Operating Systems 1

CS 241
Spring 2021

By
Marwa M. A. Elfattah

Main Reference
Operating System Concepts, Abraham Silbrschatz,
10th Edition
Introduction
Abstract View of Computer Systems Components
 Computer system mainly has four components:

• Hardware – provides basic computing resources

CPU, memory, I/O devices
Abstract View of Computer Systems Components
 Computer system mainly has four components:

• Users
People, machines, other computers
Abstract View of Computer Systems Components
 Computer system mainly has four components:

• Application programs – define the ways in which

the system resources are used to solve the
computing problems of the users
 Abstract View of Computer Systems Components
 Computer system mainly has four components:

• Operating System - A program that acts as an

intermediary between a user and the computer
hardware
 What Do Operating Systems Do??
You buy a new computer, with more processors
and memory than the last one. But you don’t have
to get all new software – the OS is the same, the
apps are the same, but the system runs faster.
How does it do that??
Ifone user writes a buggy app, you don’t want it to
crash the system for everyone else. How is that
even possible??
How can multiple programs run simultaneously??

It is the Operating System

 What Operating Systems Do
 An operating system is similar to a government. It
simply provides an environment within which other
programs can do useful work.
• It is a resource allocator:
Manages all resources
Decides between conflicting requests for
efficient and fair resource use
• It is a control program
Controls execution of programs to prevent
errors and improper use of the computer
 What Operating Systems Do
Depends on the point of view
 Users want convenience, ease of use, security and
good performance
 But shared computer must keep all users happy
• Operating system is a resource allocator
 Mobile devices are resource poor, optimized for
usability and battery life
 Some computers have little or no user interface,
such as embedded computers in devices and
automobiles
• Run primarily without user intervention
 An Overview of
Computer System
Structure
 Computer System Organization
 One or more CPUs, device controllers connect
through common bus providing access to shared
memory.
 Concurrent execution of CPUs and devices
competing for memory.
 Computer System Organization
 I/O devices and the CPU can execute concurrently
 Each device controller is in charge of a particular
device type
 Each device controller has a local buffer
 Computer System Organization
 Each device controller type has an operating system
device driver to manage it
 I/O is from the device to local buffer of controller
 Computer System Organization
 CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from local
buffers
 Device controller informs CPU that it has finished its
operation by causing an interrupt
Computer System Architecture
 Single processor systems
 Multiprocessor systems
 Clustered systems
 Single Processor System
 Use a single general-purpose processor
• It is capable of executing a general-purpose
instruction set, including instructions from
processes.
 Most systems have special-purpose processors as
well
• For example, a disk-controller microprocessor
receives a sequence of requests from the main
CPU core and implements its own disk queue
and scheduling algorithm. This arrangement
relieves the main CPU of the overhead of disk
scheduling.
 Multiprocessors System
 Systems have two (or more) processors, each with
a single-core CPU - known as parallel systems,
tightly-coupled systems
The core is the component that executes instructions
and registers for storing data locally.

 share the computer bus and clock, memory, and

peripherals
 Increase the throughput
 The speed-up ratio with N processors is less than N.
» When multiple processors cooperate on a task, a certain
amount of overhead is incurred in keeping all the parts
working correctly.
» Plus competition for shared resources overhead.
 Multiprocessors System
 The definition of multiprocessor has evolved over
time and now includes multicore systems,
Multiple computing cores reside on a single chip.
Multicore systems can be more efficient than multiple chips
with single cores because on-chip communication is faster
than between-chip communication.
A multicore processor with N cores appears to the operating
system as N standard CPUs.
 Multiprocessors Systems

Multiprocessing A dual-core with two cores

architecture with two on the same chip
processing chips
 Multiprocessor systems
 Too many CPUs, the system bus becomes a
bottleneck and performance begins to degrade.
 Alternatively, provide each CPU (or group of CPUs)
with its own local memory that is accessed via a
small, fast local bus.
– The CPUs are
connected by a shared
system interconnect
– This approach known
a non-uniform
memory access, or
NUMA
 Clustered Systems
 Like multiprocessor systems, but multiple systems
working together
• Usually sharing storage via a storage-area
network (SAN)
 Clustered Systems
 Provides a high-availability service which survives
failures
 Also provides high-performance computing (HPC)
• Applications must be written to use parallelization
A View of Operating System Services
 Why Study Operating Systems?
Simply because,
 Understanding the fundamentals of operating
systems, how they drive computer hardware, and
what they provide to applications is not only
essential to those who program them but also
highly useful to those who write programs on them
and use them.
 As almost all code runs on top of an operating
system, knowledge of how operating systems
work is crucial to proper, efficient, effective, and
secure programming.
Thank You