Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems - A Concept-Based Approach, 2 Ed Slide No: 1

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 1

A Concept-Based Approach, 2 ed Copyright © 2008
What is an operating system ?
• An operating system (OS) is a collection of programs

that achieve effective utilization of a computer system by
providing
– Convenient methods of using a computer
* Saves users’ time and boosts their productivity
– Efficient use of the computer
• An OS has several kinds of users
– The OS meets diverse requirements of different kinds of users
– Each user has a different view of what an OS is, and what it
does. Each of these views is called an abstract view

Abstract views
• An abstract view focuses on the essential characteristics

of a system
– It contains some selected characteristics, and ignores others
* It helps to control complexity in designing and understanding a
system, by hiding unnecessary detail
– For example, two abstract views of a car:
* The driver’s view contains the rear-view mirror, steering, gear shift,
and speedometer but ignores engine details
* The mechanic’s view contains fluid levels, electrical system, …
Q: Give examples of abstract views

A: View of an abstract data type, object, ..

Abstract views
• Abstract views are used in

– Software requirements specification
* Specify what functions a system should perform
 The abstract view of a specific function helps in understanding
the system data and fundamental operations on them
– Software design and implementation
* ‘Hiding’ the details of functions and subsystems while designing or
implementing other functions and subsystems helps to control
complexity

A designer’s abstract view of an OS
• User interface: Accepts commands from users: GUI, command line interface
• Non-kernel programs: Implement user commands
• Kernel: Core of the OS─controls the computer, provides functions & services

A designer’s abstract view of an OS
• The abstract view consists of three components

– The kernel programs
* interact with the computer’s hardware and implement the intended
operation
– The non-kernel programs
* implement creation of programs and use of system resources by
them. These programs use kernel programs to control operation of
the computer
– The user interface
* interprets the commands of a user and activates non-kernel
programs to implement them

Goals of an OS
• Two primary goals of an OS are

– Efficient use of the computer’s resources
* To ensure cost-effectiveness of the computer
– User convenience
* A user should find it easy to use the computer
• These two goals sometimes conflict

– Prompt service can be provided through exclusive use of a
computer; however, efficient use requires sharing of a
computer’s resources among many users
– An OS designer decides which of the two goals is more
important under what conditions
* That is why we have so many operating systems!

User convenience
• The computing environment influences the notion of user

convenience
– The computing environment is comprised of
* The computer system
* Its interfaces with other systems
* Nature of computations performed by its users
– Computing environments change with the architecture and use
of a computer, e.g. personal computing, online applications,
embedded applications
– Hence the notion of user convenience has several facets that
depend on the computing environment

User convenience
• User convenience has several facets

– Fulfillment of a necessity
* Use of programs and files
– Good service
* Speedy response
– Ease of Use
* User friendliness
– New programming model
* e.g., Concurrent programming
– Web-oriented features
* e.g., Web-enabled servers
– Evolution
* Addition of new features, use of new computers
Operation of an OS
• During operation, an OS performs two primary functions

– Program management
* Perform program initiation/termination
* Provide means through which many programs can work toward a
common goal
 Helps in more convenient or faster fulfillment of user
requirements
– Resource management
* Ensure efficient use of resources
 Use of CPU, I/O devices

Operation of an OS
• Program management and resource management

require three fundamental tasks
– Scheduling
* Deciding which program should be serviced by the CPU and for
how long
– Resource allocation
* Sharing of resources among user programs
– Security and protection
* Ensuring non-interference between programs
 Security: guarding against interference by external entities
 Protection: guarding against interference by internal entities

Operation of an OS
• To facilitate scheduling, resource management, and

security and protection
– OS maintains various kinds of information to facilitate operation
* Names of registered users
* identity of a user who is executing a specific program
* status of a program
* status of a resource
* which users can access a resource
– OS performs several tasks repeatedly to implement scheduling,
resource management, and security and protection

Common tasks performed by operating systems

Program management
• A computational structure is a configuration of several

programs. Three typical computational structures are:
– A single program
* Execution of a program on a given set of data
– A sequence of single programs
* A program should be executed only if previous programs in the
sequence executed successfully
* Programs should pass their results to other programs through files
– Co-executing programs
* The OS must execute these programs at the same time
* The OS must provide an interface between co-executing programs
so that their results are available to one another

A schematic of scheduling
• Programs waiting for CPU attention are entered in a pool

• The scheduler picks one program from the pool for execution on the CPU
• The CPU may be forcibly taken away from a program. This action
is called pre-emption
• A pre-empted program is again entered into the pool

Resource management
• Criteria and techniques of resource management

– Criterion: Resource utilization efficiency
* Share the resources wherever possible
* Avoid idling of resources
* Speedy resource allocation and de-allocation is desirable
– Technique 1: Partitioning of resources
* A resource partition is a collection of resources
 A resource partition is allocated to a process
 Simplifies resources allocation and also speeds it up
– Technique 2: Allocation from a pool
* Resources are allocated individually when needed
Q: Pros & cons of the two techniques?
Virtual resources
• A virtual resource is an illusion presented to a program

– A virtual resource is an abstraction; its implementation is hidden
from a program
– Use of virtual resources simplifies resource allocation
* Virtual resources may be created if several programs need a
resource. It permits more programs to execute at the same time
– A virtual I/O device is a virtual resource
* The OS implements a virtual device as follows:
 When a program performs an operation on a virtual device, the
operation may be actually performed on some real resource
* Example: virtual printer
 When a program ‘prints’ on a virtual printer, the data is actually
stored in memory; printing takes place sometime later

Security and Protection
• An OS must ensure non-interference with users’

programs and data
– Aspects of non-interference
* Resources must not be used by un-authorized persons
* There should be no interference with use of resources by authorized
persons and their programs
– Terminology
* An intruder is a person or program that causes interference
* Security measures avoid interference by non-users and their
programs
* Protection measures avoid interference by users and their programs

Security and protection techniques
• Two key techniques of security and protection

– Authentication
* Verification of a user’s identity
* Performed when a person logs in (typically through passwords)
– Authorization: has two aspects
* The owner of a resource selectively permits other users to access
them
* When a user/program tries to access a resource, the OS verifies
whether the user has the permission to perform the access

Overview of security and protection threats
• Authentication checks whether a person is a registered user

• Threats posed by non-users are security threats
• Threats posed by a user are protection threats

Preview of the book
• Part I: Fundamental concepts

– How an OS organizes its own functioning, manages user
programs, and manages computer resources such as the CPU,
memory and files
• Part II: Advanced topics

– Design of OS features that implement program interactions and
file system services, and facilitate portability and extensibility of
operating systems
• Part III: Distributed Operating Systems

Part I: Fundamental concepts
• How does an OS keep track of activities in its various

units and in user programs?
– An activity causes an event at an appropriate time
* An event is a situation that requires the OS’s attention
– The OS keeps track of events in the computer system and in
user programs. This way it knows the activities in its units and in
programs. For example,
* A log in operation is an event
* An I/O operation is an event
* Completion of a program is an event

An operating system in its computing environment
• The computer should be executing user programs most of the time

• When an event occurs, the OS should obtain control to handle the event
Q: How is this achieved?
A: Occurrence of an event raises an interrupt, which switches the CPU to OS
Execution of programs
• An execution of a program is called a process

– The OS keeps track of the activity of a process and performs
scheduling to decide which process should be allowed to
operate currently
* Scheduling is the key OS activity for providing
 fast response to users
 good resource utilization

Managing memory
• The OS services a large number of processes

simultaneously
– It must make efficient use of memory
– It must perform memory allocation and de-allocation speedily
– These requirements may conflict, hence special techniques are
used to implement effective memory management

Virtual Memory
• Users may wish to write very large programs. Some of

these programs may not fit in memory
– The OS uses virtual memory to overcome this problem
* Only some portion(s) of the code and data of a process are present
in memory at any time
* Other portions are loaded in memory when needed
* Portions not presently needed may be removed from memory

A schematic of virtual memory operation
• The OS maintains information about portions of a process that are in memory

• A ‘missing from memory’ event occurs if a required portion is not in memory
• The OS now loads it in memory

File processing
• The file system ensures effectiveness of file processing

– Provides convenient methods for a user to create, access and
share files
* Each file organization provides efficient access for a specific record
access patterns
– Provide assurance needed by users
* Security and protection techniques to ensure that files are not
accessed by unauthorized persons
* Reliability techniques to ensure that files are not lost or damaged
due to failures in the system

Part II: Advanced topics
• Process synchronization
– Enables processes to work harmoniously towards common goals
• Message passing
– Facilitates communication among processes
• Deadlock handling
– Avoids indefinite waits
• Implementation of file operations
– Techniques to ensure efficiency and reliability
• Multiprocessor operating systems
– Ensure effective and efficient use of the multiple CPUs
• Structure of operating systems
– Provides portability and extensibility of operating systems

Process synchronization
• Process synchronization is employed for two purposes

– Data sharing
* Processes should share data or resources such that only one
process uses a data item or a resource at any time
 It avoids data inconsistency
– Coordination of activities
* Processes must perform their operations in a desired order
 e.g., if a process wishes to use some data produced by another
process, it must read the data only after the other process has
assigned a value to it

Two kinds of process synchronization
(a) The Credit and Debit processes share the account balance, hence only
one of them should access it at any time
(b) Generate produces a sample and Analyze analyzes it. Analyze must
wait if Generate has not yet produced a sample

Deadlocks
• Some resources cannot be shared across processes;

they must be used by only one process at a time
– If a resource is in use by a process, another process wishing to
use the resource must wait for the process to release it
* Indefinite waits would arise if processes wait for each other
 This situation is called a deadlock
 It degrades response time and efficiency of use

A deadlock involving three processes
• Pk needs a resource that is currently allocated to Pi

• Pi needs a resource that is currently allocated to Pj
• Pj needs a resource that is currently allocated to Pk
• Each of the processes waits indefinitely

Part III: Distributed Operating Systems
• A distributed system consists of several computer

systems connected through a network
– Terminology
* A computer, which is called a host or node, exists in a site
– A distributed OS manages computers in a distributed system in
a well-integrated manner to provide two key benefits
* high reliability
 Redundancy of resources in various computers is exploited to
ensure that a process can complete despite failures
* speed-up of a computation by performing some of its parts in
different computer systems

Issues in Distributed OS
• Individual computers in a distributed system have their

own clocks and memories
– Clocks in different computers are not synchronized, hence they
may show different times
– It is difficult to obtain a consistent view of data and activities
* E.g., balances in two accounts, recorded while transferring funds
between them, may not be mutually consistent (see next slide)
• A distributed OS has to use special techniques to ensure
consistency and reliability
– Important during normal operation and recovery from a failure

Consistency issues in a distributed OS
• An observer in node Z records balances in accounts A and B while

funds are being transferred
• Z may record balance of X before $100 are transferred from it to Y,
and balance of Y after the transfer—$100 are generated!
• Z may record balance of X after $100 are transferred from it to Y,
and balance of Y before the transfer—$100 are lost!

• Theoretical issues
– How to know the order in which events have occurred?
* Important for FCFS allocation, etc.
– How to know the state of a system
* Important for avoiding inconsistencies and performing ‘load
balancing’ across nodes to obtain good performance
• Distributed control algorithms
– Parts of the algorithm run in different nodes
* Obviates the need to collect ‘global’ state in one node
* Special techniques are used to ensure consistency of actions
– Used for resource allocation, scheduling, deadlock handling, etc.

• Recovery
– User computations should not suffer due to node or link failures
* OS restores computations in a failed node to a previous state
* Special techniques are used to ensure consistency across nodes
• Distributed file systems

– Files can be accessed from any node
* Special techniques are needed to ensure good performance when a
non-local file is accessed
* Special techniques are also needed to ensure reliability when nodes
or network links fail

• Distributed system security

– Security threats arise from intruders, and viruses and worms
– OS must provide measures to
* Prevent intruders from corrupting or fabricating network messages
* Enable processes to verify identities of other processes
* Ensure data security
 Enable users to know who created a document or data
 Enable users to know whether documents or data have been
tampered with


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Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 1

• An operating system (OS) is a collection of programs

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 2

• An abstract view focuses on the essential characteristics

Q: Give examples of abstract views

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 3

• Abstract views are used in

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 4

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 5

• The abstract view consists of three components

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 6

• Two primary goals of an OS are

• These two goals sometimes conflict

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 7

• The computing environment influences the notion of user

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 8

• User convenience has several facets

• During operation, an OS performs two primary functions

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 10

• Program management and resource management

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 11

• To facilitate scheduling, resource management, and

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 12

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 13

• A computational structure is a configuration of several

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 14

• Programs waiting for CPU attention are entered in a pool

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 15

• Criteria and techniques of resource management

• A virtual resource is an illusion presented to a program

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 17

• An OS must ensure non-interference with users’

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 18

• Two key techniques of security and protection

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 19

• Authentication checks whether a person is a registered user

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 20

• Part I: Fundamental concepts

• Part II: Advanced topics

• Part III: Distributed Operating Systems

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 21

• How does an OS keep track of activities in its various

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 22

• The computer should be executing user programs most of the time

• An execution of a program is called a process

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 24

• The OS services a large number of processes

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 25

• Users may wish to write very large programs. Some of

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 26

• The OS maintains information about portions of a process that are in memory

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 27

• The file system ensures effectiveness of file processing

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 28

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 29

• Process synchronization is employed for two purposes

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 30

Chapter 1: Introduction Dhamdhere: Operating Systems— Slide No: 31