Components of Operating Systems

What are OS Components?

An operating system is a large and complex system that can only be created by
partitioning into small pieces. These pieces should be a well-defined portion of the
system, which carefully defined inputs, outputs, and functions.

Although Mac, Unix, Linux, Windows, and other OS do not have the same structure,
most of the operating systems share similar OS system components like File, Process,
Memory, I/O device management.
Let’s see each of these components in detail.

In this operating system tutorial, you will learn:

 What are OS Components ?

 File Management
 Process Management
 I/O Device Management
 Network Management
 Main Memory management
 Secondary-Storage Management
 Security Management
 Other Important Activities
File Management
A file is a set of related information which is should define by its creator. It
commonly represents programs, both source and object forms, and data. Data files can
be numeric, alphabetic, or alphanumeric.

Function of file management in OS:

The operating system has the following important given activities in connections with
file management:

 File and directory creation and deletion.

 For manipulating files and directories.
 Mapping files onto secondary storage.
 Backup files on stable storage media.

Process Management
The process management component is a procedure for managing the many processes
that are running simultaneously on the operating system. Every software application
program has one or more processes associated with them when they are running.

For example, when you use a browser like Google Chrome, there is a process running
for that browser program. The OS also has many processes running, which performing
various functions.

All these processes should be managed by process management, which keeps

processes for running efficiently. It also uses memory allocated to them and shutting
them down when needed.

The execution of a process must be sequential so, at least one instruction should be
executed on behalf of the process.

Functions of process management in OS:

The following are functions of process management.

 Process creation and deletion.

 Suspension and resumption.
 Synchronization process
 Communication process
I/O Device Management
One of the important use of an operating system that helps you to hide the variations
of specific hardware devices from the user.

Functions of I/O management in OS:

 It offers buffer caching system
 It provides general device driver code
 It provides drivers for particular hardware devices.
 I/O helps you to knows the individualities of a specific device.

Network Management
Network management is the process of administering and managing computer
networks. It includes performance management, fault analysis, provisioning of
networks, and maintaining the quality of service.

A distributed system is a collection of computers/processors that never share their

own memory or a clock. In this type of system, all the processors have their local
Memory, and the processors communicate with each other using different
communication lines, like fiber optics or telephone lines.

The computers in the network are connected through a communication network,

which can be configured in a number of different ways. With the help of network
management, the network can be fully or partially connected, which helps users to
design routing and connection strategies that overcome connection and security
issues.

Functions of Network management:

 Distributed systems help you to various computing resources in size and
function. They may involve microprocessors, minicomputers, and many
general-purpose computer systems.
 A distributed system also offers the user access to the various resources the
network shares.
 It helps to access shared resources that help computation to speed-up or offers
data availability and reliability.

Main Memory management

Main Memory is a large array of storage or bytes, which has an address. The memory
management process is conducted by using a sequence of reads or writes of specific
memory addresses.

In order to execute a program , it should be mapped to absolute addresses and loaded

inside the Memory. The selection of a memory management method depends on
several factors.

However, it is mainly based on the hardware design of the system. Each algorithm
requires corresponding hardware support. Main Memory offers fast storage that can
be accessed directly by the CPU. It is costly and hence has a lower storage capacity.
However, for a program to be executed, it must be in the main Memory.

Functions of Memory management in OS:

An Operating System performs the following functions for Memory Management:

 It helps you to keep track of primary memory.

 Determine what part of it are in use by whom, what part is not in use.
 In a multiprogramming system, the OS takes a decision about which process
will get Memory and how much.
 Allocates the memory when a process requests
 It also de-allocates the Memory when a process no longer requires or has been
terminated.

Secondary-Storage Management
The most important task of a computer system is to execute programs. These
programs, along with the data, helps you to access, which is in the main memory
during execution.

This Memory of the computer is very small to store all data and programs
permanently. The computer system offers secondary storage to back up the main
Memory. Today modern computers use hard drives/SSD as the primary storage of
both programs and data. However, the secondary storage management also works
with storage devices, like a USB flash drive, and CD/DVD drives.

Programs like assemblers, compilers, stored on the disk until it is loaded into memory,
and then use the disk as a source and destination for processing.

Functions of Secondary storage management in OS:

Here, are major functions of secondary storage management in OS:

 Storage allocation
 Free space management
 Disk scheduling

Security Management
The various processes in an operating system need to be secured from each other’s
activities. For that purpose, various mechanisms can be used to ensure that those
processes which want to operate files, memory CPU, and other hardware resources
should have proper authorization from the operating system.

For example, Memory addressing hardware helps you to confirm that a process can be
executed within its own address space. The time ensures that no process has control of
the CPU without renouncing it.

Lastly, no process is allowed to do its own I/O, to protect, which helps you to keep the
integrity of the various peripheral devices.

Other Important Activities

Here, are some other important activities of OS:

 The user’s program can’t execute I/O operations directly. The operating system
should provide some medium to perform this.
 OS checks the capability of the program to read, write, create, and delete files.
 OS facilitates an exchange of information between processes executing on the
same or different systems.
 OS components help you to makes sure that you get the correct computing by
detecting errors in the CPU and memory hardware.

Summary:
 An operating system is a large and complex system that can only be created by
partitioning into small pieces.
 Operating system shares the various OS system components like File, Process
Memory, I/O device management, etc.
 A file is a collection of related information which is should define by its
creator.
 The process management component is a procedure for managing the many
processes that are running simultaneously on the operating system
 I/O device management is one of the important use of an operating system that
helps you to hide the variations of specific hardware devices from the user.
 Network management is the process of administering and managing computer
networks.
 The memory management process is conducted by using a sequence of reads or
writes of certain memory addresses.
 Secondary-Storage Management, the most important task of a computer
system, is to execute programs.
 Security management includes various processes in an operating system that
need to be secured from each other’s activities.
 The operating system checks the capability of the program to read, write,
create, and delete files.