Operating System Structures (Unit 2)

Operating System - Services

An Operating System provides services to both the users and to the programs.

 It provides programs an environment to execute.

 It provides users the services to execute the programs in a convenient manner.
Following are a few common services provided by an operating system −

 Program execution
 I/O operations
 File System manipulation
 Communication
 Error Detection
 Resource Allocation
 Protection

Program execution
Operating systems handle many kinds of activities from user programs to system
programs like printer spooler, name servers, file server, etc. Each of these activities
is encapsulated as a process.
A process includes the complete execution context (code to execute, data to
manipulate, registers, OS resources in use). Following are the major activities of an
operating system with respect to program management −

 Loads a program into memory.

 Executes the program.
 Handles program's execution.
 Provides a mechanism for process synchronization.
 Provides a mechanism for process communication.
 Provides a mechanism for deadlock handling.

I/O Operation
An I/O subsystem comprises of I/O devices and their corresponding driver software.
Drivers hide the peculiarities of specific hardware devices from the users.
An Operating System manages the communication between user and device
drivers.

 I/O operation means read or write operation with any file or any specific I/O device.
 Operating system provides the access to the required I/O device when required.

File system manipulation

A file represents a collection of related information. Computers can store files on the
disk (secondary storage), for long-term storage purpose. Examples of storage
media include magnetic tape, magnetic disk and optical disk drives like CD, DVD.
Each of these media has its own properties like speed, capacity, data transfer rate
and data access methods.
A file system is normally organized into directories for easy navigation and usage.
These directories may contain files and other directions. Following are the major
activities of an operating system with respect to file management −

 Program needs to read a file or write a file.

 The operating system gives the permission to the program for operation on file.
 Permission varies from read-only, read-write, denied and so on.
 Operating System provides an interface to the user to create/delete files.
 Operating System provides an interface to the user to create/delete directories.
 Operating System provides an interface to create the backup of file system.

Communication
In case of distributed systems which are a collection of processors that do not share
memory, peripheral devices, or a clock, the operating system manages
communications between all the processes. Multiple processes communicate with
one another through communication lines in the network.
The OS handles routing and connection strategies, and the problems of contention
and security. Following are the major activities of an operating system with respect
to communication −

 Two processes often require data to be transferred between them

 Both the processes can be on one computer or on different computers, but are
connected through a computer network.
 Communication may be implemented by two methods, either by Shared Memory or
by Message Passing.

Error handling
Errors can occur anytime and anywhere. An error may occur in CPU, in I/O devices
or in the memory hardware. Following are the major activities of an operating
system with respect to error handling −

 The OS constantly checks for possible errors.

 The OS takes an appropriate action to ensure correct and consistent computing.

Resource Management
In case of multi-user or multi-tasking environment, resources such as main memory,
CPU cycles and files storage are to be allocated to each user or job. Following are
the major activities of an operating system with respect to resource management −

 The OS manages all kinds of resources using schedulers.

 CPU scheduling algorithms are used for better utilization of CPU.

Protection
Considering a computer system having multiple users and concurrent execution of
multiple processes, the various processes must be protected from each other's
activities.
Protection refers to a mechanism or a way to control the access of programs,
processes, or users to the resources defined by a computer system. Following are
the major activities of an operating system with respect to protection −

 The OS ensures that all access to system resources is controlled.

 The OS ensures that external I/O devices are protected from invalid access attempts.
 The OS provides authentication features for each user by means of passwords.

Different approaches or Structures of Operating

Systems
Operating system can be implemented with the help of various structures. The
structure of the OS depends mainly on how the various common components of the
operating system are interconnected and melded into the kernel. Depending on this
we have following structures of the operating system:
Simple structure:
Such operating systems do not have well defined structure and are small, simple and
limited systems. The interfaces and levels of functionality are not well separated.
MS-DOS is an example of such operating system. In MS-DOS application programs
are able to access the basic I/O routines. These types of operating system cause the
entire system to crash if one of the user programs fails.
Diagram of the structure of MS-DOS is shown below.

Monolithic System Architecture

The entire operating system works in the kernel space in the monolithic system. This
increases the size of the kernel as well as the operating system. This is different than
the microkernel system where the minimum software that is required to correctly
implement an operating system is kept in the kernel.
A diagram that demonstrates the architecture of a monolithic system is as follows −

The kernel provides various services such as memory management, file

management, process scheduling etc. using function calls. This makes the execution
of the operating system quite fast as the services are implemented under the same
address space.

Differences Between Microkernel and Monolithic Kernel

Some of the differences between microkernel and monolithic kernel are given as
follows −

 The microkernel is much smaller in size as compared to the monolithic kernel.

 The microkernel is easily extensible whereas this is quite complicated for the
monolithic kernel.
 The execution of the microkernel is slower as compared to the monolithic kernel.
 Much more code is required to write a microkernel than the monolithic kernel.
 Examples of Microkernel are QNX, Symbian, L4 Linux etc. Monolithic Kernel
examples are Linux, BSD etc.
Advantages of Monolithic Kernel
Some of the advantages of monolithic kernel are −
  The execution of the monolithic kernel is quite fast as the services such as memory
management, file management, process scheduling etc. are implemented under the
same address space.
 A process runs completely in a single address space in the monolithic kernel.
 The monolithic kernel is a static single binary file.
Disadvantages of Monolithic Kernel
Some of the disadvantages of monolithic kernel are −

 If any service fails in the monolithic kernel, it leads to the failure of the entire system.
 To add any new service, the entire operating system needs to be modified by the
user.
Layered structure:
An OS can be broken into pieces and retain much more control on system. In this
structure the OS is broken into number of layers (levels). The bottom layer (layer 0)
is the hardware and the topmost layer (layer N) is the user interface. These layers
are so designed that each layer uses the functions of the lower level layers only. This
simplifies the debugging process as if lower level layers are debugged and an error
occurs during debugging then the error must be on that layer only as the lower level
layers have already been debugged.
 The main disadvantage of this structure is that at each layer, the data needs
to be modified and passed on which adds overhead to the system. Moreover
careful planning of the layers is necessary as a layer can use only lower level
layers. UNIX is an example of this structure.

Micro-kernel:
This structure designs the operating system by removing all non-essential
components from the kernel and implementing them as system and user programs.
This result in a smaller kernel called the micro-kernel.
Advantages of this structure are that all new services need to be added to user
space and does not require the kernel to be modified. Thus, it is more secure and
reliable as if a service fails then rest of the operating system remains untouched. The
communication between client program/application and services running in user address
space is established through message passing, reducing the speed of execution
microkernel. Mac OS is an example of this type of OS.

Modular structure or approach:

It is considered as the best approach for an OS. It involves designing of a modular
kernel. The kernel has only set of core components and other services are added as
dynamically loadable modules to the kernel either during run time or boot time. It
resembles layered structure due to the fact that each kernel has defined and
protected interfaces but it is more flexible than the layered structure as a module can
call any other module.
For example Solaris OS is organized as shown in the figure.