System Structure of Os
System Structure of Os
The operating system is a component of every segment. The strategy for integrating
different operating system components within the kernel can be thought of as an operating
system structure. As will be discussed below, various types of structures are used to
implement operating systems.
1. Simple/Monolithic structure
Such operating systems do not have well-defined structures and are small, simple, and
limited. The interfaces and levels of functionality are not well separated. MS-DOS is an
example of such an operating system. In MS-DOS, application programs are able to access
the basic I/O routines. These types of operating systems cause the entire system to crash if
one of the user programs fails.
A diagram of the structure of MS-DOS is shown below.
This structure designs the operating system by removing all non-essential components from
the kernel and implementing them as system and user programs. This results 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.
Mac OS is an example of this type of OS.
3. Hybrid-Kernel Structure
4. Exo-Kernel Structure
It is considered as the best approach for an OS. It involves designing of a modular kernel.
The kernel has only a set of core components and other services are added as dynamically
loadable modules to the kernel either during runtime 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 a layered structure as a module can call any other module. For example,
Solaris OS is organized as shown in the figure.