file or subdirecctory. Figuree 11 depicts this structuure for
directoriess.
55
Mana
F
Figure 11: Acyyclic-graph dirrectory
The limittations of thhis approachh are the diffficulties in trraversing ann entire
file systeem because of multiple absolute patth names. Another
A issuee is the
presence of dangling pointers to thet files that are already deleted, thouugh we
can overccome this byy preserving the file untill all references to it are deleted.
d
For this, every time a link or a coppy of directoory is establisshed, a new entry
e is
added to the file-refeerence list. But
B in realityy as the list is too lengthyy, only
a count of
o the numbeer of referencces is kept. T This count iss then increm mented
or decrem mented wheen the refereence to the file is addeed or it is ddeleted
respectivvely.
(vv) General graph Directory:
Acyclic-ggraph does nnot allow cyycles in it. However, wheen cycles exxist, the
referencee count mayy be non-zerro, even whhen the direcctory or file is not
referenceed anymore.. In such sittuation garbbage collectiion is useful. This
scheme requires the trraversal of thhe whole filee system and marking accessible
nly. The secoond pass then collects evverything thaat is unmarkeed on a
entries on
free-spacce list. This is depicted in
n Figure 12.
F
Figure 12: Gen
neral-graph diirectory
3.10.2
3 Dissk Space M
Managemeent
The
T direct-acccess of diskss and keeping g files in adjacent areas ofo the disk is highly
desirable.
d Buut the probleem is how to allocate sppace to filess for effectivve disk
space utilizattion and quicck access. Alsso, as files arre allocated and
a freed, thee space
on
o a disk become fragmennted. The maajor methodss of allocatinng disk spacee are:
56
i) Continuous I/O and File Management
ii) Non-ccontinuous (IIndexing and

d Chaining)
i) Continuoous
Thhis is also knnown as conttiguous alloccation as eacch file in thiss scheme occcupies
a set
s of contiguuous blocks on the disk. A linear orddering of disk k addresses is seen
onn the disk. It is used in VM/CMS–
V ann old interactive system. The advantaage of
th
his approach isi that successsive logical records are pphysically addjacent and reequire
noo head movem ment. So disk k seek time is
i minimal annd speeds up access of reccords.
Also, this scheeme is relativ vely simple to implemennt. The techn nique in whicch the
opperating systeem provides units
u of file space
s on demmand by user running
r proccesses,
is known as dynamic
d alloocation of diisk space. G Generally spaace is allocated in
unnits of a fixed size, calledd an allocatiion unit or a ‘cluster’ in MS-DOS.
M C
Cluster
is a simple multiple
m of thhe disk physsical sector size, usually y 512 bytes.. Disk
pace can be considered as
sp a a one-dim mensional arrray of data stores, eachh store
beeing a clusteer. A larger cluster size reduces thee potential for f fragmenttation,
buut increases the
t likelihoo od that clusteers will havee unused space. Using cluusters
larrger than onne sector redduces fragmeentation, andd reduces thhe amount of disk
sp
pace needed to store the informationn about the uused and un nused areas oon the
diisk.
Coontiguous alllocation meerely retains the disk adddress (start of o file) and llength
(in
n block unitts) of the first block. If a file is n blocks long anda it beginss with
location b (blo ocks), then it
i occupies b,
b b+1, b+2,… …, b+n-1 blocks. First-ffit and
beest-fit strateggies can be used
u to selecct a free holee from availaable ones. But the
major
m problem m here is seaarching for sufficient
s sppace for a neew file. Figuure 13
deepicts this sccheme:
Figure 13: Contiguou

us Allocation oon the Disk
Th his scheme exhibits sim milar fragmeentation probblems as in variable meemory

paartitioning. This
T is becau use allocationn and deal loocation couldd result in reegions
off free disk space broken innto chunks (ppieces) withiin active space, which is called
exxternal fragmmentation. A repacking routine calleed compactiion can solvve this
prroblem. In thhis routine, ann entire file system
s is coppied on to taape or anotheer disk
annd the originnal disk is th
hen freed com mpletely. Thhen from the copied diskk, files
arre again stored back using contiguous space
s on the ooriginal disk. But this appproach
caan be very expensive in terms of tim me. Also, sizze-declaratioon in advancce is a
prroblem becauuse each tim me, the size of file is noot predictable. But it suppports
booth sequentiaal and direct accessing. ForF sequential access, almost no seekks are
reequired. Eveen direct acccess with seeek and readd is fast. Alsso, calculatiion of
bllocks holdin ng data is quuick and easyy as we needd just offsett from the sttart of
th
he file.
57
Memory Management, File iii) Non-Con
ntinuous (C
Chaining and
d Indexing)
Mana
This
T scheme has h replacedd the previouss ones. The popular
p non-ccontiguous sttorages
allocation
a schhemes are:
 Linked/C
Chained alloccation
 Indexed Allocation.
A
Linked/Chai
L ined allocatiion: All filess are stored inn fixed size blocks
b and addjacent
blocks
b are linnked togetheer like a linkked list. Thee disk blockss may be scaattered
anywhere
a onn the disk. T The directorry contains a pointer too the first annd last
block
b of the file.
f Also eacch block conntains pointeers to the nex xt block, whhich are
not
n made avaailable to thee user. Theree is no externnal fragmenttation in this as any
free
fr block caan be utiliseed for storag ge. So, com mpaction andd relocation is not
reequired. Butt the disadvaantage here is i that it is pootentially ineefficient for direct-
accessible
a filles since blocks are scaattered overr the disk annd have to follow
pointers
p from
m one disk block to the neext. It can bee used effectiively for sequuential
access
a only but
b there alsoo it may gen nerate long seeks
s betweeen blocks. Another
A
isssue is the exxtra storage space requirred for pointters. Yet the reliability
r prroblem
iss also there due to loss/damage of any a pointer. The use of doubly linkeed lists
could
c be a so olution to thhis problem butb it wouldd add more overheads
o foor each
file.
fi A doubly linked listt also facilitaates searchinng as blockss are threadeed both
forward
fo and backward.
b T
The Figure 14 1 depicts linnked /chaineed allocationn where
each
e block contains the information
i about the nnext block (i.e., pointer to t next
block).
b
Figu
ure 14: Linked
d Allocation on
n the Disk
MS-DOS
M andd OS/2 use annother variatiion on linkedd list called FAAT (File Alloocation
Table).
T The beginning
b of each partitio
on contains a table havingg one entry foor each
disk
d block annd is indexedd by the blocck number. T The directory y entry contaains the
block
b number of the first block of filee. The table entry
e indexeed by block number
n
contains
c the block
b numbeer of the nexxt block in thhe file. The Table
T pointerr of the
laast block in the
t file has E EOF pointer value. This cchain continnues until EO OF (end
of
o file) table entry
e is encoountered. Wee still have too linearly travverse next poointers,
but
b at least we w don’t havee to go to thee disk for eacch of them. 0(Zero)
0 tablee value
inndicates an unused blocck. So, alloccation of freee blocks with FAT schheme is
straightforwaard, just searcch for the firrst block withh 0 table poiinter. MS-DO OS and
OS/2
O use thiss scheme. Thhis scheme iss depicted in Figure 15.
58
I/O and File Management
Figu
ure 15: File-A
Allocation Tablle (FAT)
Inndexed Alloccation: In thhis each file has h its own iindex block. Each entry of the
in
ndex points to o the disk bloocks containning actual fiile data i.e., the
t index keeeps an
arrray of blockk pointers foor each file. So, index bllock is an arrray of disk block
adddresses. Thee ith entry in the index bllock points too the ith block of the file. Also,
th
he main direcctory containns the addreess where thhe index block is on thee disk.
Innitially, all thhe pointers in
i index block are set too NIL. The advantage of o this
sccheme is thatt it supports both
b sequenttial and randoom access. The T searchingg may
takke place in inndex blocks themselves.
t T index bloocks may be kept
The k close toggether
in
n secondary storage to minimize
m seeek time. Alsoo space is wasted
w only on
o the
in
ndex which is not very laarge and therre’s no exterrnal fragmen ntation. But a few
lim
mitations of the previouus scheme stiill exists in this, like, we w still need to set
maximum
m file length and wew can have overflow schheme of the file f larger than the
prredicted valu ue. Insertionss can requiree complete rreconstructio on of index blocks
b
also. The indeexed allocatioon scheme iss diagrammaatically show wn in Figure 16.
Figurre 16: Indexed

d Allocation on
n the Disk
3..10.3 Disk
k Address Translatioon
We
W have seen in Unit-1 meemory managgement that tthe virtual adddresses geneerated
byy a program is different from
f the phy
ysical. The trranslation off virtual addrresses
to physical addresses is peerformed by MMU. Diskk address trannslation considers
th k. Hard diskss are totally enclosed devices,
he aspects off data storagee on the disk
whhich are morre finely eng
gineered and therefore reqquire protecttion from duust. A
59
Memory Management, File hard disk spins at a constant speed. Briefly, hard disks consist of one or more
rotating platters. A read-write head is positioned above the rotating surface and
is able to read or write the data underneath the current head position. The hard
drives are able to present the “geometry” or “addressing scheme” of the drive.
Consider the disk internals first. Each track of the disk is divided into sections
called sectors. A sector is the smallest physical storage unit on the disk. The size
of a sector is always a power of two, and is almost always 512 bytes. A sector is
the part of a slice that lies within a track. The position of the head determines
which track is being read. A cylinder is almost the same as a track, except that it
means all tracks lining up under each other on all the surfaces. The head is
equivalent to side(s). It simply means one of the rotating platters or one of the
sides on one of the platters. If a hard disk has three rotating platters, it usually has
5 or 6 readable sides, each with its own read-write head.
The MS-DOS file systems allocate storage in clusters, where a cluster is one or
more contiguous sectors. MS-DOS bases the cluster size on the size of the
partition. As a file is written on the disk, the file system allocates the appropriate
number of clusters to store the file’s data. For the purposes of isolating special
areas of the disk, most operating systems allow the disk surface to be divided
into partitions. A partition (also called a cylinder group) is just that: a group of
cylinders, which lie next to each other. By defining partitions we divide up the
storage of data to special areas, for convenience. Each partition is assigned a
separate logical device and each device can only write to the cylinders, which are
defined as being its own. To access the disk the computer needs to convert physical
disk geometry (the number of cylinders on the disk, number of heads per cylinder,
and sectors per track) to a logical configuration that is compatible with the
operating system. This conversion is called translation. Since sector translation
works between the disk itself and the system BIOS or firmware, the operating
system is unaware of the actual characteristics of the disk, if the number of
cylinders, heads, and sectors per track the computer needs is within the range
supported by the disk. MS-DOS presents disk devices as logical volumes that
are associated with a drive code (A, B, C, and so on) and have a volume name
(optional), a root directory, and from zero to many additional directories and
files.
3.10.4 File Related System Services

A file system enables applications to store and retrieve files on storage devices.
Files are placed in a hierarchical structure. The file system specifies naming
conventions for files and the format for specifying the path to a file in the tree
structure. OS provides the ability to perform input and output (I/O) operations on
storage components located on local and remote computers. In this section we
briefly describe the system services, which relate to file management. We can
broadly classify these under categories:
i) Online services
ii) Programming services.
i) Online-services: Most operating systems provide interactive facilities to
enable the on-line users to work with files. Few of these facilities are built-in
commands of the system while others are provided by separate utility
60
programs. But basic operating systems like MS-DOS with limited security I/O and File Management
provisions can be potentially risky because of these user owned powers. So,
these must be used by technical support staff or experienced users only. For
example: DEL *. * Command can erase all the files in the current directory.
Also, FORMAT c: can erase the entire contents of the mentioned drive/disk.
Many such services provided by the operating system related to directory
operations are listed below:
 Create a file
 Delete a file
 Copy a file
 Rename a file
 Display a file
 Create a directory
 Remove an empty directory
 List the contents of a directory
 Search for a file
 Traverse the file system.
ii) Programming services: The complexity of the file services offered by the
operating system vary from one operating system to another but the basic set
of operations like: open (make the file ready for processing), close (make a
file unavailable for processing), read (input data from the file), write (output
data to the file), seek (select a position in file for data transfer).
All these operations are used in the form of language syntax procedures or built-
in library routines, of high-level language used like C, Pascal, and Basic etc.
More complicated file operations supported by the operating system provide wider
range of facilities/services. These include facilities like reading and writing
records, locating a record with respect to a primary key value etc. The software
interrupts can also be used for activating operating system functions. For example,
Interrupt 21(hex) function call request in MS-DOS helps in opening, reading and
writing operations on a file.
In addition to file functions described above the operating system must provide
directory operation support also like:
 Create or remove directory
 Change directory
 Read a directory entry
 Change a directory entry etc.
These are not always implemented in a high level language but language can be
supplied with these procedure libraries. For example, UNIX uses C language as
system programming language, so that all system calls requests are implemented
as C procedures. 61
3.10.5 Asynchronous Input/Output
Synchronous I/O is based on blocking concept while asynchronous is interrupt-
driven transfer. If an user program is doing several things simultaneously and
request for I/O operation, two possibilities arise. The simplest one is that the I/O
is started, then after its completion, control is transferred back to the user process.
This is known as synchronous I/O where you make an I/O request and you have
to wait for it to finish. This could be a problem where you would like to do some
background processing and wait for a key press. Asynchronous I/O solves this
problem, which is the second possibility. In this, control is returned back to the
user program without waiting for the I/O completion. The I/O then continues
while other system operations occur. The CPU starts the transfer and goes off to
do something else until the interrupt arrives.
Asynchronous I/O operations run in the background and do not block user
applications. This improves performance, because I/O operations and applications
processing can run simultaneously. Many applications, such as databases and
file servers, take advantage of the ability to overlap processing and I/O. To manage
asynchronous I/O, each asynchronous I/O request has a corresponding control
block in the application’s address space. This control block contains the control
and status information for the request. It can be used again when the I/O operation
is completed. Most physical I/O is asynchronous.
After issuing an asynchronous I/O request, the user application can determine
when and how the I/O operation is completed. This information is provided in
any of three ways:
 The application can poll the status of the I/O operation.
 The system can asynchronously notify the application when the I/O
operation is done.
 The application can block until the I/O operation is complete.
Each I/O is handled by using a device-status table. This table holds entry for each I/O
device indicating device’s type, address, and its current status like bust or idle. When
any I/O device needs service, it interrupts the operating system. After determining the
device, the Operating System checks its status and modifies table entry reflecting the
interrupt occurrence. Control is then returned back to the user process.

1) What is the meaning of the term ‘virtual device’? Give an Example.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) What are the advantages of using directories?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3) Explain the advantages of organising file directory structure into a tree

structure?
62
........................................................................................................................ I/O and File Management
........................................................................................................................
4) List few file attributes?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
5) Why is SCAN scheduling also called Elevator Algorithm?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
6) In an MS-DOS disk system, calculate the number of entries (i.e., No. of

clusters) required in the FAT table. Assume the following parameters:
Disk Capacity - 40 Mbytes
Block Size - 512 Bytes
Blocks/Cluster- 4
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
7) Assuming a cluster size of 512 bytes calculate the percentage wastage in file
space due to incomplete filling of last cluster, for the file sizes below:
(i) 1000 bytes (ii) 20,000 bytes
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
8) What is meant by an ‘alias filename’ and explain its UNIX implementation.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3.11 SUMMARY
This unit briefly describes the aspects of I/O and File Management. We started
by looking at I/O controllers, organisation and I/O buffering. We briefly described
various buffering approaches and how buffering is effective in smoothing out
the speed mismatch between I/O rates and processor speed. We also looked at
the four levels of I/O software: the interrupt handlers, device drivers, the device
independent I/O software, and the I/O libraries and user-level software.
A well-designed file system should provide a user-friendly interface. The file
system generally includes access methods, file management issues like file
integrity, storage, sharing, security and protection etc. We have discussed the
services provided by the operating system to the user to enable fast access and
processing of files. 63
Memory Management, File The important concepts related to the file system are also introduced in this unit
like file concepts, attributes, directories, tree structure, root directory, pathnames,
file services etc. Also a number of techniques applied to improve disk system
performance have been discussed and in summary these are: disk caching, disk
scheduling algorithms (FIFO, SSTF, SCAN, CSCAN, LOOK etc.), types of disk
space management (contiguous and non-contiguous-linked and indexed), disk
address translation, RAID based on interleaving concept etc. Auxiliary storage
management is also considered as it is mainly concerned with allocation of space
for files:
1) The major characteristics are:
Data Rate Disk-2Mbytes/sec
Keyboard-10-15 bytes/sec
Units of transfer Operation Disk-read, write, seek
Printer-write, move, select font
Error conditions Disk-read errors
Printer-paper out etc.
2) Device independence refers to making the operating system software and
user application independent of the devices attached. This enables the devices
to be changed at different executions. Output to the printer can be sent to a
disk file. Device drivers act as software interface between these I/O devices
and user-level software.
3) In some operating systems like UNIX, the driver code has to be compiled
and linked with the kernel object code while in some others, like MS-DOS,
device drivers are installed and loaded dynamically. The advantage of the
former way is its simplicity and run-time efficiency but its limitation is that
addition of a new device requires regeneration of kernel, which is eliminated
in the latter technique.
4) In double - buffering the transfers occur at maximum rate hence it sustains
device activity at maximum speed, while single buffering is slowed down by
buffer to transfer times.
5) The key objectives are to maximize the utilization of the processor, to operate
the devices at their maximum speed and to achieve device independence.
1) A virtual device is a simulation of an actual device by the operating system.
It responds to the system calls and helps in achieving device independence.
Example: Print Spooler.
2) Directories enable files to be separated on the basis of users and their
applications. Also, they simplify the security and system management
problems.
64
3) Major advantages are: I/O and File Management
 This helps to avoid possible file name clashes

 Simplifies system management and installations
 Facilitates file management and security of files
 Simplifies running of different versions of same application.
4) File attributes are: Name, Type (in UNIX), Location at which file is stored
on disk, size, protection bits, date and time, user identification etc.
5) Since an elevator continues in one direction until there are no more requests
pending and then it reverses direction just like SCAN scheduling.
6) Cluster size= 4*512=2048 bytes
Number of clusters = (40*1,000,000)/2048=19531 approximately
7) (i) File size = 1000 bytes
No. of clusters = 1000/512 = 2(approximately)
Total cluster capacity = 2*512 = 1024 bytes
Wasted space = 1024-1000 = 24 bytes
Percentage Wasted space = (24 / 1024)*100
= 2.3%
(ii) File size = 20,000 bytes
No. of clusters = 20,000/512 = 40(approximately)
Total cluster capacity = 40 * 512 = 20480 bytes
Wasted space = 20480-20,000 = 480 bytes
Percentage Wasted space = (480 / 20480) * 100
= 2.3%
8) An alias is an alternative name for a file, possibly in a different directory. In
UNIX, a single inode is associated with each physical file. Alias names are
stored as separate items in directories but point to the same inode. It allows
one physical file to be referenced by two or more different names or same
name in different directory.

2) H.M.Deitel, Operating Systems, Pearson Education Asia Place, New Delhi.
65
Memory Management, File 4) Colin Ritchie, Operating Systems incorporating UNIX and Windows, BPB
Publications, New Delhi.
5) J. Archer Harris, Operating Systems, Schaum’s Outlines, TMGH, 2002, New
Delhi.
6) Achyut S Godbole, Operating Systems, Second Edition, TMGH, 2005, New
Delhi.
2002, New Delhi.
10) Gary Nutt, Operating Systems – A Modern Perspective, Pearson Education,
2003, New Delhi.
66
Security and Protection
UNIT 4 SECURITY AND PROTECTION
Structure
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Objectives
4.2 Security Threats
4.3 Security Policies and Mechanisms
4.4 Authentication
4.4.1 Passwords
4.4.2 Alternative Forms of Authentication
4.5 Protection in Computer Systems
4.6 Security Models
4.6.1 Access Matrix Model
4.6.2 Mandatory Access Control
4.6.3 Discretionary Access Control
4.6.4 Rule-Based Access Control
4.6.5 Role-Based Access Control
4.6.6 Take-Grant Model
4.6.7 Multilevel Models
4.7 Summary
4.0 INTRODUCTION
Modern organisations depend heavily on their information systems and large
investments are made on them annually. These systems are now computerised,
and networking has been the common trend during the last decade. The availability
of information and computer resources within an organisation as well as between
cooperating organisations is often critical for the production of goods and services.
In addition, data stored in or derived from the system must be correct, i.e., data
integrity must be ensured. In some situations, it is also of great importance to
keep information confidential.
Computer security is traditionally defined by the three attributes of confidentiality,
integrity, and availability. Confidentiality is the prevention of unauthorised
disclosure of information. Integrity is the prevention of unauthorised modification
of information, and availability is the prevention of unauthorised withholding of
information or resources. Protection refers to a mechanism for controlling the
access of programs, processes, or users to the resources defined by a computer
controls to be imposed, together with some means of enforcement. Protection
can improve reliability by detecting latent errors at the interfaces between
component subsystems. Early detection of interface errors can often prevent
contamination of a healthy subsystem by a subsystem that is malfunctioning. An 67
Memory Management, File unprotected resource cannot defend against use (or misuse) by an unauthorised
or incompetent user.
Even if a perfectly secure operating system was created, human error (or purposeful
human malice) can make it insecure. More importantly, there is no such thing as
a completely secure system. No matter how secure the experts might think a
particular system is, there exists someone who is clever enough to bypass the
security.
It is important to understand that a trade-off always exists between security and

the ease of use. It is possible to be too secure but security always extracts a
price, typically making it more difficult to use your systems for their intended
purposes. Users of a secure system need to continually type in, continually change
and memorise complex passwords for every computer operation, or use biometric
systems with retina and fingerprint and voice scans. All these measures along
with confirmations are likely to bring any useful work to a snail’s pace. If the
consequences are great enough, then you might have to accept extreme security
measures. Security is a relative concept, and gains in security often come only
with penalties in performance. To date, most systems designed to include security
in the operating system structure have exhibited either slow response times or
awkward user interfaces-or both.
This unit discusses about the various types of security threats and the commonly
deployed detective and preventive methods.
4.1 OBJECTIVES
 identify the security threats and goals;
 mention the role of security policies and mechanisms;
 discuss the significance of authentication and also describe various types of
authentication procedures, and
 describe the various models of protection.
4.2 SECURITY THREATS

System security can mean several things. To have system security we need to
protect the system from corruption and we need to protect the data on the system.
There are many reasons why these need not be secure.
 Malicious users may try to hack into the system to destroy it.
 Power failure might bring the system down.
 A badly designed system may allow a user to accidentally destroy important
data.
 A system may not be able to function any longer because one user fills up the
entire disk with garbage.
68
Although discussions of security usually concentrate on the first of these Security and Protection
possibilities, the latter two can be equally damaging the system in practice. One
can protect against power failure by using un-interruptible power supplies (UPS).
These are units which detect quickly when the power falls below a certain threshold
and switch to a battery. Although the battery does not last forever-the UPS gives
a system administrator a chance to halt the system by the proper route.
The problem of malicious users has been heightened in recent years by the growth
of international networks. Anyone connected to a network can try to log on to
almost any machine. If a machine is very insecure, they may succeed. In other
words, we are not only looking at our local environment anymore, we must
consider potential threats to system security to come from any source. The final
point can be controlled by enforcing quotas on how much disk each user is allowed
to use.
We can classify the security attacks into two types as mentioned below:
1) Direct: This is any direct attack on your specific systems, whether from
outside hackers or from disgruntled insiders.
2) Indirect: This is general random attack, most commonly computer
viruses, computer worms, or computer Trojan horses.
These security attacks make the study of security measures very essential for the
following reasons:
 To prevent loss of data: You don’t want someone hacking into your
system and destroying the work done by you or your team members.
Even if you have good back-ups, you still have to identify that the data
has been damaged (which can occur at a critical moment when a developer
has an immediate need for the damaged data), and then restore the data
as best you can from your backup systems.
 To prevent corruption of data: Sometimes, the data may not completely
be lost, but just be partially corrupted. This can be harder to discover,
because unlike complete destruction, there is still data. If the data seems
reasonable, you could go a long time before catching the problem, and
cascade failure could result in serious problems spreading far and wide
through your systems before discovery.
 To prevent compromise of data: Sometimes it can be just as bad (or
even worse) to have data revealed than to have data destroyed. Imagine
the consequences of important trade secrets, corporate plans, financial
data, etc. falling in the hands of your competitors.
 To prevent theft of data: Some kinds of data are subject to theft. An
obvious example is the list of credit card numbers belonging to your
customers. Just about anything associated with money can be stolen.
 To prevent sabotage: A disgruntled employee, a dishonest competitor,
or even a stranger could use any combination of the above activities to
maliciously harm your business. Because of the thought and intent, this
is the most dangerous kind of attack, the kind that has the potential for
the greatest harm to your business.
69
Memory Management, File Let’s now discuss some security-related issues that the OS must deal to maintain
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of system resources.
4.3 SECURITY POLICIES AND MECHANISMS

Computer systems and especially their protection mechanisms must be penetration
resistant. However, most, or perhaps all, current systems have security holes that
make them vulnerable. As long as vulnerabilities remain in a system, the security
may be circumvented. It is thus not difficult to understand why system owners
would like to know how secure their particular system actually is.
Security evaluations have been performed for quite some time by mainly two
different methods. The first is to classify systems into a predefined set of categories,
each with different security requirements. The other method is referred to as
penetration testing, which is a form of stress testing exposing weaknesses in a
system. Here, the idea is to let a group of people, normally very skilled in the
computer security area, attack a target system.
A security policy establishes accountability for information protection by defining

a set of rules, conditions, and practices that regulate how an organisation manages,
protects, and distributes sensitive information. While substantial effort may be
put in by the vendor in implementing the mechanisms to enforce the policy and
developing assurance that the mechanisms perform properly, all efforts fail if the
policy itself is flawed or poorly understood. For this reason, the standards require
that “there must be an explicit and well-defined security policy enforced by the
system”. A security policy may address confidentiality, integrity, and/or
availability.
4.4 AUTHENTICATION
It is the process of verifying a user’s identity (who you are) through the use of a
shared secret (such as a password), a physical token or an artifact (such as a key
or a smart card), or a biometric measure (such as a fingerprint).
These three types of authentication are commonly referred to as something you

have (physical token), something you know (shared secret), and something you
are (biometric measure).
The types and rigor of authentication methods and technologies vary according
to the security requirements or policies associated with specific situations and
implementations.
The goal of authentication is to provide “reasonable assurance” that anyone who

attempts to access a system or network is a legitimate user. In other words,
authentication is designed to limit the possibility that an unauthorised user can
gain access by impersonating as an authorised user. Here, again, the organisation’s
security policy should guide how difficult it is for one user to impersonate another.
Highly sensitive or valuable information demands stronger authentication
technologies than less sensitive or valuable information.
70
4.4.1 Passwords Security and Protection
The most common and least stringent form of authentication technology demands
that users provide only a valid account name and a password to obtain access to
a system or network. The password-based authentication is one-way and normally
stores the user-id and password combination in a file that may be stored on the
server in an encrypted or plaintext file. Most people using the public e-mail systems
use this form of authentication.
Protection of Passwords
Some systems store the passwords of all users in a protected file. However, this
scheme is vulnerable to accidental disclosure and to abuse by system
administrators.
UNIX stores only an encrypted form of every password; a string is the password
of user X if its encrypted form matches the encrypted password stored for X.
The encrypted password is accessible to everyone, but one cannot find the clear
text password without either guessing it or breaking the encryption algorithm.
Data Encryption Standard (DES)
Encryption is based on one-way functions: functions that are cheap to compute
but whose inverse is very expensive to compute. A still widely used, though
older encryption algorithm is the Data Encryption Standard (DES), which uses a
56bit key.
UNIX does not encrypt passwords with a secret key, instead, it uses the password
as the key to encrypt a standard string. The latter method is not as vulnerable to
attacks based on special properties of the “secret” key, which must nevertheless
be known to many people.
Limitations of Passwords
Users tend to choose passwords that are easy to guess; persistent guessing attacks
can find 80-90% of all passwords. Good guesses include the login name, first
names, treat names, words in the on-line dictionary, and any of these reversed or
doubled.
The way to defeat these attacks is to choose a password that does not fall into any
of those categories. Preferably passwords should contain some uppercase letters,
numbers and/or special characters; their presence increases the search space by a
large factor.
4.4.2 Alternative Forms of Authentication

Alternative forms of authentication include the following technologies:
 Biometrics: These systems read some physical characteristic of the user,
such as their fingerprint, facial features, retinal pattern, voiceprints,
signature analysis, signature motion analysis, typing rhythm analysis,
finger length analysis, DNA analysis. These readings are compared to a
database of authorised users to determine identity. The main problems
of these schemes are high equipment cost and low acceptance rates.
71
Memory Management, File  Security Devices or Artifacts: These systems require use of a special-
purpose hardware device that functions like a customised key to gain
system access. The device may be inserted into the system like a key or
used to generate a code that is then entered into the system. The best
example is the use of an ATM card, which is inserted in the machine and
also requires password to be entered simultaneously. It holds the user
information on either a magnetic strip or a smart chip capable of
processing information.
 Concentric-ring Authentication: These systems require users to clear
additional authentication hurdles as they access increasingly sensitive
information. This approach minimizes the authentication burden as users
access less sensitive data while requiring stronger proof of identity for
more sensitive resources.
Any authentication method may be broken into, given sufficient time, expense,
and knowledge. The goal of authentication technologies is to make entry into
system expensive and difficult enough that malicious individuals can be deterred
from trying to break the security.
4.5 PROTECTION IN COMPUTER SYSTEMS

The use of computers to store and modify information can simplify the
composition, editing, distribution, and reading of messages and documents. These
benefits are not free, however, part of the cost is the aggravation of some of the
security problems discussed above and the introduction of some new problems
as well. Most of the difficulties arise because a computer and its programs are
shared amongst several users.
For example, consider a computer program that displays portions of a document
on a terminal. The user of such a program is very likely not its developer. It is, in
general, possible for the developer to have written the program so that it makes a
copy of the displayed information accessible to himself (or a third party) without
the permission or knowledge of the user who requested the execution of the
program. If the developer is not authorised to view this information, security has
been violated.
In compensation for the added complexities automation brings to security, an
automated system, if properly constructed, can bestow a number of benefits as
well. For example, a computer system can place stricter limits on user discretion.
In the paper system, the possessor of a document has complete discretion over its
further distribution. An automated system that enforces distribution constraints
strictly can prevent the recipient of a message or document from passing it to
others. Of course, the recipient can always copy the information by hand or repeat
it verbally, but the inability to pass it on directly is a significant barrier.
An automated system can also offer new kinds of access control. Permission to
execute certain programs can be granted or denied so that specific operations can
be restricted to designated users. Controls can be designed so that some users
can execute a program but cannot read or modify it directly. Programs protected
in this way might be allowed to access information not directly available to the
72 user, filter it, and pass the results back to the user.
Information contained in an automated system must be protected from three kinds Security and Protection
of threats: (1) the unauthorised disclosure of information, (2) the unauthorised

modification of information, and (3) the unauthorised withholding of information
(usually called denial of service).
To protect the computer systems, we often need to apply some security models.
Let us see in the next section about the various security models available.
4.6 SECURITY MODELS

Security models are more precise and detailed expressions of security policies
discussed as above and are used as guidelines to build and evaluate systems.
Models can be discretionary or mandatory. In a discretionary model, holders of
rights can be allowed to transfer them at their discretion. In a mandatory model
only designated roles are allowed to grant rights and users cannot transfer them.
These models can be classified into those based on the access matrix, and
multilevel models. The first model controls access while the second one attempts
to control information flow.
Security Policy vs. Security Model
The Security Policy outlines several high level points: how the data is accessed,
the amount of security required, and what the steps are when these requirements
are not met. The security model is more in depth and supports the security policy.
Security models are an important concept in the design of any security system.
They all have different security policies applying to the systems.
4.6.1 Access Matrix Model

The access matrix model for computer protection is based on abstraction of
operating system structures. Because of its simplicity and generality, it allows a
variety of implementation techniques, as has been widely used.
There are three principal components in the access matrix model:
 A set of passive objects,
 A set of active subjects, which may manipulate the objects,
 A set of rules governing the manipulation of objects by subjects.
Objects are typically files, terminals, devices, and other entities implemented by
an operating system. A subject is a process and a domain (a set of constraints
within which the process may access certain objects). It is important to note that
every subject is also an object; thus it may be read or otherwise manipulated by
another subject. The access matrix is a rectangular array with one row per subject
and one column per object. The entry for a particular row and column reflects the
mode of access between the corresponding subject and object. The mode of access
allowed depends on the type of the object and on the functionality of the system;
typical modes are read, write, append, and execute.
73
Management and Security Objects File 1 File 2
File 3
Subject
User 1 r, w R r, w, x
User 2 r R r, w, x
User 3 r, w, x r, w r, w, x
Figure 1: An access matrix
All accesses to objects by subjects are subject to some conditions laid down by
an enforcement mechanism that refers to the data in the access matrix. This
mechanism, called a reference monitor, rejects any accesses (including improper
attempts to alter the access matrix data) that are not allowed by the current
protection state and rules. References to objects of a given type must be validated
by the monitor for that type.
While implementing the access matrix, it has been observed that the access matrix
tends to be very sparse if it is implemented as a two-dimensional array.
Consequently, implementations that maintain protection of data tend to store
them either row wise, keeping with each subject a list of the objects and access
modes allowed on it; or column wise, storing with each object a list of those
subjects that may access it and the access modes allowed on each. The former
approach is called the capability list approach and the latter is called the access
control list approach.
In general, access control governs each user’s ability to read, execute, change, or
delete information associated with a particular computer resource. In effect, access
control works at two levels: first, to grant or deny the ability to interact with a
resource, and second, to control what kinds of operations or activities may be
performed on that resource. Such controls are managed by an access control
system. Today, there are numerous methods of access controls implemented or
practiced in real-world settings. These include the methods described in the next
four sections.
4.6.2 Mandatory Access Control

In a Mandatory Access Control (MAC) environment, all requests for access to
resources are automatically subject to access controls. In such environments, all
users and resources are classified and receive one or more security labels (such
as “Unclassified,” “Secret,” and “Top Secret”). When a user requests a resource,
the associated security labels are examined and access is permitted only if the
user’s label is greater than or equal to that of the resource.
4.6.3 Discretionary Access Control

In a Discretionary Access Control (DAC) environment, resource owners and
administrators jointly control access to resources. This model allows for much
greater flexibility and drastically reduces the administrative burdens of security
implementation.
74
4.6.4 Rule-Based Access Control Security and Protection
In general, rule-based access control systems associate explicit access controls

with specific system resources, such as files or printers. In such environments,
administrators typically establish access rules on a per-resource basis, and the
underlying operating system or directory services employ those rules to grant or
deny access to users who request access to such resources. Rule-based access
controls may use a MAC or DAC scheme, depending on the management role of
resource owners.
4.6.5 Role-Based Access Control

Role-based access control (RBAC) enforces access controls depending upon a
user’s role(s). Roles represent specific organisational duties and are commonly
mapped to job titles such as “Administrator,” “Developer,” or “System Analyst.”
Obviously, these roles require vastly different network access privileges.
Role definitions and associated access rights must be based upon a thorough
understanding of an organisation’s security policy. In fact, roles and the access
rights that go with them should be directly related to elements of the security
policy.
4.6.6 Take-Grant Model

The access matrix model, properly interpreted, corresponds very well to a wide
variety of actual computer system implementations. The simplicity of the model,
its definition of subjects, objects, and access control mechanisms, is very
appealing. Consequently, it has served as the basis for a number of other models
and development efforts. We now discuss a model based on access matrix.
Take-grant models use graphs to model access control. They have been well
researched. Although explained in the terms of graph theory, these models are
fundamentally access matrix models. The graph structure can be represented as
an adjacency matrix, and labels on the arcs can be coded as different values in
the matrix.
In a take-grant model, the protection state of a system is described by a directed

graph that represents the same information found in an access matrix. Nodes in
the graph are of two types, one corresponding to subjects and the other to objects.
An arc directed from a node A to another node B indicates that the subject (or
object) A has some access right(s) to subject (or object) B. The arc is labeled with
the set of A’s rights to B. The possible access rights are read (r), write (w), take
(t), and grant (g). Read and write have the obvious meanings. “Take” access
implies that node A can take node B’s access rights to any other node.
For example, if there is an arc labeled (r, g) from node B to node C, and if the arc
from A to B includes a “t” in its label, then an arc from A to C labeled (r, g) could
be added to the graph (see Figure 2). Conversely, if the arc from Ato B is marked
with a “g”, B can be granted any access right A possesses. Thus, if A has (w)
access to a node D and (g) access to B, an arc from B to D marked (w) can be
added to the graph (see Figure 3).
75
Mana
Figure 2: Example
E of Taake
Figure 3: Example
E of Grrant
Because
B the graph needss only the innclusion of aarcs correspo onding to noon-null
entries
e in thee access maatrix, it provvides a compmpact way too present thee same
innformation given
g in a reelatively spaarse access matrix.
m Capaability systemms are
thhus prime caandidates forr this modelinng techniquee; each arc would then reppresent
a particular capability.
c Toogether with the protection graph, thhe model inclludes a
set of rules foor adding andd deleting bo oth nodes annd arcs to thee graph.
Two
T of these, correspondding to the exxercise of “ttake” and “grrant” access rights,
have
h already been describbed. A “creaate” rule alloows a new node to be addded to
thhe graph. If subject A creates a new node Y, bothh the node Y and an arc A AY are
added
a to the graph. The llabel on AYY includes anyy subset of the
t possible access
riights. A “remmove” rule allows
a an acccess right to be removedd from an arcc; if all
riights are rem
moved from aan arc, the arrc is removed as well.
4.6.7
4 Mulltilevel Moodels
This
T type of models
m correesponds to thee multilevel policies
p wheere data is claassified
innto sensitivitty levels and users have acccess accordding to their clearances.
c B
Because
of
o the way thhey control security theyy have also been called data flow models, m
thhey control the
t allowed fflow of data between levvels.
 The Bell--La Padula m
model, intendeed to control leakage
l of infformation bettween
levels.
76
 The Biba model, which controls the integrity. Security and Protection
 The Lattice model, which generalises the partially ordered levels of the
previous models using the concept of mathematical lattices.
Bell and La Padula Model
Bell and La Padula use finite-state machines to formalise their model. They define
the various components of the finite state machine, define what it means (formally)
for a given system state to be secure, and then consider the transitions that can be
allowed so that a secure state can never lead to an insecure state.
In addition to the subjects and objects of the access matrix model, it includes the
security levels of the military security system: each subject has a authority and
each object has a classification. Each subject also has a current security level,
which may not exceed the subject’s authority. The access matrix is defined as
above, and four modes of access are named and specified as follows:
 Read-only: subject can read the object but not modify it;
 Append: subject can write the object but cannot read it;
 Execute: subject can execute the object but cannot read or write it directly;
and
 Read-write: subject can both read and write the object.
A control attribute, which is like an ownership flag, is also defined. It allows a
subject to pass to other subjects some or all of the access modes it possesses for
the controlled object. The control attribute itself cannot be passed to other subjects;
it is granted to the subject that created the object.
For a system state to be secure, it should hold the following two properties:
(1) The simple security property: No subject has read access to any object that
has a classification greater than the clearance of the subject; and
(2) The *-property (pronounced “star-property”): No subject has append-access
to an object whose security level is not at least the current security level of
the subject; no subject has read-write access to an object whose security
level is not equal to the current security level of the subject; and no subject
has read access to an object whose security level is not at most the current
security level of the subject.
An example restatement of the model is discussed below:
 In this case, we use security levels as (unclassified < confidential < secret <
top-secret).
The security levels are used to determine appropriate access rights.
The essence of the model can be defined as follows:
 A higher-level subject (e.g., secret level) can always “read-down” to the

objects with level which is either equal (e.g., secret level) or lower (e.g.,
confidential / unclassified level). So the system high (top security level in
the system) has the read-only access right to all the objects in the entire
system. 77
Memory Management, File  A lower-level subject can never “read-up” to the higher-level objects, as the
model suggests that these objects do not have enough authority to read the
high security level information.
 The subject will have the Read-Write access right when the objects are in the
same level as the subject.
 A lower-level subject (e.g., confidential level) can always “write-up”
(Append access right) to the objects with level, which is either equal (e.g.,
confidential level) or higher (e.g., secret / top-secret level). This happens as
a result of all the subjects in the higher security levels (e.g., secret / top-
secret level) having the authority to read the object from lower levels.
 A higher-level subject can never “write-down” to the lower level objects, as
the model suggests that these objects are not secure enough to handle the
high security level information.
There are also a few problems associated with this model:
 For a subject of a higher-level, all of its information is considered as the
same level. So there is no passing of information from this subject to any
object in the lower level.
 For an environment where security levels are not hierarchical related, the
model does not account for the transfer of information between these domains.
 The model does not allow changes in access permission.
 The model deals only with confidentiality but not on integrity.
Biba Integrity model
This model is a modification of the Bell-La Padula model, with emphasis on the
integrity. There are two properties in the Biba model:
 SI-property (simple integrity property): a subject may have write access to
an object only if the security level of the subject is either higher or equals to
the level of the object.
 Integrity property: a subject has the read-only access to an object o, then it
can also have the write access to another object p only if the security level of
p is either lower or equals to the level of o.
The essence of the model can be defined as follows:
 The read access policy is the same as the Bell-La Padula model.
 No information from a subject can be passed onto an object in a higher security
level. This prevents the contamination of the data of higher integrity from
the data of lower integrity.
The major problem associated with this model is that there isn’t a practical model
that can fulfil the confidentiality of the Bell-La Padula model and the integrity of
the Biba model.
Information-Flow Models
The significance of the concept of information flow is that it focuses on the
78 actual operations that transfer information between objects. Access control models
(such as the original Bell and La Padula model) represent instead the transfer or Security and Protection
exercise by subjects of access rights to objects. Information-flow models can be
applied to the variables in a program directly, while the access matrix models
generally apply to larger objects such as files and processes.
The flow model, compared with the Bell and La Padula model, is relatively
uncomplicated. Instead of a series of conditions and properties to be maintained,
there is the single requirement that information flow obey the lattice structure as
described below. An information-flow model has five components:
 A set of objects, representing information receptacles (e.g., files, program
variables, bits),
 A set of processes, representing the active agents responsible for information
flow,
 A set of security classes, corresponding to disjoint classes of information,
 An associative and commutative class-combining operator that specifies the
class of the information generated by any binary operation on information
from two classes, and
 A flow relation that, for any pair of security classes, determines whether
information is allowed to flow from one to the other.
Maintaining secure information flow in the modeled system corresponds to
ensuring that the actual information that flows between objects do not violate the
specified flow relation. This problem is addressed primarily in the context of
programming languages. Information flows from an object x to an object y
whenever information stored in x is transferred directly to y or used to derive
information transferred to y. Two kinds of information flow, explicit and implicit,
are identified. A flow from x to y is explicit if the operations causing it are
independent of the value of x (e.g., in a statement directly assigning the value of
x to y). It is implicit if the statement specifies a flow from some other object z to
y, but execution of the statement depends on the value of x (e.g., in the conditional
assignment if x then y: = z; information about the value of x can flow into y
whether or not the assignment is executed).
The lattice model for security levels is widely used to describe the structure of
military security levels. A lattice is a finite set together with a partial ordering on
its elements such that for every pair of elements there is a least upper bound and
a greatest lower bound. The simple linear ordering of sensitivity levels has already
been defined. Compartment sets can be partially ordered by the subset relation:
one compartment set is greater than or equal to another if the latter set is a subset
of the former. Classifications, which include a sensitivity level and a (perhaps
empty) compartment set, can then be partially ordered as follows:
For any sensitivity levels a, b and any compartment sets c, d; the relation (a, c) 
(b, d) exists if and only if a b and c d. That each pair of classifications has a
greatest lower bound and a least upper bound follows from these definitions and
the facts that the classification “unclassified, no compartments” is a global lower
bound and that we can postulate a classification “top secret, all compartments”
as a global upper bound. Because the lattice model matches the military
classification structure so closely, it is widely used. 79

1) What is computer security and what are the several forms of damages that
can be done by the intruders to the computer systems?
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Explain the role of Access Lists.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4.7 SUMMARY
Security is an important aspect of an OS. The distinction between security and
protection is:
Security: Broad sense to refer all concerns about controlled access to facilities.
Protection: Mechanism to support security.
In this unit, we have discussed the concept of security and various threats to it.
Also we have discussed various protection and security mechanisms to enforce
security to the system.

1) Computer security is required because most organisations can be damaged
by hostile software or intruders. There may be several forms of damage which
are obviously interrelated. These include:
 Damage or destruction of computer systems.

 Damage or destruction of internal data.
 Loss of sensitive information to hostile parties.
 Use of sensitive information to steal items of monetary value.
 Use of sensitive information against the organisation’s customers which

may result in legal action by customers against the organisation and loss
of customers.
 Damage to the reputation of an organisation.

 Monetary damage due to loss of sensitive information, destruction of
data, hostile use of sensitive data, or damage to the organisation’s
reputation.
2) The logical place to store authorisation information about a file is with the
file itself or with its inode.
80
Each element of an Access Control List (ACL) contains a set of user names Security and Protection
and a set of operation names. To check whether a given user is allowed to
perform a given operation, the kernel searches the list until it finds an entry
that applies to the user, and allows the access if the desired operation is
named in that entry. The ACL usually ends with a default entry. Systems that
use ACLs stop searching when they find an ACL entry that applies to the
subject. If this entry denies access to the subject, it does not matter if later
entries would also match and grant access; the subject will be denied access.
This behaviour is useful for setting up exceptions, such as everyone can
access this file except people in this group.

2) H.M.Deitel, Operating Systems, Pearson Education Asia, New Delhi.
3) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Operating Systems- Design and implementation,
4) Achyut S. Godbole, Operating Systems, Second Edition, TMGH, 2005, New
Delhi.
2002, New Delhi.
81
MCS--203
O
Operati
ing Systeems
In
ndira Gandhi
U
Scchool of Compuuter and
In
Block
B
3
ADVANC
A ED TOP
PICS IN OPERAT
O TING SY
YSTEMS
UNIT
U 1
Multiproce
M ssor Systeems 5
UNIT
U 2
Distributed
D d Operatinng System
ms 19
UNIT
U 3
Mobile
M Operating Syystems 48
Shri Anil Kumar
Prof. Gayatri Dhingra, GVMITM, Sonipat
Dr. Kapil Kumar, IIMT, Meerut Impressico Business Solutions, Noida, UP
Dr. Sachin Kumar, Prof. V. V. Subrahmanyam, Director
SOCIS, New Delhi
CCS University, Meerut
Ms. Manjulata Prof. P. V. Suresh,

Prof. D.P. Vidyarthi (Content Editor) Dr. Divya Sharma
Jawaharlal Nehru University Bharati College, University of Delhi,
New Delhi Delhi
Shri Sachin Gupta Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam

Delhi Institute of Advanced Studies (Course Writer-Unit-3)
New Delhi SOCIS, IGNOU
Prof. A.K. Vermar (Laguage Editor)

Professor & Head (Retired)
Mass Communication, Delhi

(The Units of Block-3, Unit 1 and Unit-2 were adapted from MCS-041 Operating Systems)
PRINT PRODUCTION
March, 2021
Printed at :
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
This block introduces you with the advanced topics in Operating Systems like
the Mulitprocessor systems, Distributed Operating Systems and Mobile Operating
Systems.
The block is organised into 3 units.
Unit 1 covers the OS technology to support the Multiprocessor systems. This

unit discusses the different types of microprocessor interconnections, types of
multiprocessor operating systems, functions of multiprocessor OS and
synchronization aspects in the multiprocessor systems.
Unit 2 covers the OS technology to support the distributed computing. The unit
starts with the discussion on the need of the distributed systems, design goals
and design issues pertaining to the distributed systems. Also it focuses on various
models of distributed systems, Remote procedure calls and Distributed shared
memory.
Unit 3 covers the Mobile Operating Systems

Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems
4
Multiprocessor Systems
UNIT 1 MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEMS
Structure
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Objectives
1.3 Multiprocessing and Processor Coupling
1.4 Multiprocessor Interconnections
1.4.1 Bus-oriented System
1.4.2 Crossbar-connected System
1.4.3 Hypercubes System
1.4.4 Multistage Switch-based System
1.5 Types of Multiprocessor Operating Systems
1.5.1 Separate Supervisors
1.5.2 Master-Slave
1.5.3 Symmetric
1.6 Multiprocessor Operating System - Functions and Requirements
1.7 Multiprocessor Synchronization
1.7.1 Test-and-set
1.7.2 Compare-and-Swap
1.7.3 Fetch-and-Add
1.8 Summary
1.9 Solutions / Answers
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A multiprocessor system is a collection of a number of standard processors put
together in an innovative way to improve the performance / speed of computer
hardware. The main feature of this architecture is to provide high speed at low
cost in comparison to uniprocessor. In a distributed system, the high cost of
multiprocessor can be offset by employing them on a computationally intensive
task by making it compute server. The multiprocessor system is generally
characterised by - increased system throughput and application speedup - parallel
processing.
Throughput can be improved, in a time-sharing environment, by executing a
number of unrelated user processor on different processors in parallel. As a result
a large number of different tasks can be completed in a unit of time without
explicit user direction. On the other hand application speedup is possible by
creating a multiple processor scheduled to work on different processors.
The scheduling can be done in two ways:
1) Automatic means, by parallelising compiler.
2) Explicit-tasking approach, where each programme submitted for execution
is treated by the operating system as an independent process. 5
Advanced Topics in Multiprocessor operating systems aim to support high performance through
Operating Systems
multiple CPUs. An important goal is to make the number of CPUs transparent
to the application. Achieving such transparency is relatively easy because the
communication between different (parts of) applications uses the same
primitives as those in multitasking uni-processor operating systems. The idea
is that all communication is done by manipulating data at shared memory
locations, and that we only have to protect that data against simultaneous access.
Protection is done through synchronization primitives like semaphores and
monitors.
In this unit we will study multiprocessor coupling, interconnections, types of
multiprocessor operating systems and synchronization.
1.1 OBJECTIVES
 define a multiprocessor system;
 describe the architecture of multiprocessor and distinguish among various
types of architecture;
 become familiar with different types of multiprocessor operating systems;
 discuss the functions of multiprocessors operating systems;
 describe the requirement of multiprocessor in Operating System, and
 discuss the synchronization process in a multiprocessor system.
1.2 MULTIPROCESSING AND PROCESSOR

COUPLING
Multiprocessing is a general term for the use of two or more CPUs within a
single computer system. There are many variations on this basic theme, and the
definition of multiprocessing can vary with context, mostly as a function of how
CPUs are defined. The term multiprocessing is sometimes used to refer to the
execution of multiple concurrent software processes in a system as opposed to a
single process at any one instant. However, the term multiprogramming is more
appropriate to describe this concept, which is implemented mostly in software,
whereas multiprocessing is more appropriate to describe the use of multiple
hardware CPUs. A system can be both multiprocessing and multiprogramming,
only one of the two, or neither of the two.
Processor Coupling is a type of multiprocessing. Let us see in the next section.
Processor Coupling
Tightly-coupled multiprocessor systems contain multiple CPUs that are connected

at the bus level. These CPUs may have access to a central shared memory (SMP),
or may participate in a memory hierarchy with both local and shared memory
(NUMA). The IBM p690 Regatta is an example of a high end SMP system. Chip
6 multiprocessors, also known as multi-core computing, involve more than one
processor placed on a single chip and can be thought of the most extreme form of Multiprocessor Systems
tightly-coupled multiprocessing. Mainframe systems with multiple processors

are often tightly-coupled.
Loosely-coupled multiprocessor systems often referred to as clusters are based
on multiple standalone single or dual processor commodity computers
interconnected via a high speed communication system. A Linux Beowulf is an
example of a loosely-coupled system.
Tightly-coupled systems perform better and are physically smaller than loosely-
coupled systems, but have historically required greater initial investments and
may depreciate rapidly; nodes in a loosely-coupled system are usually inexpensive
commodity computers and can be recycled as independent machines upon
retirement from the cluster.
Power consumption is also a consideration. Tightly-coupled systems tend to be
much more energy efficient than clusters. This is due to fact that considerable
economies can be realised by designing components to work together from the
beginning in tightly-coupled systems, whereas loosely-coupled systems use
components that were not necessarily intended specifically for use in such systems.
1.3 MULTIPROCESSOR INTERCONNECTIONS

As learnt above, a multiprocessor can speed-up and can improve throughput of
the computer system architecturally. The whole architecture of multiprocessor is
based on the principle of parallel processing, which needs to synchronize, after
completing a stage of computation, to exchange data. For this the multiprocessor
system needs an efficient mechanism to communicate. This section outlines the
different architecture of multiprocessor interconnection, including:
 Bus-oriented System
 Crossbar-connected System
 Hyper cubes
 Multistage Switch-based System.
1.3.1 Bus-oriented System

Figure1 illustrates the typical architecture of a bus oriented system. As indicated,
processors and memory are connected by a common bus. Communication between
processors (P1, P2, P3 and P4) and with globally shared memory is possible over
a shared bus. Other then illustrated many different schemes of bus-oriented system
are also possible, such as:
1) Individual processors may or may not have private/cache memory.
2) Individual processors may or may not attach with input/output devices.
3) Input/output devices may be attached to shared bus.
4) Shared memory implemented in the form of multiple physical banks
connected to the shared bus.
7
Adva
anced Topics in
Operating Systems
Figure 1. B
Bus-oriented multiprocessor
m r interconnecttion
The
T above arrchitecture giives rise to a problem of contention at a two points, one is
shared bus itsself and the otther is sharedd memory. Emmploying priivate/cache memory
m
inn either of two
t ways, explained
e beelow, the prooblem of coontention coould be
reeduced;
 with sharred memory;; and
 with cachhe associatedd with each individual
i prrocessor
1) With shaared memorry
Figure 2: Wiith shared Memory
2)
2 Cache asssociated wiith each ind
dividual processor.
Figu
ure 3: Individu
ual processors with cache
T second approach
The a wheere the cache is associatedd with each inndividual processor
8 iss the most popular
p apprroach becausse it reducess contention more effecttively.
Caache attacheed with proceessor an captture many of the local memory
m referrences Multiprocesssor Systems
fo
or example, with a cache of 90% hit ratio, a prrocessor on average neeeds to
acccess the sharred memory for 1 (one) outo of 10 (tenn) memory references beecause
9 (nine) refereences are alreeady captureed by privatee memory off processor. IIn this
caase where memory
m accesss is uniformmly distributted a 90% cache hit ratiio can
su
upport the shared bus to speed-up
s 10 times
t more thhan the proceess without ccache.
Th he negative aspect
a of suchh an arrangem
ment arises wwhen in the prresence of muultiple
caache the shaared writablee data are cached.
c In thhis case Cacche Coherennce is
maintained
m to consistencyy between multiple
m physical copies of o a single loogical
daatum with eacch other in th
he presence ofo update acttivity. Yes, thhe cache coheerence
caan be mainttained by atttaching add ditional harddware or byy including some
sppecialised prrotocols designed for the t same buut unfortunaately this sppecial
arrrangement will
w increase the t bus traffiic and thus reeduce the bennefit that proccessor
caaches are dessigned to proovide.
nce refers to the integrity
Caache coheren y of data storred in local caches
c of a shared
s
resource. Cach
he coherencee is a special case of mem mory coherennce.
Figure 4:: Multiple Cacches of Comm

mon Resource
When
W clients in
i a system, particularly
p C
CPUs in a muultiprocessingg system, maaintain
caaches of a co ommon mem mory resourcee, problems arise. Referrring to the F Figure
4, if the top cllient has a copy
c of a meemory block from a prevvious read annd the
boottom client changes
c that memory
m blocck, the top client could be left with an innvalid
caache of mem mory without it knowing any a better. C Cache cohereence is intendded to
manage
m such conflicts
c and maintain con nsistency bettween cache and memoryy.
Leet us discuss some techniiques which can be emplooyed to decrrease the imppact of
buus and memoory saturationn in bus-orieented system
m.
1)) Wider Bu us Techniqu ue: As suggeested by its name a bus is made widder so
that more bytes can be b transferredd in a singlee bus cycle. In other woords, a
wider parallel bus inccreases the bandwidth
b byy transferrinng more bytees in a
single buss cycle. Thee need of bu us transactioon arises wh hen lost or m
missed
blocks aree to fetch intoo his processsor cache. Inn this transacction many syystem
supports, block-level reads
r and wrrites of mainn memory. Inn the similar way,
w a
missing block
b can bee transferred from the m main memoryy to his proccessor
cache onlyy by a singlee main-mem mory (block) rread action. The advantaage of
block leveel access to memory
m overr word-oriennted busses is the amortizzation
of overhead addressin ng, acquisitioon and arbitrration over a large numbber of
items in a block. Moreover, it also enjoyed
e speccialised burstt bus cycles, w
which
makes theeir transport more
m efficien nt.
2)) Split Req
quest/Reply Protocols:
P T memory request and reply are spllit into
The
two indiviidual works and
a are treateed as separatte bus transacctions. As sooon as 9
Adva
anced Topics in a processsor requests a block, thee bus releaseed to other user,
u meanwwhile it
Operating Systems
takes for memory to ffetch and asssemble the reelated groupp of items.
The
T bus-oriennted system is the simplest architeccture of multtiprocessor system.s
In
n this way itt is believedd that in a tigghtly coupleed system thiis organisation can
support on th
he order of 10 1 processors. However, the two conntention poinnts (the
bus
b and the shhared memoory) limit thee scalability oof the system m.
1.3.2
1 Crosssbar-Con
nnected Sy
ystem
Crossbar-con
C nnected Systeem (illustrateed in Figure 5)
5 is a grid strructure of proocessor
and
a memory modules. The every crooss point of grid structuure is attacheed with
switch. By loooking at thee Figure it seeems to be a contention free
f architeccture of
multiprocessi
m ing system, it shows sim multaneous access betw ween processsor and
memory
m mod dules as N number
n of processors arre provided with N num mber of
memory
m mod dules. Thus each processsor accesses a differentt memory module. m
Crossbar
C needs N switchhes for fully connected
2
c neetwork betwween processoors and
memory.
m Processors mayy or may nott have their private mem mories. In thhe later
case
c the systeem supports uniform-mem mory-accesss.
Fiigure 5: Crossb
bar-connected
d system
Where
W P= proocessor, M=Memory Moodule and =S
Switch
But
B Unfortunnately this syystem also faaces the problem of conteention when,,
1) More thaan two proceessors (P1 and a P2) attem mpt to accesss the one memory
m
module (M1)
( at the ssame time. Inn this condittion, contentiion can be avvoided
by makinng any one pprocessor (P1 1) deferred uuntil the otheer one (P2) finishes
fi
this workk or left the ssame memorry module (M M1) free for processor
p P11.
2)
2 More thaan two proceessor attemptts to access tthe same mem
mory module. This
problem cannot be soolved by above-mentioneed solution.
Thus
T in crosssbar connecction system m the probleem of conten ntion occurss on at
memory
m neithher at processsor nor at innterconnectioon networks level. The soolution
10 of
o this problemm includes qquadratic grow wth of its sw
witches as welll as its compplexity
levvel. Not onlyy this, it willl make the whole
w system
m expensive and also lim
mit the Multiprocesssor Systems
sccalability of the
t system.
1..3.3 Hypeercubes Syystem

Hy ypercube base architectuure is not an old
o concept ofo multiproceessor system m. This
arrchitecture has
h some advvantages over other arcchitectures of o multiproceessing
sy
ystem. As thee Figure 6 in
ndicates, the system
s topollogy can sup pport large nuumber
off processors by
b providing increasing in nterconnectioons with increeasing compllexity.
In
n an n-degreee hypercube architecture,, we have:
1)) 2n nodes (Total
( numbeer of processsors)
2)) Nodes aree arranged in
n n-dimensioonal cube, i.ee. each node is connectedd to n
number off nodes.
3)) Each nodee is assigned
d with a uniquue address w
which lies beetween 0 to2n –1
4)) The adjaccent nodes (n
n-1) are difffering in 1 bit and the ntth node is haaving
maximumm ‘n’ internodde distance.
Leet us take an example
e of 3-degree
3 hyp
percube to unnderstand thee above struccture:
1)) 3-degree hypercube
h w have 2n nodes
will n i.e., 23 = 8 nodes
2)) Nodes aree arranged in 3-dimensionnal cube, thatt is, each nodde is connectted to
3 number of nodes.
3)) Each nodee is assigned with
w a uniquee address, whhich lies betw
ween 0 to 7 (2n –1),
i.e., 000, 001,
0 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111
4)) Two adjaccent nodes differing
d in 1 bit (001, 0010) and the 3rd (nth ) noode is
having maaximum ‘3’innternode distance (100).
Hyypercube proovide a goodd basis for sccalable systeem because its communiccation
len
ngth grows lo ogarithmically with the nuumber of noddes. It providdes a bi-direcctional
co
ommunicatioon between two t processo ors. It is usuually used in
n loosely cooupled
multiprocesso
m or system beccause the trannsfer of dataa between tw
wo processorss goes
th
hrough severaal intermediaate processors. The longesst internodess delay is n-deegree.
Too increase thhe input/output bandwidthh the input/ooutput devicees can be atttached
with every nodde (processoor).
Figure 6: Hy
ypercubes Systtem 11
Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems
1.3.4 Multistage Switch Based system
Multistage Switch Based System permits simultaneous connection between
several input-output pairs. It consists of several stages of switches which provide
multistage interconnection network. A N input-output connections contains K=
log N stages of N/ switches at each stage. In simple words, N*N processor-memory
2 2
interconnection network requires (N/ ) x = log N switches.
2 2
For example, in a 8  8 process-memory interconnection network requires

(8/2* log 28) = 4*3= 12 switches. Each switch acts as 2 2 crossbar.
This network can connect any processor to any memory module by making
appropriate connection of each of the ‘K’ stages. The binary address of processor
and memory gives binary string routing path between module pairs of input and
output. the routing path id decided by on the basis of destination binary address,
that the sender includes with each request for connection. Various combinations
of paths between sources to destination are possible by using different switch
function (straight, swap, copy, etc.)
In multistage switch based system all inputs are connected to all outputs in such
a way that no two-processor attempt to access the same memory at the same
time. But the problem of contention, at a switch, arises when some memory
modules are contested by some fixed processor. In this situation only one request
is allowed to access and rest of the requests are dropped. The processor whose
requests were dropped can retry the request or if buffers are attached with each
switch the rejected request is forwarded by buffer automatically for transmission.
This Multistage interconnection networks also called store-and-forward
networks.
1.4 TYPES OF MULTIPROCESSOR OPERATING

SYSTEMS
The multiprocessor operating systems are complex in comparison to
multiprograms on an uniprocessor operating system because multiprocessor
executes tasks concurrently.
Therefore, it must be able to support the concurrent execution of multiple tasks
to increase processors performance.
Depending upon the control structure and its organisation the three basic types of
multiprocessor operating system are:
1) Separate supervisor
2) Master-slave
3) Symmetric Supervision
1.4.1 Separate Supervisors

In separate supervisor system each process behaves independently. Each system
has its own operating system which manages local input/output devices, file system
and memory well as keeps its own copy of kernel, supervisor and data structures,
12 whereas some common data structures also exist for communication between
processors. The access protection is maintained, between processor, by using Multiprocessor Systems
some synchronization mechanism like semaphores. Such architecture will face

the following problems:
1) Little coupling among processors.
2) Parallel execution of single task.
3) During process failure it degrades.
4) Inefficient configuration as the problem of replication arises between
supervisor/kernel/data structure code and each processor.
1.4.2 Master-Slave
In master-slave, out of many processors one processor behaves as a master whereas
others behave as slaves. The master processor is dedicated to executing the
operating system. It works as scheduler and controller over slave processors. It
schedules the work and also controls the activity of the slaves. Therefore, usually
data structures are stored in its private memory. Slave processors are often
identified and work only as a schedulable pool of resources, in other words, the
slave processors execute application programmes.
This arrangement allows the parallel execution of a single task by allocating
several subtasks to multiple processors concurrently. Since the operating system
is executed by only master processors this system is relatively simple to develop
and efficient to use. Limited scalability is the main limitation of this system,
because the master processor become a bottleneck and will consequently fail to
fully utilise slave processors.
1.4.3 Symmetric
In symmetric organisation all processors configuration are identical. All processors
are autonomous and are treated equally. To make all the processors functionally
identical, all the resources are pooled and are available to them. This operating
system is also symmetric as any processor may execute it. In other words there is
one copy of kernel that can be executed by all processors concurrently. To that
end, the whole process is needed to be controlled for proper interlocks for
accessing scarce data structure and pooled resources.
The simplest way to achieve this is to treat the entire operating system as a critical
section and allow only one processor to execute the operating system at one
time. This method is called ‘floating master’ method because in spite of the
presence of many processors only one operating system exists. The processor
that executes the operating system has a special role and acts as a master. As the
operating system is not bound to any specific processor, therefore, it floats from
one processor to another.
Parallel execution of different applications is achieved by maintaining a queue

of ready processors in shared memory. Processor allocation is then reduced to
assigning the first ready process to first available processor until either all
processors are busy or the queue is emptied. Therefore, each idled processor
fetches the next work item from the queue.
13
Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems 1.5 MULTIPROCESSOR OPERATING SYSTEM -
FUNCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
A multiprocessor operating system manages all the available resources and
schedule functionality to form an abstraction it will facilitates programme
execution and interaction with users.
A processor is one of the important and basic types of resources that need to be
manage. For effective use of multiprocessors the processor scheduling is necessary.
Processors scheduling undertakes the following tasks:
(i) Allocation of processors among applications in such a manner that will be
consistent with system design objectives. It affects the system throughput.
Throughput can be improved by co-scheduling several applications together,
thus availing fewer processors to each.
(ii) Ensure efficient use of processors allocation to an application. This primarily
affects the speedup of the system.
The above two tasks are somehow conflicting each other because maximum
speedup needs dedication of a large proportion of a systems processors to a single
application which will decrease throughput of the system. Due to the difficulties
of automating the process, the need for explicit programmer direction arises to
some degree. Generally the language translators and preprocessors provide support
for explicit and automatic parallelism. The two primary facets of OS support for
multiprocessing are:
(i) Flexible and efficient interprocess and interprocessor synchronization
mechanism, and
(ii) Efficient creation and management of a large number of threads of activity,
such as processes or threads.
The latter aspect is important because parallelism is often accomplished by
splitting an application into separate, individually executable subtasks that may
be allocated to different processors.
The Memory management is the second basic type of resource that needs to be
managed. In multiprocessors system memory management is highly dependent
on the architecture and inter-connection scheme.
 In loosely coupled systems memory is usually handled independently on a
pre-processor basis whereas in multiprocessor system shared memory may
be simulated by means of a message passing mechanism.
 In shared memory systems the operating system should provide a flexible
memory model that facilitates safe and efficient access to share data structures
and synchronization variables.
A multiprocessor operating system should provide a hardware independent, unified
model of shared memory to facilitate porting of applications between different
multiprocessor environments. The designers of the mach operating system
14 exploited the duality of memory management and inter-process communication.
The third basic resource is Device Management but it has received little attention Multiprocessor Systems
in multiprocessor systems to date, because earlier the main focus point is speedup
of compute intensive application, which generally do not generate much input/
output after the initial loading. Now, multiprocessors are applied for more balanced
general-purpose applications, therefore, the input/output requirement increases
in proportion with the realised throughput and speed.
1.6 MULTIPROCESSOR SYNCHRONIZATION

Multiprocessor system facilitates parallel program execution and read/write
sharing of data and thus may cause the processors to concurrently access location
in the shared memory. Therefore, a correct and reliable mechanism is needed to
serialize this access. This is called synchronization mechanism. The mechanism
should make access to a shared data structure appear atomic with respect to each
other. In this section, we introduce some new mechanism and techniques suitable
for synchronization in multiprocessors.
1.6.1 Test-and-Set
The test-and-set instruction automatically reads and modifies the contents of a
memory location in one memory cycle. It is as follows:
function test-and-set (var m: Boolean); Boolean;
begin
test-and set:=m;
m:=rue
end;
The test-and-set instruction returns the current value of variable m (memory
location) and sets it to true. This instruction can be used to implement P and V
operations (Primitives) on a binary semaphore, S, in the following way (S is
implemented as a memory location):
P(S): while Test-and-Set (S) do nothing;
V(S): S:=false;
Initially, S is set to false. When a P(S) operation is executed for the first time,
test-and-set(S) returns a false value (and sets S to true) and the “while” loop of
the P(S) operation terminates. All subsequent executions of P(S) keep looping
because S is true until a V(S) operation is executed.
1.6.2 Compare-and-Swap
The compare and swap instruction is used in the optimistic synchronization of
concurrent updates to a memory location. This instruction is defined as follows
(r1and r2 are to registers of a processor and m is a memory location):
function test-and-set (var m: Boolean); Boolean;
var temp: integer;
begin
temp:=m;
15
Advanced Topics in if temp = r1 then {m:= r2;z:=1}
Operating Systems
else [r1:= temp; z:=0}
end;
If the contents of r1 and m are identical, this instruction assigns the contents of
r2 to m and sets z to 1. Otherwise, it assigns the contents of m to r1 and set z to 0.
Variable z is a flag that indicates the success of the execution. This instruction
can be used to synchronize concurrent access to a shared variable.
1.6.3 Fetch-and-Add
The fetch and add instruction is a multiple operation memory access instruction
that automatically adds a constant to a memory location and returns the previous
contents of the memory location. This instruction is defined as follows:
Function Fetch-and-add (m: integer; c: integer);
Var temp: integer;
Begin
Temp:= m;
M:= m + c;
Return (temp)
end;
This instruction is executed by the hardware placed in the interconnection network
not by the hardware present in the memory modules. When several processors
concurrently execute a fetch-and-add instruction on the same memory location,
these instructions are combined in the network and are executed by the network
in the following way:
 A single increment, which is the sum of the increments of all these instructions,
is added to the memory location.
 A single value is returned by the network to each of the processors, which is
an arbitrary serialisation of the execution of the individual instructions.
 If a number of processors simultaneously perform fetch-and-add instructions
on the same memory location, the net result is as if these instructions were
executed serially in some unpredictable order.
The fetch-and-add instruction is powerful and it allows the implementation of P
and V operations on a general semaphore, S, in the following manner:
P(S): while (Fetch-add-Add(S, -1)< 0) do
begin
Fetch-and-Add (S, 1);
while (S<0) do nothing;
end;
The outer “while-do” statement ensures that only one processor succeeds in
decrementing S to 0 when multiple processors try to decrement variable S. All
the unsuccessful processors add 1 back to S and try again to decrement it. The
“while-do” statement forces an unsuccessful processor to wait (before retrying)
16
until S is greater then 0. Multiprocessor Systems
V(S): Fetch-and-Add (S, 1).

1) What is the difference between a loosely coupled system and a tightly coupled
system? Give examples.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) What is the difference between symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessing?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
1.7 SUMMARY
Multiprocessors systems architecture provides higher computing power and speed.
It consists of multiple processors that putting power and speed to the system.
This system can execute multiple tasks on different processors concurrently.
Similarly, it can also execute a single task in parallel on different processors. The
design of interconnection networks includes the bus, the cross-bar switch and
the multistage interconnection networks. To support parallel execution this system
must effectively schedule tasks to various processors. And also it must support
primitives for process synchronization and virtual memory management. The
three basic configurations of multiprocessor operating systems are: Separate
supervisors, Master/slave and Symmetric. A multiprocessor operating system
manages all the available resources and schedule functionality to form an
abstraction. It includes Process scheduling, Memory management and Device
management. Different mechanism and techniques are used for synchronization
in multiprocessors to serialize the access of pooled resources. In this section we
have discussed Test-and-Set, Compare-and-Swap and Fetch-and-Add techniques
of synchronization.
1) One feature that is commonly characterizing tightly coupled systems is that
they share the clock. Therefore, multiprocessors are typically tightly coupled
but distributed workstations on a network are not.
Another difference is that: in a tightly-coupled system, the delay experienced
when a message is sent from one computer to another is short, and data rate
is high; that is, the number of bits per second that can be transferred is large. 17
Advanced Topics in In a loosely-coupled system, the opposite is true: the intermachine message
Operating Systems
delay is large and the data rate is low.
For example, two CPU chips on the same printed circuit board and connected
by wires etched onto the board are likely to be tightly coupled, whereas two
computers connected by a 2400 bit/sec modem over the telephone system
are certain to be loosely coupled.
2) The difference between symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessing: all
processors of symmetric multiprocessing are peers; the relationship between
processors of asymmetric multiprocessing is a master-slave relationship. More
specifically, each CPU in symmetric multiprocessing runs the same copy of
the OS, while in asymmetric multiprocessing, they split responsibilities
typically, therefore, each may have specialised (different) software and roles.

1) Singhal Mukesh and Shivaratri G. Niranjan, Advanced Concepts in Operating
Systems, TMGH, 2003, New Delhi.
2) Hwang, K. and F Briggs, Multiprocessors Systems Architectures, McGraw-
Hill, New York.
3) Milenkovic, M., Operating Systems: Concepts and Design, TMGH, New
Delhi.
4) Silberschatz, A., J. Peterson, and D. Gavin, Operating Systems Concepts, 3rd
ed., Addison Wesley, New Delhi.
18
Distributed Operating
UNIT 2 DISTRIBUTED OPERATING Systems
SYSTEMS
Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Objectives
2.3 History of Distributed Computing
2.3.1 Workstations – Networks
2.3.2 Wide-Scale Distributed Computing and the Internet
2.4 Distributed Systems
2.5 Key Features and Advantages of a Distributed System
2.5.1 Advantages of Distributed Systems Over Centralised Systems
2.5.2 Advantages of Distributed Systems over Isolated PC’s
2.5.3 Disadvantages of Distributed Systems
2.6 Design Goals of Distributed Systems
2.6.1 Concurrency
2.6.2 Scalability
2.6.3 Openness
2.6.4 Fault Tolerance
2.6.5 Privacy and Authentication
2.6.6 Transparency
2.7 Design Issues Involved in Distributed Systems
2.7.1 Naming
2.7.2 Communication
2.7.3 Software Structure
2.7.4 Workload Allocation
2.7.5 Consistency Maintenance
2.7.6 Lamport’s Scheme of Ordering of Events
2.8 Distributed System Structure
2.8.1 Application Model 1: Client Server
2.8.2 Application Model 2: Distributed Objects
2.8.3 Application Model 3: Distributed Shared Memory
2.9 Mutual Exclusion in Distributed Systems
2.9.1 Mutual Exclusion Servers
2.9.2 Token Based Mutual Exclusion
2.9.3 Lamport’s Bakery Algorithm
2.9.4 Ricart and Agrawala’s Mutual Exclusion Algorithm
2.10 Remote Procedure Calls
2.10.1 How RPC Works?
2.10.2 Remote Procedure Calling Mechanism
2.10.3 Implementation of RPC
2.10.4 Considerations for Usage
2.10.5 Limitations
2.11 Other Middleware Technologies
2.12 Summary
2.14 Further Readings 19
Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems 2.0 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier unit we have discussed the Multiprocessor systems. In the process
coupling we have come across the tightly coupled systems and loosely coupled
systems. In this unit we concentrate on the loosely coupled systems called as the
distributed systems. Distributed computing is the process of aggregating the
power of several computing entities to collaboratively run a computational task
in a transparent and coherent way, so that it appears as a single, centralised system.
The easiest way of explaining what distributed computing is all about, is by
naming a few of its properties:
 Distributed computing consists of a network if more or less independent or
autonomous nodes.
 The nodes do not share primary storage (i.e., RAM) or secondary storage
(i.e., disk) - in the sense that the nodes cannot directly access another node’s
disk or RAM. Think about it in contrast to a multiprocessors machine where
the different “nodes” (CPUs)) share the same RAM and secondary storage
by using a common bus.
 A well designed distributed system does not crash if a node goes down.
 If you are to perform a computing task which is parallel in nature, scaling
your system is a lot cheaper by adding extra nodes, compared to getting a
faster single machine. Of course, if your processing task is highly non-parallel
(every result depends on the previous), using a distributed computing system
may not be very beneficial.
Before going into the actual details of the distributed systems let us study how
distributed computing evolved.
2.1 OBJECTIVES
 define a distributed system, key features and design goals of it;
 explain the design issues involved in the distributed systems;
 describe the models of distributed system structure;
 explain the mutual exclusion in distributed systems, and
 define RPC, its usage and limitations.
2.2 HISTORY OF DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING

Distributed computing began around 1970 with the emergence of two
technologies:
 minicomputers, then workstations, and then PCs.
 computer networks (eventually Ethernet and the Internet).
20
With the minicomputer (e.g., Digital’s PDP-11) came the timesharing operating Distributed Operating
Systems
system (e.g., MULTICS, Unix, RSX, RSTS) - many users using the same machine
but it looks to the users as if they each have their own machine.
The problem with mini-computers was that they were slower than the
mainframes made by IBM, Control Data, Univac, etc. As they became popular
they failed to scale to large number of users as the mainframes could. The way to
scale mini-computers was to buy more of them. The trend toward cheaper machines
made the idea of having many minis as a feasible replacement for a single
mainframe and made it possible to contemplate a future computing environment
where every user had their own computer on their desk, which is a computer
workstation.
Work on the first computer workstation began in 1970 at Xerox Corporation’s
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). This computer was called the Alto. Over the
next 10 years, the computer system’s group at PARC would invent almost
everything that’s interesting about the computer workstations and personal
computers we use today. The Alto introduced ideas like the workstation, bit-
mapped displays (before that computer interfaces were strictly character-based)
and the mouse.
Other innovations that came from PARC from 1970 to 1980 include Ethernet,
the first local-area network, window- and icon-based computing (the inspiration
for the Apple Lisa, the progenitor of the Macintosh, which in turn inspired
Microsoft Windows and IBM OS/2 came from a visit to PARC), the first
distributed fileserver XDFS , the first print server, one of the first distributed
services: Grapevine (a messaging and authentication system), object-oriented
programming (Smalltalk) and Hoare’s condition variables and monitors were
invented as part of the Mesa programming language used in the Cedar system.
2.2.1 Workstations-Networks
The vision of the PARC research (and the commercial systems that followed)
was to replace the timesharing mini-computer with single-user workstations. The
genesis of this idea is that it made computers (i.e., workstations and PCs) into a
commodity item that like a TV or a car could be produced efficiently and cheaply.
The main costs of a computer are the engineering costs of designing it and
designing the manufacturing process to build it. If you build more units, you can
amortised the engineering costs better and thus make the computers cheaper.
This is a very important idea and is the main reason that distribution is an excellent
way to build a cheap scalable system.
2.2.2 Wide-Scale Distributed Computing and the Internet

Another type of distributed computing that is becoming increasingly important
today is the sort of wide-scale distribution possible with the Internet.
At roughly the same time as the workstation and local-area network were being
invented, the U.S. Department of Defence was putting tons of U.S. taxpayer
money to work to set up a world-wide communication system that could be used
to support distributed science and engineering research needed to keep the Defence
Dept. supplied with toys. They were greatly concerned that research assets not be
centrally located, as doing so would allow one well-placed bomb to put them out 21
Advanced Topics in of business. This is an example of another benefit of distributed systems: fault
Operating Systems
tolerance through replication.
2.3 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

Multiprocessor systems have more than one processing unit sharing memory/
peripheral devices. They have greater computing power, and higher reliability.
Multiprocessor systems are classified into two:
 Tightly-coupled: Each processor is assigned a specific duty but processors
work in close association, possibly sharing one memory module.
 Loosely-coupled (distributed): Each processor has its own memory and
copy of the OS.
A distributed computer system is a loosely coupled collection of autonomous
computers connected by a network using system software to produce a single
integrated computing environment.
A distributed operating system differs from a network of machines each supporting
a network operating system in only one way: The machines supporting a distributed
operating system are all running under a single operating system that spans the
network. Thus, the print spooler might, at some instant, be running on one machine,
while the file system is running on others, while other machines are running
other parts of the system, and under some distributed operating systems, these
software parts may at times migrate from machine to machine.
With network operating systems, each machine runs an entire operating system.
In contrast, with distributed operating systems, the entire system is itself distributed
across the network. As a result, distributed operating systems typically make
little distinction between remote execution of a command and local execution of
that same command. In theory, all commands may be executed anywhere; it is up
to the system to execute commands where it is convenient.
2.4 KEY FEATURES AND ADVANTAGES OF A

DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM
The following are the key features of a distributed system:
 They are Loosely coupled
o remote access is many times slower than local access
 Nodes are autonomous
o workstation resources are managed locally
 Network connections using system software
o remote access requires explicit message passing between nodes
o messages are CPU to CPU
o protocols for reliability, flow control, failure detection, etc., implemented
22 in software
o the only way two nodes can communicate is by sending and receiving Distributed Operating
Systems
network messages-this differs from a hardware approach in which
hardware signalling can be used for flow control or failure detection.
2.4.1 Advantages of Distributed Systems over Centralised

Systems
 Better price/performance than mainframes
 More computing power
o sum of the computing power of the processors in the distributed system
may be greater than any single processor available (parallel processing)
 Some applications are inherently distributed
 Improved reliability because system can survive crash of one processor
 Incremental growth can be achieved by adding one processor at a time
 Shared ownership facilitated.
2.4.2 Advantages of Distributed Systems over Isolated PCs

 Shared utilisation of resources.
 Communication.
 Better performance and flexibility than isolated personal computers.
 Simpler maintenance if compared with individual PC’s.
2.4.3 Disadvantages of Distributed Systems

Although we have seen several advantages of distributed systems, there are certain
disadvantages also which are listed below:
 Network performance parameters.
 Latency: Delay that occurs after a send operation is executed before data
starts to arrive at the destination computer.
 Data Transfer Rate: Speed at which data can be transferred between two
computers once transmission has begun.
 Total network bandwidth: Total volume of traffic that can be transferred across
the network in a give time.
 Dependency on reliability of the underlying network.
 Higher security risk due to more possible access points for intruders and
possible communication with insecure systems.
 Software complexity.
2.5 DESIGN GOALS OF DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

In order to design a good distributed system. There are six key design goals.
They are: 23
Advanced Topics in  Concurrency
Operating Systems
 Scalability
 Openness
 Fault Tolerance
 Privacy and Authentication
 Transparency.
Let us discuss them one by one.
2.5.1 Concurrency
A server must handle many client requests at the same time. Distributed systems
are naturally concurrent; that is, there are multiple workstations running programs
independently and at the same time. Concurrency is important because any
distributed service that isn’t concurrent would become a bottleneck that would
serialise the actions of its clients and thus reduce the natural concurrency of the
system.
2.5.2 Scalability
The goal is to be able to use the same software for different size systems. A
distributed software system is scalable if it can handle increased demand on any
part of the system (i.e., more clients, bigger networks, faster networks, etc.) without
a change to the software. In other words, we would like the engineering impact
of increased demand to be proportional to that increase. Distributed systems,
however, can be built for a very wide range of scales and it is thus not a good idea
to try to build a system that can handle everything. A local-area network file
server should be built differently from a Web server that must handle millions of
requests a day from throughout the world. The key goal is to understand the
target system’s expected size and expected growth and to understand how the
distributed system will scale as the system grows.
2.5.3 Openness
Two types of openness are important: non-proprietary and extensibility.
Public protocols are important because they make it possible for many software
manufacturers to build clients and servers that will be able to talk to each other.
Proprietary protocols limit the “players” to those from a single company and
thus limit the success of the protocol.
A system is extensible if it permits customisations needed to meet unanticipated
requirements. Extensibility is important because it aids scalability and allows a
system to survive over time as the demands on it and the ways it is used change.
2.5.4 Fault Tolerance

It is critically important that a distributed system be able to tolerate “partial
failures”. Why is it so important? Two reasons are as follows:
 Failures are more harmful: Many clients are affected by the failure of a
24
distributed service, unlike a non-distributed system in which a failure affects Distributed Operating
Systems
only a single node.
 Failures are more likely: A distributed service depends on many components
(workstation nodes, network interfaces, networks, switches, routers, etc.) all
of which must work. Furthermore, a client will often depend on multiple
distributed services (e.g., multiple file systems or databases) in order to
function properly. The probability that such a client will experience a failure
can be approximated as the sum of the individual failure probabilities of
everything that it depends on. Thus, a client that depends on N components
(hardware or software) that each have failure probability P will fail with
probability roughly N*P. (This approximation is valid for small values of P.
The exact failure probability is (1-(1-P)^N).)
There are two aspects of failure tolerance to be studied as shown below:
Recovery
 A failure shouldn’t cause the loss (or corruption) of critical data, or
computation.
 After a failure, the system should recover critical data, even data that
was being modified when the failure occurred. Data that survives failures
is called “persistent” data.
 Very long-running computations must also be made recoverable in order
to restart them where they left off instead of from the beginning.
 For example, if a fileserver crashes, the data in the file system it serves
should be intact after the server is restarted.
Availability
 A failure shouldn’t interrupt the service provided by a critical server.
 This is a bit harder to achieve than recovery. We often speak of a highly-
available service as one that is almost always available even if failures
occur.
 The main technique for ensuring availability is service replication.
 For example, a fileserver could be made highly available by running two
copies of the server on different nodes. If one of the servers fails, the
other should be able to step in without service interruption.
2.5.5 Privacy and Authentication

Privacy is achieved when the sender of a message can control what other programs
(or people) can read the message. The goal is to protect against eavesdropping.
For example, if you use your credit card to buy something over the Web, you will
probably want to prevent anyone but the target Web server from reading the
message that contains your credit card account number. Authentication is the
process of ensuring that programs can know who they are talking to. This is
important for both clients and servers.
For clients authentication is needed to enable a concept called trust. For example,
the fact that you are willing to give your credit card number to a merchant when 25
Advanced Topics in you buy something means that you are implicitly trusting that merchant to use
Operating Systems
your number according to the rules to which you have both agreed (to debit your
account for the amount of the purchase and give the number to no one else). To
make a Web purchase, you must trust the merchant’s Web server just like you
would trust the merchant for an in-person purchase. To establish this trust,
however, you must ensure that your Web browser is really talking to the merchant’s
Web server and not to some other program that’s just pretending to be their
merchant.
For servers authentication is needed to enforce access control. For a server to
control who has access to the resources it manages (your files if it is a fileserver,
your money if it is a banking server), it must know who it is talking to. A Unix
login is a crude example of an authentication used to provide access control. It is
a crude example because a remote login sends your username and password in
messages for which privacy is not guaranteed. It is thus possible, though usually
difficult, for someone to eavesdrop on those messages and thus figure out your
username and password.
For a distributed system, the only way to ensure privacy and authentication is by
using cryptography.
2.5.6 Transparency
The final goal is transparency. We often use the term single system image to
refer to this goal of making the distributed system look to programs like it is a
tightly coupled (i.e., single) system.
This is really what a distributed system software is all about. We want the system
software (operating system, runtime library, language, compiler) to deal with all
of the complexities of distributed computing so that writing distributed
applications is as easy as possible.
Achieving complete transparency is difficult. There are eight types, namely:
 Access Transparency enables local and remote resources to be accessed
using identical operations
 Location Transparency enables resources to be accessed without
knowledge of their (physical) location. Access transparency and location
transparency are together referred to as network transparency.
 Concurrency Transparency enables several processes to operate
concurrently using shared resources without interference between
them.
 Replication Transparency enables multiple instances of resources to be
used to increase reliability and performance without knowledge of the
replicas by users or application programmers.
 Failure Transparency enables the concealment of faults, allowing users
and application programs to complete their tasks despite the failure of
hardware or software components.
 Mobility Transparency allows the movement of resources and clients
within a system without affecting the operation of users or programs.
26
 Performance Transparency allows the system to be reconfigured to Distributed Operating
Systems
improve performance as loads change
 Scaling Transparency Transparency allows the system and applications
to expand in scale without change to the system structure or the
application algorithms
2.6 DESIGN ISSUES INVOLVED IN

DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
There are certain design issues to be considered for distributed systems. They are:
a) Naming
b) Communication
c) Software Structure
d) Workload Allocation
e) Consistency Maintenance
Let us discuss the issues briefly:
2.6.1 Naming
 A name is a string of characters used to identify and locate a distributed
resource.
 An identifier is a special kind of name that is used directly by the computer
to access the resource.
For example the identifier for a Unix server would include at least (1) an IP
address and (2) a port number. The IP address is used to find the node that
runs the server and the port number identifies the server process on that
node.
 Resolution is the process of turning a name into an identifier. Resolution is
performed by a Name Server. It is also called “binding” (as in binding a
name to a distributed service).
For example, an IP domain name (e.g., cs.ubc.ca) is turned into a IP address by
the IP Domain Name Server (DNS), a distributed hierarchical server running in
the Internet.
2.6.2 Communication
 Getting different processes to talk to each other
 Messages
 Remote method invocation.
2.6.3 Software Structure

 The main issues are to choose a software structure that supports our goals,
particularly the goal of openness. 27
Advanced Topics in  We thus want structures that promote extensibility and otherwise make it
Operating Systems
easy to program the system.
 Alternatives are:
o A monolithic structure is basically a big pile of code; it is not so desirable
because it is hard to extend or reason about a system like that.
o A modular structure divides the system into models with well-defined
interfaces that define how the models interact. Modular systems are more
extensible and easier to reason about than monolithic systems.
o A layered structure is a special type of modular structure in which modules
are organised into layers (one on top of the other). The interaction between
layers is restricted such that a layer can communicate directly with only
the layer immediately above and the layer immediately below it. In this
way, each layer defines an abstraction that is used by the layer immediately
above it. Clients interact only with the top layer and only the bottom
layer deals with the hardware (e.g., network, disk, etc.) Network protocols
have traditionally been organised as layers (as we will see in the next
class) and for this reason we often refer to these protocols as “protocol
stacks”.
o Operating systems can be either monolithic (e.g., UNIX and Windows)
or modular (e.g., Mach and Windows NT). A modular operating system
is called a micro kernel. Amicro-kernel OS has a small minimalist kernel
that includes as little functionality as possible. OS services such as VM,
file systems, and networking are added to the system as separate servers
and they reside in their own user-mode address spaces outside the
kernel.
Let us study more details regarding the software structure in section 2.7 of this
unit.
2.6.4 Workload Allocation

 The key issue is load balancing: The allocation of the network workload
such that network resources (e.g., CPUs, memory, and disks) are used
efficiently.
For CPUs, there are two key approaches. They are:
Processor Pools
Put all of the workstations in a closet and give the users cheap resource-poor X
terminals. User processes are allocated to the workstations by a distributed
operating system that controls all of the workstations. Advantage is that process
scheduling is simplified and resource utilisation more efficient because
workstations aren’t “owned” by anyone. The OS is free to makes scheduling
decisions based solely on the goal of getting the most work done. Disadvantage
is that, these days, powerful workstations aren’t much more expensive than cheap
X terminals. So if each user has a powerful workstation instead of a cheap X
terminal, then we don’t need the machines in the closet and we thus have the
idle-workstation model described below:
28
Idle Workstations Distributed Operating
Systems
Every user has a workstation on their desk for doing their work. These workstations
are powerful and are thus valuable resources. But, really people don’t use their
workstations all of the time. There’s napping, lunches, reading, meetings, etc. -
lots of times when workstations are idle. In addition, when people are using their
workstation, they often don’t need all of its power (e.g., reading mail doesn’t
require a 200-Mhz CPU and 64-Mbytes of RAM). The goal then is to move
processes from active workstations to idle workstations to balance the load and
thus make better use of network resources. But, people “own” (or at least feel
like they own) their workstations. So a key issue for using idle workstations is to
avoid impacting workstation users (i.e., we can’t slow them down). So what
happens when I come back from lunch and find your programs running on my
machine? I’ll want your processes moved elsewhere NOW. The ability to move
an active process from one machine to another is called process migration.
Process migration is necessary to deal with the user-returning-from-lunch issue
and is useful for rebalancing network load as the load characterises a network
change over time.
2.6.5 Consistency Maintenance

The final issue is consistency. There are four key aspects of consistency: atomicity,
coherence, failure consistency, and clock consistency.
Atomicity
 The goal is to provide the “all-or-nothing” property for sequences of
operations.
 Atomicity is important and difficult for distributed systems because operations
can be messages to one or more servers. To guarantee atomicity thus requires
the coordination of several network nodes.
Coherence
Coherence is the problem of maintaining the consistency of replicated data.
We have said that replication is a useful technique for (1) increasing availability
and (2) improving performance.
When there are multiple copies of an object and one of them is modified, we
must ensure that the other copies are updated (or invalidated) so that no one can
erroneously read an out-of-date version of the object.
A key issue for providing coherence is to deal with the event-ordering problem.
Failure Consistency
 We talked last time about the importance of the goal of failure tolerance.
To build systems that can handle failures, we need a model that clearly
defines what a failure is. There are two key types of failures: Fail-stop and
Byzantine.
 Fail-stop is a simplified failure model in which we assume that the only way
a component will fail is by stopping. In particular, a will never fail by giving
a wrong answer. 29
Advanced Topics in  Byzantine failure is a more encompassing model that permits failures in
Operating Systems
which a failed node might not stop but might just start giving the wrong
answers. Techniques for dealing with Byzantine failure typically involve
performing a computation redundantly (and often in different ways with
different software). The system then compares all of the answers generated
for a given computation and thus detects when one component starts giving
the wrong answer. The ability to detect Byzantine failures is important for
many safety-critical systems such as aircraft avionics.
 In this class we will assume failures are Fail-Stop; this is a common
assumption for distributed systems and greatly simplifies failure tolerance.
Clock Consistency
 Maintaining a consistent view of time needed to order network events is
critical and challenging. This becomes further difficult when the nodes of
the distributed system are geographically apart. Let us study the scheme
provided by Lamport on Ordering of events in a distributed environment in
the next section.
2.6.6 Lamport’s Scheme of Ordering of Events

Lamport proposed a scheme to provide ordering of events in a distributed
environment using logical clocks. Because it is impossible to have perfectly
synchronized clocks and global time in a distributed system, it is often necessary
to use logical clocks instead.
Definitions:
Happened Before Relation (->): This relation captures causal dependencies
between events, that is, whether or not events have a cause and effect relation.
This relation (->) is defined as follows:
 a -> b, if a and b are in the same process and a Occurred before b.
 a -> b, if a is the event of sending a message and b is the receipt of that
message by another process.
If a -> b and b -> c, then a -> c, that is, the relation has the property of transitivity.
Causally Related Events: If event a -> event b, then a casually affects b.
Concurrent Events: Two distinct events a and b are concurrent (a || b) if (not) a
-> b and (not) b -> a. That is, the events have no causal relationship. This is
equivalent to b || a.
For any two events a and b in a system, only one of the following is true: a -> b,
b -> a, or a || b.
Lamport introduced a system of logical clocks in order to make the -> relation
possible. It works like this: Each process P i in the system has its own clock C .i C i
can be looked at as a function that assigns a number, C (a) i
to an event a. This is
the timestamp of the event a in process P i. These numbers are not in any way
related to physical time — that is why they are called logical clocks. These are
generally implemented using counters, which increase each time an event occurs.
30 Generally, an event’s timestamp is the value of the clock at the time it occurs.
Coonditions Saatisfied by th
he Logical Clock
C system: Distributed
d Operating
Systems
Fo C < C(b). This is true if two condiitions
or any eventss a and b, if a -> b, then C(a)
arre met:
 If a occurss before b, th
hen C (a) < C (b).
i i
 If a is a message
m sent from
f P and b is the receiipt of that sam
me message in P ,
i j
then C (aa) < C (b).
i j
Im
mplementation Rules Reequired:
Cllock Ci is inccremented foor each eventt: Ci := Ci + d (d > 0)

if a is the eveent of sendin ng a messagge from one process to another,
a thenn the
receiver sets itss clock to thee max of its cu
urrent clock aand the sendeer’s clock - thhat is,
Cj := max( (Cj, tm + d) (d > 0).
2..7 DIST
TRIBUTE
ED SYST
TEM STR
RUCTUR
RE
Thhere are threee main altern
native ways to
o structure a distributed application.
a E
Each
off them definees a differentt application
n model for wwriting distrributed progrrams.
Th
he three distrributed systeem applicatioon models arre:
 Client / Seerver (and RPC)
R
 Distributeed objects
 Distributeed shared meemory.
Eaach model reequires a diff fferent set of “system” sooftware to suppport applicaations
wrritten in that style. This system
s softwware consists of a combinnation of operating
sy
ystem and run ntime-library y code and suupport from llanguages and compilers. What
alll of this codee does is transslate the distrributed featurres of the parrticular appliccation
model
m into thee sending annd receiving of o network messages.
m Beecause, remeember
th
hat the only way
w that nodees (workstations/PCs) cann communicaate in a distriibuted
sy
ystem is by seending and receiving
r meessages.
2..7.1 Appliication Moddel 1: Clientt Server

 A designaated node expports a “serv
vice”; this noode is called the
t “server”.
 Nodes thaat import andd use the serv
vice are calleed “clients”.
 Clients co
ommunicate with
w servers using a “reqquest-response” protocoll.
Figure 1: Clieent Server Moodel 31

Advanced Topics in  Request-response differs from other protocols.
Operating Systems
o Peer-to-peer protocols don’t have a designated server.
o Streaming protocols such as TCP/IP work differently as we will see a
couple of classes from now.
 We should really use the terms client and server to refer to the pieces of the
software that implement the server and not to the nodes themselves. Why?
Because a node can actually be both a client and server. Consider NFS for
example. One workstation might export a local filesystem to other nodes
(i.e., it is a server for the file system) and import other filesystems exported
by remote nodes (i.e., it is a client for these filesystems).
 Application interface can be either send/receive or RPC
o Send/receive : The Unix socket interface is an example. Clients

communicate with server by building a message (a sequence of characters)
that it then explictly sends to the server. Clients receive messages by
issuing a “receive” call.
We’ll talk about this on Friday.
o RPC : A remote procedure call interface allows a client to request a

server operation by making what looks like a procedure call. The system
software translates this RPC into a message send to the server and a
message receives to wait for the reply. The advantages of RPC over send/
receive is that the system hides some of the details of message passing
from programs: it’s easier to call a procedure than format a message and
then explicitly send it and wait for the reply. (Study more on RPC given
in section 2.9 of this unit).
2.7.2 Application Model 2: Distributed Objects

 Similar to RPC-based client-server.
 Language-level objects (e.g., C++, Java, Smalltalk) are used to encapsulate
data and functions of a distributed service.
 Objects can reside in either the memory of a client or a server.

 Clients communicate with servers through objects that they “share” with the
server. These shared objects are located in a client’s memory and look to the
client just like other “local” objects. We call these objects “remote” objects
because they represent a remote service (i.e., something at the server). When
a client invokes a method of a remote object, the system might do something
locally or it might turn the method invocation into an RPC to the server.
(Recall that in the object-oriented world, procedures are called methods and
procedure callls are called method invocations).
 There are two main advantages of Distributed Objects over RPC: (1) objects
hide even more of the details of distribution than RPC (more next week) and
(2) objects allow clients and servers to communicate using in two different
ways: function shipping (like RPC) and data shipping.
32
o functiion shippingg means thaat a client calls the servver and askss it to Distributed
d Operating
Systems
perforrm a function
n; this is bassically like R
RPC.
o data shipping
s means that the server
s sends some data too the client (stores
it as part
p of an objject) and the client then pperforms subbsequent funcctions
locally instead off having to call
c the servver every tim me it wants to do
sometthing.
Figgure 2: Distrib
buted objects m
models
 For exampple, in the piicture above,, a client program runnin ng can accesss local
object A and
a remote object
o B (conntrolled by the
t server noode) in exacttly the
same way y; the arrowss show flow of a proceddure call intoo the object and a
return from m it. The serrver can dessign B so thaat calls are tuurned into reemote
calls just like
l RPC (red d) or it can shhip some datta to the cliennt with the cllient’s
copy of thhe object an nd thus allow w some callls to run loccally on the client
(orange).
 More on distributed
d obbjects later in
i the course.
2..7.3 Appliication Moodel 3: Disstributed S

Shared Memory
M
 Usually ussed for peer--to-peer com
mmunication instead of cllient-server.
 Clients co
ommunicate with
w each otther through shared variaables.
Figuree 3: Distributed shared mem

mory model
 The system
m implementts the illusion
n of shared memory
m and trranslates acceesses
to shared data
d into thee appropriatee messages.
 To a proggram, the diistributed syystem lookss just like a shared-mem
mory
multiprocessor.
33
Advanced Topics in  The advantage is that it is really easy to program: hides all of the details of
Operating Systems
distribution.
 The disadvantage is that it often hides too much. As far as a program knows,
everything in its memory is local. But really, some parts of its memory are
stored on or shared with a remote node. Access to this remote data is very
SLOW compared with accessing local data. For good performance, a program
usually needs to know what data is local and what data is remote.
 Another disadvantage is that it is very complicated to implement a distributed-
shared memory system that works correctly and performs well.
 We’ll talk more about distributed shared memory towards the end of the
term.
2.8 MUTUAL EXCLUSION IN DISTRIBUTED

SYSTEMS
When all processes sharing a resource are on the same machine, mutual exclusion
is easily assured by the use of a semaphore, spin-lock or other similar shared
abstraction. When the processes involved are on different machines, however,
mutual exclusion becomes more difficult.
Consider the following example: A number of machines in a network are
competing for access to a printer. The printer is so constructed that every line of
text sent to the printer must be sent in a separate message, and thus if a process
wants to print an entire file, it must obtain exclusive use of the printer, somehow,
send all the lines of the file it wishes to print, and then release the printer for use
by others on the network.
A trivial solution to this problem is to install a print spooler process somewhere
on the net. That print spooler would gather lines of files provided by various
applications processes, maintain a queue of completed files that are ready to
print, and print one such file at a time. This works, but it introduces some problems:
First, the spooler must have buffer capacity to hold the aggregate of all the files
that have not yet been printed. Second, the spooler may become a bottleneck,
limiting the performance of the entire system, and third, if the processor
supporting the spooler is unreliable, the spooler may limit the reliability of the
system.
2.8.1 Mutual Exclusion Servers

In the printer example being used here, the problem of storage space in the spooler
typically becomes acute with graphics printers. In such a context, it is desirable
to block an applications process until the printer is ready to accept data from that
applications process, and then let that process directly deliver data to the printer.
For example, an applications process may be coded as follows:
Send request for permission to the spooler
Await reply giving permission to print
Loop
34
send data directly to printer Distributed Operating
Systems
End Loop
Send notice to spooler that printing is done
If all users of the spooler use this protocol, the spooler is no longer serving as a
spooler, it is merely serving as a mutual exclusion mechanism! In fact, it
implements exactly the same semantics as a binary semaphore, but it implements
it using a client server model.
The process implementing a semaphore using message passing might have the
following basic structure:
Loop
Await message from client
Case message type of
P:
If count > 0
Send immediate reply
count = count - 1
Else
Enqueue identity of client
End if
V:
If queue is empty,
count = count + 1
Else
Dequeue one blocked client
Send a delayed reply
End if
End case
End Loop
This requires a count and a queue of return addresses for each semaphore. Note
that, by presenting this, we have proven that blocking message passing can be
used to implement semaphores. Since we already know that semaphores plus
shared memory are sufficient to implement blocking message passing, we have
proven the equivalence, from a computation theory viewpoint, of these two models
of interprocess communication.
The disadvantage of implementing semaphores using a server process is that
server becomes a potential source of reliability problems. If we can build a mutual
exclusion algorithm that avoids use of a dedicated server, for example, by having
the processes that are competing for entry to a critical section negotiate directly
with each other, we can potentially eliminate the reliability problem.
2.8.2 Token Based Mutual Exclusion

One alternative to the mutual-exclusion server given above is to arrange the
competing processes in a ring and let them exchange a token. If a process receives 35
Advanced Topics in the token and does not need exclusive use of the resource, it must pass the token
Operating Systems
on to the next process in the ring. If a process needs exclusive use of the resource,
it waits for the token and then holds it until it is done with the resource, at which
point it puts the token back in circulation.
This is the exact software analog of a token ring network. In a token ring network,
only one process at a time may transmit, and the circulating token is used to
assure this, exactly as described. The token ring network protocol was developed
for the hardware level or the link-level of the protocol hierarchy. Here, we are
proposing building a virtual ring at or above the transport layer and using
essentially the same token passing protocol.
This solution is not problem free. What if the token is lost? What if a process in
the ring ceases transmission? Nonetheless, it is at the root of a number of
interesting and useful distributed mutual exclusion algorithms. The advantage of
such distributed algorithms is that they do not rest on a central authority, and
thus, they are ideal candidates for use in fault tolerant applications.
An important detail in the token-based mutual exclusion algorithm is that, on
receiving a token, a process must immediately forward the token if it is not waiting
for entry into the critical section. This may be done in a number of ways:
 Each process could periodically check to see if the token has arrived. This
requires some kind of non-blocking read service to allow the process to poll
the incoming network connection on the token ring. The UNIX FNDELAY
flag allows non-blocking read, and the Unix select() kernel call allows testing
an I/O descriptor to see if a read from that descriptor would block; either of
these is sufficient to support this polling implementation of the token passing
protocol. The fact that UNIX offers two such mechanisms is good evidence
that these are afterthoughts added to Unix after the original implementation
was complete.
 The receipt of an incoming token could cause an interrupt. Under UNIX, for
example, the SIGIO signal can be attached to a socket or communications
line (see the FASYNC flag set by fcntl). To await the token, the process
could disable the SIGIO signal and do a blocking read on the incoming token
socket. To exit the critical section, the process could first enable SIGIO and
then send the token. The SIGIO handler would read the incoming token and
forward it before returning.
 A thread or process could be dedicated to the job of token management.

We’ll refer to such a thread or process as the mutual exclusion agent of the
application process. Typically, the application would communicate with its
agent using shared memory, semaphores, and other uni-processor tools, while
the agent speaks to other agents over the net. When the user wants entry to
the critical section, it sets a variable to “let me in” and then does a wait on
the entry semaphore it shares with the agent. When the user is done, the
user sets the shared variable to “done” and then signals the go-on semaphore
it shares with the agent. The agent always checks the shared variable when
it receives the token, and only forwards it when the variable is equal to
“done”.
36
2.8.3 Lamport’s Bakery Algorithm Distributed Operating
Systems
One decentralised algorithm in common use, for example, in bakeries, is to issue
numbers to each customer. When the customers want to access the scarce resource
(the clerk behind the counter), they compare the numbers on their slips and the
user with the lowest numbered slip wins.
The problem with this is that there must be some way to distribute numbers, but
this has been solved. In bakeries, we use a very small server to distribute numbers,
in the form of a roll of tickets where conflicts between two customers are solved
by the fact that human hands naturally exclude each other from the critical volume
of space that must be occupied to take a ticket. We cannot use this approach for
solving the problem on a computer.
Before going on to more interesting implementations for distributing numbers,
note that clients of such a protocol may make extensive use of their numbers!
For example, if the bakery contains multiple clerks, the clients could use their
number to select a clerk (number modulo number of clerks). Similarly, in a FIFO
queue implemented with a bounded buffer, the number modulo the queue size
could indicate the slot in the buffer to be used, allowing multiple processes to
simultaneously place values in the queue.
Lamport’s Bakery Algorithm provides a decentralised implementation of the “take
a number” idea. As originally formulated, this requires that each competing process
share access to an array, but later distributed algorithms have eliminated this
shared data structure. Here is the original formulation:
For each process, i, there are two values, C[i] and N[i], giving the status of process
I and the number it has picked. In more detail:
N[i] = 0 —> Process i is not in the bakery.
N[i] > 0 —> Process i has picked a number and is in the bakery.
C[i] = 0 —> Process i is not trying to pick a number.
C[i] = 1 —> Process i is trying to pick a number.
when
N[i] = min( for all j, N[j] where N[j] > 0 )

Process i is allowed into the critical section.
Here is the basic algorithm used to pick a number:
C[i] := 1;
N[i] := max( for all j, N[j] ) + 1;
C[i] := 0;
In effect, the customer walks into the bakery, checks the numbers of all the waiting
customers, and then picks a number one larger than the number of any waiting
customer.
If two customers each walk in at the same time, they are each likely to pick the
same number. Lamport’s solution allows this but then makes sure that customers
notice that this has happened and break the tie in a sensible way.
37
Advanced Topics in To help the customers detect ties, each customer who is currently in the process
Operating Systems
of picking a number holds his hand up (by setting C[i] to 1. s/he pulls down his
hand when s/he is done selecting a number — note that selecting a number may
take time, since it involves inspecting the numbers of everyone else in the waiting
room.
A process does the following to wait for the baker:
Step 1:
while (for some j, C(j) = 1) do nothing;
First, wait until any process which might have tied with you has finished selecting
their numbers. Since we require customers to raise their hands while they pick
numbers, each customer waits until all hands are down after picking a number in
order to guarantee that all ties will be cleanly recognised in the next step.
Step 2:
repeat
W := (the set of j such that N[j] > 0)
(where W is the set of indeces of waiting processes)
M := (the set of j in W
such that N[j] <= N[k]
for all k in W)
(where M is the set of process indices with minimum numbers)
j := min(M)
(where is in M and the tie is broken)
until i = j;
Second, wait until your ticket number is the minimum of all tickets in the room.
There may be others with this minimum number, but in inspecting all the tickets
in the room, you found them! If you find a tie, see if your customer ID number is
less than the ID numbers of those with whom you’ve tied, and only then enter the
critical section and meet with the baker.
This is inefficient, because you might wait a bit too long while some other process
picks a number after the number you picked, but for now, we’ll accept this cost.
If you are not the person holding the smallest number, you start checking again.
If you hold the smallest number, it is also possible that someone else holds the
smallest number. Therefore, what you’ve got to do is agree with everyone else on
how to break ties.
The solution shown above is simple. Instead of computing the value of the smallest
number, compute the minimum process ID among the processes that hold the
smallest value. In fact, we need not seek the minimum process ID, all we need to
do is use any deterministic algorithm that all participants can agree on for breaking
the tie. As long as all participants apply the same deterministic algorithms to the
same information, they will arrive at the same conclusion.
To return its ticket, and exit the critical section, processes execute the following
trivial bit of code:
N[i] := 0;
38
When you return your ticket, if any other processes are waiting, then on their Distributed Operating
Systems
next scan of the set of processes, one of them will find that it is holding the
winning ticket.
Moving to a Distributed Context
In the context of distributed systems, Lamport’s bakery algorithm has the useful
property that process i only modifies its own N[i] and C[i], while it must read
the entries for all others. In effect, therefore, we can implement this in a context
where each process has read-only access to the data of all other processes, and
read-write access only to its own data.
A distributed implementation of this algorithm can be produced directly by storing
N[i] and C[i] locally with process i, and using message passing when any process
wants to examine the values of N and C for any process other than itself. In this
case, each process must be prepared to act as a server for messages from the
others requesting the values of its variables; we have the same options for
implementing this service as we had for the token passing approach to mutual
exclusion. The service could be offered by an agent process, by an interrupt service
routine, or by periodic polling of the appropriate incoming message queues.
Note that we can easily make this into a fault tolerant model by using a fault-
tolerant client-server protocol for the requests. If there is no reply to a request for
the values of process i after some interval and a few retries, we can simply assume
that process i has failed.
This demonstrates that fault tolerant mutual exclusion can be done without any
central authority! This direct port of Lamport’s bakery algorithm is not particularly
efficient, though. Each process must read the variables of all other processes a
minimum of 3 times-once to select a ticket number, once to see if anyone else is
in the process of selecting a number, and once to see if it holds the minimum
ticket.
For each process contending for entry to the critical section, there are about 6N
messages exchanged, which is clearly not very good. Much better algorithms
have been devised, but even this algorithm can be improved by taking advantage
of knowledge of the network structure. On an Ethernet or on a tree-structured
network, a broadcast can be done in parallel, sending one message to N recipients
in only a few time units. On a tree-structured network, the reply messages can be
merged on the way to the root (the originator of the request) so that sorting and
searching for the maximum N or the minimum nonzero N can be distributed
efficiently.
2.8.4 Ricart and Agrawala’s Mutual Exclusion Algorithm

Another alternative is for anyone wishing to enter a critical section to broadcast
their request; as each process agrees that it is OK to enter the section, they reply
to the broadcaster saying that it is OK to continue; the broadcaster only continues
when all replies are in.
If a process is in a critical section when it receives a request for entry, it defers its
reply until it has exited the critical section, and only then does it reply. If a process
is not in the critical section, it replies immediately. 39
Advanced Topics in This sounds like a remarkably naive algorithm, but with point-to-point
Operating Systems
communications between N processes, it takes only 2(N-1) messages for a process
to enter the critical section, N-1 messages to broadcast the request and N-1
replies.
There are some subtle issues that make the result far from naive. For example,
what happens if two processes each ask at the same time? What should be done
with requests received while a process is waiting to enter the critical section?
Ricart and Agrawala’s mutual exclusion algorithm solves these problems. In this
solution, each process has 3 significant states, and its behaviour in response to
messages from others depends on its state:
Outside the critical section
The process replies immediately to every entry request.
After requesting entry, awaiting permission to enter.
The process replies immediately to higher priority requests and defers all
other replies until exit from the critical section.
Inside critical section.
The process defers all replies until exit from the critical section.
As with Lamport’s bakery algorithm, this algorithm has no central authority.
Nonetheless, the interactions between a process requesting entry to a critical
section and each other process have a character similar to client-server interactions.
That is, the interactions take the form of a request followed (possibly some time
later) by a reply.
As such, this algorithm can be made fault tolerant by applying the same kinds of
tricks as are applied in other client server applications. On receiving a request, a
processor can be required to immediately send out either a reply or a negative
acknowledgement. The latter says “I got your request and I can’t reply yet!”
With such a requirement, the requesting process can wait for either a reply or a
negative acknowledgement from every other process. If it gets neither, it can
retry the request to that process. If it retries some limited number of times and
still gets no answer, it can assume that the distant process has failed and give up
on it.
If a process receives two consecutive requests from the same process because
acknowledgements have been lost, it must resend the acknowledgement. If a
process waits a long time and doesn’t get an acknowledgement, it can send out a
message saying “are you still there”, to which the distant process would reply “I
got your request but I can’t reply yet”. If it gets no reply, it can retry some number
of times and then give up on the server as being gone.
If a process dies in its critical section, the above code solves the problem and lets
one of the surviving processes in. If a process dies outside its critical section, this
code also works.
Breaking Ties in Ricart and Agrawala’s algorithm
There are many ways to break ties between processes that make simultaneous
requests; all of these are based on including the priority of each requesting process
40
in the request message. It is worth noting that the same alternatives apply to Distributed Operating
Systems
Lamport’s bakery algorithm!
A unique process ID can be used as the priority, as was done in Lamport’s bakery
algorithm. This is a static priority assignment and is almost always needed to
break ties in any of the more complex cases. Typically, a process will append its
statically assigned process ID to any more interesting information it uses for
tiebreaking, thus guaranteeing that if two processes happen to generate the same
interesting information, the tie will still be broken.
The number of times the process has previously entered the same critical section
can be used; if processes that have entered the critical section more frequently
are given lower priority, then the system will be fair, giving the highest priority to
the least frequent user of the resource.
The time since last access to the critical section offers a similar opportunity to
enforce fairness if the process that used the critical section least recently is given
the highest priority.
If dynamic priority assignments are used, what matters is that the priority used
on any entry to the critical section is frozen prior to broadcasting the request for
entry, and that it remains the same until after the process is done with that round
of mutual exclusion. It is also important that each process has a unique priority,
but this can be assured by appending the process ID as the least significant bits of
the dynamically chosen priority.
2.9 REMOTE PROCEDURE CALLS

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a powerful technique for constructing distributed,
client-server based applications. It is based on extending the notion of conventional
or local procedure calling, so that the called procedure need not exist in the same
address space as the calling procedure. The two processes may be on the same
system, or they may be on different systems with a network connecting them. By
using RPC, programmers of distributed applications avoid the details of the
interface with the network. The transport independence of RPC isolates the
application from the physical and logical elements of the data communications
mechanism and allows the application to use a variety of transports.
RPC is a client/server infrastructure that increases the interoperability, portability
and flexibility of an application by allowing the application to be distributed
over multiple heterogeneous platforms. It reduces the complexity of developing
applications that span multiple operating systems and network protocols by
insulating the application developer from the details of the various operating
system and network interfaces-function calls are the programmer’s interface when
using RPC. RPC makes the client/server model of computing more powerful
and easier to program.
2.9.1 How RPC Works?

An RPC is analogous to a function call. Like a function call, when an RPC is
made, the calling arguments are passed to the remote procedure and the caller
waits for a response to be returned from the remote procedure. The Figure 4 41
Adva
anced Topics in shows the floow of activiity that takees place during an RPC C call betweeen two
Operating Systems
networked
n syystems. The client
c makess a proceduree call that sennds a requestt to the
server and waits.
w The thrread is blockked from proocessing unttil either a reply
r is
reeceived, or it times out.. When the request
r arrivves, the servver calls a diispatch
ro
outine that performs
p thee requested service, andd sends the reply
r to the client.
After
A the RPCC call is com
mpleted, the client
c prograam continuess. RPC speciifically
supports netwwork applicaations.
Figurre 4: Flow of aactivity that Taables place du

uring a RPC caall between
two netwworked system m
2.9.2
2 Rem
mote Procedure Calliing Mechaanism
A remote proccedure is uniiquely identiffied by the trriple: (prograam number, version
v
number,
n proccedure numbber). The pro ogram number identifies a group of related r
reemote proceedures, each of which haas a unique procedure number.n A prrogram
may
m consist of one or m more versionss. Each verssion consistss of a collecttion of
procedures
p w
which are avvailable to bee called remmotely. Versioon numbers enable
multiple
m versions of a RPC protocol to o be availablle simultaneo ously. Each version
v
contains
c a nuumber of proccedures that can be calledd remotely. Each
E proceduure has
a procedure number.
n
2.9.3
2 Impllementatioon of RPC
C
RPC
R is typicaally implemeented in one of two wayss:
1) Within a broader, moore encompasssing proprieety product.
2)
2 By a prog
grammer usiing a proprieetary tool to create
c client//server RPC stubs.
2.9.4
2 Conssideration
ns for Usagge
RPC
R is approopriate for cllient/server applications
a in which thee client can issue a
reequest and wait
w for the sserver’s response before continuing its i own processing.
Because
B mostt RPC implem mentations do
d not supporrt peer-to-peeer, or asynchrronous,
client/server
c interaction, RPC is no ot well-suiteed for appliications invvolving
distributed
d ob
bjects or objeect-oriented programminng.
42
Asynchronous and synchronous mechanisms each have strengths and weaknesses Distributed Operating
Systems
that should be considered when designing any specific application. In contrast to
asynchronous mechanisms employed by Message-Oriented Middleware, the use
of a synchronous request-reply mechanism in RPC requires that the client and
server are always available and functioning (i.e., the client or server is not blocked).
In order to allow a client/server application to recover from a blocked condition,
an implementation of a RPC is required to provide mechanisms such as error
messages, request timers, retransmissions, or redirection to an alternate server.
The complexity of the application using a RPC is dependent on the sophistication
of the specific RPC implementation (i.e., the more sophisticated the recovery
mechanisms supported by RPC, the less complex the application utilising the
RPC is required to be). RPC’s that implement asynchronous mechanisms are
very few and are difficult (complex) to implement.
When utilising RPC over a distributed network, the performance (or load) of the
network should be considered. One of the strengths of RPC is that the synchronous,
blocking mechanism of RPC guards against overloading a network, unlike the
asynchronous mechanism of Message Oriented Middleware (MOM). However,
when recovery mechanisms, such as retransmissions, are employed by an RPC
application, the resulting load on a network may increase, making the application
inappropriate for a congested network. Also, because RPC uses static routing
tables established at compile-time, the ability to perform load balancing across a
network is difficult and should be considered when designing a RPC-based
application.
Tools are available for a programmer to use in developing RPC applications over
a wide variety of platforms, including Windows (3.1, NT, 95), Macintosh, 26
variants of UNIX, OS/2, NetWare, and VMS. RPC infrastructures are implemented
within the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), and within Open Network
Computing (ONC), developed by Sunsoft, Inc.
2.9.5 Limitations
RPC implementations are nominally incompatible with other RPC
implementations, although some are compatible. Using a single implementation
of a RPC in a system will most likely result in a dependence on the RPC vendor
for maintenance support and future enhancements. This could have a highly
negative impact on a system’s flexibility, maintainability, portability, and
interoperability.
Because there is no single standard for implementing a RPC, different features
may be offered by individual RPC implementations. Features that may affect the
design and cost of a RPC-based application include the following:
 support of synchronous and/or asynchronous processing
 support of different networking protocols
 support for different file systems
 whether the RPC mechanism can be obtained individually, or only bundled
with a server operating system.
Because of the complexity of the synchronous mechanism of RPC and the
43
Advanced Topics in proprietary and unique nature of RPC implementations, training is essential even
Operating Systems
for the experienced programmer.
2.10 OTHER MIDDLEWARE TECHNOLOGIES

Other middleware technologies that allow the distribution of processing across
multiple processors and platforms are:
 Object Request Broker(ORB)
 Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)
 Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)
 COM/DCOM
 Transaction Processing Monitor Technology
 3-Tier S/W Architecture.

1) How is a distributed OS different from Network OS? Explain.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) What is a Distributed File System?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3) Define Load Balancing.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4) What is the significance of Time Consistency?

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
5) What is a Remote Procedure Call and mention its use.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
44
Distributed Operating
2.11 SUMMARY Systems
A distributed operating system takes the abstraction to a higher level, and allows
hides from the application where things are. The application can use things on
any of many computers just as if it were one big computer. A distributed operating
system will also provide for some sort of security across these multiple computers,
as well as control the network communication paths between them. A distributed
operating system can be created by merging these functions into the traditional
operating system, or as another abstraction layer on top of the traditional operating
system and network operating system.
Any operating system, including distributed operating systems, provides a number
of services. First, they control what application gets to use the CPU and handle
switching control between multiple applications. They also manage use of RAM
and disk storage. Controlling who has access to which resources of the computer
(or computers) is another issue that the operating system handles. In the case of
distributed systems, all of these items need to be coordinated for multiple
machines. As systems grow larger handling them can be complicated by the fact
that not one person controls all of the machines so the security policies on one
machine may not be the same as on another.
Some problems can be broken down into very tiny pieces of work that can be
done in parallel. Other problems are such that you need the results of step one to
do step two and the results of step two to do step three and so on. These problems
cannot be broken down into as small of work units. Those things that can be
broken down into very small chunks of work are called fine-grained and those
that require larger chunks are called coarse-grain. When distributing the work to
be done on many CPUs there is a balancing act to be followed. You don’t want
the chunk of work to be done to be so small that it takes too long to send the work
to another CPU because then it is quicker to just have a single CPU do the work,
You also don’t want the chunk of work to be done to be too big of a chunk
because then you can’t spread it out over enough machines to make the thing run
quickly.
In this unit we have studied the features of the distributed operating system,
architecture, algorithms relating to the distributed processing, shared memory
concept and remote procedure calls.

1) A distributed operating system differs from a network of machines each
supporting a network operating system in only one way: The machines
supporting a distributed operating system are all running under a single
operating system that spans the network. Thus, the print spooler might, at
some instant, be running on one machine, while the file system is running on
others, while other machines are running other parts of the system, and under
some distributed operating systems, these parts may at times migrate from
machine to machine.
45
Advanced Topics in With network operating systems, each machine runs an entire operating
Operating Systems
system. In contrast, with distributed operating systems, the entire system is
itself distributed across the network. As a result, distributed operating systems
typically make little distinction between remote execution of a command
and local execution of that same command. In theory, all commands may be
executed anywhere; it is up to the system to execute commands where it is
convenient.
2) Distributed File System (DFS) allows administrators to group shared folders
located on different servers and present them to users as a virtual tree of
folders known as a namespace. A namespace provides numerous benefits,
including increased availability of data, load sharing, and simplified data
migration.
3) Given a group of identical machines, it is wasteful to have some machines
overloaded while others are almost idle. If each machine broadcasts its load
average every few minutes, one can arrange for new processes to use
whichever machine was least loaded at the time. However, one machine
must not be given too many processes at once. If the system supports
migration, and the load difference between two machines is great enough, a
process should be migrated from one to the other.
4) Machines on a local area network have their own clocks. If these are not
synchronized, strange things can happen: e.g., the modification date of a file
can be in the future. All machines on a LAN should synchronize their clocks
periodically, setting their own time to the “network time”. However, adjusting
time by sudden jumps also causes problems: it may lead to time going
backward on some machines. A better way is to adjust the speed of the clock
temporarily. This is done by protocols such as NTP.
5) Many distributed systems use Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) as their main
communication mechanism. It is a powerful technique for constructing
distributed, client server based applications. It is based on extending the notion
of conventional or local procedure calling, so that the called procedure need
not exist in the same address space as the calling procedure. The two processes
may be on the same system, or they may be on different systems with a
network connecting them. By using RPC, programmers of distributed
applications avoid the details of the interface with the network. The transport
independence of RPC isolates the application from the physical and the logical
elements of the data communications mechanism and allows the application
to use a variety of transports.

1) Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, Applied Operating
System Concepts, 1/e, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New Delhi.
2) Maarten van Steen and Henk Sips, Computer and Network Organization:
An Introduction, Prentice Hall, New Delhi.
3) Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Albert S.Woodhull, Operating Systems Design
and Implementation, 2/e, Prentice Hall, New Delhi.
46
4) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems, 2/e, Prentice Hall, New Distributed Operating
Systems
Delhi.
5) Maarten van Steen and Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Distributed Systems 1/e,
Prentice Hall, New Delhi.
6) Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Distributed Operating Systems, 1/e, Prentice Hall,
1995), New Delhi.
7) Jean Bacon, Concurrent Systems: An Integrated Approach to
Operating Systems, Database, and Distributed Systems, 2/e, Addison Wesley,
New Delhi.
8) Jean bacon and Tim Harris, Operating Systems: Concurrent and distributed
software design, Addison Wesley, 2003, New Delhi.
9) Coulouris, Dolimore and Kindberg, Distributed Systems: Concepts and
Design 3/e, Addison-Wesley, New Delhi.
10) D.M. Dhamdhere, Operating Systems – A Concept Based Approach, Second
Edition, TMGH, 2006, New Delhi.
47
Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems UNIT 3 MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEMS
Structure
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Objectives
3.3 Mobile Devices – An Introduction
3.3.1 Characteristics of Mobile Devices
3.3.2 Data Input Mechanisms for Mobile Devices
3.3.3 Wireless Communication
3.3.4 Mobile Operating System
3.3.5 Types of Processors Used by Mobile Devices
3.3.6 Limitations of Mobile Devices
3.4 Mobile Operating System

3.5 Evolution of Mobile OS
3.6 Need for the Mobile OS
3.7 Characteristics of Smartphone OS
3.8 Design Issues in Mobile OS
3.9 Popular Mobile OS
3.10 Summary
3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier units we have studied about the functions of traditional and desktop
operating systems and in this unit we will study about the Mobile devices and
Mobile Operating Systems. Earlier mobile communication technologies were
dominated by vertically integrated service provision which are highly bounded
mainly to voice and short message services that are organized in a monopolistic
competition between few mobile virtual network operators, service providers
and enhanced service providers.
In the recent years, however, radical change driven by advancements in technology,
witnessed the introduction and further development of smart phones where the
user can get access to new applications and services by connecting to the device
manufacture’s application stores and the like. These smart phones have added
many features of a full-fledged computer: high speed processors, large storage
space, multitasking, high-resolution screens and cameras, multipurpose
communication hardware, and so on. However, these devices market is
dominated by a number of different technological platforms, including different
operating systems (OS) and application development platforms, resulting in a
variety of different competing solutions on the market driven by different actor.
This unit is focused on mobile devices, their characteristics and mobile operating
48 systems.
Mobile Operating Systems
3.2 OBJECTIVES
 define and identify various mobile devices;
 understand the characteristics of mobile devices along g with their constraints;
 define the mobile OS and identify its functionalities, and
 describe various design issues of mobile OS.
3.3 MOBILE DEVICES – AN INTRODUCTION

A wide variety of mobile devices are available to address a broad range of
applications and users. They range from very inexpensive web-enabled devices
to high-end customized tablets, with laptops, a variety of PDAs, and smart phones
in between. Along with size differences come variations in the features and
performance that these devices provide. No matter which type of mobile
application you are looking to deploy, a device is available that will meet your
needs. Let us study about some of the mobile devices:
Smartphones
Smartphones have taken our society by storm. If you don’t already have one, you
want one. Examples include the iPhone and Android phones, including the Google
Pixel phone. Smartphones are advanced versions of traditional cell phones in
that they have the same features as cell phones — such as the ability to make and
receive phone calls, text messages and voicemail — but they can also be used to
browse the internet, send and receive email, participate in social media and shop
online. They also can download apps from the internet using a cellular or Wi-Fi
connection to expand the smartphone capabilities in a vast number of ways.
Tablets
Tablets are portable, like laptops, but they provide a different experience. Instead
of running a traditional laptop and desktop computer applications, they run apps
designed specifically for tablets. The experience is similar, but not the same as
using a laptop computer. Tablets come in all sizes, from slightly larger than a
smartphone to the size of a small laptop.
Although you can buy a separate keyboard accessory, tablets come with virtual
onscreen keyboards for typing and inputting information. They use touch-screen
interfaces, and the familiar mouse is replaced with a tap from a finger. There are
many tablet manufacturers of tablets, but among the best-reviewed are Google
Pixel, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Nexus, and Apple iPad.
E-Readers
E-Readers are specialized tablets that are designed for reading digital books. Those
digital books can be purchased or downloaded free from online sources. Well-
known e-reader lines include Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle and Kobo,
all of which are available in several models. You can also read digital books on
tablets that have an ebook app installed. For example, Apple’s iPad ships with 49
Advanced Topics in iBooks and supports downloadable apps to read Nook, Kindle and Kobo digital
Operating Systems
books.
Other Mobile Devices
Some portable music players have access to the internet and can download apps
to enhance their value to their owners. Apple’s iPod touch is an iPhone without
the phone. In all other respects, it offers the same experience. Sony’s high-end
Walkman is a luxurious audio player with Android streaming apps.
PDAs, the business person’s best friend for years, fell out of favor with the
introduction of smartphones, but some are being re-imagined with Wi-Fi access
and with rugged designs that make them useful to the military and people who
work outdoors.
Wearables, like smartwatches and fitness trackers, are among the newest additions
to the mobile device landscape. Many are powered by the same mobile operating
systems as phones and tablets, and they’re capable of running their own apps.
Most wearable devices are made to pair with another mobile device, like a
smartphone to share data and create an altogether more convenient experience.
3.2.1 Characteristics of Mobile Devices

Mobile devices come in all sizes with a wide range of features. Choosing the
correct device involves evaluating a variety of criteria other than just cost. Each
of these is described in detail later in this section. Some of the characteristics of
the Mobile devices are:
Limited Processing Power: The processors used in these devices will be low
processing frequency normally in the range of 50MHz to 100MHz.
Small Screen Size: These devices will have a very limited screen size due to
limited space available on the device.
Limited Batter Power: These devices have limited battery power and cannot be
increased beyond a limit. Power management is a big challenge for the mobile
devices. In case of any power failure, the data safety also needs to be provided.
Limited Memory: There are 2 types of memories – ROM and RAM. ROM is
for the Mobile Operating System and pre-installed programs and RAM is for
users processing of data. Instead of a hard disk, mobile devices use flash memory
as non-volatile memory.
There are three major factors those need to be considered – (i) Data input
mechanism, (ii) wireless connectivity options and (iii) the mobile operating system
that the device is using.
3.2.2 Data Input Mechanisms for Mobile Devices

Along with device size and power, the data input mechanism is one of the most
important aspects of selecting a mobile device. This does depend on the
application, and the levels of user interaction required, but for most m-business
applications where a substantial amount of data is entered into the application,
data input options have to be given strong consideration. When it comes to
methods of data input, several options are available.
50
a. Keypad Input (Earlier Model) Mobile Operating Systems
Mobile phones typically implement a 12-digit keypad. This is very intuitive and
effective for numerical input but cumbersome and awkward for entering text.
This is because each key on a keypad represents three characters. Users have to
press a key multiple times to enter a single character. Since mobile phones are
primarily designed for voice usage, it is unlikely that the keypad will change
anytime soon. That said, there are technologies available that make entering text
easier. One of these is called T9, which stands for Text on 9 Keys. This is a
predictive text input technology that allows a user to input words by pressing
only one button per letter. T9 translates the button press sequences into words. It
does not work in all cases, but when it does, it is about twice as fast as using
traditional multi-tap systems. America Online, the owner of T9, estimates that it
is accurate 95 percent of the time.
Device manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to make keypad text entry
more effective. Toggle sticks, rollers, and touch screens will help to alleviate this
problem in some areas, but do not expect fast data entry to be a reality on a
keypad-driven device anytime soon.
b. Physical Keyboard Input
Even with the advances being made in other forms of data input, the keyboard
remains the most efficient and easy to use. Mobile devices have many ways to
take advantage of keyboard data entry. Laptops and handheld PCs come equipped
with physical keyboards, while the smaller palm-sized PDAs often support
keyboards as a peripheral. These keyboards are usually attached as a clip-on unit
or via a cable, but wireless connections are also an option. In addition, most
PDAs have PC companion software, allowing the user to enter data such as contact
information on the PC. Some handheld devices have taken the step of
incorporating a keyboard into the unit itself. This is accomplished with small
thumb-based keyboards at the bottom of the unit. Research in Motion (RIM) was
the first to incorporate this concept into its BlackBerry devices. With its
revolutionary design, RIM has attracted a wide variety of users to its devices,
prompting other companies, including Handspring and Sharp, to adopt the thumb-
sized keyboard as the means for data input.
c. Pen-Based Input
One of the breakthroughs for handheld devices was the introduction of touch
screens for pen-based input. This allows a user to enter data using a stylus, without
requiring any form of physical keyboard or keypad. Several pen-based input
mechanisms are available. Deciding which ones to implement will depend on
the mobile operating system and device being used. The most common types of
pen-based input are:
 Soft keyboards. The most approachable method of entering text on
mobile devices is by using a soft keyboard, a keyboard displayed on the
screen. Users enter data by pressing “keys”, just as they would on a
physical keyboard. This method is very easy to learn and use, but it is
also takes up screen space and can be limiting in terms of input speed. It
is often used as a backup mechanism when other forms of data input are
not effective.
51
Advanced Topics in  Character recognition. Character recognition works by interpreting
Operating Systems
which letters a user is entering on the screen. There is usually a specific
area on the screen for users to construct the characters. The Windows
CE operating system from Microsoft provides this capability. Software
runs locally on the device to do the interpretation. The letters have to be
constructed fairly accurately for them to be understood. This is usually
not a problem for small amounts of data, but can be a challenge for users
who need to enter data quickly. They often find the characters difficult to
write, leading to mistakes.
 Graffiti. Palm OS introduced a new form of character recognition based
up on simple character-set called Graffiti. The Graffiti characters allow
for quicker data input since the letters are easy to input and recognize.
There is a learning curve involved, but once Graffiti is mastered, data
can be input quickly with few errors.
 Handwriting recognition. Some forms of handwriting recognition work
by taking screen captures of the inputted text, while others actually
interpret written characters. The interpretation solutions take character
recognition to a new level. Instead of being able to interpret only a defined
set of characters with predetermined strokes, handwriting recognition
attempts to interpret a user’s personal style of text entry. This requires
sophisticated software and powerful hardware to do the analysis.
Microsoft is implementing forms of handwriting recognition on its Tablet
PC platform.
d. Voice Input
Voice input is both effective and easy to use. Simple voice commands, such as
initiating a call or looking up a contact, can be executed directly on the mobile
device. This works by prerecording voice commands into the device. When a
voice command is entered, it is compared to the recorded message and executes
the corresponding action. Many mobile phones come equipped with this feature.
3.2.3 Wireless Communication

Three basic connection options are available for obtaining wireless communication
from a wireless device:
 Two-unit configuration
 Detachable, and
 Integrated
(i) Two-Unit Configuration
Two-unit connections require two pieces of equipment to work together, such as
a PDA and a cell phone. One unit provides the wireless connectivity for the other
unit to use. These devices can communicate with each other in a variety of
ways:
 Cable connection: This involves having a physical cable connecting
the cell phone and mobile device. The phone must have wireless data
52 support as well as an interface cable to the device of choice.
 Infrared connection: This involves lining up the Infrared ports on the Mobile Operating Systems
cell phone and mobile device for communication. A direct line of sight
is required for this solution to work. In addition, only selected phones
have infrared support available.
 Bluetooth connection: Bluetooth may be the best option for two-unit
connectivity. It allows a mobile phone to provide connectivity through a
personal area network (PAN) up to a range of about 10 meters. A direct
line of sight is not required, so it is possible to have the cell phone in a
different location from the mobile device. This will become an increasingly
popular option as more Bluetooth-enabled devices are released.
 Near Field Connection: It is incorporated into may payment cards,
ticketing and the like to enable swift and very easy transactions to be
made.NFC technology is also used in many other areas where short range
secure communications need to be made, and can even be incorporated
into mobile phones and other devices. NFC is standards-based
technologies used to provide short range wireless connectivity technology
that carry secure two-way interactions between electronic devices.
Communications are established in a simple way, not requiring set-up
by users as in the case of many other wireless communications. As such
NFC enables users to perform contactless transactions, access digital
content and connect electronic devices by touching devices together.NFC
near field communication provides contactless communication up to
distances of about 4 or 5 cms.
The advantage of the two-unit configuration is that you can choose each device
based on its own functionality, and you do not have to sacrifice features for wireless
capabilities. The configuration also provides a great degree of flexibility. If one
device becomes outdated or malfunctions, it can be replaced without having to
replace the entire system. This is especially appealing when the data device is a
laptop or PDA that may not need to be replaced as frequently. In addition, the cell
phone can potentially provide the wireless communication for several other
devices.
The downside to this configuration is its complexity. Both the cell phone and the
mobile device have to be configured properly for this to work. When Bluetooth
is not available, the cable or Infrared connections can become cumbersome.
This setup is recommended only where occasional wireless connectivity is
required. When frequent access is necessary, it is worthwhile to investigate some
of the other options available.
(ii) Detachable Configuration
A detachable configuration involves using a plug-in module or clip-on attachment
to a mobile device to provide wireless connectivity. These additional modules
can provide connectivity to a variety of wireless networks with little configuration.
For the plug-in modules, either CompactFlash or PCMCIA cards can be used.
This obviously requires a device that has a slot for this type of peripheral. For
devices that do not have integrated CompactFlash or PCMCIA slots, external
jackets are often available. These jackets (often called sleds) provide the support
for CompactFlash or PCMCIA cards.
53
Advanced Topics in The benefit of using these interfaces is that multiple wireless modems are
Operating Systems
available, providing connectivity to several wireless networks including WLANs,
WANs, and PANs. You can then switch interface cards as you move into different
wireless environments. Cards are also available that support connecting to multiple
network protocols in one unit.
In some cases, the only available option is a clip-on modem. This is similar to the
external jacket, except that the modem is incorporated directly to the unit. These
modules are often purchased in conjunction with a wireless service plan since
they only provide access to a single wireless protocol, most commonly a wireless
WAN.
The majority of the PDAs available now use a detachable configuration for
wireless connectivity. It allows users to select the PDA and wireless component
separately, but at the same time have them integrate well together. The
disadvantage is that the wireless modem uses the open expansion slot so other
peripherals cannot be used at the same time.
(iii) Integrated Configuration
An emerging trend is to enclose wireless connectivity within the mobile device.
This has always been the case for voice-oriented devices such as cell phones and
smart phones, but is a new concept for many handheld devices. This configuration
has many advantages, as it alleviates complexity and provides tight integration
between the mobile OS and wireless modem. Applications for these devices can
be designed to take advantage of the wireless modem, knowing that it is always
going to be present. Troubleshooting is also simplified, since there is only one
manufacturer involved in the solution.
On the downside, some flexibility is lost. The user is now limited to the wireless
net-work type that has been integrated into the device. In addition, it may become
more difficult for developers to calculate the amount of power an application
requires, as they will have a hard time differentiating between the power that the
application requires and that of the wireless modem.
3.2.4 Mobile Operating System

A mobile operating system (mobile OS) is a system software that allows
smartphones and other handheld / mobile devices to run applications as well as
manage the device’s precious resources like processing power, battery and
memory.
A mobile OS typically starts up when a device powers on, presenting a screen
with icons or tiles with information and through which applications can be
accessed. Apart from user applications, mobile operating systems also manage
network connectivity.
Android, Apple iOS and Blackberry OS and Widows Mobile OS are some of the
famous mobile operating systems which provides the combined features of
personal computer operating systems and the features including touch screen,
cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS navigation system, camera, speech recognition,
voice recorder, music player etc.
More details regarding Mobile OS are given in section 3.3 and onwards.
54
3.2.5 Types of Processors Used by Mobile Devices Mobile Operating Systems
Let us study on the processors those are used the mobile devices. In the recent
days most of our devices are come with the Octa-core or Quad-core processors.
In the processors the main element is the core that reads and executes instructions.
Devices began with a single-core processor, but processor companies have created
more powerful devices by including more cores in one device that led to dual-
core devices. Soon there were quad-core processors (as in four cores), and now
there are hexa- (six) and octa-core (eight) smartphones and tablets.
Benefits of Multiple Cores
The more cores, faster they can divide the work you’re requesting the phone to
do. So the benefits of a multi-core are it enhances your device performance and
your apps loads quickly on your device. You can easily capture high-quality photos
and videos then browse your collection without pausing the system.
Some Popular Processors for Mobile Devices
i. Qualcomm Snapdragon : It is a US based company, Qualcomm was the
first brand that introduce CDMA technology in the market and actively
involved in technology related to semiconductors designing for Mobile
devices, tracking devices, satellite phones, Virtual Reality, wireless charging
etc. It is widely known for its Snapdragon brand which is responsible for
releasing mobile processors and LTE modems. It first claim to fame in
processor market when it released the first 1 Ghz processor that time average
speed of most smartphones was only 512 Mhz. The processor comes under 4
series (220, 400, 600 and 800). Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are known
for its performance. The processor handles multitasking very well and can
handle heavy and intensive processing which is especially good for gaming.
The presence of inbuilt Adreno graphics matches the performance of
processor. Snapdragon processors also produce less heat compared to other
processors. Generally Snapdragon processors are costlier than other
processors. Qualcomm also make processors are also used for wearable
platforms, automotive platforms, embedded platforms, vision intelligence
platforms and extended reality platforms.
ii. Apple Mobile Processors: Apple does not manufacture any microprocessors.
Instead, they make contracts with processor manufacturing companies mainly
Samsung and TSMC for making custom built processors that suits their design
and performance expectations. The processor comes under
a. A- Series: The A series is a family of “System on Chips” (SoC) used in
iPhones, iPad, iPod touch & Apple TV. They are designed by Apple and
manufactured by Samsung & TSMC. They integrate CPU, GPU, Cache
memory and other electronics necessary to provide mobile computing
functions within a single physical package.
b. S- Series: The S series is a family of “System in Package” (SiP) used in
Apple watch. They are designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung.
c. T- Series: The T-Series is designed to use in TouchID sensors in MacBook
Pro. The only version released till now is Apple T1. 55
Advanced Topics in d. W-Series: Apple W series is used in headphones for wireless audio
Operating Systems
connectivity. The series is currently in Apple W1 which is used in wireless
headphones and AirPods.
e. H-Series: The Apple H1 chip was first used in the 2019 version of
AirPods, and was later used in the Powerbeats Pro, the Beats Solo Pro
and the AirPods Pro. Specifically designed for headphones (“H” in a
model number stands for headphones), it has Bluetooth 5.0, supports
hands-free “Hey Siri” commands, and offers 30 percent lower
latency than the W1 chip used in earlier AirPods.
f. M-Series: The M1 chip, Apple’s first processor designed for use in Macs,
is manufactured using TSMC’s 5 nm process. It was announced on
November 10, 2020, and is used in the M1 MacBook Air, Mac mini, and
MacBook Pro (2020).
iii. Intel Atom and Core M Processors: Intel is an American multinational
company synonymous with PC and microprocessors. Atom is the brand name
given for the low power consuming and low cost 32 and 64 bit chips
manufactured for using in smartphones and tablet devices.Intel processors
are based on X86 architecture which is powerful than ARM, but consume
more power compared to ARM architecture. Intel Atom processors are
currently in Atom X5 and X7 series. These chips are 64 bit Quad core
processors in 14 nanometer size with speeds up to 1.6 GHz that can be scaled
up to 2.4 Ghz.Intel also released Intel Core M microprocessors which are
ultra low-voltage designed for ultra-thin notebooks, mobile devices and 2 in
1 convertibles. The processor consumes less 4.5 watts or less power making
it ideal for long battery life. These are dual core processors with speeds around
1.5Ghz which can be scaled to 3.2 GHz speeds. Intel Core M processors
offer 40% boost in CPU and graphics performance than previous versions.
iv. Nvidia Tegra Processors:Nvidia Corporation is an American based company
technology company which specializes in making processing units for
graphics, gaming units and mobile devices. Nvidia develops chips for
smartphones, tablets and mobile devices under the brand Tegra.Tegra
processors are built on 64 bit ARM architecture. Tegra till now have gone
through Tegra 1, 3, 4, 4i, K1, X1 series. The process is Quad Core with 256
GPU cores capable of 4K video capabilities. The chips are built on 20 nm
technology. The processor is currently used in Nvidia SHIELD Android TV.
Tegra processors used in Andorid TVs, smartphone and tablets.
v. Samsung Exynos: Exynos is a brand of Samsung Electronics which makes
processors based on ARM architecture. Exynos processors are manufactured
in the series of ARMv7 and ARMv8 SoCs. Exynos 8 Octa 8895 is the latest
from Exynos. The processor is equipped with Octa-Core on 64-bit ARM
architecture with Mali GPU. The processor is capable of running at 2.3 GHz
speed with support for 3D gaming, 4K UHD resolution support. The chips
are 10 nm technologies. The processor is used in Galaxy S8 and S8+ phones.
3.2.6 Limitations of Mobile Devices

There are some general limitations for mobile computing devices which are given
56 below:
 Insufficient bandwidth: Mobile Internet access is generally slower than Mobile Operating Systems
direct cable connections, using technologies such as GPRS and EDGE,
and more recently HSDPA and HSUPA 3G/4G networks. These networks
are usually available within range of commercial cell phone towers.
Higher speed wireless LANs are inexpensive but have very limited range.
 Security standards: When working on mobile, one is dependent on
public networks, requiring careful use of VPN. Security is a major concern
while concerning the mobile computing standards on the fleet. One can
easily attack the VPN through a huge number of networks interconnected
through the line.
 Power consumption: When a power outlet or portable generator is not
available, mobile computers must rely entirely on battery power.
Combined with the compact size of many mobile devices, this often
means unusually expensive batteries must be used to obtain the necessary
battery life.
 Transmission interferences: Weather, terrain, and the range from the
nearest signal point can all interfere with signal reception. Reception in
tunnels, some buildings, and rural areas is often poor.
 Potential health hazards: Cell phones may interfere with sensitive
medical devices. Questions concerning mobile phone radiation and health
have been raised.
 Human interface with device: Screens and keyboards tend to be small,
which may make them hard to use. Alternate input methods such as speech
or handwriting recognition require training.
3.3 MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM

A mobile operating system (Mobile OS) is a software platform on top of which
other programs called application programs, can run on mobile devices such as
personal digital assistant (PDA), tablets, cellular phones, smart phone etc.. Over
the years, Mobile OS design has experienced a three-phase evolution: from the
PC-based operating system to an embedded operating system to the current smart
phone-oriented operating system in the past decade. The mobile OS is designed
keeping in view the physical and other limitations of the mobile devices.
Depending the capabilities of the Mobile devices and the way they support, mobile
OS may also differ with the devices. Mobile operating System concept becomes
popular in the decade of 1990s. In 1994 IBM introduced first Smartphone called
IBM Simson. It was designed with a file system from Datalight ROM-DOS. In
2000, the first modern mobile OS was introduced by Symbian. In 2007, Apple
introduced the popular iOS with a lot of internet related capabilities. In 2008,
Google introduced a popular Android mobile OS. Later 2010, various Mobile
OS start competing for each other to bring most user friendly features.
Many mobile devices are available in the current market. These devices are running
with a mobile OS. Few of devices manufactures are using their own operating
systems but few others are using the available Mobiles OS from the market with
or without modifications. Below are the list operating systems using in the major
mobile devices. 57
Advanced Topics in Throughout the process, Mobile OS architecture has gone from complex to simple
Operating Systems
to something in-between. The evolution process is naturally driven by the
technology advancements in hardware, software, and the Internet:
i. Hardware: The industry has been reducing the factor size of
microprocessors and peripherals to design actual mobile devices. Before
the form factor size was reduced enough, the mobile device could not
achieve both small size and processing capability at the same time. We
had either a PC-sized laptop computer or a much weaker personal data
assistant (PDA) in phone size. Mobile operating systems for PDAs usually
did not have full multitasking or 3D graphics support. Features like
sensors, such as accelerometers, and capacitor-based touch screens were
not available in the past mobile operating systems.
ii. Software: With a laptop computer, the software is mainly focused on the
user’s productivity, where support for keyboard and mouse that have
precise inputs are essential. The software for a personal data assistant, as
its name implies, helps the user to manage personal data such as contacts
information, e-mail, and so on. The mobile operating systems were not
designed for good responsiveness or smoothness with a rich user interface
(UI) including both touch screen and other sensors.
iii. Internet: Along with Internet development, especially after Web 2.0, there
is abundant information in the network waiting to be searched, organized,
mined, and brought to users. People are increasingly living with the
Internet instead of just browsing the Web. More and more people are
involved in the development, including information contribution,
application development, and social interactions. The mobile operating
systems cannot be self-contained, but have to be open systems.
The aforementioned technological advancements have resulted in a variety of
different competing mobile operating system solutions on the market driven by
different companies. Some of these includes Google’s Android, Apples’ iOS,
Nokia’s Symbian, RIM’s BlackBerry OS, Samsung’s Bada, Microsoft’s Windows
Phone, Hewlett-Packard’s webOS, and embedded Linux distributions such as
Maemo and MeeGo.
3.4 EVOLUTION OF MOBILE OS

The ever growing, innovating, and awesome world of smartphones has a history
as everything else. Back from the days of Palm OS to Android Honeycomb
where more than half a dozen Smartphone Operating Systems are available in
the global market.
Presenting below in the Table 1 is a timeline view of how the evolution has taken
place from 1996 – 2021:
Table 1: Evolution of Mobile OS
Name of the Year of New Features
Mobile O/S launch
Palm OS 1.0 1996 RIM applications Address, Datebook, Memo pad,

To-do list
58
Palm OS 2.0 1997 Mail and Expense are added
Palm OS 3.0 1998 HotSync Support, Web Clipping Support, native
8-bit color support
Pocket PC 2000 2000
Pocket PC 2002 2001 MSN Messenger, Media Player 8 Enhanced UI
Palm OS 4.0 2001 External File Systems, 16-bit color screens
Palm OS 5.0 2002 PACE Emulator, Bluetooth Emulator
Windows 2003 Bluetooth Integration, Pocket Internet Explorer,
Mobile 2003 Windows Media Player 9.0
Windows 2004 SE Potrait and Landscape switching for Pocket PCs
Mobile 2003 SE and WPA
Palm OS Cobalt 2004 Telecommunication, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Connectivity
Windows 2005 Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Global
Mobile 5 Positioning System (GPS) Management Interface,
Introduction to Office Mobile
Blackberry 2005
OS 4.1
iPhone OS 1.0 2007 Core iOS UI, Web Clips on Home Screen,
Multitouch Gestures, Mobile Safari, Visual
Voicemail, Maps, iTunes Sync, iTunes Wi-Fi Music
Store, Multitouch Keyboard
Windows 2007 .NET Compact Framework v2 SP2 Microsoft SQL
Mobile 6 Server 2005 Compact Edition Windows Live
Blackberry 2007 Voice Notes Option,Email and SMS in separate
OS 4.2 folders
iPhone OS 2.0 2008 Third Party Application support, Sync Google
contacts
Blackberry 2008 HTML emails, faster performance and improved
OS 4.5 multi-tasking, Microsoft Office Documents ToGO
Windows 2008 Threaded SMS full page, zooming in Internet
Mobile 6.1 Explorer and Domain Enroll
Android 1.0 2008 Google Apps like Gmail, Maps, Calendar and
Alpha Youtube
Symbian OS 2008 Desktop Interactive Widgets, FaceBook IM chat
Android 1.1 2009 Support for saving attachments from MMS,
Base Marque in layouts, API changes
Blackberry 2009 Wireless Sync, Blackberry Enterprise Server 5,
OS 5 almost revamped web browser 59
Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems Windows 6.5 2009 Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and Multi touch support
Samsung 2009
Bada 1.0
iPhone OS 3.0 2009 Push Notifications, cut, copy and paste, Turn-by-
Turn Navigation, Voice memos
HP Web OS 2009 Synergy app, multi-touch gestures and multi-
tasking
Android 1.5 2009 Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP support, Uploading
(Cup cake) videos to YouTube and pictures to Picasa
Android 1.6 2009 WVGA screen resolution support Google free turn-
(Donut) by turn navigation
Android 2.0/2.1 2009 HTML5 support, Microsoft Exchange Server,
(Éclair) Bluetooth 2.1
iPhone iOS 4.0 2010 Multitasking, Folders
Blackberry 2010 New media interface, stronger social media
OS 6 integration, Multiple Contact Lists, track pad
support for swipe gestures
Windows 2010 Tiled UI, Loud-based services support,
Phone 7 Multitasking
Android 2.2 2010 USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot functionality,
(Froyo) Adobe Flash 10.1support
Android 2.3 2010 Multi-touch software keyboard, Support for extra
(GingerBread) large screen sizes and resolutions
Symbian^2 OS 2010 Royalty-free version
Symbian^3 OS 2010 Native Webkit browser, 2D and 3D graphics
architecture, UI improvements and support for
external displays through HDMI
Android 3.0 2011 Optimized tablet support, with a new UI, 3D
(HoneyComb) desktop, Video chat with Gtalk support
iOS 5 2011 Siri, Notification center, PC-Free, iTunes Wi-Fi
Sync, iMessage, iCloud
Android 4.0 2012 It combined many of the options of the tablet-only
(Sandwich) Honeycomb version with the smartphone-oriented
Gingerbread.
Android 4.1 2012 Some of the new additions in these software updates
(jelly Bean) included new notification features that displayed
more content or action buttons, along with full
support for the Android version of Google’s
Chrome web browser, which was included in
Android 4.2.
60
iOS 6 2012 iCloud tabs, Siri enhancements, mail enhancements,
FaceTime over Cellular, Facebook integration,
Passbook, Homegrown Maps and Tun-by-Turn
navigation
Windows 2012 Replaced Windows CE-based architecture

Phone 8
iOS 7 2013 Visual overhaul, control center, AirDrop, iTunes
Radios, FaceTime Audio, Refreshed Core Apps
Android 4.4 2013 It was optimized to run on smartphones that had as
KitKat little as 512 MB of RAM.
Windows 2014 Notification center, support for Internet Explorer
Phone 8.1 11 web browser, tab syncing among Windows 8.1
devices, separate volume controls and the option
to skin and add a third column of live tiles to the
Start Screen.
iOS 8 2014 Continuity, QuickType, Widgets, iCloud Drive,
Extensibility, Healthkit, Homekit, Family Sharing
Android 5.0 2014 It was the first version of the OS that used Google’s
Lollipop new Material Design language. It made liberal use
of lighting and shadow effects, among other things,
to simulate a paper-like look for the Android user
interface.
Windows 10 2015 Mobile OS for smartphones and tablets running on
mobile ARM architecture. Its primary focus is unification
with Windows 10, its PC counterpart.
iOS 9 2015 Night Shift, Lower Power Mode, Public Beta
Program
Android 6.0 2015 It included features such as a new vertically
Marshmallow scrolling app drawer, along with Google Now on
Tap, native support for fingerprint biometric
unlocking, USB Type-C support, the introduction
of Android Pay (now Google Pay), and much more.
Android 7.0 2016 Nougat's many new features included better multi-
Nougat tasking functions for the growing number of
smartphones with bigger displays, such as split-
screen mode, along with quick switching between
Apps. Google made a number of big changes
behind the scenes too. It switched to a new JIT
compiler to speed up apps, supported the Vulkan
API for faster 3D rendering, and enabled OEMs to
support its now-defunct Daydream VR platform
iOS 10 2016 iMessage Apps, Delete built-in Apps
61
Advanced Topics in
Operating Systems Android 8.0 2017 As far as features go, Android Oreo packed in lots
Oreo of visual changes to the Settings menu, along with
native support for picture-in-picture mode,
notification channels, new autofill APIs for better
management of passwords and fill data, and much
more. Android Oreo first came installed on Googles'
own Pixel 2 phones.
iOS 11 2017 Augmented Reality, Major Enhancements on iPad,
AirPlay 2
Android 9.0 Pie 2018 Android 9.0 Pie also included some new features
designed to help extend your smartphone's battery
life. That was achieved with the use of on-device
machine learning which predicts which apps you
will use now, and which apps you won't use until
later. Pie also has Shush, a feature that automatically
puts your phone in Do Not Disturb mode when you
flip your phone screen down on a flat surface.
iOS 12 2018 Grouped Notifications, ARKit 2, Siri
Improvements, Screen Time, Memoji
Android 10 2019 Android Q is officially known just as Android 10.
The features included support for the rush of then-
upcoming foldable phones. Android 10 also
introduced a system-wide dark mode, along with
new gesture-navigation controls, a more efficient
sharing menu, smart reply features for all messaging
apps, and more control over app-based permissions.
iOS 13 2019 System-wide Dark Mode, New Improved Siri
Voice, Overhauled Stock Apps like Reminders and
Notes, New Privacy and Security Options, New
Potrait Lighting Option, Sign In with Apple User
Account System
Android 11 2020 That includes a new Conversations notification
category where all of your chats from various apps
are collected in one place. You also have the option
to save every notification that has appeared on your
phone in the past 24 hours. A brand new feature
lets you record your phone's screen, complete with
audio, without needing a third-party app. There's
also a new section of Android 11 dedicated to
controlling smart home devices.
In the following section let us study the need for the mobile OS.
3.5 NEED FOR THE MOBILE OS

The Mobile OS powers mobile devices like mobile phones, Smartphones, PDAs,
62 and Tablet PCs (a wireless PC equipped with a touch screen and a digital pen). It
manages the mobile device hardware, memory, and software resources. It controls Mobile Operating Systems
the functioning, and the capabilities of a mobile device. The feature set, security,
reliability, and the ease of use are not the only criteria that make a mobile platform
good or bad, but also the flexibility of the mobile platform to integrate with
diverse set of devices and software systems.
A mobile operating system controls everything from handling the input obtained
from touch screen, keyboard, or some external device to controlling the memory
and the overall functioning of the device. It also manages the communication
and the interplay between the mobile device and other compatible hardware such
as, computers, televisions, or printers.
Operating system manages and controls all the features and functionalities of the
mobile device. Therefore, a Smartphone is a combination of the hardware and
the operating system, which determines what capabilities it can or cannot
support.
As the operating system manages the hardware and software resources of
Smartphones, it is responsible for determining the functions and features available
on the device. Smartphone is a combination of mobile technology that is the
mobile phone and PDA, which are based on the computer applications
All Smartphones are embedded with an operating system which enables the
operation of software applications. In addition to the principle features like phone
calls and messaging, you can send e-mails, manage your personal and office
documents, and visit websites for searching information, play online games, and
read news. It also allows sharing and downloading of documents and applications.
If a Smartphone is to allow multiple applications to run simultaneously, it must
have an operating system that facilitates the sharing of processing and memory
resources among multiple applications. Additionally, the operating system must
allow users to switch between the active applications.
3.6 CHARACTERISTICS OF SMARTPHONE OS

Even though the functionality of an operating system used in computers and
Smartphones are same, certain characteristics of a Smartphone operating system
are different from the ones used in computers. The characteristics that a
Smartphone operating system should comprise are as follows:
(i) Resource-limited hardware: Smartphones should be able to support various
applications. It should also provide facility to access Internet. But to meet
these requirements, Smartphones have limited memory and processing power
when compared to the desktop PCs and Laptops. Thus, the operating system
must be careful in using hardware resources especially memory. It should
not only utilize less memory but also consist of architecture that provides
support for applications to limit their use of memory. It should also have the
capability to handle low-memory situations gracefully.
(ii) Robustness: A user expects a mobile operating system to be robust. This
means it should be strong and unlikely to fail or crash. The device must not
only be designed to avoid crash, but must also provide support functions and
policies. These support functions and policies allow the device to handle 63
Advanced Topics in application errors and out-of-memory situations, without hampering the
Operating Systems
functionalities of the Smartphone.
(iii) User interface for limited user hardware: The operating system should
implement a user interface environment that is efficient and intuitive to use,
despite the smaller screen and limited user input capabilities of the
Smartphone. Furthermore, the screen sizes and input capabilities vary between
different models of Smartphones, so the User Interface architecture should
be flexible, such that it can be customized for the various user interface objects.
(iv) Library support: Smartphone operating systems should contain middleware
libraries and frameworks with APIs that implement and abstract the
functionality of the features of the Smartphone. The purpose is to provide
functional consistency and to ease the software development. Middleware
library and framework is a software layer that acts as a mediatory between
the application and the system’s operating system. The middleware framework
consists of a set of components that connects the application with the
underlying OS. Examples of Smartphone middleware include libraries and
frameworks for email, SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, cryptography, multimedia,
User Interface features, and GSM or GPRS, which provide more support for
Smartphone features.
3.7 DESIGN ISSUES IN MOBILE OS

Since, the mobile devices are different as compared to conventional desktop
systems; the OS for them would differ. Keeping in view of the constraints of
mobile devices, the design issues of Mobile OS will vary when compared with
the conventional desktop versions. Let us discuss some of the design issues for a
mobile OS:
Power Management
In the power management system power management, device power management
and processor power management need to be considered.
Battery Management
Mobile OS collects the information about the state of the batteries of the device
and inform the user. In case of abnormal consumption or battery discharge due
to some application/game, OS must perform an emergency shutdown keeping
the data loss at minimum level.
Thermal Management
As the mobile devices operate with the batteries, heat dissipation is also a
challenge. It is one of the functions’ of the Mobile OS to manage and reduce the
power consumption of the devices.
Memory Management
Mobile OS should consume less space in RAM. Instead it should have a small
piece of code existing in the RAM. However, to avoid RAM space there should
be a provision that the kernel, applications and libraries should be directly executed
in ROM. The microkernel structure of mobile OS also may help in reducing the
64
memory size. Also memory leakages need to be taken care by the Mobile OS. Mobile Operating Systems
Efficient memory management techniques need to be adopted while designing
the mobile OS.
Scheduling
The mobile OS may adopt the pre-emptive scheduling mechanism. The interrupt
latency and dispatch latency must be minimized in mobile OS.
File System
Flash file systems are used in mobile devices. They offer a fast-read access. The
file system should adopt the memory management techniques that minimize the
fragmentation problem, caching techniques and intelligent reclaim techniques.
Security
One of the major issues to be considered is Security. Unlike desktops, these
mobile devices also may get infected with worms, Trojan horses or viruses wherein
compromising the user’s security and privacy. As all the mobile devices are prone
to attacks any time, it is therefore the major function of the mobile OS to provide
security mechanisms to address all the security issues.
In Block-4 along with case studies, the handling of various functions by the
individual Mobile OS is discussed.
3.8 POPULAR MOBILE OS

Some of the popular mobile operating systems are:
 Android
 iOS
 Symbian
 Windows Mobile
 Linux
Android
Android is an operating system for mobile devices that is developed by Google.
Android operating systems are based on the Linux kernel and the GNU software.
Android has a large community of developers writing applications that has helped
to extend the functionality of the devices. The developers write managed code in
Java, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. Android is a
mobile operating system that has an open-source framework and is based on
Linux which helps us to develop advanced and user-friendly applications. It
follows a Monolithic kernel approach
Now, we will start with Android Architecture, it comprises of five levels, which
are the Linux kernel, Libraries, Application framework, Android runtime, and
System applications.
The Android operating systems offer a virtual machine that is optimized for the
mobile devices. It provides a structured data storage by the use of SQLite. It 65
Advanced Topics in facilitates with technologies such as, Bluetooth, 3G and WiFi that are hardware
Operating Systems
dependent. It enables reuse and replacements of components through an
application framework. For example Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is developed
using Android operating system.
A virtual machine can be referred to an environment or a program that does not
physically exists but is created inside another environment.
You can study in detail on Android in Block-4 where Case Studies are discussed.
iOS
iOS is an operating machine based on the UNIX environment constructed for

Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad of different cell devices. The iOS architecture
is layered. It follows a hybrid kernel approach. It contains an intermediate layer
between the applications and the hardware so they do not communicate directly.
The lower layers in iOS provide the basic services and the higher layers provide
the user interface and sophisticated graphics. iOS is also used to manage the
hardware of a gadget and for supplying applied sciences required to enhance
each and every application and internet applications also. iOS used to be first
introduced and launched as the operating system gadget of the iPhone introduce
on the twenty-ninth of June, in the year 2007. The iOS has also consisted of apps
like phone, messaging, core services of CF network, security services as keychain
and certificate and trust services and core os.
You can study in detail on iOS in Block-4 where Case Studies are discussed.
Symbian
Symbian operating system is the most popular operating system used in most
Smartphones and mobile phones today. The heritage of Symbian OS begins with
some of the first handheld devices. This operating system began its existence in
1988 as SIBO (an acronym for ’16-bit organizer’). SIBO ran on computers
developed by Psion Computers, which developed operating system to run on
small footprint devices. It was designed with specific criteria that can be
characterized by event-driven communications, using client-server relationships
and stack-based configurations. Symbian OS model follows layered approach
and contains UI frame work layer, Application services layer, Base service layer
and kernel services and hardware interface layer. Symbian OS has a micro kernel
architecture that provides robustness, availability and responsive.
Client-server describes the relation between two computer programs. The client
program sends a service request to the server program. The server program fulfils
the request. The Symbian operating system is developed using C++ programming
language.
The Symbian operating system is a mobile operating system that was specially
built to run on a Smartphone platform. It fits in the memory of a mobile phone
because of its compatibility. It is considered as a full-fledged operating system.
Symbian operating system supports multitasking and multithreading. Many

processes can run concurrently, they can communicate with each other and utilize
66 multiple threads that run internal to each process. It facilitates good support for
graphics and data management. This operating system has a file system that is Mobile Operating Systems
compatible with Microsoft Windows operating system. It even supports other

file system implementations through a plug-in interface. It uses TCP/IP networking
as well as several other communication interfaces, such as serial, infrared and
Bluetooth. For example, Nokia’s bestseller Smartphone 6600 was developed using
the Symbian operating system.
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is an operating system used in various mobile phones and

Smartphones. It encompasses the entire software stack from the kernel to the
application interface. This operating system is compatible with the Microsoft
Office suite of programs. The current version is called “Windows Mobile 6.5”. It
is based on the Windows CE 5.2 kernel. Additionally, third-party software
development is available for Windows Mobile, and the software can be purchased
via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Originally appearing as the Pocket PC
2000 operating system, most Windows Mobile devices come with a stylus pen,
which is used to enter commands by tapping it on the screen.
Windows CE is a modular operating system that serves as the foundation for

several classes of devices. Windows Mobile is best described as a subset of
platforms based on a Windows CE. Currently, Pocket PC (now called Windows
Mobile Classic), Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard), and PocketPC Phone
Edition (Windows Mobile Professional) are the three main platforms under the
Windows Mobile umbrella. Windows Mobile is a Microsoft-defined custom
platform for general use in Smartphones and PDAs. It consists of a Microsoft-
defined set of minimum profiles (Professional Edition, Premium Edition) of
software and hardware that is supported. It provides feature rich OS and interface
for cellular phone handsets. It offers productivity features to business users, such
as email, as well as multimedia capabilities for consumers.
Linux
Linux is unique among the other operating systems. This is because its
development is driven by a community of developers rather than by a single
company such as Symbian operating system in Nokia phones and blackberry OS
in blackberry phones. According to ARCchart, the Linux operating system
supports more processors than other operating system, though the most popular
phone models still use the Symbian operating system. However, Linux is an
open source operating system, where in, the developers constantly change and
update it even at the kernel level platforms.
Smartphones based on the open source Linux operating system have emerged in
the market. There are many advantages to using an open-source operating system
like Linux. No cost and the opportunity to tap into the Linux open source
community are appealing. This has made Linux grow, not only for the server and
PC market space, but also in the embedded device area including handheld
computers. For example, Motorola that is a notable supporter of Linux has released
the A760 Smartphone based on this operating system.
The comparison of Symbian, iOS and Android are given below in Table 2.
67
Advanced Topics in Table 2: Comparative Chart of Symbian, iOS and Android
Operating Systems
PARAMETERS SYMBIAN iOS ANDROID
OS family RTOS Darwin Linux

Vendor Symbian Ltd. And Apple OpenHandset
Symbian foundation Alliance, Google
Architecture OS with applications, This OS has Divided into
UI frame works and kernel which components
kernel on ARM interact with (App Layer,
Processor Driver run time, libraries,
Kernel, UI runtime and
Linux Kernel)
User Interface User friendly It has to load UI is highly
application and configurable
view it
Developed in C,C++,ME, Python, C, C++, C, C++, Java
(Programming Ruby, Flash Lite Objective –C,
language) Swift
App Store Nokia Ovi Store App Store Google Play
License Proprietary Proprietary Open source
Battery Less Less Highest
Demand
Security Hard to crack Hard to crack Softest to crack
Voice Assistant Vlingo 3.2 Siri Google now
Sideloading Available Done by Available

installing
Xcode7
Environment QT, Carbide, XCode(Apple), Eclipse(Google)
Vistamax, Eclipse Appcode
Processor used ARM, x86 ARM 64,ARM. ARM, x86,
MIPS
Memory Memory Management Automatic Paging, Memory
Utilization Unit and cache all reference Map, No
resides on a System counting. No Swapping
on Chip garbage
collection
Power When power goes Not optimized Power
Management below threshold then power Management is
switches to low management not optimal
resolution display compared to
and refresh it other OS
68

Check Your Progress 1 Mobile Operating Systems
1) Explore Sailfish OS.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Mention the features of (a) HarmonyOS (b) KaiOS

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3.9 SUMMARY
In this unit, mobile devices and mobile operating systems were discussed.
Mobile devices are the devices that are easily transported and typically are
handheld and powered by a battery. They would have unique challenges in their
design to enable usability, ruggedness, and reliability. Characterized by relatively
lightweight and small screen size, they span a wide range of device types and
applications, including mobile phones and tablets. Mobile devices also include
custom devices designed for specific use cases, such as military, medical, or
industrial applications where particular peripherals, security, certification, or
regulatory requirements must be fulfilled.
Users of mobile devices require a number of characteristics: portability, ease of

use, advanced and diverse capabilities, and durability. The application may require
the integration of specific sensors, connectors, communications ports, and more,
compliance with a number of industry or government mandated standards, and
perhaps long term availability. A successfully designed mobile device is a
simultaneous solution of a broad array of competing requirements along with
engineering and business constraints.
Mobile operating systems are a relatively new development in the computing

world for the mobile devices. Mostly they are based on some existing older OS,
typically written for stationary computers and laptops. For example, Android is
based on the Linux kernel, iOS on the Mac OS X kernel, and Windows Phone on
the Windows NT kernel. The mobile OS borrows many features from the desktop
world; however, it needs to meet the demands of the mobile environment for
communication needs, positioning of the device, power challenges caused by
mobile operation with rechargeable batteries, and smaller size for the convenience
and comfort of users. The OS is responsible for overseeing and managing the
hardware and software components on the smartphone and it is responsible for
the system-level power management.
69
Advanced Topics in In the following units apart from the case studies pertaining to desktops,
Operating Systems
ANDROID and iOS mobile OS will be discussed.
1) Sailfsh OS is the logical evolution of MeeGo, an operating system developed
by Nokia, based on Linux and in order to attack the market of smart phones
and tablets. When Meego was dropped, some of their workers left to form
Nokia Jolla, one covered by the Finnish company, which has renamed the
system as Sailfsh OS. The operating system has its own programming
language (Qt / QML), although accepted through their respective sdks
developing apps in HTML5 (Cordoba Qt) and Java (Android apps).
The architecture is similar to what we have seen in most mobile operating
systems: Linux kernel, a layer of components (based on Mer), with the
interface middleware and applications. Sailfish is a modern and secure
operating system combining the Linux Kernel for a particular platform use.
It is a general purpose linux based operating system.
It is built on the heritage of MeeGo. Sailfish is developed by Jolla in permanent
cooperation with the Sailfish community. The Sailfish community makes
development requests and decides development priorities by voting. The Mer
project receives contribution from Jolla community and Mer contributes
middleware for jolla thereby assuring compatibility of both projects. It’s like
a classic Linux distribution with the great addition of the Jolla crafted Sailfish
UI. There’s no buttons on Sailfish devices, everything is handled with simple
gestures, supported by an appealing design style. It is really a very interesting
platform for both users and developer. Sailfish used in theJjolla smart phone
and other licensees. Sailfish OS can run Android applications through a
proprietary compatibility layer.
2) (a) HarmonyOS
Huawei unrevealed HarmonyOS 2.0 in 2020. Huawei has planned to relase
it as an open-source platform worldwide. It will open up and share its core
capabilities in areas like connectivity, cameras and AI. It will work closely
with ecosystem partners to deliver apps and services that provide consumers
good experience.
HarmonyOS is completely different from Android and iOS. It is a microkernel-
based, distributed OS that delivers a smooth experience across all scenarios.
It has a trustworthy and secure architecture, and it supports seamless
collaboration across devices. Following are some of the features of
HarmonyOS:
 Seamless experience
 Smooth performance
 More Secure
 All-in-one
70
(b) KaiO
OS M
Mobile Operatin
ng Systems
KaiOS is a web-basedd mobile opeerating system m that enablles a new cattegory

of smart feature
f phonees. It is forkeed from B2GG (Boot to Geecko), a succcessor
of the disccontinued Firrefox OS. KaiOS brings support of 4G/LTE, 4 GPSS, and
Wi-Fi, as well as HTM ML5-based appsa and lonnger battery life, to non--touch
devices. It has an optimized user interface foor smart featu ure phones, needs
little mem
mory, and co onsumes lesss energy thaan other opeerating system ms. It
also comees with the KaiStore,
K whiich enables uusers to downnload applicaations
in categoriies like sociall media, gamees, navigationn, and streamiing entertainm
ment.
KaiOS appps are based on webb technologgies like HTML, H CSS S and
Javascriptt and are run by Gecko ru
untime. If you have writteen a web pagge you
already knnow the basics.
Rendering g is done by parsing HTML/CSS and painted ussing graphic APIs.
JavaScript are executed by the JS
S engine SpiiderMonkey and connected to
C++ compmponents by XPConnect and WebID DL bindings. Applicationns and
the core prrocess comm
municate only
y through IPC
C protocols defined
d by IP
PDL.
Addition ally a set of
o core com mponents including
i file
f and meemory
managemment, threadss and data structures
s ettc. are provvided througgh the
XPCOM component
c object
o modell.
KaiOS Product is decooupled into 2 componentts: Core and App Profilee
Fig 1: KaiO
OS Architecturre
Core:Thee underlying platform thaat consists off the Web appplication runntime,
i.e. Gecko
o, plus the hardware
h adaaptation layeer and a feww other suppoorting
module
App Proffile: A collection of built-in web appps, which reepresents thee user
interfacingg functions of
o KaiOS forr a given devvice form facctor.
3..11 FUR
RTHER READIN
R GS
1)) Milan Millenkovic, Op
perating Systtems, Conceppts and Desig
gn, TMGH, 22000.
2)) D.M. Dhaamdhere, Operating Systems, A conceept-based appproach, TM
MGH,
2002.
3)) Andrew S Tanenbaum
m, Herbert Bos, Modern Operating
O Sysstems, 4th Ediition,
Pearson , 2015.
2
4)) Naresh Chhauhan, Prin
nciples of Opperating Systtems, Oxford
d Press, 20144. 71
MCS--203
O
Operatiing Systeems
In
ndira Gandhi
U
Scchool of Compu uter and
In
Block
B
4
CASE
C STU
UDIES
UNIT
U 1
Case
C Studyy 1 – Win
ndows 10 5
UNIT
U 2
Case
C Study
y 2 – LIN
NUX 21
UNIT
U 3
Case
C Study
y 3 – And
droid 45
UNIT
U 4
Case
C Studyy 4 – iOS
S 63
Prof (Retd) S. K. Gupta, Prof. V. V. Subrahmanyam, Director

IIT Delhi SOCIS, New Delhi
Prof. T.V. Vijaya Kumar, Dean, Prof. P. V. Suresh,

SC&SS, JNU, SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
New Delhi
Dr. Shashi Bhushan
Prof. Ela Kumar, Dean, CSE, IGDTUW, SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Delhi
Shri Akshay Kumar, Associate Prof.
Prof. Gayatri Dhingra, SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
GVMITM,
Sonipat, Haryana Shri M. P. Mishra, Associate Prof.
SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi
Sh. Milind Mahajani Vice President,
Impressico Business Solutions
Noida, UP Dr. Sudhansh Sharma, Asst. Prof
SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi

Prof. D.P. Vidyarthi (Content Editor) Miss Jyoti Bisht (Course Writer – Units 1 & 4)
Jawaharlal Nehru University Research Scholar, SOCIS, IGNOU,
New Delhi New Delhi
Prof. K. Swathi (Course Writer- Units 2 & 3) Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam

NRIIT, Vijayawada (Rural), AP SOCIS, IGNOU
Prof. Parmod Kumar (Language Editor)

School of Humanities
IGNOU

PRINT PRODUCTION
March, 2021
Printed at :
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
This block introduces you to the Case Studies on Windows 10, Linux, Android and
iOS.
The block is organized into 4 units.
Unit 1 covers the Windows 10
Unit 2 covers the LINUX
Unit 3 covers one of the most popular mobile operating system; the Android
Unit 4 covers another most popular mobile operating system; the iOS.
Case Studies
4
Case Study – Windows 10
UNIT 1 CASE STUDY - WINDOWS 10
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Features of Windows 10
1.3 Evolution of Windows 10
1.4 Windows 10 Editions
1.5 Windows OS Components
1.6 Process Management in Windows 10
1.6.1 Processes and Threads
1.6.2 Scheduling
1.6.3 Interprocess Communication
1.7 Memory Management in Windows 10
1.7.1 Memory Representation
1.7.2 Physical Memory Organization
1.7.3 Virtual Memory Organization
1.7.4 Demand Paging
1.7.5 Memory Compression
1.8 File System Management in Windows 10
1.8.1 Directory Management
1.8.2 Disk Management
1.8.4 File Compression
1.9 Summary
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Anoperating systemisset ofprograms thatact asan interface between userand hardware.
It is a type of system software that provides various low level functionalities like
process management, memory management, I/O management, file management,
scheduling. Examples ofpopular operating system are Windows, Linux,
Unix,Android, iOS, Mac.
Operating system is used to perform two major activities-
 Interfacing user with hardware
 Management of Resources
Windows 10 is one of the most popular and latest operating system of Microsoft. It is
introduced with the concept of “Universal apps”, which provides apps designed to
work for multiple platforms like personal computers, smartphones, Xbox One consoles,
laptops and other compatible devices. It is designed for various platforms. 5
Case Studies Windows is widely used operating system for desktop users. The various reasons for
its popularity among users are-
 Easy to use interface
 High availability of compatible software
 Provides support for new hardware
 Provides Plug and Play feature
Although it is popular among desktop users, it has several disadvantages over other
operating systems.
 It is proprietary
 It is closed source
 It is susceptible to virus hence not secure
 Lacks good technical support
 Resource requirements are high
In this unit, we will study about the features, evolution, process management, memory
management and file management in Windows 10 Operating System.
1.1 OBJECTIVES
 Know about the features of Windows 10
 Understand various editions of Windows 10 operating system
 List various components of Windows
 Describe about Process and memory management in Windows 10
 Describe how files and disk are managed
 Know about the compression used in Windows 10
1.2 FEATURES OF WINDOWS 10

Windows 10 have all the traditional features of other windows version with a wide
variety of new features added to it. Features of Windows 10 are:
1.2.1Multi user – it can be accessed by multiple users simultaneously.
1.2.2Multi tasking – can perform multiple tasks at the same time.
1.2.3Resource sharing – files, folders, drivers etc can be shared.
1.2.4Different versions are available for different types of devices.
1.2.5Universal apps – designed to run on multiple compatible Microsoft products.
1.2.6Cortana – a voice controlled digital assistant included in desktop
6
 Xbox app – can capture and share Xbox games Case Study – Windows 10
 Microsoft web browser

 Continuum tablet mode – for touch sensitive devices
 Task view – a desktop management feature
 Windows Hello Face, Hello fingerprint, Hello PIN, security key, picture
password sign-in options available.
 Dynamic lock – locks your PC when paired device goes out of range.
 DirectX 12 – used for handling multimedia tasks.
 New builds are available to users at no additional cost.
1.3 EVOLUTION OF WINDOWS 10

It’s been over 35 years, since Windows 1.0 was released, and now Microsoft released
Windows 10.
It all started in November 1985 when the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0 was
made available. It required two floppy disks and 192KB of RAM to install and was
essentially a front-end for MS-DOS, creating a graphical environment for the platform
and capable of summoning certain functions.
Windows 2.0(in the year 1987) built on its predecessor by adding more sophisticated
keyboard shortcuts, overlappingwindows and support for VGAgraphics and introducing
features that have become staples of the Windows experience. These include the control
panel, the terms minimise and maximise and support for the first Windows versions
of Word and Excel. Windows 2.0 was also the last version not to need a hard disk to
install.Six months later, Windows 2.1 was released to take advantage of new Intel
processors, while a further update in 1989 made minor changes to memory
management, printing and drivers.
The third major release of Windows 3.0 (in the year 1990) was arguably the first
successful one, with a revamped UI, better memory management, 256 colour VGA
mode and enhanced multimedia options such as support for sound cards and CD-
ROMS. Notably, Windows 3.0 also separated files and applications into a list-based
manager for the former and an icon-based manager for the latter.
At this point, although Microsoft didn’t plan for it, the Windows line divided into the
NT and 9x families. The business-focused NT 3.1, the first in the line, was built from
scratch as a 32-bit operating system made to have the same aesthetics as the 16-bit
Windows 3.1. It was released in July 1993 in workstation and server editions, and
received an incremental update in the form of Windows NT 3.5. Windows NT
4.0 (right) followed three years later, boasting a similar interface to Windows 95,
although NT 4.0 was considered much more stable than its consumer counterpart.
Windows 95(in the year 1995) was originally meant to be based on NT architecture
but Microsoft abandoned these plans amid fears an NT-based consumer operating
system wouldn’t run on low-end hardware and would take too long to develop,
opening up a gap in the market that could be seized by others. This need to reach the
shelves quickly resulted in the Windows 9x family, the first entry of which was
Windows 95. 7
Case Studies Backed by a huge marketing campaign, Windows 95 came with a significantly
enhanced user interface which introduced the start button and taskbar. It also added
simpler plug and play features and although the kernel itself was 32-bit, much of the
code remained 16-bit because it was recycled from 3.1.
Windows 98 (in the year 1998) a follow-up was released three years later and was
considered to be more stable than Windows 95, with easier support for plug and play
devices, larger disk partitions, more robust USB functionality, networking
improvements and new system tools.
Windows ME was intended as a stopgap release between 98 and XP and it showed.
It became notorious for instability and unreliability, but at least it introduced the ‘system
restore’ feature to give users a fighting chance of getting any work done. Many of the
new features had already been made available to Windows 95 and 98 users through
updates and many enterprise functions were absent as Microsoft attempted to make a
clear distinction between the consumer-facing ME and business-focused Windows
2000.
Later on WINDOWS XP was released in the year 2001, Windows Vista in
2007, Windows 7 in 2009 and Windows 8 in 2012. Windows 10 is an operating
system of Windows NT family developed by Microsoft Corporation. It was released
in 2015 as a successor to Windows 8.
1.4 WINDOWS 10 EDITIONS

For various devices, windows 10 have total 12 editions with different set of features.
Some are available only through volume licensing. Some of the major editions are-
Windows 10 Home
It is designed for PC, tablets, 2 in 1 PCs. It includes features like- Universal Windows
app, Cortana assistance, Continuum tablet mode, Xbox, Microsoft edge browser,
biometric sign-in.
Windows 10 Pro
It has all the features present in Windows 10 Home along with additional features like
–Remote desktop, Bit Locker encryption, Hyper-V, group Policy, support for active
directory, windows update for business.
Windows 10 Enterprise
It provides all the features of Windows 10 Pro along with advanced security and
management needs like- Resilient file system, windows defender credential guard,
application guard and advanced threat protection.
Windows 10 Education
It provides features similar to Windows Enterprise but provides tools explicitly for
academic purpose.
Windows 10 Mobile
It is designed for smart phones, tablets, touch screen devices but later Microsoft
discontinued this due to customer dissatisfactions.
8
Windows
W 10 IoT
I Case Study – Windows 10
Thhis edition is specially designed for IoT(interneet ofThings) devices.

d It proovides
seecurity, manaageability too Iot devicees along w
with window ws ecosystem m and
coonnectivity with
w cloud.
1.5 WIND
DOWS OS
O COMP
PONENTS
S
Windows
W operrating system m has two moddes for its opeeration – kern nel mode andd User
mode.
m User appplications runn in user modde and system m operations ru uns in kernel m
mode.
Appplications thhat run in kernel
k mode shares
s single virtual addrress space w while a
diffferent privatte virtual addrress space is allocated
a to eeach applicatiion in user moode.
When
W an appliication is starrted in user mode,
m a proceess is created
d by windowss and a
prrivate virtual address space is alloccated. Since the address space is pprivate,
ap
pplications can
annot access or o modify daata belongingg to other app plications. Sim
milarly
theey also cannoot access virttual address reserved
r for ooperating sysstem. Also if due to
so
ome reason ann application n crashes, opperating systemm and other application
a w
will not
bee affected.
On n the other hand,
h single virtual
v addreess space is sshared by proocesses runnning in
keernel mode. Itt means that processes
p are not
n isolated by
b each other. Drivers are uusually
ruun in kernel mode.
m Internaal componentts of window ws operating system
s is shoown in
fig
gure 1.
Fig 1: Window
ws Componen
nts (Source: doccs.microsoft.coom)
Un
niversal Win
ndows Platfoorm Apps
Un niversal W ind
dows P latform
m(UWP) is introduced
i inn W indows 10. It is com mmon
plaatform that can be used foor different tyypes of devices that runs windows
w 10. In
I this
saame core AP PI is used foor all devicess. The apps are written in C++/WinR RT or
C+ ++/CX and can
c access Win32
W API whhich is implem mented by all window
w 10 deevices.
Foor user interfa
face DirectX X, XAML or HTML H is used. If apps need to be dessigned
Case Studies
Fig 2: Windows 10 Universal

U Appss Platform (Source: docs.miccrosoft.com)
1..6 PRO
OCESS MANAGE
M EMENT IN
I WIND
DOWS 100
1.6.1
1 Proocesses and T
Threads
A program inn execution is called a process.p A prrocess containns informatioon like-
unique
u process identifierss, virtual adddress space, priority, env vironment vaariables,
working
w set size, executaable code annd security ccontext. Inittially processs starts
execution
e witth a single thhread, known n as primary thhread but lateer additional threads
t
can
c be createed by primary ry thread. Eveery thread mmaintains infoormation likee unique
thhread identiffier, priority, local storagee, data structture to save thread conteext and
security conttext. Thread context conntains user sstack, kernell stack, and set of
reegisters. Alll threads of a single proocess shares system ressources and virtual
address
a spacee.
In
n windows multiple
m threeads belongiing to differrent processees can be exxecuted
simultaneouslly and createss the effect off simultaneouus execution for single proocessor
syystem. Hencee it is called multitasking.
m A window
Also ws follows preemptive apprroach of
scheduling heence time slicce is allocatedd to each threead. After thee time slice elapses,
e
swwitching is do
one to anotheer thread and system savess the context of
o preempted thread.
Context
C of neww thread is looaded for execcution.
1.6.2
1 Scheduling
Scheduling
S deecides the ordder in which th
hreads will bee executed. Sccheduling of threads
iss done by givving priorities in range the between
b 0 to 31, where 0 represents
r miinimum
and
a 31 represeents maximum m priority. Th
hreads with same priority are treated ass equal.
Time
T slices is assigned to tthread in rouund-robin fashhion to high h priority thhreads.
Factors
F to deteermine prioriity of thread are:
a
1. Priorrity class off process – process cann belong to any of the class -
IDLEE_PRIORITY Y_CLASS, BELOW_NO ORMAL_PR RIORITY_C CLASS,
NORRMAL_PRIOR RITY_CLAS SS,ABOVE_N NORMAL_P PRIORITY_C CLASS,
HIGHH_PRIORITY Y_CLASS, REALTIME E_PRIORITY Y_CLASS
2. Priorrity level of thhread – prioritty levels of thr
hread within a process can be
b any
one of
o the followinng- THREAD D_PRIORITY Y_IDLE,
THRREAD_PRIOR RITY_ LOW WEST
THRREAD_PRIOR RITY_BELO OW_NORMA AL,
THRREAD_PRIOR RITY_NORM MAL
THRREAD_PRIOR RITY_ABOV VE_NORMA AL,
THRREAD_PRIOR RITY_HIGH HEST
Priority of a thread is formed by combining these to priorities- priority class of process Case Study – Windows 10
and priority level of thread. This is called base priority of thread.
Priority Boosts
When threads of higher priority gets execute every time, the system can suffer form
the problem of starvation. To solve this problem Windows uses the concept of
dynamic priorities. Initially priority of each thread is initialized with base priority.
The system can later change the priority of threads so that no thread gets starved.
The threads having base priority between 0 to 15 can receives priority boosts. Each
time when a thread completes a time slice, its priority is reduced by one level by the
scheduler until thread gets its base priority back. Once the base priority is reached, the
priority is not changed further.
User mode scheduling
Applications can also schedule their own threads using user mode scheduling
mechanism. In this application can switch from user mode and gain control of
processor without involving system scheduler. It is used for applications that require
high performance to execute threads concurrently. This service is available only for
64-bit versions. Here the scheduler component must be implemented by the
application
1.6.3 Interprocess Communication
Interprocess communication is the mechanism which facilitates communication and
sharing of data among processes or applications. Here applications requesting for a
service can be called client and the application serving the request can be called server.
Also applications canactas bothclient and server. The various IPC mechanisms available
in windows are:
i. Clipboard
It is a loosely coupled medium for sharing of data. All the application
needs to agree on common data format. Whenever a cut or copy operation
is performed on data, it is put on clipboard which can then be used by other
applications.
ii. COM
Software that uses component object model (COM) can access and
communicate with variety of components. It allows one application to be
embedded or linked with other components. Applications that use OLE
make use of this.
iii. Data Copy
This allows sending of information from one application to another using
windows messaging. The receiver must be able to identify the sender and the
format of information.
iv. DDE
Dynamic data exchange is a protocol that allows variety of data formats to be
exchanged. It is extension of clipboard. Unlike clipboard it continuesto function
without need of further interaction after one time data exchange.
v. File Mapping
11
In this, file is treated as block of memory that can be shared by processes.
Processes that want to share this file gets a pointer to its memory location
Case Studies through which they can access or even modify file contents. Processes must
provide a synchronization mechanism to prevent corruption of data.
vi. Mailslots
Mailslots are used to send messages (one way) over network. Process that
creates mailslot is called mail slot server. The client writes or appends the
message in maislot and sends it to mail slot server. For two way
communication multiple mailslots can be created. They can also be used to
broadcast message across computers in network domain.
vii. Pipes
Two types of pipes can be used – anonymous or named.
 Anonymous pipes are generally used for transfer of data between related
processes like parent child. Read write pipes should be created by each of
the processes to share data.
 Named pipes are used between processes on different systems or to transfer
among unrelated processes. Server creates pipes and communicates it to
clients. Data can be exchanged once both get connected to pipe.
viii. RPC
Remote procedure call is a mechanism used to call remote functions which
can be between processes of same or different machine. It also allows data to
be converted for different hardware architectures. It is used for high
performance applications that are tightly coupled.
ix. Windows Sockets
It is an interface used for communication between sockets. It enables data to
be transmitted independent of network protocol and hence it is called
protocol independent.
1.7 MEMORY MANAGEMENT IN WINDOWS 10

For efficient management of tasks in a system, proper utilization of memory is
necessary. Hence memory management is one of the prime tasks performed by an
operating system. The system is composed of two types of memory – Physical and
Virtual memory.
(i) Physical Memory
Physical memory is also known as RAM. All the programs and data during execution
along with the kernel of operating system are stored in RAM. Elements stored in this
memory are directly accessible by the processor. Addresses that belong to physical
memory are called physical address space. It can be further divided into user address
space where user’s data or program can be stored and kernel’s address space where
kernel is stored.
(ii) Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is capability of using hard disk as additional memory when RAM does
not have sufficient capacity to store the data or programs. Data or programs stored in
12 RAM are also mapped to virtual address space by operating system. Operating system
has a program called virtual memory manager which uses method of paging to map Case Study – Windows 10
virtual to physical address space. If physical memory is able to accommodate the
processes, then virtual addresses are directly mapped to physical address but if
physical memory is not able to store processes together then virtual memory manager
allocate memory to processes one by one till all the processes complete using
technique disc paging and demand Paging.
Disc paging is space on the hard disk also called page file which is used as extension to
RAM. When RAM has not enough space to keep a process it is placed in this location.
However, retrieving process from this location degrades the performance. In
Demand paging only the task which are currently needed, is placed in RAM.
1.7.1 Memory Representation

Physical memory used by a process is called working set. For each process this
working set is composed of – private and sharable working sets. Private working set
is the memory used by a process for dedicated tasks. Sharable working set is the
memory used by tasks which are shared with tasks of other processes. All the system
resources like drivers, DLL are shared resources whereas all the tasks performed
through executable processes are private working set with sharable resources.
Commit memory for a process is the amount of memory reserved by operating system
which is usually equal to the page file size required by a process. This memory is not
allocated until it is necessary to page out a process’s private working set from RAM to
page file. Virtual memory required by the system from page file is hence equal to the
sum of all process’s commit memory. However windows allows user to modify page
file and virtual memory size.
During bootup process, operating systemcreates two dynamic pools in physical memory
for kernel components. These pools are paged and non-paged pools.
 Paged pool –this is the physical memory allocated for kernel components
that can be later written to disk when not required.
 Non-paged pool –this is the physical memory allocated for kernel components
or objects that should always remain in physical memory compulsorily but
can optionally stored in disk.
 Allocations to both these pools can be viewed in task manager.
1.7.2 Physical memory organization

Physical memory or RAM is Windows 10 is composed of following sections:
 Hardware reserved - it is the memory not handled by memory manager and
is locked. It is reserved by hardware drivers.
 In use – it is the sum of working sets of all running processes, non-paged
kernel pool, drivers and applications.
 Modified –modified pages which remains idle for long time are removed from
working set and shifted to this memory. If the size of this memory goes beyond
the threshold limit, memory manager removes pages from this memory and
writes it to page file.
13
Case Studies  Free – it is the memory that can be allocated when demand for memory
arises. Also the previously allocated memory which is no longer required are
also returned to this memory by memory manager is available for reuse.
 Standby – this memory acts as a cache used to hold recent files. Unmodified
files fromworking set of recently completed process are shifted to this memory
by memory manager. This improves the performance of system by reducing
the time required to fetch these pages if they will be required again by the
system in near future.
 When a page is requested by a process, memory manager checks the
availability of page in standby memory. If found, it is repurposed i.e. returned
as working set. If not found in standby, the page is loaded from the hard disk
to free memory and used as working set. If sufficient memory required by a
process is not available in free memory than standby memory can be used for
memory allocations. Priority is associated with each page in standby and the
pages with low priority can be removed and allocated to needy process.
1.7.3 Virtual Memory organization

In windows 10, virtual address space is limited by the system architecture. Increasing
memory beyond the limit will not improve performance. It also disallows processes to
directly access primary memory and hence they are unaware of memory used by
other processes. This feature provides security to the system.
Memory request made by processes are handled by Virtual Memory Manager
(VMM). It allocates virtual memory in units called Page. Pages are initialized by
location of hard disk where file in stored initially which is later changed to physical
memory address where the file gets placed for execution. Hence virtual address can
be allocated to all the processes irrespective to physical memory size. Page frames
are memory units in physical memory used to store processes. Size of page frames is
same as that of pages in virtual memory but they are distributed randomly across
memory. Set of page frames belonging to a process forms a working set. Page tables
are maintained by operating system for each process which maps pages in virtual
memory to frames in physical memory if available otherwise store disk address. It
is an array of addresses where index stores the virtual address and page table
entries stores frame address. It also stores process control information having
control bits like – Valid bit, modified bit and protection bit, which tells about the state
of process.
For 32-bit architecture, maximum addressable units can be 232-1 i.e. 4GB. This is
independent of physical RAM installed in system. If the RAM installed is more than
4GB then extra RAM will is added to Physical Address Extension (PAE). They are 36
bits long hence are capable of addressing 64GB physical memory. Since the
instructions are created specific to architecture, process must run in 32 bit virtual
memory mode for 32-bit system. Operating system will read and write from lowest
4GB RAM in 32 bit mode called active region and the region outside 32 bit is
called passive which is usable in 36 bit mode. Processes are relocated from active to
passive region by operating system when it ends by changing physical page
number (PPN). Therefore adding more RAM only adds the capacity to cache more
data which can lead to reduced disk paging.
For 64- bit architecture, maximum addressable units can be 264-1 which forms 16
Exabyte address space. Hence it allows more processes to be executed without the
need of disk paging.
Memory
M managgement conceepts like demaand paging caan be applied to both the syystems Case Study – Windows 10
sin
nce it is indeppendent of arcchitecture andd RAM installled in system..
1..7.4 Demand Pagin

ng
Foor each proceess a process control blocck (PCB) is maintained
m byy operating system
keernel. In physsical memoryy, the startingg address of a page table is called Pagee table
baase address. For
F storing thhe address of page table, CCPU maintainns a special reegister
caalled Page taable base reggister (PTBR R). Process ccontrol blockk does the maapping
beetween proceess id and page table baase address. Whenever switchings bettween
prrocesses is neeeded, operatting system siimple changees the page tabble base addrress in
paage table basee register.
CPPU maintains a register called PrograamC ounter (PC) which is i used to hoold the
adddress of nextt instruction too be executedd in a process.Address storred in PC regiister is
divvided into twwo parts- higgher order bits stores virrtual Page nuumber (VPN N) and
lower order bits store offsset of elemennt within a paage. Memory y managemennt unit
MMU) first checks the address
(M a of paage table fromm page tablee base registeer and
th
hen uses VPN N of PC regisster as index intoi page tablle to find corrresponding phhysical
paage number (PPN).
( PPN once found is concatenaated with thee offset part of o PC
register and thhe resulting address is sttored in mem mory address register (M MAR).
CP PU can then n fetch the next
n instructtion from thee address stoored in MAR R and
exxecute it. Lateer on the offs
fset part of PC register is incrementedd by one to pooint to
th
he next locatioon.
A page table iss created by operating
o systtem by mapping virtual adddress of proccesses
to physical adddress. Pages thhat are requirred to be loadded in memory y at initial staage are
marked
m by vallid bit=1. Pagges that are notn required initially are marked
m withh valid
bitt=0. Page frammes are createed for initially
y required pagges in physicaal memory coontents
arre loaded into them from diisk. Physical address
a of pagges in page taable is then repplaced
byy the page fraame address (PPN –physiical page num mber). The process
p of briinging
paage into pagee frame or phhysical memo ory only wheen it is required or demannded is
caalled demand d paging. MM MU maps virrtual addresss to physical address
a onlyy when
th
he valid bit =1. If MMU doesd not find a frame num mber correspoonding to a vvirtual
adddress than Page fault is generated.
g Thhis mean that the page is not
n loaded froom the
diisk yet. In thiis case page handler
h is invvoked to cheeck the existeence of the deesired
paage and the paage if exists is
i loaded from m the disk intto a new pagee frame. The frame
adddress is thenn updated into
o the page tab ble entry and tthe page is marked
m as valid.
Fig 3: Mappiing Virtual add

dress to Physiccal address (Sou
urce: answers..microsoft.com
m)
1..7.5 Mem
mory Comp
pression
Windows
W 10 memory
m man nager perforrms memory compression by compreessing
inffrequently useed memory pages
p instead of
o writing theem on disk. Thhis reduces nuumber
15
Case Studies ro
oom for morre processes to t be kept in memory
m and hence allowiing more taskks to be
executed
e simu ultaneously. As compareed to previouss versions wiindows 10 writes
w to
disk
d only 50 % of the timee. Windows 10 also perforrms simultaneeous decomppression
of
o data in parrallel to readinng data by usiing multiple C
CPU cores. This
T happens because
b
of
o reduced nuumber of readds and writess. The amounnt of memoryy compressedd by the
system can bee checked in ttask managerr.
1.8
1 FILE
E SYSTE
EM MAN
NAGEME
ENT IN WINDOW
W WS 10
File
F system enable
e data or files to bee stored and retrived from m storage loccations.
Naming
N convventions, form
mats for path hs are also sppecified by file
f system. Storage
S
components
c in windows ffile system arre – files, direectories and volumes.
v A file is a
group
g of relaated data. A directory is collection oof files and directories
d stoored in
hierarchy.
h A volume
v is alsso a collection of files and directories.
1.8.1
1 Direectory Maanagementt
The
T number of o files in a diirectory is lim
mited by the siize of the disk where direcctory is
stored. The lin nk between tthe directory and files witthin directoryy is implemeented as
directory
d enttry table by NTFS file syystem. One or more entriees are createdd in this
taable for each file in directoory. Additional entries creaated for a filee (more than one)o are
called
c hard linnks. Any numbmber of hard linnks can be creeated for a fille. Whenever a file is
created,
c its en
ntry is added into table. Siimilarly when a file is mooved to directtory, its
entry
e is createdd as moved fille. When a filee is deleted, itts entry is alsoo deleted from
m table.
1.8.2
1 Disk
k Managem
ment
A hard is diviided into onee or more parttitions, whichh are logical regions
r and created
c
when
w user form mats hard diskk. Multiple paartitions makees file managem
ment easy. In storage
tyypes there aree two types oof disk- basic and dynamicc disk.
(ii) Basic disk k : Basic diskk contains priimary partitioon and logicaal drives. It suupports
Master Bo oot Record paartitionstyle(liikeolder winddows versions)) and GUID partition
p
table. In th
he traditionall MBR schem me, four primaary partitions or
o three prim
mary and
one extennded can be created.
c Alsoo one or moree logical drivves can be creeated in
extended partition. Thhe extended partitions
p shouuld be contiguuous. The paartitions
are formaatted to createe volume. Onee or more voluumes can be created
c with a single
partition. Partitions whhich are not formatted
fo cannnot be used for
fo storage.
16 Fig4: Bassic MBR Disk (Source:

( docs.microsoft.com
m)
Globally unique
un identifieer (GUI) can beb used with M MBR Partitioon. This style aallows Case Study – Windows 10
upto 128 primary
p parttitions to be created hennce extendedd partitions aare not
needed. It allows moree than 2TB paartitions to bee created andd also appliedd CRC
protectionn and replicatiion to partitioons. It is usedd along with MBR
M for backkward
compatibiliity.
Fig 5: Basic GPT disk (S

Source: docs.m
microsoft.com)
(i)) ) Dynamiic Disks: Sim milar to basicc disk it can use

u MBR and d GPT partitiioning
but it allow
ws added feattures like- it allows
a volumme to be spannned across m multiple
disks and create fault tolerant
t volu umes. Volum mes created inn dynamic diisk are
called dyn namic volum mes. Informatiion of dynam mic volumes is maintained in a
database. It allows vo olume to bee created onn one or mo ore physicall disk
noncontigguously. It makes
m use forr logical Diskk manager (L LDM) and Virtual
V
Disk serviice (VDS). Fo or converting g basic disk too dynamic diisk atleast 1 M
MB of
unused spaace is required
d in disk for LDM
L databasse requiremennts.
1..8.3 File Managem

ment
In
n windows 100, all directoriies, files, systtem code are stored by NT TFS file systeem in a
fille. This help in easy accesss and mainteenance and caan also be prootected by seecurity
deescriptor unlikke other file system
s whichh stores this daata in regionss of disk exterrnal to
fille system. Grroup of secto ors called a clluster is the fundamental
f storage unit of file
sy
ystem. The dissk data can bee administereed by disk conntroller indepeendent of the sector
sizze.
Fiiles are managged in window
ws through fille objects, filee pointers andd file handles.
1. A file object maintaains contents written to filee and other atttributes mainntained
by kerrnel like- filee name, curreent offset, shhare mode annd others. Heence it
createes a logical in
nterface betw
ween file dataa and process of kernel annd user
mode..
2. File haandle is assocciated with a file when a pprocess openss the file. It reemains
associiated with the file until the process
p ends or the handlee is closed. Thhey are
uniquee and privatee to a process..
17
Case Studies 3. File pointer is an offset value that specifies the next byte to be read or written
from a file. It is created by the system and placed at the beginning of file
(offset 0) when it is opened. It progresses through the file with number of
reads and writes.
1.8.4 File compression

Compression of file is supported by NTFS file system. It uses a lossless compression
algorithm called Lempel-Ziv compression to compress files. This allows data to be
decompressed without any loss of information. Compression of files larger than 30 GB
may not be successful. Applications cannot access compressed data but can only
operate on those files with assistance of file compression library .

1) List the important new features of WINDOWS 10 Operating System.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Describe the security features in Windows 10.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
1.9 SUMMARY
In this unit a case study of Windows 10 is presented. The various operating system
functions like- Processmanagement, memory management and file Systemmanagement
are discussed in details. Also various features newly added in Windows 10 operating
system and various available versions introduced are also mentioned. In this unit, we
also discussed several theoretical concepts on Windows 10 in detail, often useful in
your lab for practice.

1) Some of the new features and enhancements that will allow you to benefit from
WINDOWS 10 are intelligent security, simplified updates, flexible management,
and enhanced productivity. Apart from these following are the new features in
WINDOWS 10:
 Theme aware tiles in Start
 Microsoft Edge
18  Improved Notifications
 Tablet Experience Case Study – Windows 10
 Refresh Rate of Display
 Mobile Device Management

 Windows Autopilot (for HoloLens, Co-Management etc.)
 DefenderApplication
 Latest Cumulative Updates (LCUs) and Servicing Stack Updates(SSUs)

combined into a single cumulative monthly update via Microsoft catalog
 Secure Biometric Sign-on
 Cortana
 Universal Print
 Virtual Desktop
 MS Tunnel Gateway
 EndpointAnalysis
 Microsoft 365 Apps
 Productivity Score
2) Windows 10 includes Windows Security, which provides the latest antivirus
protection. Your device will be actively protected from the moment you start
Windows 10.
 Windows Security continually scans for malware (malicious software), viruses,

and security threats. In addition to this real-time protection, updates are
downloaded automatically to help keep your device safe and protect it from
threats.
 Windows Security is built-into Windows 10 and includes anantirvirus program
called Microsoft DefenderAntivirus.
 Virus & threat protection: Monitor threats to your device, run scans, and get
updates to help detect the latest threats. (Some of these options are unavailable
if you’re running Windows 10 in S mode.)
 Account protection: Access sign-in options and account settings, including
Windows Hello and dynamic lock.
 Firewall and network protection: Manage firewall settings and monitor what’s
happening with your networks and internet connections.
 App and browser control: Update settings for Microsoft Defender

SmartScreen to help protect your device against potentially dangerous apps,
files, sites, and downloads.You’ll haveexploit protection and youcancustomize
protection settings for your devices.
 Device security. Review built-in security options to help protect your device
from attacks by malicious software. 19
Case Studies  Device performance and health: View status info about your device’s
performance health, and keep your device clean and up to date with the latest
version of Windows 10.
 Kids OnlineActivity Protection: Keep track of your kids’online activity and
the devices in your household.

1. Andy Mince, WINDOWS 10 Made Simple, Kindle Edition, 2020.
2. Katherine Murray, My Windows 10, Second Edition, Que, 2018.
3. Andy Rathbone, Windows 10 for Dummies, 4th Edition, Wiley, 2020.
4. docs.microsoft.com
20
Case Study – Windows 10
UNIT 2 CASE STUDY - LINUX
Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Objectives
2.3 Linux Operating System
2.4 Evolution of Linux
2.5 Characteristics of Linux
2.6 Linux Kernel
2.7 Fundamental Architecture of Linux
2.8 Process Management in Linux
2.9 Memory Management in Linux
2.10 Linux File System
2.11 Security Features in Linux
2.12 Windows Vs Linux
2.13 Summary
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Operating system is system software, which acts as an interface between user
applications and hardware devices such as input/output devices, memory, file system,
etc. It schedules both type of tasks, systems and users’, and provides common core
services such as a basic user interface. The two major goals of any operating system
(OS) are:
 Convenience: It transforms the raw hardware into a machine that is more
accessible to users.
 Efficiency: It efficiently manages the resources of the overall computer system.
Operating system consists of the following components for achieving the goals:
 Kernel: The main task of the kernel is to optimize the usage of the hardware,
running the required programs, satisfying the user’s requirements.
 Application Programming Interface (API): A collection of rules,
which describes how services have to be required from the kernel, and
how we receive the answer from it.
 Shell: Its’ task is the interpretation of commands. The shell can be command
line (CLI - Command Line Interface, such as DOS), or graphic - GUI -
interface (e.g.: Windows)
 Services and Utilities: These supplementary programs enhance the user’s
experience (e.g.: word processors, translator programs) and are not
inseparable parts of the system. 21
Case Studies Operating systems may be categorized into various types based on their functionality
such as single user single task operating systems, single user multitasking operating
systems, multi-programmed operating system, multiuser operating systems, distributed
operating systems, network operating system, multiprocessor operating system, real
time operating systems and embedded operating systems. Disk Operating System
(DOS), Windows, UNIX, LINUX, Macintosh (macOS) are some of the examples of
the operating systems. The typical services that an operating system provides include:
a task scheduler, memory manager, disk manager, network manager, Other I/O services
and security manager. This section provides a case study of LINUX operating system.
This unit provides basic structure ofthe Linux, its process management; file management
and memory management techniques.
2.2 OBJECTIVES
After the completion of this unit, you will be able to:
 Understand the basic functions of Linux Operating System
 Identify the characteristics of the Linux Operating System
 Know the evolution of Linux operating system
 Understand the process management of Linux and compare with other OS
 Understand the memory management approaches in Linux
 Understand the File management in Linux
 Understand the security features of Linux
2.3 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

UNIX is awell-known OS, and is widely used in mini and mainframe computer systems.
In recent years the popularity of UNIX has been increasing significantly due to one of
its popular descendant namely Linux operating system.
Linux is one of the popular variants’ of UNIX operating System. It is an open source
OS as its source code is freely available. Linux was designed considering UNIX
compatibility. Its functionality is quite similar to that of UNIX. Linux is provided with
GUI, so instead of typing commands to perform user tasks, one can log in graphically
to fulfill their requirements. Linux also provides the facility to handle core system
requirements through command line. Linux developers concentrated on networking
and services in the beginning, and office applications have been the last barrier to be
taken down. Apart from desktop OS, Linux is an acceptable choice as a workstation
OS, providing an easy user interface and MS compatible office applications like word
processors, spreadsheets, presentations and the like. Because of this, Linux has joined
the desktop market.
On the server side, Linux is known as a stable and reliable platform, providing database
and trading services for companies likeAmazon, US Post Office, German Army and
many others. Linux is used in firewall, proxy and web server. One can find a Linux box
within reach of every UNIX system administrator who appreciates a comfortable
management station. Clusters of Linux machines are used in the creation of movies
22
such as “Titanic”, “Shrek” and others. Day-to-day, thousands of heavy-duty jobs are Case Study – LINUX
performed by Linux across the world. It is also noteworthy that modern Linux not only
runs on workstations, mid and high-end servers, but also on “gadgets” like PDA’s,
mobiles, embedded applications and even on experimental wristwatches. This makes
Linux the only operating system all across covering a wide range of hardware.
Linux is used in a number of consumer electronic devices worldwide. Some of the
popular Linux based electronic devices are Dell Inspiron Mini (9 and 12), Garmin
Nuvi (860, 880, and 5000), Google Android Dev Phone 1, HP Mini 1000, Lenovo
IdeaPad S9, Motorola MotoRokr EM35 Phone, One Laptop Per Child XO2, Sony
Bravia Television, Sony Reader, TiVo Digital Video Recorder, Volvo In-Car Navigation
System, Yamaha Motif Keyboard etc.. From smartphones to robots, cars,
supercomputers, home appliances, personal computers to Enterprise S ervers, the Linux
operating system is everywhere.
2.4 EVOLUTION OF LINUX

By the beginning of the 90s home PCs were finally powerful enough to run UNIX.
Linus Torvalds, a Computer Science student at the University of Helsinki, thought it
would be a good idea to have some sort of freely available academic version of UNIX,
and promptly started to code. He started to put fourth questions, looking for answers
and solutions that would help him get UNIX on his PC. From the start, it was Linus’s
goal to have a free system that was completely compliant with the original UNIX. In
those days plug-and-play wasn’t invented yet, but number of people was interested in
having a UNIX system of their own. This was the only small obstacle. New drivers
became available for all kinds of new hardware at a continuous rising speed. As soon
as a new piece of hardware became available, someone bought it and submitted it to
the Linux test, as the systemwas gradually being called releasing more free code for an
even wider range of hardware.Around 95% of the Linux was written in C programming
language and around 2.8% in Assembly language.
Two years after Linus’announcement of the project, there were 12000 Linux users.
The project, popular with hobbyists, grew steadily, all the while staying within the
bounds of the POSIX (popular UNIX version) standard. All the features of UNIX
were added over the next couple of years, resulting in the mature operating system
Linux has become today. Linux is a full UNIX clone, fit for use on workstations as well
as on middle-range and high-end servers. There is a wide range of variations and
versions those were encountered in the development of Linux Operating System. The
following table provides the details of the various versions developed and events
happened related to Linux. The history of Linux is given in Table1.
Table 1: Evolution of Linux
S.No. Year Event/Release Version
1 1991 UniX(HP-UX) 8.0
2 1992 Hewlett Packard 9.0
3 1993 NetBSD and FreeBSD 0.8, 1.0
4 1994 Red Hat Linux, Caldera, Ransom Love and
NetBSD1.0 —
23
Case Studies
5 1995 FreeBSD and HP UX 2.0, 10.0
6 1996 K Desktop Environment —
7 1997 HP-UX 11.0
8 1998 IRIXSun Solaris OS Free BSD 6.573.0
9 2000 Caldera Systems with SCO server division
announced
10 2001 LinuxMicrosoft filed a trademark suit against 2.4
Lindows.com
11 2004 Lindows name was changed to Linspire —
First release of Ubuntu
12 2005 openSUSE Project —
13 2006 Red Hat —
14 2007 Dell started distributing laptops with Ubuntu
pre-installed
16 2011 Linux kernel 3.0
17 2013 Googles Linux based Android —
Linux has several distributions. Some popular and dominant LINUX distributions for
Desktops include:
 Linux Mint
 Ubuntu
 OpenSUSE
 Mageia
 Manjaro
 Fedora
 Arch Linux
 Debian
 Kali Linux
 Elementary OS
Some of the popular Linux distributions, in the Servers category, include:
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 CentOS
 Ubuntu Server
 SUSE Enterprise Linux
24 Let us see the architecture of LINUX in the next section.

Case Study – LINUX
2.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF LINUX
Linux has several salient characteristic features, some of the important among them
are:
 Multiuser Capability: This is a capability of Linux OS where, the same
computer resources – hard disk, memory, etc. are accessible to multiple users.
Of course, not on a single terminal, they are given different terminals to operate
from. Aterminal will consist of at least a Monitor/VDU, keyboard and mouse
as input devices.All the terminals are then connected to the main Linux Server
or Host Machine, whose resources and connected peripheral devices such
as printer, can be used. Client/ServerArchitecture is an example of multiuser
capability of Linux, where different clients are connected to a Linux server.
The client sends request to the server with a particular data and server requests
with the processed data or the file requested, client terminal is also known as
a Dumb Terminal.
 Multitasking: Linux has the ability to handle more than one job at a time,
say for example you have executed a command for sorting for a huge list and
simultaneously typing in a notepad. This is managed by dividing the CPU time
intelligently by the implementation of scheduling policies and the concept of
context switching.
 Portability: Portability was the one of the main features that made Linux so
popular among the users, but portability doesn’t mean that it is smaller in file
size and can be carried on pen drive, CDs and memory cards. Instead, here
portability means that Linux OS and its application can work on different
types of hardwares in the same way. Linux kernel and application programs
support their installation even on very least hardware configuration.
 Security: Security is a very important part of any OS, for the organizations/
user who is using the systemfor their confidential works, Linux does provide
several security concepts for protecting their users from unauthorized access
of their data and system.
Linux provide three main security concepts:
 Authentication: This simply implies claiming the person whom you are
by assigning passwords and login names to individual users, ensuring that
nobody can gain access to their work.
 Authorization: At the file level, Linux has authorization limits to users. There
are read, write and execute permissions for each file which decide who can
access a particular file, who can modify it and who can execute it.
 Encryption: This feature encodes your files into an unreadable format that is
also known as “cyphertext”, so that even if someone succeeds in opening it
your secrets will be safe.
(i) Communication: Linux has an excellent feature for communicating with the fellow
users; it can be within the network of a single main computer, or between two or
more computer networks. The users can easily exchange mail, data, program
through such networks. 25
Case Studies Advantages of LINUX Operating System
There are several advantages of LINUX operating system. Some of themare as follows:
 Low cost: There is no need to spend time and huge amount money to obtain
licenses since Linux and much of its software come with the GNU General
Public License. There is no need to worry about any software’s that you use
in Linux.
 Stability: Linux has high stability compared with other operating systems.
There is no need to reboot the Linux system to maintain performance levels.
Rarely it freeze up or slow down. It has a continuous up-time of hundreds of
days or more.
 Performance: Linux provides high performance on various networks. It has
the ability to handle large numbers of users simultaneously.
 Networking: Linux provides a strong support for network functionality; client
and server systems can be easily set up on any computer running Linux. It can
perform tasks like network backup faster than other operating systems.
 Flexibility: Linux is very flexible. Linux can be used for high performance
server applications, desktop applications, and embedded systems. You can
install only the needed components for a particular use. You can also restrict
the use of specific computers.
 Compatibility: It runs all common Unix software packages and can process
all common file formats.
 Wider Choice: There is a large number of Linux distributions which gives
you a wider choice. Each organization develop and support different
distribution. You can pick the one you like best; the core functions are the
same.
 Fast and easy installation: Linux distributions come with user-friendly
installation.
 Better use of hard disk: Linux uses its resources well enough even when
the hard disk is almost full.
 Multitasking: Linux is a multitasking operating system. It can handle many
things at the same time.
 Security: Linux is one of the most secure operating systems. File ownership
and permissions make Linux more secure.
 Open source: Linux is an Open source operating systems. You can easily get
the source code for Linux and edit it to develop your personal operating
system.
2.6 LINUX KERNEL

The Linux kernel is the main component of a Linux OS. This is the core interface
between a computer’s hardware and its processes. It communicates between the two,
26 managing resources as efficiently as possible. The kernel is so named because—like a
seed inside a hard shell—it exists within the OS and controls all major functions of the Case Study – LINUX
hardware, whether it’s a phone, laptop, server, or any other kind of computer. To put
the kernel in context, one can think of a Linux system having four layers as shown in
Fig 1.
Applications
Shell
Kernel
Hardware
Fig 1: Linux Architecture
1. The Hardware: The physical machine—the bottom or base of the system,

made up of memory (RAM), processor or central processing unit (CPU), as
well as input/output (I/O) devices such as storage, networking, and graphics.
CPU performs computations and reads from, and writes to the memory.
2. The Linux kernel: The core of the OS. It’s software residing in memory
that tells the CPU what to do.
3. Shell: The shell layer is in between application layer and the kernel. Shell
will take the input from the user applications and sends it to the kernel in
form of instructions. It also takes output from the kernel and forwards it as a
result to the user application.
4. Applications / User processes: These are the running programs that the
kernel manages. User processes are what collectively make up user space.
User processes are also known as just processes. The kernel also allows
these processes and servers to communicate with each other (known as inter-
process communication, or IPC).
Code executed by the system runs on CPUs in one or two modes: kernel mode or
user mode. Code running in the kernel mode has unrestricted access to the hardware,
while user mode restricts access to the CPU and memory to the System Call Interface.
A similar separation exists for memory (kernel space and user space).
2.5.1 Kernel Architecture of Linux

Kernel is a small and special code which is the core component of Linux OS and
directly interacts with hardware. It is the intermediate level between software and
hardware which provides low level service to user mode’s components. It is developed
in C language. Moreover, it has different blocks which manage various operations.
Kernel runs a number of processes concurrently and manages various resources. It is 27
Case Studies viewed
v as a reesource manaager when sevveral program ms run concuurrently on a system.
s
In
n this case, thhe kernel is aan instance thhat shares avaailable resourrces like CPU
U time,
disk
d space, neetwork connections etc.
T kernel haas four jobs to perform as follows:
The fo
i. Mem
mory management: Keepp track of how
w much mem
mory is used too store
whatt, and where.
ii. Proccess manageement: Deterrmine whichh processes can
c use the central
c
proceessing unit (C
CPU), when, and
a for how loong.
iii. Deviice drivers: Act as mediiator/interpreeter between the hardwarre and
proceesses.
iv. Systeem calls and
d security: Reeceive requessts for service from the proccesses
The
T kernel, iff implementedd properly, iss invisible to the t user, worrking in its owwn little
world
w known as kernel space, where itt allocates meemory and keeps track off where
everything
e is stored.
s What the user sees— —like web bbrowsers and files—are knnown as
th
he user space.. These appliccations interacct withthe kerrnel through a system call innterface
(SCI).
This
T also meaans that if a prrocess fails inn user mode, the damage is i limited andd can be
reecovered by the
t kernel. Hoowever, becaause of its acccess to memorry and the proocessor,
a kernel proceess crash can crash the entiire system. Siince there aree safeguards in
i place
and
a permissioons required too cross bounddaries, user prrocess crashees usually can’’t cause
tooo many probblems.
2 FUN
2.6 NDAMEN
NTAL AR
RCHITEC
CTURE OF
O LINU
UX
The
T followingg is the fundam
mental architecture of Linuxx given in Figg 2.
Fig. 2: Fundamenttal Architecturre of Linux
Architecture
A of
o kernel is divvided into maain two parts:
1. Userr Space
2. Kernnel Space
28
2.6.1 User Space Case Study – LINUX
All user programs and applications are executed in user space. User Space cannot
directly access the memory and hardware. It accesses the hardware through kernel
space. Processes or programs which are running in user space only access some part
of memory by systemcall. Due to full protection, crashes in user mode are recoverable.
GNU C library provides the mechanism switching user space application to kernel
space.
2.6.2 Kernel Space

All kernel programs are executed in kernel space. Kernel space accesses full part of
memory and directly interacts with hardware like RAM, Hard disk etc. It is divided in
different blocks and modules which manage all operations (like filemanagement,
memory management, process management etc.) in kernel space and applications
running in user space. Kernel space consists of system call interface, Kernel (core
component of Linux) and device module.
System call interface is the intermediate layer between user space and kernel space.
Each application, running in user space, can interface with kernel through system call.
For example system call function on file operation are open( ), write( ), read( ) etc.
Kernel is independent from hardware. It is common for all Hardware processors
which are supported by Linux. You can run kernel on any processor like Intel, ARM,
etc. It acts as a resource manager in Kernel space and performs process
management, file management, memory management, Interrupt handler, scheduling
of process, etc. It is a powerful structure which handles all kinds of operations.
2.7 PROCESS MANAGEMENT IN LINUX

Multitasking is the illusion created by the kernel. The processor is capable of performing
the processes in parallel by switching in between multiple tasks that are running on the
system. The context switching is done in parallel rapidly and repeatedly in specific
intervals. The user is not able to notice the switching of the tasks due to small intervals.
Linux process can be visualized as running instance of a program. For example, just
open a text editor on your Linux box and a text editor process will be born.
The following are some of the tasks of process management that are handled by the
kernel.
All the processes should work independently without interfering each other until they
desired to interact. The Linux environment is a multiuser system. Even though multiple
processes are running concurrently, the problem occurred in one application will not
affect some other application.All these applications/programs that are running in parallel
will not be able to access the memory content of the other application/program. This
feature provides the security for the application’s data from the other users.
All the processes of the systemwill fairly utilize CPU time and share in between multiple
applications. The applications are assigned their priorities based on which the order of
the execution is determined.
The execution time allocated to each process (time quantum) and when to context
switch between processes should take place is decided by the kernel. This begs the 29
Case Studies question as to which process is actually the next. Decisions on time slot allocation and
context switching are not platform-dependent.
While context switching by the kernel, the kernel will ensure that the execution
environment of a process brought back is exactly the same when it last withdrew
processor resources. For example, the contents of the processor registers and the
structure of virtualaddressspace must be identical. This latter taskis extremely dependent
on processor type. How CPU time is allocated is determined by the scheduler policy
which is totally separate from the task switching mechanism needed to switch between
processes.
Process Priorities: Not all processes are of equal importance. In addition to process
priority, there are different criticality classes to satisfy differing demands. In general
processes can be split into real-time processes and non-real-time processes.
Real-time processes are also of two types i.e., hard real-time and delicate real-time or
soft real-time processes. Hard real-time processes are subject to strict time limits
during which certain tasks must be completed. If the flight control commands of an
aircraft are processed by computer, they must be forwarded as quickly as possible —
within a guaranteed period of time. The key characteristic of hard real-time processes
is that they must be processed within a guaranteed time frame. Note that this does not
imply that the time frame is particularly short. Instead, the system must guarantee that
a certain time frame is never exceeded, even when unlikely or adverse conditions
prevail.
In soft real time systems, the meeting of deadline is not compulsory for every time for
every task but process should get processed and give the result. Even the soft real time
systems cannot miss the deadline for every task or process according to the priority it
should meet the deadline or can miss the deadline. If system is missing the deadline for
every time the performance of the system will be worse and cannot be used by the
users. Best example for soft real time system is personal computer, audio and video
systems, etc.. An illustration of a delicate real-time process is a compose activity to a
CD. Information should be procured by the CD author at a specific rate since information
are kept in touch with the mediumin a nonstop stream. On the off chance that framework
stacking is too high, the information stream might be intruded on quickly, and this may
bring about an unusable CD, far less exceptional than a plane accident. All things
considered, the compose process should consistently be conceded CPU time when
required — before any remaining typical processes.
Linux does not support hard real-time processing, at least not in the vanilla kernel.
There are, however, modified versions such as RTLinux, Xenomai, or RATI that offer
this feature. The Linux kernel runs as a separate ‘‘process’’ in these approaches and
handles less important software, while real-time work is done outside the kernel. The
kernel may run only if no real-time critical actions are performed. Since Linux is
optimized for throughput and tries to handle common cases as fast as possible,
guaranteed response times are very hard to achieve. Nevertheless quite a bit of progress
has been made during last years to decrease the overall kernel latency, i.e., the time
that elapses between making a request and its fulfilment.
Process Hierarchy
Each process is identified by a unique positive integer called the process ID (pid). The
pid of the first process is 1, and each subsequent process receives a new, unique pid.
30
In Linux, processes form a strict hierarchy, known as the process tree. The process Case Study – LINUX
tree is rooted at the first process, known as the init process, which is typically
the init program. New processes are created via the fork() system call. This system
call creates a duplicate of the calling process. The original process is called the parent;
the new process is called the child. Every process except the first has a parent. If a
parent process terminates before its child, the kernel will reparent the child to the init
process.
When a process terminates, it is not immediately removed from the system. Instead,
the kernel keeps parts of the process resident in memory to allow the process’s parent
to inquire about its status upon terminating. This inquiry is known as waiting on the
terminated process. Once the parent process has waited on its terminated child, the
child is fully destroyed. A process that has terminated, but has not yet been waited
upon, is called a zombie. The init process routinely waits on all of its children,
ensuring that re-parented processes do not remain zombies forever.
Linux Process States
Processes are born, share resources with parents for some time, get their own copy of
resources when they are ready to make changes, go through various states depending
upon their priorityand then finally die. Following are the variousstatesof Linux processes:
 RUNNING – This state specifies that the process is either in execution or
waiting to get executed.
 INTERRUPTIBLE – This state specifies that the process is waiting to get
interrupted as it is in sleep mode and waiting for some action to happen that
can wake this process up. The action can be a hardware interrupt, signal etc.
 UN-INTERRUPTIBLE – It is just like the INTERRUPTIBLE state, the only
difference being that a process in this state cannot be waken up by delivering
a signal.
 STOPPED – This state specifies that the process has been stopped. This
may happen if a signal like SIGSTOP, SIGTTIN etc is delivered to the process.
 TRACED – This state specifies that the process is being debugged. Whenever
the process is stopped by debugger (to help user debug the code) the process
enters this state.
 ZOMBIE – This state specifies that the process is terminated but still hanging
around in kernel process table because the parent of this process has still not
fetched the termination status of this process. Parent uses wait() family of
functions to fetch the termination status.
 DEAD – This state specifies that the process is terminated and entry is removed
from process table. This state is achieved when the parent successfully fetches
the termination status as explained in ZOMBIE state.
Linux Threads Vs Light Weight Processes
Threads in Linux are nothing buta flow of execution of the process.Aprocess containing
multiple execution flows is known as multi-threaded process. For a non multi-threaded
process there is only execution flow that is the main execution flow and hence it is also
known as single threaded process.
31
Case Studies Threads are often mixed with the term Light Weight Processes (LWPs). The reason
dates back to those times when Linux supported threads at user level only. This means
that even a multi-threaded application was viewed by kernel as a single process only.
This posed big challenges for the library that managed these user level threads because
it had to take care of cases that a thread execution did not hinder if any other thread
issued a blocking call. Later on the implementation changed and processes were attached
to each thread so that kernel can take care of them. Linux kernel does not see them as
threads; each thread is viewed as a process inside kernel. These processes are known
as light weight processes.
The main difference between a LWP and a normal process is that LWPs share same
address space and other resources like open files etc. As some resources are shared
so these processes are considered to be light weight as compared to other normal
processes and hence the name light weight processes.
So, effectively we can say that threads and light weight processes are same. It’s just
that thread is a term that is used at user level while light weight process is a term used
at kernel level.
From implementation point of view, threads are created using functions exposed by
POSIX compliant pthread library in Linux. Internally, the clone() function is used to
create a normal as well as a light weight process. This means that to create a normal
process fork() is used that further calls clone() with appropriate arguments while to
create a thread or LWP, a function from pthread library calls clone() with relevant
flags. So, the main difference is generated by using different flags that can be passed to
clone() function.
2.8 MEMORY MANAGEMENT IN LINUX

The major part of the computer is CPU of which RAM is the frontal part of the CPU.
All data items processed at CPU has to go through RAM.Aprocess, which needs to be
processed, will first be loaded in RAM and the CPU will get process data from RAM.
Memory is assisted by level one, level two, and level three cache for faster processing.
As the caches are very expensive due to technology used and also not very useful for
all the instructions, only small size caches are used in CPU.
Any information, related to the process, is copied from RAM to CPU registers and the
CPU would build its cache. Cache plays an important part of memory management on
Linux. If user requests information from hard disk, it is copied to RAM and the user is
served from RAM. While the information is copied from hard disk, it is placed in page
cache.
So the page cache stores recently requested data to make it faster if the same data is
needed again. And if the user starts modifying data, it will go to RAM as well where
from it will be copied to the hard However, it only happens if the data has been staying
in RAM long enough.
Data won’t be written immediately from RAM to hard disk, but to optimize the write
operations to the hard disk, Linux works with the concept of dirty cache. It tries to
buffer as much data in order to create an efficient write request. From figure 3, it is
clear that everything on a computer goes through RAM. So using RAM on a Linux
32 computer is essential for the well working of the Linux operating system.
Case Stud
dy – LINUX
Figu
ure 3: Memoryy Management in Linux
2..9 LINU
UX FILE SYSTEM
S M
A file systemis a logical colleectionof files on a partitionn or disk.Aparrtition is a conntainer
or information and can span an entire hard
fo h drive iff desired. Filee system hierrarchy
staandard (FHSS) describes directory
d stru
ucture and itss content in Unix
U and Uniix like
op
perating systeem. It explainns where files and directoriies should be located and w what it
sh
hould containn. Linux partiially follows FHS due to iits own policy to which w we may
no
otice some diffferences in thhe directory trree structure.
Th
he Root Direectory
Alll the directoriies in the Linuux systemcom
me under the rooot directoryw
which is repreesented
byy a forward slash
s (/).
Eaach file is cattegorized baased on the tyype of the filee and is storeed into a partticular
directory. Thesse types of dirrectories and relevant
r file tyypes are listed below in tabble 2.
Ta
able 2: Direcctory Type and
a Types off the Files Sttored
Directory
D typ
pe Typees of files stoored
Binary
B directo
ories Contaains binary or compiled
c sourrce code files, eg,/bin, /sbin,, etc.
Configuration
C Contaains configuraation files of tthe system, eg
g, /etc, /boot.
directories
d
Data
D directoriies Storees data files, eg,
e /home, /rooot, etc.
Memory
M Storess device files which
w doesn'tt take up actuaal hard disk sppace,
directories
d eg, /ddev, /proc, /syys.
Usr
U (Unix Sysstem Contaains sharable,, read only daata, eg, /usr/biin, /usr/lib, etc.
Resources)
R
var
v (variable Contaains larger sizze data, eg, /vvar/log, /var/ccache, etc.
directory)
d
Non-standard
N Direcctories which h do not com
me under staandard FHS,, eg,
directories
d lost+ffound, /run, etc.
e 33
Case Studies 2.9.1 Linux Binary Directory
Binary files are the files which contain executable files. These files are the output of
compilation of the source code. These executable files can be executed on the computer.
Binary directory contains following directories:
 /bin
 /sbin
 /lib
 /opt
/bin: The ‘/bin’ directory contains user binaries, executable files, Linux commands
that are used in single user mode, and common commands that are used by all
the users, like cat, cp, cd, ls, etc.
/sbin: The‘/sbin’directoryalso contains executablefiles, butunlike ‘/bin’itonly contains
system binaries which require root privilege to perform certain tasks and are
helpful for system maintenance purpose. e.g. fsck, root, init, ifconfig, etc.
/lib : The ‘/lib’ directory contains shared libraries which are often used by the ‘/bin’
and ‘/sbin’ directories. It also contains kernel module.
/opt: The term ‘opt’ is short for optional. Its main purpose is to store optional
application software packages. Add-on applications from individual vendors
should be installed in ‘/opt’. And so in some systems ‘/opt’ is empty as they
may not have any add-on application.
2.9.2 Linux Configuration Directory

The configuration directory contains configured files which configures the parameters
and initial settings for some computer programs.
Configuration directory have following sub-directories:
 /boot
 /etc
/boot : The ‘/boot’ directory contains boot loader files which are essential to boot the
system. In other words, they only contain files which are needed for a basic
Linux system to get up and going.You may find ‘/boot/grub’directory which
contains ‘/boot/grub/grub.cfg’ (older system may have /boot/grub/grub.conf)
which defines boot menu that is displayed before the kernel starts.
/etc : All the machine related configuration files are kept in ‘/etc’.Almost everything
related to the configuration of your system is placed here. It also containstartup
and shutdown shell script which is used to start and stop a program.All the files
are static and text based and no binary files can be placed in this directory.
2.9.3 Linux Data directory

Data directory is used to store data of the system. Data directory contains following
directories:
34  /home
 /root Case Study – LINUX
 /srv
 /media
 /mnt
 /tmp
/home: The ‘/home’directory stores users personnel files. After the ‘/home’there is a
directory which is generally named at the user’s name like we have ‘/home/
sssit’. Inside this directory we have our sub-directories like Desktop,
Downloads, Documents, pictures, etc.
/root: The ‘/root’directory is the home directory of the root user. The ‘/root’directory
is different from (/) root.
/srv: The term ‘srv’ is short for service. The ‘/srv’ directory contains server specific
data for services provided by the system like www, cvs, rysync, ftp, etc.
/media: The ‘/media’ directory acts as a mount point for removable media devices
such as CD-Rom, floppy, USB devices, etc.This is newly introduced directory
and hence a system can run without this directory also.
/mnt : The term ‘mnt’ stands for mount. The ‘/mnt’ directory should be empty and
sysadmins can only mount temporary filesystems.
/tmp : The term ‘tmp’stands for temporary. Data stored in ‘/tmp’is temporary and
may use either disk space or RAM. When system is rebooted, files under this
directory is automatically deleted. So it is advisable that never use ‘/tmp’ to
store important data.
2.9.4 Linux Memory Directory

Memory directory contains files of the whole system.All the device information, process
running in dataor systemrelated informationis stored in thisdirectory. Memory directory
contains the following directories:
 /dev
 /proc
 /sys
/dev: The term ‘dev’is short for device. As you know in Linux operating system
everything is a file. It appears to be an ordinary file but doesn’t take up disk
space. Files which are used to represent and access devices are stored here
including terminal devices like usb.All the files stored in ‘/dev’are not related
to real devices, some are related to virtual devices also.
/dev/ The ‘/dev/tty’ file represents the command line interface that is a terminal
tty and or console attached to the system. Typing commands in a terminal is a
/dev/ part of the graphical interface like Gnome or KDE, then terminal will be
pts: represented as ‘/dev/pts/1’.
/dev/ The ‘/dev/null’ file is considered as black hole, it has unlimited storage
null: but nothing can be retrieved from it. You can discard your unwanted output
from the terminal but can’t retrieve it back. 35
Case Studies /proc: The term ‘proc’ is short for process. Same as ‘/dev’, ‘/proc’ also doesn’t
take up disk space. It contains process information. It is a pseudo file system
that contains information about running processes. It also works as virtual file
system containing text information about system resources.
/sys: The term ‘sys’ is short for system. Basically it contains kernel information
about hardware. It was created for Linux 2.6 kernel. It is a kind of ‘/proc’
and is used for plug and play configuration.
2.9.5 Linux System Resources (/usr)

Although it is pronounced as user but in actual it stands for Unix System Resources.
It is also called secondary hierarchy as it contains binaries, libraries, documentation for
all the user applications. It only contains shareable read-only data. The following are
some of the /usr sub-directories:
 /usr/bin
 /usr/include
 /usr/lib
 /usr/share
 /usr/local
 /usr/src
/usr/bin: The ‘/usr/bin’ directory contains non-essential binary commands for all
users. If you can’t find a command in ‘/bin’, search it in ‘/usr/bin’. It
contains a lot of commands.
/usr/include: The ‘/usr/include’ directory contains standard include files for C.
/usr/lib: The ‘/usr/lib’ directory contains libraries that are not directly executed
by the users. In other words, it contains binaries for the ‘/usr/bin’ and ‘/
usr/sbin’.
/usr/share: The ‘/usr/share’ directory contains architecture independent (shared)
data.
/usr/local : The ‘/usr/local’directory is used to install software locally. It means all
the user programs that you’ll install from source will be installed here.
/usr/src : The term ‘src’ is short for source. It is used to store source code like
kernel source code with its header files.
2.9.6 Variable Directory (/var)

The term ‘var’ is short for variable. Files that have an unexpected size and whose
content is expected to change continuously (that’s why it is named as variable) during
normal operation of the system are stored here. For example, log files, spool files and
cache files. The following are some of the /var sub-directories here:
 /var/log
 /var/cache
36
 /var/spool Case Study – LINUX
 /var/lib
/var/log : The ‘/var/log’ directory contains all log files.
/var/cache: The ‘/var/cache’ directory stores application cache data. Cache data are
locally generated by I/O or calculation. Cache must be able to regenerate
or restore the data. These files can be deleted without any loss of data.
/var/spool: The ‘/var/spool’ directory is used to spool the files waitingto be processed.
For example, printing queues and mail queues.
/var/lib: The ‘/var/lib’ directory stores the files that contains state information like
databases. File’s data modifies as their respective programs run.
2.9.7 Non-Standard Directories

Directories which do not come under the standard FHS are called non-standard
directories.Non-standard directories are as follows:
 /cdrom
 /run
 /lost + found
/cdrom: The ‘/cdrom’ directory is not in the standard FHS but cdrom can be
mounted on this directory. Ideally according to standard FHS cdrom
should be mounted under ‘/media’.
/run: The ‘/run’ directory stores run-time variable data. Run-time vriable data
means, data about the running system since last boot. For example,
running daemons.
/lost+found: During system crash or in any other situation when Linux file system
checker (fsck) recovers lost data, that data is stored in this directory.
Data may or may not be in a good condition.
2.10 SECURITY FEATURES IN LINUX

Linux is both more secure and less common than Windows based systems with the
consequence that attacks on Linux systems occur less frequently than on Windows
systems. Some of the security features of Open Source UNIX-like operating systems,
focusing on Linux distributions are as follows:
2.10.1 User Accounts

Linux OS includes a root account, which is the only account that may directly carry out
administrative functions. All of the other accounts on the system are unprivileged.
This means these accounts have no rightsbeyond access to files marked with appropriate
permissions, and the ability to launch network services. Only the root account may
launch network services that use port numbers lower than 1024. Any account may
start network services that use higher port numbers. Each user should have a single
account on the system. Network services may also have their own separate accounts, 37
Case Studies in order to be able to access those files on the system that they require. Utilities enable
authorized users to temporarily obtain root privileges when necessary, so that
administrators may manage the system with their own user accounts. For convenience,
accounts may be members of one or more groups. If a group is assigned access to a
resource, then every member of the group automatically has that access. The majority
of UNIX-like systems use a Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) facility to
manage access by users. For each login attempt or password change, the relevant
service runs the configured PAM modules in sequence. Some modules support
authentication sources, such as locally-stored files or LDAP directory services.
Administrators may enable other modules that carry out setup tasks during the login
process, or check login requests against particular criteria, such as a list of time periods
when access is permitted.
2.10.2 File Permissions

Every file and directory on a Linux is marked with three sets of file permissions that
determine how it may be accessed, and by whom:
 The permissions for the owner, the specific account that is responsible for the
file
 The permissions for the group that may use the file
 The permissions that apply to all other accounts
Each set may have none or more of the following permissions on the item – read, write
and execute
A user may only run aprogram file if they belong to a set that has the execute permission.
For directories, the execute permission indicates that users in the relevant set may see
the files within it, although they may not actually read, write or execute any file unless
the permissions of that file permit it. Executable files with the setUID property
automatically run with the privileges of the file owner, rather than the account that
activates them. Avoid setting the execute permission or setUID on any file or directory
unless you specifically require it. The root account has full access to every file on the
system, regardless of the permissions attached to that file.
2.10.3 Data Verification

To create a checksum for a file, or to test a file against a checksum, use
the sha1sum utility. SHA1 supersedes the older MD5 method, and you should always
use SHA1. Linux also supply the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) system for encrypting
and digitally signing files, such as emails. Many documents refer to GnuPG as gpg,
which is the name of the main GnuPG command. The files that you sign or encrypt with
GnuPG are compatible with other applications that follow the OpenPGP standard.
The Evolution email application automatically supports both signing and encrypting
emails with GnuPG. Evolution is the default email application for several of the main
Linux distributions, including Fedora, Novell Linux Desktop, Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
and Ubuntu.
2.10.4 Encrypted Storage

Create one or more encrypted volumes for your sensitive files. Each volume is a
38 single file which may enclose other files and directories of your choice. To access the
contents of the volume, you must provide the correct decryption password to a utility, Case Study – LINUX
which then makes the volume available as if it were a directory or drive. The contents
of an encrypted volume cannot be read when the volume is not mounted. You may
store or copy encrypted volume files as you wish without affecting their security. For
example, the cross-platform Truecrypt utility enables you to create and access your
encrypted volumes with all popular operating systems. In extreme cases, you may
decide to encrypt an entire disk partition that holds or caches data, so that none of the
contents may be read by unauthorized persons. On Linux you may use either LUKS,
CryptoFS or EncFS to encrypt disks.
2.10.5 Remote Access

Majority Linux Distributions includes a version of OpenSSH, an implementation of
the SSH standard for secure remote access. An SSH service uses strong encryption
by default, and provides the following facilities:
 Remote command-line access
 Remote command execution
 Remote access to graphical software
 File transfers
2.10.6 OS Management
Majority of Linux distributions incorporate software management facilities based
on package files and sets of specially prepared Web sites, known
as repositories or channels. Package management utilities construct or update working
copies of software fromthese packages, and execute any other setup tasks that packages
require. Repositories enable the management tools to automatically provide the correct
version of each software product, by downloading the required packages directly
from the relevant repository. Most systems also use checksums and digital signature
tests to ensure that packages areauthentic and correct. Inaddition, package management
tools can identify outdated versions of software by checking the software installed on
a system against the packages in the repositories. This means that you can ensure that
all of the supported software on your system does not suffer from known security
vulnerability, simply by running the update routine.
2.10.7 Backup and System Recovery

You may easily restore program files for all of the software that is included with your
distribution with the software management tools. In order to fully recover a system
from accident, or deliberate compromise, you must also have access to copies of the
data, configuration, and log files. These files require some form of separate backup
mechanism.
All effective backup systems provide the ability to restore versions of your files from
several earlier points in time. You may discover that the current system is damaged or
compromised at any time, and need to revert to previous versions of key files, so
keeping only one additional copy of a key file should not be considered an adequate
backup. Majority of the Linux distributions provide a wide range of backup tools,
and leave it to the administrator to configure a suitable backup arrangement for their
systems. 39
Case Studies 2.10.8 Monitoring and Audit Facilities
On Linux systems, the syslog and klogd services record activity as it is reported by
different parts of the system. The Linux kernel reports to klogd, whilst the other services
and facilities on the system send log messages to a syslog service. Distributions provide
several tools for reading and analyzing the system log files.
Several facilities on any UNIX-like system may also email reports and notifications
directly to the root account, via the SMTP service. Edit the aliases file to redirect
messages for root to another email address, and you will receive these emails at the
specified address.
2.10.9 Application Isolation

Linux operating systemprovides several methods of limiting the ability of a programto
affect either other running programs, or the host system itself.
 Mandatory Access Control (MAC) supplements the normal UNIX security
facilities of a system by enforcing absolute limits that cannot be circumvented
by any program or account.
 Virtualization enables you to assign a limited set of hardware resources to a
virtual machine, which may be monitored and backed up by separate processes
on the host system.
 Linux Container facilities, such as Docker, run processes within a generated
filesystem and separate them from the normal processes of the host system
 The chroot utility runs programs within a specified working directory, and
prevents them from accessing any other directory on that system.
2.10.10 Protection Against Virus and Malware

The security features of Linux or UNIX-like systems described above combine to
form a strong defense against malware:
 Software is often supplied in the form of packages, rather than programs
 If you download a working program, it cannot run until you choose to mark
the files as executable
 By default, applications such as the OpenOffice.org suite and the Evolution
email client do not run programs embedded in emails or documents
 Web browsers require you to approve the installation of plug-ins
 Software vulnerabilities can be rapidly closed by vendors supplying updated
packages to the repositories
2.11 WINDOWS VS LINUX

Microsoft Windows offered by Microsoft mainly targets the personal computing market.
Windows OS has two versions i.e. 32 bits and 64 bits and is available in both clients as
well as server versions. Windows was first released in the year 1985 and the latest
client version of windows is Windows 10 which was released in the year 2015. Talking
40 about the most recent server version, we have Windows server 2019.
Linux is a group of Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel. It belongs Case Study – LINUX
to the family of free and open source software. It is usually packaged in a Linux
distribution. Linux was first released in the year 1991. It is most commonly used for
servers; however, a desktop version of Linux is also available which is very much
popular and give a good competition to the Windows OS.
The comparison of both the popular Operating systems is compiled in the Table 2 as
shown below:
Table 2: Windows Vs Linux Operating Systems
Features Windows Linux
Developer Microsoft Corporation Linus Torvalds, community.
Writtenin C++, Assembly Assembly language, C
OS family Graphical Operating Unix-like Operating System family
systemfamily
License Proprietary commercial GPL(GNU General Public License)
software v2 and others
User Interface Windows shell Unixshell
Kernel type Windows NT family Monolithic kernel (whole operating
has a hybrid kernel system works in the kernel space).
(combination of
microkernel and
monolithic kernel);
Windows CE(Embedded
compact) also have
hybrid kernel; Windows
9x and earlier series has
a monolithic kernel
(MS-DOS).
Source model Closed source software; Open source software
source available (through
shared source initiative).
Initial release November 20, 1985 September 17, 1991
Windows is older than
Linux.
Available in 138 languages Multi-lingual
Platforms ARM, IA-32, Itanium, Alpha, H8/300, Hexagon, Itanium,
x86-64, DECAlpha, m68k, Microblaze, MIPS, PA-RISC,
MIPS, PowerPC. PowerPC, RISC-V, s390, SuperH,
NDS32, Nios II, OpenRISC,
SPARC, ARC Unicore32, x86,
Xtensa, ARM, C6x.
Package Windows Installer (.msi), Packaged in a Linux distribution
manager Windows Store (.appx). (distro). 41
Case Studies
Booting Can only be done from Can be done from any
disk. the prime disk.
Default Windows PowerShell BASH
command line
Ease of use Windows has a rich GUI CUI / GUI
and can be easily used by
technical as well as non-
technical persons. It is
very simple and user-
friendly.
Reliability Windows is less reliable Highly reliable and secure. It has a
than Linux. Over the deep-rooted emphasis on
process recent years, Windows management, system
security, and reliability has been uptime.
improved a lot. However,
it still has some system
instabilities and security
weaknesses because of
its oversimplified design.
Update Windows update happens
Users have fullcontrol when anupdate in the current moment is
made. Installation takes less time which may be sometimes
and no reboot is required. inconvenient to users.
Takes more time to install
and requires a reboot.
Access Every user does not have Users have access over the source
access to the source code. code of kernel and can modify it
Only the selected members accordingly. This gives a benefit that
of the group have access bugs in OS will be fixed faster.
to the source code. However, the drawback is that the
developers may take undue advantage
of the loophole.

1) Mention the important features of LINUX Operating System.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Describe the architecture of LINUX.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
42 ........................................................................................................................
2.12 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have discussed issues broadly related to features of LINUX OS,
Architecture and components of LINUX, process management, memory
management and file system in LINUX operating system. In this unit, we also discussed
several theoretical concepts of LINUX system in detail, often useful in your lab for
practice.

1) Linux is provided with lot of features, which are listed below.
i. Linux operating system can work on different types of hardware devices and
Linux kernel supports the installation of any kind of hardware platform.
ii. Linux is an Open Source software i.e., Linux Source code is freely
available. Linux also allow us to upgrade the source code. Many collaborative
groups are working to upgrade and develop their own versions.
iii. Multiuser: Linux operatingsystemis a multiuser system, which means, multiple
users can access the system resources such as RAM, Memory or Application
programs at the same time.
iv. Multiprogramming: Linux operating systemis a multiprogramming system,
which means multiple applications can run at the same time.
v. Hierarchical File System: Linux operating system affords a standard file

structure in which system files or user files are arranged.
vi. Shell: Linux operating system offers a special interpreter program that can
be used to execute commands of the OS. It can be used to do several types
of operations like call application programs, and so on.
vii. Security: Linux operating system offers user security systems using
authentication features like encryption of data or password protection
or controlled access to particular files.
2) Linux Architecture: Linux Operating System is a four-layered architecture.

Hardware: All physical components of the computer that provides services to the
user like CPU, RAM, Hard Disk, Monitor, Printer, etc., are known as hardware
components of the computers.
Kernel: This is the main component of the Linux operating system. Only through
the Kernel, we can directly communicate with the hardware components.
Shell: The shell layer is in between application layer and the kernel. Shell will take
the input from the user applications and sends to the kernel in the form of
instructions and takes output from the kernel and forwards it as a result to the user
application.
Applications: These are the utility programs for the users that run on shell. These
applications like text editor, web browsers, spread sheet applications, etc.
43
Case Studies
1. Richard Pertersen, Linux: The Complete Reference, Sixth Edition, McGraw Hill,
2017.
2. MachteltGarrels, Introduction to Linux: A Hands-On Guide, UNIX Academy
Publicaions, 2007.
3. Jason Cannon, Linux for Beginners:An Introduction to the Linux Operating System
and Command Line, Kindle Edition, 2013.
4. Linux System Programming, Robert Love, O’Reilly, 2014.
5. K. Srirengan, Understanding UNIX, PHI, 2002.
44
UNIT 3 CASE STUDY - ANDROID
Structure
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Salient Features of Android
3.3 Evolution of Android
3.4. Layered Architecture of Android OS
3.5. Processes and Threads Management in Android
3.6 Memory Management in Android
3.7 File Management in Android
3.8 Security Features in Android
3.9 Summary
3.0 INTRODUCTION
Across the globe, in more than 190 countries, hundreds of millions of mobile devices
are powered by Android operating system. It has strong user base and conquered
around 75% of the global market share by the end of 2020. Google sponsored the
project at initial stages and in the year 2005, it acquired the whole company. In
September 2008, the first Android-powered device was launched in the market. It’s
popular because it has long list of features, user-friendly, has huge community
support, provides a greater extent of customization, and a large number of companies
build Android-compatible smart phones. At first, the purpose of Android was thought
of as a mobile operating system. However, with the advancement of code libraries
and its popularity among developers of the divergent domain, Android becomes
an absolute set of software for all devices like tablets, wearables, set-top boxes,
smart TVs, notebooks, etc. Android is an open-source operating system based on
modified version of Linux kernel with a Java programming interface for mobile
devices such as Smartphone (Touch Screen Devices who supports Android OS) as
well for Tablets too.
This unit provides a case study onAndroid Operating System. It provides basic structure,
features, process, file and memory management techniques it follows.
3.1 OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Understand the various features of the Android system
 Know the evolution of the Android OS 45
Case Studies  Describe the architecture of the ANDROID OS.
 Know the Process and Memory management approaches
 Understand the File management inAndroid
 Identify the security features inAndroid
3.2 SALIENT FEATURES OF ANDROID OS

Android is a powerful open-source operating system that provides enormous features
and some of them are listed below:
 User Interface: Android provides a great user interface which allow user to
communicate with his device. It has user friendly UI which allowthe user ease
of access and can learn and operate the device quickly.
 Storage: Uses “SQLite” to store the data. SQLite being a relational data
base processing queries are fast.
 File Manager: Data storage related activities will be managed by the file
manager.
 Media: Supports wide range of media like JPEF, PNG, GIF, BMP, Ogg,
MIDI, MP3, ACC 5.1, Vorbis, WAV, AMR, AMR-WB etc.
 Messaging: Provides various messaging services like MMS, SMS.
 Connectivity: Android provide various range of connectivity like
GSM.EDGE, CDMA, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC WiMAX, UMTS, EV-DO, IDEN
 GPS: It contains multiple APIs to support location-tracking services such as
GPS.
 Multitasking: Android provides multitasking capability for the user. They
can operate multiple applications at the same time.
 Multi touch: Android support multi touch functionality where user is allowed
to make multiple touches at the same time and the OS will process it this is
majorly used for gaming.
 Widgets: Android OS provides widgets which allow the user to have the
organize the apps based on their requirements. It also allows the user to add,
remove, resize, expand and collapse based on users usage and their need.
 Screen Capture: Allows the user to capture the screen shot of their mobile
screen.
 Near Field Communication: Android provides a short range of wireless
connection, which allows various devices to communicate quickly within the
range. It is majorly used in payment systems.
 Recording Capability: It supports multimedia hardware control to perform
playback or recording using a camera and microphone.
 Webkit Layout: Android has an integrated open-source WebKit layout based
web browser to support User Interface like HTML5, CSS3.
46
 Virtual Reality: It provides support for virtual reality or 2D/3D Graphics. Case Study – Android
 Customization: Customization is possible in Android OS based on our

requirements.
3.3 EVOLUTION OF ANDROID OS

Andy Rubin founded Android Inc in October 2003 and later Google acquired Android
Inc. Its initial intention is for camera as they have less market, it later changed to
support mobile devices. Google announced the development of Android operating
system in 2007 and Android launches its first Android mobile device. Android Inc.
was acquired by Google in August, 2005. Key employees of Android Inc., including
Andy Rubin, Rich Miner and Chris White, stayed at the company after the acquisition.
After acquisition, a teamled by Rubin developed a mobile device platformimplemented
using Linux kernel. Google marketed the platform to handset makers and carriers on
the promise of providing a flexible, upgradable system.
Android operating systems has several versions. Following are the list of these versions
depicted in the table 1:
Table 1: Android Versions
Code Name Version Release Date
Apple Pie Android 1.0 September 23, 2008
Banana Bread Android 1.1 February 9, 2009
Cupcake Android 1.5 April 30, 2009
Donut Android 1.6 September 15, 2009
Eclair Android 2.0 – 2.1 October 26, 2009
Froyo Android 2.2 – 2.2.3 May 20, 2010
Gingerbread Android 2.3 – 2.3.4 December 6, 2010
Honeycomb Android 3.0.x – 3.2.x February 22, 2011
Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 – 4.0.4 October 18, 2011
Jelly Bean Android 4.1 – 4.1.2 July 9, 2012
Kitkat Android 4.4 – 4.4.4 July 9, 2012
Lollipop Android 5.0 – 5.1 October 17, 2014
Marshmallow Android 6.0 – 6.0.1 October 5, 2015
Nougat Android 7.0 – 7.1 August 22, 2016
Oreo Android 8.0 August 21, 2017
Pie Android 9.0 August 6, 2018
Android Q Android 10.0 September 3, 2019
Android 11 Android 11.0 September 8, 2020
In the next section let us study the Layered Architecture of Android. 47
Case Studies
3.4
3 LAY
YERED A
ARCHITE
ECTURE
E OFAND
DROID O
OS
Android
A operaating system iis a stack of software
s compponents whicch is roughly divided
d
innto five sectiions and fourr main layerss as shown beelow in the arrchitecture diiagram
given
g at Figure 1.
Figu
ure 1:Architeccture of Androiid OS (Source: developer.and
droid.com)
3.4.1
3 Linu
ux Kernel
Linux
L is the bottom
b layerr. The bottom m layer offerss a level of abstraction bbetween
hardware
h andd it contains alll the essentiaals required for
fo hardware drivers
d like camera,
c
keypad,
k displaay etc. Also, tthe kernel hanndles all the thhings that Linnux is really good
g at
suuch as netwoorking and a vast array of o device drivvers, which taake the pain out of
in
nterfacing to peripheral
p harrdware.
3.4.2
3 Librraries
A rich set of libraries
l are present
p on toop of Linux kernel.
k Alonng with open--source
Library
L Web browser
b enginne WebKit, a collection
c of popular librarries like libc, SQLite
database
d which h is a useful reepository for storage
s and shharing ofappllication data, libraries
l
to
o play and reccord audio annd video, SSL L libraries ressponsible for Internet
I securrity etc.
Java
J based libbraries are ussed for the puurpose of development of o Android OS. O The
application
a fraamework libraaries in additio on to those thaat facilitate useer interface buuilding,
graphics
g draw
wing and databbase access.
A summary off some key coore Android libraries
l avaiilable to the Android
A develloper is
as
a follows:
android.app Provvides access too the applicatiion model andd is the cornerrstone
of alllAndroid appplications.
android.conttent Faciilitates contennt access, pubblishing and messaging
m betw
ween
appllications and application coomponents.
48
Case Study – Android
android.database Used to access data published by content providers and
includes SQLite database management classes.
android.opengl AJava interface to the OpenGLES 3D graphics renderingAPI.
android.os Provides applications with access to standard operating system
services including messages, system services and inter-process
communication
android.text Used to render and manipulate text on a device display.
android.view The fundamental building blocks of application user interfaces.
android.widget A rich collectionof pre-built user interface components such as
buttons, labels, list views, layout managers, radio buttons etc.
android.webkit A set of classes intended to allow web-browsing capabilities
to be built into applications.
3.4.3 Android Runtime

This section is the part of the Libraries layer which contains a key component called
Dalvik Virtual Machine (Dalvik VM) which is an optimized Android library acts like a
of Java Virtual Machine. The Dalvik VM makes use of Linux core features like memory
management and multi-threading, which is intrinsic in the Java language. The Dalvik
VM enables everyAndroid application to run in its own process, with its own instance
of the Dalvik virtual machine.
The Android runtime also provides a set of core libraries which enable Android
application developers to writeAndroid applications using standard Java programming
language.
3.4.4 Application Framework

Several high level services will be provided to the applications through Application
Framework layer. These application services are available in the form of Java classes.
Application developers can use these services in their applications.
TheAndroid framework includes the following key services:
 Activity Manager “ Controls all aspects of the application lifecycle and
activity stack.
 Content Providers “ Allows applications to publish and share data with
other applications.
 Resource Manager “ Provides access to non-code embedded resources
such as strings, color settings and user interface layouts.
 Notifications Manager “ Allows applications to display alerts and
notifications to the user.
 Windows Manager – Allows applications to apply various operations on
windows like create, minimize, resize etc.
 View System “ An extensible set of views used to create application user
interfaces. 49
Case Studies 3.4.5 Applications
The top layer of Android Architecture is Applications-layer. Users have to install their
own applications on this layer. Browser, Games, Contacts Books, etc., are some of
the examples of such applications. The application layer runs within the Android
run time using the classes and services made available from the application
framework.
3.5 PROCESSES AND THREADS MANAGEMENT

IN ANDROID
Android create process for each application, all the components are running from a
main thread in low power and low memory . A ndroid automatically manages
the processes and kills the least used or inactive process.
3.5.1 Process Life Cycle

The Android system tries to maintain an application process for as long as possible,
but eventually needs to remove old processes to reclaim memory for new or more
important processes. To determine which processes to keep and which to kill, the
system places each process into an “importance hierarchy” based on the components
running in the process and the state of those components. Processes with the lowest
importance are eliminated first, then those with the next lowest importance, and so on,
as necessary to recover system resources. There are five levels in the importance
hierarchy. The following list presents the different types of processes in order of
importance:
(i) Foreground process
A process that is required for what the user is currently doing. A process is
considered to be in the foreground if any of the following conditions are true:
 It hosts an Activity that the user is interacting with
 It hosts a Service that’s bound to the activity that the user is interacting with.
 It hosts a Service that’s running “in the foreground” and the service has
called startForeground().
 It hosts a Service that’s executing one of its lifecycle callbacks
(onCreate(), onStart(), or onDestroy()).
 It hosts a BroadcastReceiver that’s executing its onReceive() method.
Generally, only a few foreground processes exist at any given time. They are killed
only as a last resort, if memory is so low a n d cannot continue to run. Generally, at
that point, the device has reached a memory paging state, so killing some foreground
processes is required to keep the user interface responsive.
(ii) Visible process
A process that doesn’t have any foreground components, but still can affect what the
user sees on screen. A process is considered to be visible if either of the following
conditions are true:
 It hosts an Activity that is not in the foreground, but is still visible to the user
50 (its onPause() method has been called).
 It hosts a Service that’s bound to a visible (or foreground) activity. Case Study – Android
A visible process is considered extremely important and will not be killed unless doing
so is required to keep all foreground processes running.
(iii) Service process
A process that is running a service that has been started with the startService() method
and does not fall into either of the two higher categories. Although service processes
are not directly tied to anything the user sees, they are generally doing things that the
user cares about such as playing music in the background or downloading data on the
network, so the system keeps them running unless there’s not enough memory to retain
them along with all foreground and visible processes.
(iv) Background process
A process holding an activity that’s not currently visible to the user (the
activity’s onStop() method has been called). These processes have no direct impact
on the user experience, and the system can kill them at any time to reclaim memory for
a foreground, visible, or service process. Usually there are many background processes
running, so they are kept in an LRU (least recently used) list to ensure that the process
with the activity that was most recently seen by the user is the last to be killed. If an
activity implements its lifecycle methods correctly, and saves its current state, killing its
process will not have a visible effect on the user experience, because when the user
navigates back to the activity, the activity restores all of its visible state.
(v) Empty process
A process that doesn’t hold any active application components is called empty process.
The only reason to keep this kind of process alive is for caching purposes, to improve
startup time the next time a component needs to run in it. The systemoften kills these
processes in order to balance overall system resources between process caches and
the underlying kernel caches.
Android ranks a process at the highest level it can, based upon the importance of the
components currently active in the process.
3.5.2 Threads
When an application is launched, the system creates a thread of execution for the
application, called “main”. This thread is very important because it is in charge of
dispatching events to the appropriate user interface widgets, including drawing events.
It is also the thread in which your application interacts with components from the
Android UI toolkit. This main thread is also sometimes called the UI thread.
The system does not create a separate thread for each instance of a component. All
components that run in the same process are instantiated in the UI thread, and system
calls to each component are dispatched from that thread. Consequently, methods that
respond to systemcallbacks (such as onKeyDown() to report user actions or a lifecycle
callback method) always run in the UI thread of the process.
For instance, when the user touches a button on the screen, your app’s UI thread
dispatches the touch event to the widget, which in turn sets its pressed state and posts
an invalidate request to the event queue. The UI thread dequeues the request and
notifies the widget that it should redraw itself. 51
Case Studies When your app performs intensive work in response to user interaction, this single
thread model can yield poor performance unless you implement your application
properly. Specifically, if everything is happening in the UI thread, performing long
operations such as network access or database queries will block the whole UI. When
the thread is blocked, no events can be dispatched, including drawing events. From
the user’s perspective, the application appears to hang. Even worse, if the UI thread is
blocked for more than a few seconds (about 5 seconds currently) the user is presented
with the infamous “application not responding”” (ANR) dialog. The user might then
decide to quit your application and uninstall it if they are unhappy. Additionally, the
Android UI toolkit is not thread-safe.
Android offers a mechanism for Interprocess Communication (IPC) using remote
procedure calls (RPCs), in which a method is called by an activity or other application
component, but executed remotely (in another process), with any result returned back
to the caller. This entails decomposing a method call and its data to a level the operating
system can understand, transmitting it from the local process and address space to the
remote process and address space, then reassembling and reenacting the call there.
Return values are then transmitted in the opposite direction. Android provides all the
code to performthese IPC transactions, so you can focus on defining and implementing
the RPC programming interface. To perform IPC, your application must bind to a
service, using bindService().
In the next section we will study about the Memory Management inAndroid OS.
3.6 MEMORY MANAGEMENT IN ANDROID

The Android Runtime (ART) and Dalvik Virtual Machine(DVM) use paging and
memory-mapping (mmapping) to manage memory. This means that any memory an
app modifies; whether by allocating new objects or touching mmapped pages, they
remains resident in RAM and cannot be paged out. The only way to release memory
from an app is to release object references that the app holds, making the memory
available to the garbage collector. That is with one exception: any files mmapped in
without modification, such as code, can be paged out of RAM if the system wants to
use that memory elsewhere.
3.6.1 Shared Memory

In order to fit everything it needs in RAM, Android tries to share RAM pages across
processes. It can do so in the following ways:
 Each app process is forked froman existing process called Zygote. The Zygote
process starts when the system boots and loads common framework code
and resources (such as activity themes). To start a new app process, the
system forks the Zygote process then loads and runs the app’s code in the
new process. This approach allows most of the RAM pages allocated for
framework code and resources to be shared across all app processes.
 Most static data is mmapped into a process. This technique allows data to be
shared between processes, and also allows it to be paged out when needed.
Example static data include: Dalvik code (by placing it in a pre-
52
linkedd .odex filee for direct mmapping),
m aapp resourcess (by designinng the Case Studyy – Android
resourrce table to be a structure that

t can be m
mmapped and d by aligning the
t zip
entriees of the APK), and tradditional project elementss like nativee code
in .so o files.
 In manny places, Anndroid sharees the same dyynamic RAM M across proccesses
using explicitly allocated sharred memory regions.
r For example, wiindow
surfacces use shareed memory beetween the ap
app and screeen compositoor, and
cursorr buffers use shared
s memoory between thhe content proovider and client.
3..6.2 Typees of Memory

An
ndroid devicees contain thrree different types
ty of mem
mory: RAM, zR
RAM, and sttorage.
Note that both the CPU andd GPU access the same R RAM.
RA
AM
CPU
Storage
GPU zR
RAM
Figure 2: Tyypes of Memorry - RAM, zRA

AM, and Storagge
 RAMM is the fastestt type of mem mory, but is ussually limited

d in size. Higgh-end
devicees typically haave the largesst amounts off RAM.
 zRAMM is a partitionn of RAM ussed for swap sspace. Everythhing is comprressed

when placed
p into zR
RAM, and then decompressed when co opied out of zR
RAM.
This portion
p of RAAM grows orr shrinks in size
s as pages are moved into or
taken out of zRAM M. Device mannufacturers caan set the max
ximum size.
 Storag ge contains all
a of the perrsistent data ssuch as the file
f system annd the
includded object coode for all appps, libraries, and the plattform. Storagge has
much more capacity ty than the othher two types of memory. OnAndroid,
O sttorage
isn’t used
u forswap space
s like it is onother Linuuximplementaations since freequent
writinng can cause wear
w on this memory, andd shorten thee life of the sttorage
mediuum.
3..6.3 Mem
mory Alloccation Among Proceesses
Thhe Android pllatform runs on o the premisse that free meemory is wastted memory. It tries
to use all of thee available meemory at all times.
t For exaample, the syystem keeps aapps in
memory
m after they’ve
t beenn closed so thhe user can quuickly switchh back to them
m. For
thiis reason,Anddroid devices often
o runwith hvery little freeememory. Memory
M managgement
is vital to propeerly allocate memory
m amonng important system proceesses and manny user
appplications.
53
Case Studies 3.6.4 Paging
RAM is broken up into pages. Typically each page is 4KB of memory. Pages are
considered either free or used. Free pages are unused RAM. Used pages are RAM
that the system is actively using, and are grouped into the following categories:
 Cached: Memory backed by a file on storage (for example, code or memory-
mapped files). There are two types of cached memory:
 Private: Owned by one process and not shared.
 Clean: Unmodified copy of a file on storage, can be deleted by kswapd to
increase free memory.
 Dirty: Modified copy of the file on storage; can be moved to, or compressed
in, zRAM by kswapd to increase free memory or allows changes to be
written back to the file in storage to increase free memory by kswapd, or
explicitly using msync() or munmap()or Can be
moved/compressed in zRAM by kswapd to increase free memory
 Shared: Used by multiple processes.
 Anonymous: Memory not backed bya file on storage (for example, allocated
by mmap() with the MAP_ANONYMOUS flag set).
3.6.5 Low Memory Management

Android has two main mechanisms to deal with low memory situations:
 The kernel swap daemon
 Low-memory killer
(i) kernel swap daemon
The kernel swap daemon (kswapd) is part of the Linux kernel, and converts used
memory into free memory. The daemon becomes active when free memory on the
device runs low. The Linux kernel maintains low and high free memory thresholds.
When free memory falls below the low threshold, kswapd starts to reclaim memory.
Once the free memory reaches the high threshold, kswapd stops reclaiming memory.
kswapd can reclaim clean pages by deleting them because they’re backed by storage
and have not been modified. If a process tries to address a clean page that has been
deleted, the system copies the page from storage to RAM. This operation is known
as demand paging.
kswapd can move cached private dirty pages and anonymous dirty pages to zRAM,
where they are compressed. Doing so frees up available memory in RAM (free pages).
54
If a process tries to touch a dirty page in zRAM, the page is uncompressed and moved Case Study – Android
back into RAM. If the process associated with a compressed page is killed, then the
page is deleted fromzRAM. If the amount of free memoryfalls belowacertain threshold,
the system starts killing processes.
(ii) Low-Memory Killer
Many times, kswapd cannot free enough memory for the system. In this case, the
system uses onTrimMemory() to notify an app that memory is running low and that it
should reduce its allocations. If this is not sufficient, the kernel starts killing processes
to free up memory. It uses the low-memory killer (LMK) to do this.
To decide which process to kill, LMK uses an “out of memory” score
called oom_adj_score to prioritize the running processes. Processes with a high score
are killed first. Background apps are first to be killed, and system processes are last to
be killed. The following table lists the LMK scoring categories from high-to-low. Items
in the highest-scoring category, in row one, will be killed first:
These are descriptions for the various categories in the table above:
 Background Apps: Apps that were run previously and are not currently
active. LMK will first kill background apps starting with the one with the
highest oom_adj_score.
 Previous App: The most recently-used background app. The previous app
has higher priority (a lower score) than the background apps because it is
more likely the user will switch to it than one of the background apps.
 Home App: This is the launcher app. Killing this will make the wallpaper
disappear.
 Services: Services are started by applications and may include syncing or
uploading to the cloud.
 Perceptible Apps: Non-foreground apps that are perceptible to the user in
some way, such as running a search process that displays a small UI or listening
to music.
 Foreground App: The app currently being used. Killing the foreground app
looks like an application crash which might indicate to the user that something
is going wrong with the device.
 Persistent (services): These are core services for the device, such as
telephony and wifi.
 System: System processes. As these processes are killed, the phone may
appear to reboot.
 Native: Very low-level processes used by the system (for example, kswapd).
3.6.6 Garbage Collection

Amanaged memory environment, like theART or DVM, keeps track of each memory
allocation. Once it determines that a piece of memory is no longer being used by the
program, it frees it back to the heap, without any intervention from the programmer.
The mechanismfor reclaiming unused memory within a managed memory environment
55
Case Studies is known as garbage collection. Garbage collection has two goals: find data objects
in a program that cannot be accessed in the future; and reclaim the resources used by
those objects.
Android’s memory heap is a generational one, meaning that there are different buckets
of allocations that it tracks, based on the expected life and size of an object being
allocated. For example, recently allocated objects belong in the Young generation.
When an object stays active long enough, it can be promoted to an older generation,
followed bya permanent generation.
3.7 FILE MANAGEMENT IN ANDROID

Android uses different partitions to handle files and folders on the systemlike windows
operating system. Each of these partitions has its own functionality. Mainly, there are
six specific partitions in the file system ofAndroid devices. Each model may have their
own organization for this file system partitioning. But most of the Android Devices
have the following list of partitions logically in common like: /boot, /system, /recovery,
/data, /cache and /misc. The following are two separate partitions for the SD card of
Android Devices /sdcard and /sd-ext.
/boot
 This is the boot partition of your Android device, as the name suggests.
 It includes the android kerneland the ramdisk.
 The device will not boot without this partition.
 Wiping this partition fromrecovery should only be done if absolutely required
and once done, the device must NOT be rebooted before installing a new
one, which can be done by installing a ROM that includes a /boot partition.
/system
 As the name suggests, this partition contains the entire Android OS.
 This includes theAndroid GUI and all the system applications that come pre-
installed on the device.
 Wiping this partition will removeAndroid fromthe device without rendering it
unbootable, and we can still be able to place the phone into recovery or
bootloader mode to install a new ROM.
/recovery
 This is specially designed for backup.
 The recovery partition can be considered as an alternative boot partition, that
lets the device boot into a recovery console for performing advanced recovery
and maintenance operations on it.
/data
 It is called user data partition.
 This partition contains the user’s data like your contacts, sms, settings and all
56 android applications that you have installed.
 While we are doing factory reset on our device, this partition will wipe out, Case Study – Android
then the device will be in the state, when we use for the first time, or the way
it was after the last official or custom ROM installation.
/cache
 This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and app
components.
 Wiping the cache doesn’t affect our personal data but simply gets rid of the
existing data there, which gets automatically rebuilt as we continue using the
device.
/misc
 Thispartition contains miscellaneous systemsettings in formof on/off switches.
 These settings may include CID (Carrier or Region ID), USB configuration
and certain hardware settings etc.
 This is an important partition and if it is corrupt or missing, several of the
device’s features will not function normally.
/sdcard
 This is not a partition on the internal memory of the device but rather the SD
card.
 In terms of usage, this is our storage space to use as you see fit, to store
media, documents, ROMs etc. on it.
 Wiping it is perfectly safe as long as we backup all the data you require from
it, to the computer first.
 Though several user-installed apps save their data and settings on the SD
card and wiping this partition will make we lose all that data.
/sd-ext
 This is not a standard Android partition, but has become popular in the custom
ROM scene.
 It is basically an additional partition on your SD card that acts as the /data
partition.
 It is especially useful on devices with little internal memory allotted to the /
data partition.
 Thus, users who want to install more programs than the internal memory allows
can make this partition and use it for installing their apps.
3.8 SECURITY FEATURES IN ANDROID

Android incorporates industry-leading security features and works with developers
and device implementers to keep the Android platform and ecosystem safe. Arobust
security model is essential to enable a vigorous ecosystem of apps and devices built on
and around theAndroid platform and supported by cloud services. As a result, through
57
Case Studies its entire development lifecycle,Android hasbeen subject to a rigorous security program.
The key components of the Android Security include:
3.8.1 System and kernel security

At the operating systemlevel, theAndroid platform provides the security of the Linux
kernel, as well as a secure inter-process communication (IPC) facility to enable secure
communication between applications running in different processes. These security
features at the OS level ensure that even native code is constrained by the Application
Sandbox. Whether that code is the result of included application behavior or an
exploitation of application vulnerability, the system is designed to prevent the rogue
application from harming other applications, the Android system, or the device itself.
The foundation of theAndroid platform is the Linux kernel. Linux has become a stable
and secure kernel trusted by many corporations and security professionals. As the
base for a mobile computing environment, the Linux kernel provides Android with
several key security features, including:
 A user-based permissions model
 Process isolation
 Extensible mechanism for secure IPC
 The ability to remove unnecessary and potentially insecure parts of the kernel
As a multiuser operating system, a fundamental security objective of the Linux kernel is
to isolate user resources from one another. The Linux security philosophy is to protect
user resources from one another.
3.8.2 Verified boot

Android 6.0 and later supports verified boot and device-mapper-verity. Verified boot
guarantees the integrity of the device software starting from a hardware root of trust up
to the system partition. During boot, each stage cryptographically verifies the integrity
and authenticity of the next stage before executing it. Android 7.0 and later supports
strictly enforced verified boot, which means compromised devices cannot boot.
3.8.3 File System Permissions

In a UNIX-style environment, file-system permissions ensure that one user cannot
alter or read another user’s files. In the case of Android, each application runs as its
own user. Unless the developer explicitlyshares files with other applications, files created
by one application cannot be read or altered by another application.
3.8.4 Platform Security

Android seeks to be the most secure and usable operating systemfor mobile platforms
by repurposing traditional operating system security controls to Protect app and user
data, Protect systemresources (including the network),Provide app isolation from the
system, other apps, and from the user. To achieve these objectives, Android provides
these key security features:
 Robust security at the OS level through the Linux kernel
58  Mandatory app sandbox for all apps

 Secure interprocess communication Case Study – Android
 App signing
 App-defined and user-granted permissions
3.8.5 Program Level Security Features

 Design review: The Android security process begins early in the development
lifecycle with the creation of a rich and configurable security model and design.
Each major feature of the platform is reviewed by engineering and security
resources, with appropriate security controls integrated into the architecture of the
system.
 Penetration testing and code review: During the development of the platform,
Android-created and open source components are subject to vigorous security
reviews. These reviews are performed by the Android Security Team, Google’s
Information Security Engineering team, and independent security consultants. The
goal of these reviews is to identify weaknesses and possible vulnerabilities well
before major releases, and to simulate the types of analysis that are performed by
external security experts upon release.
 Open source and community review: AOSP enables broad security review by
any interested party. Android also uses open source technologies that have
undergone significant external security review, such as the Linux kernel. Google
Play providesa forumfor usersand companies to provide informationabout specific
apps directly to users.
 Incident response: Even with these precautions, security issues may occur after
shipping, which is why theAndroid project has created a comprehensive security
response process. Full-timeAndroid security team members monitor theAndroid-
specific and thegeneralsecurity communityfor discussionofpotentialvulnerabilities
and review security bugs filed on theAndroid bug database. Upon the discovery
of legitimate issues, the Android team has a response process that enables the
rapid mitigation of vulnerabilities to ensure that potential risk to allAndroid users is
minimized. These cloud-supported responses can include updating the Android
platform (AOSP updates), removing apps from Google Play, and removing apps
from devices in the field.
 Monthly security updates: The Android security team provides monthly
updates to GoogleAndroid devices and all our device manufacturing partners.
3.8.6 Cryptography
Android provides a set of cryptographic APIs for use by applications. These include
implementations of standard and commonly used cryptographic primitives such asAES,
RSA, DSA, and SHA. Additionally, APIs are provided for higher level protocols such
as SSL and HTTPS.
3.8.7 User Security Features

This can be categorized into File System Encryption and Password Protection.
(i) File System Encryption
Android 3.0 and later provides full file-system encryption, so all user data can be 59
Case Studies encrypted in the kernel. Android 5.0 and later supports full disk encryption. Full-disk
encryption uses a single key—protected with the user’s device password—to protect
the whole of a device’s user data partition. Upon boot, users must provide their
credentials before any part of the disk is accessible.
Android 7.0 and later supports file-based encryption. File-based encryption allows
different files to be encrypted with different keys that can be unlocked independently.
(ii) Password Protection
Android can be configured to verify a user-supplied password prior to providing access
to a device. In addition to preventing unauthorized use of the device, this password
protects the cryptographic key for full file system encryption. Use of a password and/
or password complexity rules can be required by a device administrator.
3.8.8 Device Security

Android 2.2 and later provide theAndroid DeviceAdministrationAPI, which provides
device administration features at the system level. For example, the built-in Android
Email application uses the APIs to improve Exchange support. Through the Email
application, Exchange administrators can enforce password policies including
alphanumeric passwords or numeric PINs across devices. Administrators can also
remotely wipe (that is, restore factory defaults on) lost or stolen handsets.

1) Mention and explain briefly the main building blocks ofAndroid platform.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Describe the new IPC mechanisms provided by Android.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
3.9 SUMMARY
Android is a powerful open-source operating system which provides a lot of great
features. Its open-source and we can customize the OS based on our requirements. It
supports connectivity for GSM, CDMA, WIFI, NFC, Bluetooth, etc. for telephony
or data transfer. It will allow us to make or receive a calls / SMS messages and we can
send or retrieve data across mobile networks. By using WIFI technology we can pair
with other devices using apps. Android has multiple APIs to support location-based
services such as GPS. We can perform all data storage related activities by using
60 lightweight database SQLite. It has a wide range of media supports like AVI, MKV,
FLV, MPEG4, etc. to play or record a variety of audio/video and having a different Case Study – Android
image format like JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, MP3, etc. . It has extensive support for
multimedia hardware control to perform playback or recording using camera and
microphone. It has an integrated open-source WebKit layout based web browser to
support HTML5, CSS3. It supports a multi-tasking, we can move from one task
windowto another and multiple applications can run simultaneously. It willgive a chance
to reuse the application components and the replacement of native applications. We
can access the hardware components like Camera, GPS, and Accelerometer. It has
support for 2D/3D Graphics.
In thisunit, we have discussedfeaturesofAndroid OS,Architecture, process management,
memory management, file system and security aspects inAndroid operating system.

Check Your Progress 1:
1) The mainAndroid platform building blocks are:
 Device hardware: Android runs on a wide range of hardware configurations
including mobile phones, tablets, watches, automobiles, smart TVs, OTT
gaming boxes, and set-top-boxes. Android is processor-agnostic, but it takes
advantage of some hardware-specific security capabilities such as ARM
eXecute-Never.
 Android operating system: The core operating system is built on top of the
Linux kernel.All device resources, like camera functions, GPS data, Bluetooth
functions, telephony functions, and network connections are accessed through
the operating system.
 Android Application Runtime: Android apps are most often written in the
Java programming language and run in theAndroid runtime (ART). However,
many apps, including core Android services and apps, are native apps or
include native libraries. BothART and native apps run within the same security
environment, contained within theApplication Sandbox.Apps get a dedicated
part of the file system in which they can write private data, including databases
and raw files.
Android apps extend the core Android operating system. There are two
primary sources for apps:
 Preinstalled apps: Android includes a set of preinstalled apps including
phone, email, calendar, web browser, and contacts. These function as user
apps and they provide key device capabilities that can be accessed by other
apps. Preinstalled apps may be part of the open source Android platform, or
they may be developed by a device manufacturer for a specific device.
 User-installed apps: Android provides an open development environment
that supports any third-party app. Google Play offers users hundreds of
thousands of apps.
Processes can communicate using any of the traditional UNIX-type
mechanisms. Examples include the file-system, local sockets, or signals.
However, the Linux permissions still apply. 61
Case Studies 2) Android also provides new IPC mechanisms:
 Binder: Alightweight capability-based remote procedure call mechanism
designed for high performance when performing in-process and cross-process
calls. Binder is implemented using a custom Linux driver.
 Services: Services (discussed above) can provide interfaces directly accessible
using binder.
 Intents:An Intent is a simple message object that represents an “intention” to
do something. For example, if your application wants to display a web page,
it expresses its “Intent” to view the URL by creating an Intent instance and
handing it off to the system. The system locates some other piece of code (in
this case, the Browser) that knows how to handle that Intent, and runs it.
Intents can also be used to broadcast interesting events (such as a notification)
system-wide.
 ContentProviders: AContentProvider is a data storehouse that provides
access to data on the device; the classic example is the ContentProvider that
is used to access the user’s list of contacts. An application can access data
that other applications have exposed via a ContentProvider, and an application
can also define its own ContentProviders to expose data of its own.
While it is possible to implement IPC using other mechanisms such as network sockets
or world-writable files, these are the recommendedAndroid IPC frameworks. Android
developers will be encouraged to use best practices around securing users’ data and
avoiding the introduction of security vulnerabilities.

1. Barry Burd,Android Application DevelopmentAll-in-One for Dummies, Second
Edition, Wiley, 2015.
2. Pradeep Kothari, Android Application Development, Black Book, Kindle
Edition(Dreamtech Press), 2019.
3. Pratiyush Guleria,Android for Beginners: Learn Step-by-Step, BPB Publications,
2018.
4. developer.android.com
62
Case Study – Android
UNIT 4 CASE STUDY - iOS
Structure
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Objectives
4.2 Features of iOS
4.3 Evolution of iOS
4.4 Architecture of iOS
4.5 iOS Kernel Architecture
4.6 Processes and Threads Management
4.6.1 Threading Packages
4.6.2 Threads Alternatives
4.7 Memory Management
4.7.1 Application Memory Management
4.7.3 Page List in Kernel
4.7.4 Page Fault
4.8 File System in iOS
4.8.1 iOS Directories
4.8.2 iCloud Container
4.8.3 Identification of File Type
4.8.4 Security of File System
4.9 Summary
4.0 INTRODUCTION
iPhone operating system (iOS) is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc.
used for apple handheld devices. It is used in devices like- iPhone, iPad and iPod. It is
the second most widely used mobile operating system. It supports features like direct
manipulation and can respond to various types of user gestures. It is proprietary and
closed source and derived from macOS. Software development kit (SDK) is provided
to create applications. It includes interfaces for developing, running and testing
applications. Apps can be written using system frameworks and Objective-C
programming language.
Initial three versions were introduced with the name iPhone OS. From fourth version,
they renamed it to iOS. With each new version, new features and apps were added.
iOS 13 is latest version which was released in 2019. Its major feature is dark mode
and new Map application with street view capability. It also enhanced its previous
apps and features like-Siri, Heath map and others. iOS 14 is about to release in
2020. 63
Case Studies
4.1 OBJECTIVES
 Understand the basic functions of iOS Operating System
 Know the history of iOS operating system
 Understand the process management in iOS and can compare with other OS
 Understand the memory management approaches in iOS
 Understand the File management in iOS
 Understand the security features in iOS
4.2 FEATURES OF IOS

iOS is the operating system for iPhone, iPad and other Apple mobile devices. Based
on Mac OS, the operating system which runs Apple’s line of Mac desktop and laptop
computers, Apple iOS is designed for easy, seamless networking between Apple
products. iOS support extremely good features and some of the common features
are:
 Multitasking – it allows multiple tasks to be executed concurrently. This
feature allows various applications to run in background like notifications,
VoIP, audio, Bluetooth access, app updates and may more.
 SpringBoard – It is used for managing home screen.
 Gesture recognition
 Wifi, Bluetooth and support for VPN
 Access to Apple App store
 Support for integrated search – it allows files to be search simultaneously
 Safari browser
 Front and read camera with videos capturing facility
 Siri – it is an intelligent personal assistant feature which can take voice
queries and can givevoice responses and recommendations, used for setting
reminders etc.
 Game center – it is multiplayer gaming network available online.
 Compatible with iCloud – iCloud is cloud service provided byApple.
 Push email service – Apples’s email server allows mails to be delivered
as they arrive.
 Accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer – these are sensor
interfaces used to listen various events.
 Apple pay – it is payment technology which can store credit card details to
pay for services.
64
 Services like Maps, contacts, web pages, messages, location Case Study – iOS
 Various security features – face ID, pass code, 2 factor authentication.

 HomePod – it can identify family members by voice and can handoff calls ,
music etc on other devices.
 HomeKit – it is home automation controlling system.
 CarPlay – this allows interacting with iOS during drive. Also allows access
tom phone apps.
Apple keeps making iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 even better by adding valuable new
capabilities and features. Most recently, Apple released iOS 14.4, adding a new
workout to Fitness Plus for Apple Watch owners. It also added a new Unity watch
face in February to celebrate Black History Month. The update also included a series
of security fixes for vulnerabilities that were actively being exploited.
iOS 14.4 follows the addition of Apple ProRaw photos to the iPhone 12 Pro and 12
Pro Max. Those new features join an already impressive list of capabilities that Apple
brought to its mobile devices with the release of iOS 14 in September. iOS 14.5 is
currently available in beta and is shaping up to be a significant update for iPhone
owners.
4.3 EVOLUTION OF IOS

iOS was first introduced with iPhone in Jan 2007 and released in June 2007. At first
introduction Steve Jobs claimed it to be running OS X and running desktop class
application but during release introduced it with the name “iPhone OS”. Initially, there
was no support for third party applications. In March 2008,Apple announced software
development kit for iPhone. In July 2008, iOS app store opened with 500 applications
which increased to 3000 in Sept 2008 and after successive growth through the years
increased to 2.2 million in 2017. It is also estimated to reach 5 million by 2020. iOS
has seen a lot of changes since its inception. Following are the important milestones in
iOS:
 iOS was first introduced with iPhone in jan 2007 and released in june 2007.
 Apple’s iOS first SDK was released on March 6, 2008.
 The initial release was named iPhone OS which was later changed to iOS on
June 7, 2010.
 iPhone OS 1 was released on March 6, 2008, and is the first version of the
popular operating system. The support for iPhone OS 1 ended after two
years, i.e., 2010.
 iPhone OS 2, as the name suggest, is the 2nd big release for the iOS. The
release was done in conjunction with iPhone 3G, and anyone with the previous
version can easily upgrade to the latest version. Also, this version introduced
the App store, which becomes the hub for installing new apps. New SDK
was also released for developers with support ending in 2011.
 The third big release was Apple iOS 3. It came into existence in June 2009
with support ending in late 2012. New features such as copy, paste, etc. are
added to the OS. 65
Case Studies The next version is iOS 4 and is released on June 21, 2010. Clearly, this is
one of the big releases for iOS as it dropped old device support instead of
supporting the latest devices with multitasking features.
 iOS 5 was released on June 6, 2001. It brought support for iPad Touch (3rd
generation) and iPad (1st generation).
 iOS 6 went live on September 19, 2012, for the 4th generationApple devices.
 iOS 7 was released for public on September 18, 2013. It supported two new
phones by Apple, the Apple iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
 Just like the old release, iOS 8 released for public on September 9, 2014, with
support for their best phone devices, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They
dropped support for older devices.
 iOS 9 was made public on September 16, 2015. Apple changed how they
support legacy hardware and iOS 9 became the first Apple OS that supported 22
devices.
 iOS 10 was announced on June 13, 2016 at WWDC(Worldwide Developers
Conference event and was released to public in September, 2016 along with
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus.
 iOS 11 was made public on September, 2017 along with iPhoen 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
It has dropped 32-bit applications making iOS 11 as a 64-bit OS that only runs 64-
bit apps.
 iOS 12 was made public on September 2018 along with iPhone XS, iPhone XS
Max, iPhone XR.
 Apple announced iOS 13 and made public on September, 2019. The principal
features include Dark Mode and Memoji support. The NFC(Near Field
Communication) framework supports reading several types of contactless
smartcards and tags.
 Apple released iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 on 9th July 2020. All devices that
support iOS 13 also support iOS 14. Some new features includes widgets that be
now be placed directly on the home-screen, along with theApp library which
automatically categorizes apps into one page, Picture in Picture, Car- key
technology to unlock and start a car with NFC. It also allow the user to have
incoming calls shown in banners rather than taking up the whole screen. As on date
(March, 2021) 14.1 is available in beta 3 version.
4.4 ARCHITECTURE OF IOS

iOS architecture is written in Objective-C language and comprised of four
layers(layered architecture). It consists of a stack of four layers – Core OS, Core
services, media layer, and Cocoa Touch as shown in Figure 1. Apps installed on
system communicate with the iOS which in turn communicates with the hardware.
Bottom level layers in the iOS stack are responsible for basic services while the
upper layers are responsible for providing interface and graphics designing.
Apple provides system interfaces called Frameworks which is a package that stores
66 dynamic shared libraries. It contains various resources like – header files, supported
ap
pps, images. Each
E layer of iOS
i contains different set oof frameworkks that can be used Case Study – iOS
to developers to
t design apps.
Fig 1. iOS Layyered Architectture
Leet us learn moore about the layered

l archiitecture show
wn in the abovve figure.
4..4.1 Coree OS
It is the lowest layer
l in the iO
OS architecturre hence respoonsible for prroviding basicc low
levvel features. The
T framewoorks present inn this layer aree:
 Securiity services frramework
 Autheentication fraamework
 Bluetoooth framewo
ork
 Externnal accessory
y framework
 Accelerate framew
work
4..4.2 Coree Services

It is the layer at the top of corre Os layer. Th
he various fraameworks avaailable at this layer
aree:
 Core data
d Framew
work - It is ussed for manaaging Modell View Contrroller
(MVCC) app.
 Core Foundation
F framework
fr - Itt gives interfacces used to maanage data,
servicees and featurres.
 Addreess book fram
mework - Useed for accessiing user’s con
ntacts databaase.
 Cloudd Kit framewoork -Allows movement
m off data betweenn apps and iCloud.
 Core Location
L fram
mework - Useed to give locaation and heaading informaation
to appps.
 Core Motion Fraamework - Used U to acccess motion based data and
acceleerometer baseed informationn.
 Healthhkit framework - Used to handle
h health oriented info
ormation of usser
 Homeekit frameworrk - Used to connect
c and control
c user’ss home devicees.
 Sociall framework - Used to hanndle social meedia accountss of user.
 StoreK
Kit frameworrk - Used to provides
p In -App Purchasse. 67
Case Studies 4.4.3 Media Layer
This is the third layer from the bottom. It is used for providing audio, video and
graphics features.
Audio Frameworks
 Media Player Framework - It is used to handle user’s playlist.
 AV Foundation - It is used for recording and playback of audio and video.
 OpenAL- It is standard technology for providing audio. Video Frameworks
 AV Kit - This interface is used for video presentation.
 AV Foundation - It gives advanced video recording and playback capability.
 Core Media - It is used to describe low level data types and interfaces for
operating media.
Graphics Frameworks
 Core Graphics framework - It is used for custom 2D vector and image based
rendering.
 Core Animation - It is used for adding animation in apps.
 Core Images - It is used for gives for controlling video and images
 UIKit Graphics - It is used for designing images and animating content of
views.
 OpenGl ES and GLKit - It is used for managing2D and 3D rendering.
4.4.4 Cocoa touch layer

It is the top most layer in iOS architecture. It is used for providing interactive interfaces
to user. The various frameworks present in this layer are:
 UIKit Framework – It is used for designing graphical, event-driven apps.
 EventKit framework - It is used for providing system interfaces for viewing
and altering calendar related events
 GameKit Framework - It allows users to share game related information
online.
 MapKit Framework - It allows maps to be included in user interface.
 PushKitFramework- It provides support for VoIP apps.
 Twitter Framework - It allows access to Twitter service.
4.5 IOS KERNEL ARCHITECTURE

iOS kernel is XNU kernel of Darwin. Initially it was used only for MacOS and later
introduced as free and open source part of Darwin operating system. It is a hybrid
68 kernel which supports both monolithic and microkernel.
Case S
Study – iOS
Fig
F 2: XNU keernel Architectture
(Source: deveeloper.apple.coom)
Th he foundatioon layer of Darwin

D and OS
O X is commposed of sevveral architeectural
coomponents, ass shown in Fiigure 2. Thesse componennts form the kernel
k environnment.
Inn OS X, howeever, the kerneel environmeent contains much
m more thaan the Mach kernel
itsself. The OS X kernel enviironment inclludes the Macch kernel, BS SD, the I/O K
Kit, file
syystems, and networking co omponents. These
T are ofteen referred to
o collectively as the
keernel. Each of these compponents is desscribed brieflly in the follo
owing sectionns. For
fuurther details,, refer to the specific
s com
mponent chaptters or to the reference maaterial
lissted in the biblliography.
Beecause OS X contains threee basic compponents (Macch, BSD, andd the I/O Kit), there
arre also frequeently as manyy as three APIs for certainn key operatioons. In generral, the
AP PI chosen shoould match thhe part of the kernel
k wheree it is being ussed, which in turn is
dictated by whaat your code is attempting tot do. The rem mainder of thiis chapter desscribes
Mach,
M BSD, an nd the I/O Kiit and outlinees the functioonality that is provided byy those
coomponents.
Mach
M
Mach
M managees processorr resources such
s as CPU U usage and memory, haandles
sccheduling, prrovides mem mory protection, and prrovides a messaging-cen
m ntered
inffrastructure tot the rest of
o the operaating-system layers. The Mach compponent
prrovides untypped interproceess communiication (IPC),, remote proccedure calls (RRPC),
sccheduler sup pport for symmmetric mulltiprocessing (SMP), sup pport for reaal-time
seervices, virtuaal memory suupport, suppoort for pagers and modularr architecture.
BS
SD
Ab bove the Macch layer, the BSD
B layer prrovides “OS ppersonality” APIs and serrvices.
Thhe BSD layerr is based on the
t BSD kern nel, primarily FreeBSD. Th he BSD compponent
prrovides file sy
ystems, networrking (except for the hardw
ware device lev
vel), UNIX seecurity
model,
m syscall support, the BSD processs model, inclluding proceess IDs and siignals,
FrreeBSD kerneelAPIs, manyy of the POSIIX APIs, kernnel support for pthreads (P POSIX
thrreads).
Neetworking
OS X networkking takes addvantage of BSD’s
B advannced networkking capabilitties to
prrovide suppoort for modernn features, suuch as Netwoork Address Translation (NAT)
(
an
nd firewalls. The
T networkinng componennt provides 4.4BSD TCP//IP stack and ssocket
APIs, support for both IP and
a DDP (ApppleTalk trannsport), multiihoming, rouuting,
69
Case Studies multicast support, server tuning, packet filtering, Mac OS Classic support (through
filters).
File Systems
OS X provides support for numerous types of file systems, including HFS, HFS+,
UFS, NFS, ISO 9660, and others. The default file-system type is HFS+; OS X boots
(and “roots”) from HFS+, UFS, ISO, NFS, and UDF. Advanced features of OS X
file systems include an enhanced Virtual File System (VFS) design. VFS provides for
a layered architecture (file systems are stackable). The file system component provides
UTF-8 (Unicode) support and increased performance over previous versions of Mac
OS.
I/O Toolkit
The I/O Kit component provides true plug and play, dynamic device management,
dynamic (on-demand) loading of drivers, power management for desktop systems as
well as portables and multiprocessor capabilities.
4.6 PROCESSES AND THREADS MANAGEMENT

Every process in an application is created using one or more threads.Athread represents
single path of execution. Execution of a process starts with a single thread and can later
spawn multiple threads, where each thread performs a specific task.
All threads of a single process have same access rights and also shares same address
space (virtual memory). They can also communicate with each other and other
processes. Every thread has its own stack of execution and scheduled for execution
by kernel separately.IOS has the capability to execute multiple programs parallel but
most of the execution is done in background and does not require continuous
processing. The application that runs in foreground keeps the processor and other
resources busy.
4.6.1 Threading Packages

Applications may require creation of threads. IOS supports thread management and
synchronization along with other new technologies. The technologies used to manage
thread in iOS can be POSIX threads or Cocoa threads.
POSIX threads are based on C language. This must be used when application needs
to be designed for multiple platforms. Here threads are managed using pthread library.
Communication between threads can be done using ports, shared memory or
conditions. For Cocoa applications, threads are created using NSThread class. It
allows detached thread to be created. Detached thread is the one in which system
automatically reclaims thread’s resources when it terminates.
4.6.2 Threads Alternatives

Threads are lowlevel doing concurrencyand managingsynchronization becomesdifficult
for application development. Also the use of thread adds processor and memory
overheads. iOS henceoffersalternatives to thread programming. Execution of concurrent
tasks or processes on iOS is managed by asynchronous designing approach like
traditional thread approach. Applications should only define specific tasks instead of
creating threads as threads are low level and should leave it to system. Threads when
70
managed by system, gives scalability to applications. The various techniques provided Case Study – iOS
by iOS to manage tasks asynchronously are:
 Grand Central Dispatch (GCD)
In this approach user only defines the task to be done and add it to the
appropriate dispatch queue. GCD then creates threads as needed and
schedules them. Since in this approach thread management and execution
is done by system, it is more efficient than traditional threads approach.
 Operation Queues
They are similar to dispatch queue and are object-C objects. User defines
the task to execute and add it to operation queue. Scheduling and execution
is then done by operation queue.
Dispatch queues: Dispatch queue are used for execution of customized tasks. It
executes the task serially or concurrently in first-in first-out order. Serial dispatcher
waits for the task to complete before de-queuing, whereas concurrent dispatcher does
not wait for the tasks to finish before starting new tasks.
Operation Queues: In operation queues the order of execution of task is dependent
upon many factors. One such factor is the dependence of one task on the completion
of another task. User when defining a task should also configure dependency.
The various advantages of using dispatch and operation queues in place of threads
offer various advantages:
1. No need to store thread stack hence reduces memory requirements
2. User need not to configure and manage threads.
3. User need not to schedule threads.
4. It is easy to write code as compared to threads.
4.7 MEMORYMANAGEMENT
For effective and efficient utilization of memory, memory management is required by
the iOS. Resource needs to be free up when they are not required. In iOS memory
used by applications is managed by maintaining the life cycle of objects and freeing
them when not required. To identify that an object is no more required; its object graph
is created. The group of objects that are related to each other forms object graph. In
this, objects can be related by the direct reference or indirect reference.
4.7.1 Application Memory Management

Applications memory management can be done by Object - C by two methods:
i. Manual Retain Release – In this method user can themselves manage
memory by keeping track of objects created by them. This is
implemented using Reference Count Model. (for versions till iOS-5)
ii. Automatic Reference Counting – In this feature, provided by compiler, system
uses Reference counting model by calling methods for user at compile time.
(for new versions) 71
Case Studies
Fig
g3: Difference between
b Autom matic and Man nual Reference Counting
(Source: devveloper.apple.ccom)
Memory
M management usinng Reference counting is based b on Ownnership of object. An
object
o can be owned by one or many owners.o Thee object contiinues to existt till the
tiime it has atleeast one owneer. The objectt is destroyed automaticallyy at runtime iff has no
owner.
o Hencee, ownership is the ability of causing obbject to be destroyed.
a.
a Referencce Count Model
Memory
M is maanaged by maaintaining lifefe cycle of an object. Whenn the objects are not
needed,
n it shoould be de-allocated. Whhen an object is created or o copied, itss retain
count
c is set to 1.
1 This retainn count can inccreasewith tim
me if ownership
p interest is exxpressed
by
b other objeccts. The retainn count can alsoa be decrem mented if objjects relinquish their
in
nterest of owwnership. The object will be maintainedd in memory tiill it’s retain countc is
not
n zero. The object will bee deallocatedd once it’s retaain count reaches zero.
Fig
F 4: Reference Counting Model
M (Source: developer.applle.com)
b.
b Automattic Reference Counting
Automatic
A refference countting is a comppiler provideed feature thatt manages meemory
automatically
a of
o Object-C oobjects. Auto omatic referennce counting is
i an ownersship
72 syystem which provides connvention for management
m and transferr of ownershiip. It
the object’s lifetime requirements and user need not to remember about retain and Case Study – iOS
releases. It allows object to be pointed by two types of references- strong and week.
An object which is strongly referenced will be preserved and never deleted. The objects
having back reference is called weak reference and can be de-allocated (destroyed).
When no strong reference to objects is left, the object automatically becomes nil.
Hence weak reference does not increase life time of objects. This model also imposes
some restricts to prevent memory faults or issues.

Virtual memory overcomes the limitation of physical memory. For each process a
logical address space is created by dividing the memory into pages. Apage table is
maintained by Memory management units to map logical address to physical address.
Logical address is provided to each process but if application wants to access a page
with no physical address, page fault will occur. Virtual memory systemis then responsible
for invoking a special programcalled page fault handler. The pagefault handler suspends
the currently executing process, identifies free memory location and load the required
page fromthe disk. The corresponding page table entry is then updated and can be used
by returning control to the suspended process. This process of loading the page from
disk is called Paging. There is no backing store in iOS hence pages cannot be moved
out from primary memory ( page write) hence, if no free space is available in primary
memory than read only pages can be removed from memory which can be later loaded.
Page size in older versions of iOS is 4KB. While the newer version A9 supports
16KB pages.
Efficient use of memory is important for high performance of system. Reducing the
amount of memory usage decreases memory footprint of applications and also reduces
processor consumption. Afully integrated virtual memory is included with IOS which
is always on. For 32- bit system it can provide upto 4 GB addressable space.
Data present on the disk (code pages) which is read only, can be removed from the
primary memory and can later be loaded from the disk when needed, whereas, the
iOS does not remove the writable data from memory. If the free memory reduces
below a certain threshold, the running applications are asked to free up memory to
make room for new applications or data voluntarily.
4.7.3 Page List in Kernel

Kernel maintains three lists of physical memory pages:
i. Active list - this list contains pages which are recently accessed
ii. Inactive list - this list contains pages which are not recently accessed but still
present in physical memory.
iii. Free list - this list contains pages which are not currently allocated and is
available for use by processes.
The pages that are not accessed are moved from active to inactive list by kernel. Also
when the free memory reduces below a threshold, the pages that at unmodified and
inactive are flushed by kernel and running applications are asked to free up memory by
sending themlow memory notification.Applications uponreceiving notification remove
strong references to as many objects as possible.
73
Case Studies 4
4.7.4 Page Fault
Itt is the process of loadingg the page intoo primary mem mory when needed
n by a process.
p
This
T process is i required as a result of paage fault. Thee two types off fault that cann occur
are:
a
i. Soft fault - when the desired page p is not m
mapped to thhe address space of
proceess but it is prresent in physsical memory..
ii. Hardd fault - when the desired page
p is not preesent in the ph
hysical memoory.
Whenever
W paage fault occuurs, kernel fiinds the VM M object for accessed
a regiion and
checks
c the resident list of VM
V object. Iff the required ppage is foundd in resident liist, then
soft fault is gennerated otherw
wise hard fauult is generatedd. For handlinng soft fault, physical
p
memory
m of paage is mappedd to the virtuaal memory annd the page is marked as acctive by
kernel.
k For haandling hardd fault, pagerr of VM objeect finds the page p from diisk and
updates
u its maap entry. The ppage after loaading in primaary memory is i marked as active.
a
4.8
4 FILE
E MANAG
GEMEN
NT SYSTE
EM
Storage
S of datta, files, applications, opeerating system
m files is mannaged by file system.
s
The
T default fiile system useed in iOS is APFS
A for verrsions after iO
OS 10.3. Befo
fore this
HFS+
H was deffault file systtem. In iOS user cannot acccess file systtem directly but
b they
can
c access it using
u applicatiions.
4.8.1
4 iOS Directoriies
Applications
A c interact with
can w file systeem only its saandbox directtory. When thhe apps
are
a installed, various
v contaainer directorries are creatted in its sanddbox directoryy. Here
every
e containner is created for a specificc role. There aare two main n containers ––bundle
container
c and data containeer. Data contaainer is furtheer divided into o subdirectoriies used
too organize appp’s data. Inn addition to theses contaainers, apps can c also requuest for
additional
a conntainers exampple iCloud coontainer.
F
Fig5: Sandbox directory of iOOSApp
74 (Source: devveloper.apple.com)
Files outside these containers are generally restricted for use by applications. Use of Case Study – iOS
public system interfaces like contacts and music is exception to this rule.System
framework in this case uses helper apps to perform file operations by modifying or
reading from appropriate data storage locations.
Some of the commonly used directories in iOS sandbox are –
(i) Appname.app
This directory is created during app’s installation. It contains the app’s
executable data and resources. User should not write to this directory because
app may not launch due to change in signature. However, user can get read
only access to app’s bundle data.
(ii) Documents/
Data generated by user is stored in this directory. Files present in this directory
can be accessed by user using file sharing. This directory is also backed up by
iCloud and iTune.
(iii) Documents/Inbox
It is a subdirectory within Documents which is required by apps to open files
asked by outside entities. Apps can read and delete data from this directory
but cannot modify and create new files. Generally email attachments related
to apps are placed in this directory by mail program. This directory is also
backed up by iCloud and iTune.
(iv) Library/
This subdirectory is used to store data which is not required to be exposed to
user. It contains applications support, preferences and cache subdirectories
for iOS apps. Custom subdirectories can also be created by user but should
not be used for user data.This directory is placed in data bundle. Except
cache all the contents of this directory are also backed up.
(v) tmp/
This directory is used to store temporary file i.e. files that are not needed to
persist. These file must be deleted by the apps when they are not needed.
When apps arenot running, systemmaydelete thesesfiles. Datain this directory
is not backed up.
For proper organization of files, additional subdirectories can be created within
Documents, tmp and Library by iOS apps.
4.8.2 iCloud Container

iCloud service allows user to store their documents, photos, files, etc. to be stored in
cloud. Users when require can download these from their devices or share with other
users. iOS allows users data be automatically backed up in cloud through this service.
This feature is available in iOS 7 onwards.iCloud container is used to store files for
apps that use iCloud. Files and folders can be created by apps in the same way as
local file folders are created. Files and their attributes are copied to iCloud. Primary
iCloud container of apps stores native files. Within each container two subdirectories –
documents and data is present. Files present within document subdirectory are visible 75
Case Studies to user as separate document which can be individually deleted. Whereas files not
within document subdirectory is displayed as single entity in iCloud user interface called
data.
4.8.3 Identification of File Type

To identify the type of file, two techniques are used in iOS-
(i) UTIs - Uniform Type Identifier: UTIs is a string that identifies class entitities
uniquely. For all types of data and service it provides consistent identifiers. Not
only files but they can also represent folders or directories in a flexible manner.
They are used for identifying types of pasteboard. Some of the examples are:
 Public.jpeg - it represents a public type UTI identifying jpeg image data.
 com.apple.bundle - it represents anApple type identifying bundle directory.
 com.apple.application-bundle - it represents anApple type identifying bundled
app.
(ii) Filename extension : It is a character string following filename and a period (.).
Each extension represents a specific type of file. For example filename with .png
represents an image file. Also period is a valid character for filename, hence only
the string after last period is considered as extension to identify type.
4.8.4 Security of File System

(a) Sandbox environment
Applications during installation are automatically placed in a sandbox environment
in iOS. Sandbox does not allows apps to write data into locations to which user
should not write to. Every sandbox is created with few containers to which user
can write. One app cannot write to containers of other apps or most directories
outside their sandbox. Hence security of apps and data is maintained by restricting
the access.
(b) File Access Control
File access control in iOS is maintained by two techniques – ACL& BSD. System
assigns ACL and BSD permission to files created by apps.
i. Access Control List
a. Access control list is a list of control details which gives complete
information of what operations can or cannot be done to a directory or
file and by which users. Hence it allows different level of access writes to
different user.
ii. BSD
a. In BSD instead of giving access writes to individual users, it allows access
to be given on the basis of class of users. There exist three classes of
users – owner of data or file, group of user, all other users.
(c) Encryption
iOS allows files on disk to be encrypted. Files that are needed to be encrypted
76 can be designated by apps. When a device containing encrypted data is unlocked
by user, a decryption key is generated by system to enable access to file. Whereas, Case Study – iOS
when user locks the device, to prevent unauthorized access, the decryption key is
destroyed by the system.

1) Describe the important features of iOS 14.4 version.
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
2) Describe the features of watchOS 7.3.

........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4.9 SUMMARY
In this unit we had studied iOS operating system. iOS is a mobile operating system
developed byApple Inc for iPhone.Adescription of howprocess management, memory
management, file management, security in iOS is discussed in this unit. Along with
various functions of the iOS operating system, its evolution, architecture, and other
features were described.
In this course we had studied Operating Systems in general and 4 case studies.

1. Apple has released iOS 14.4 for compatible iPhone and iPod touch models. The
new iOS update brings an updated Camera app that carries support for smaller
QR codes. The latest software also introduces the option to classify Bluetooth
devices in Settings and includes a few bug fixes. There are also patches for three
vulnerabilities that might have been actively exploited.Apple iPad users have also
received iPadOS 14.4 with a similar list of changes that is available for the iPhone
users. Separately, Apple has released the HomePod software version 14.4 that
brings the anticipated ultra-wideband (UWB) handoff feature specifically to the
HomePod mini. The company has also rolled out watchOS 7.3 with the Apple
Watch Unity watch face and tvOS 14.4 with security fixes and general stability
improvements.
The iOS 14.4 and iPadOS 14.4 updates bring a list of improvements to the
compatible iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad models. One of those improvements is
smaller QR codes support for the Camera app. This will enhance the existing QR
77
Case Studies code recognition functionality of the default app. The latest software updates also
include the option to classify Bluetooth device type in Settings to let users identify
whether headphones or the built-in speaker will be used for audio notifications.
2. In January 2021, Apple has released watchOS 7.3 that brings the Unity watch
face. The update also brings Time to Walk for Apple Fitness+ subscribers and
expands the ECG app for the Apple Watch Series 4 and later to Japan, Mayotte,
Philippines, and Thailand. The eligible Apple Watch users in Japan, Mayotte,
Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand will also get irregular heart rhythmnotifications
through the latest watchOS update. Furthermore, watchOS 7.3 fixes the issue
that made the Control Centre and Notification Centre unresponsive when Zoom
is enabled. The watchOS 7.3 update also patches the vulnerability tracked under
CVE-2021-1782 that could be exploited by a bad actor.

1. John Ray, iOS 9 Application Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself,
2019.
2. Jesse Feiler, iOS App Development for Dummies, Wiley, 2014
3. Matt Neuburg, iOS 13 Programming Fundamentals with Swift, 2019.
4. Rajiv Ramnath, Beginnning iOS Programming for Dummies, Wiley, 2014.
5. https://developer.apple.com/
78

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MCS-203

E M ORY MENT TRO N

BLOCK PREPARATION TEAM

Course Coordinator: Prof. V. V. Subrahmanyam

1.3 WHAT IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM?

Figure 1: Abstract View of the Components of a Computer System

1.4 GOALS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM

1.5 GENERATIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

1.4.1 0th Generation

1.4.2 First Generation (1951-1956)

1.4.3 Second Generation (1956-1964)

1.4.4 Third Generation (1964-1979)

1.4.5 Fourth Generation (1979 – Present)

1.5 TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

1.5.1 Batch Processing Operating System

1.5.2 Time Sharing

1.5.3 Real Time Operating System (RTOS)

A number of other definitions are important to gain an understanding of operating

1.5.4 Multiprogramming Operating System

1.5.5 Multiprocessing System

1.5.7 Distributed Operating System

1.5.8 Operating Systems for Embedded Devices

1.6 DESIRABLE QUALITIES OF OS

2) Summarise the characteristics of the following operating systems:

1.8.1 Process Management

1.8.2 Memory Management

1.8.3 Secondary Storage Management

 Free space management

1.8.4 I/O Management

A file is a collection of related information defined by its creator. Commonly, files

 The creation and deletion of files.

 The mapping of files onto disk storage.

1.8.8 Command Interpretation

Figure 2: Functions Coordinated by the Operating System 25

2) What is a Multitasking system and mention its advantages.

3) Illustrate a simple operating system for a security control system.

1.11 FURTHER READINGS

2.3 THE CONCEPT OF PROCESS

 The “dispatchable” unit

2.2.1 Implicit and Explicit Tasking

In the concurrent environment basically processes have two relationships, competition

2.2.3 Process States

Figure 1: Typical process states

As shown in Figure 1, four transitions are possible among the states.

The process model, an integral part of an operating system, can be summarized as

Figure 2: Process Control Block Structure

Figure 3: Process switching between two processes

2.2.5 Process Hierarchy

Figure 4: Process hierarchy

Why use threads?

designated process is suspended indefinitely and placed in the suspend state. A

2.4 PROCESS SCHEDULING

2.4.1 Scheduling Objectives

2.4.2 Types of Schedulers

2.4.3 Scheduling Criteria

2.5 SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS