Chapter 2: Operating-System Structures

• Operating-System Components
• Operating-System Services
• System Calls
• System Programs
• Operating-System Design & Implementation
• Operating-System Structure
• Virtual Machines

Operating System Concepts

Common Operating-System Components

• Process Management
• Main Memory Management
• File Management
• I/O System Management
• Secondary Storage Management
• Networking
• Protection System
• Command-Interpreter System
Operating System Concepts

1
 Process Management

• A process is a program in execution. A process needs certain

resources, including CPU time, memory, files, and I/O devices, to
accomplish its task.
• Processes can create sub-processes to execute concurrently.
• A program by itself is not a process; a program is a passive entity,
whereas a process is an active entity.
• The execution of a process must progress in a sequential fashion.
The CPU executes one instruction of the process after another
until the process completes.
• Operating System processes: Those execute system code.
• User processes: Those that execute user code.

Operating System Concepts

Process Management (Cont.)

• The operating system is responsible for the

following activities in connection with process
management.
– Process creation and deletion.
– Process suspension and resumption.
– Provision of mechanisms for:
1) process synchronization
2) process communication
– Deadlock handling

Operating System Concepts

2
 Main-Memory Management

• Memory is a large array of words or bytes, each with

its own address. It is a repository (storage) of quickly
accessible data shared by the CPU and I/O devices.
• Main memory is a volatile storage device. It loses its
contents in the case of system failure.
• The operating system is responsible for the following
activities in connections with memory management:
– Keep track of which parts of memory are currently
being used and by whom.
– Decide which processes to load when memory
space becomes available.
– Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed.

Operating System Concepts

File Management
• A file is a collection of related information defined by its
creator. Commonly, files represent programs (both
source and object forms) and data.
• A file consists of a sequence of bits, bytes, lines, or
records whose meanings are defined by their creators.
• The operating system is responsible for the following
activities in connections with file management:
– File creation and deletion.
– Directory creation and deletion.
– Support of primitives for manipulating files and
directories.
– Mapping files onto secondary storage.
– File backup on stable (nonvolatile) storage media.
Operating System Concepts

3
 I/O System Management

• The I/O system consists of:

– A buffer-caching system
– A general device-driver interface
– Drivers for specific hardware devices
• The O.S. hides the complexity of specific
hardware devices from the user.

Operating System Concepts

Secondary-Storage Management
• Since main memory (primary storage) is volatile and
too small to accommodate all data and programs
permanently, the computer system must provide
secondary storage to back up main memory.
• Most modern computer systems use disks as the
principle on-line storage medium, for both programs
and data.
• The operating system is responsible for the following
activities in connection with disk management:
– Free space management
– Storage allocation
– Disk scheduling

Operating System Concepts

4
 Networking (Distributed Systems)

• A distributed system is a collection of processors that

do not share memory or a clock. Each processor has
its own local memory and clock.
• The processors in the system are connected through
a communication network.
• A distributed system provides user access to various
system resources.
• Access to a shared resource allows:
– Computation speed-up
– Increased data availability
– Enhanced reliability

Operating System Concepts

Protection System

• Protection refers to a mechanism for

controlling access by programs, processes,
or users to both system and user resources.
• The protection mechanism must:
– distinguish between authorized and
unauthorized usage.
– specify the controls to be imposed.
– provide a means of enforcement.

Operating System Concepts

5
 Command-Interpreter System

• Command-Interpreter system is a system program,

which is the interface between the user and the
operating system.
• Command-Interpreter system is known as the shell.
• Some operating systems provide a user-friendly
interface (mouse-based window) such as, Macintosh
and Microsoft Windows.
• Some operating systems provide text interface
(commands are typed on keyboard) such as MS-DOS
and Unix shells.

Operating System Concepts

Command-Interpreter System (Cont.)

• Many commands are given to the operating system by control
statements which deal with:
– process creation and management
– I/O handling
– secondary-storage management
– main-memory management
– file-system access
– protection
– networking
• The program that reads and interprets control statements is
called variously:
– control-card interpreter
– command-line interpreter
– shell (in UNIX)
• Its function is to get and execute the next command statement.
Operating System Concepts

6
 Operating-System Services
• Program execution – system capability to load a program into
memory and to run it.
• I/O operations – since user programs cannot execute I/O
operations directly, the operating system must provide some
means to perform I/O.
• File-system manipulation – program capability to read, write,
create, and delete files.
• Communications – exchange of information between processes
executing either on the same computer or on different systems tied
together by a network. Implemented via shared memory or
message passing.
• Error detection – ensure correct computing by detecting errors in
the CPU (such as power failure) and memory hardware, in I/O
devices (such as connection failure), or in user programs.

Operating System Concepts

Additional Operating-System Functions

Additional functions exist not for helping the user, but
rather for ensuring efficient system operations.
• Resource allocation – allocating resources, such
as CPU cycles, main memory, file storage, I/O
devices, to multiple users or multiple jobs running
at the same time.
• Accounting – keep track of and record which users
use how much and what kinds of computer
resources for account billing or for accumulating
usage statistics.
• Protection – ensuring that all access to system
resources is controlled.

Operating System Concepts

7
 System Calls
• System calls provide the interface between a running program
and the operating system.
– Generally available as assembly-language instructions.
– Languages defined to replace assembly language for
systems programming allow system calls to be made directly
(e.g., C. Bliss, PL/360, PERL)
• Three general methods are used to pass parameters between a
running program and the operating system.
– Pass parameters in registers.
– Store the parameters in a table in memory, and the table
address is passed as a parameter in a register.
– Push (store) the parameters onto the stack by the program,
and pop off the stack by operating system.

Operating System Concepts

Passing of Parameters As A Table

X
X

register
Register
X:
X: Parameter
parameters
for
for call
call
Load Use
use parameters
parameters Code
code for
address
load address xX from tableXx
from table for
system
system call 13 system
call 13
System call
call 13
13

user program
User Program
operating system
Operating System

Operating System Concepts

8
 MS-DOS Execution

At System Start-up Running a Program

Free Memory
free memory

free memory
Free Memory

process
Process

Command
command
Interpreter
interpreter Command
command
Interpreter
interpreter

kernel
Kernel Kernel
kernel

(a)
(a) (b)
(b)
Operating System Concepts

UNIX Running Multiple Programs

process
ProcessD
D

Freememory
free Memory

process C
Process C

interpreter
Interpreter

process
Process BB

Kernel
kernel

Operating System Concepts

9
 Communication Models

Message Passing Shared Memory

Process
process AA M Process
process A A
1
Shared Memory
shared memory
2
Process
process BB M process B
Process B

2 1

Kernel
kernel M kernel
Kernel

(a)
(a) (b)

Operating System Concepts

System Calls Categories

• System calls can be grouped into 5 categories:

1. Process Control: end, abort, load, execute, create
process, terminate process, allocate and free
memory.
2. File Manipulation: create file, delete file, open file,
close file, read file, and write file.
3. Device Manipulation: request device, release
device, read, write.
4. Information Maintenance: get time or date, set
time or date, get process or file or device.
5. Communications: create or delete communication
connection, send and receive messages.

Operating System Concepts

10
 System Programs
• System programs provide a convenient environment for program
development and execution. They can be divided into several
categories:
– File manipulation: create, delete, copy, rename, print files.
– Status information: Some programs ask the system for date and
time, disk space, number of users.
– File modification: Text editors to create and modify the content of
files stored on disk.
– Programming language support: Compilers and assemblers are
provided to the user with the O.S.
– Program loading and execution: After a program is assembled or
compiled, it must be loaded into memory to be executed. The
system may provide loaders, linkage editors and debuggers.
– Communications: Programs provide mechanism for creating
virtual connections among processes, users, and computer
systems, such as sending messages and transferring files.

Operating System Concepts

Operating-System Design Goals

• User goals – operating system should be

convenient to use, easy to learn, reliable,
safe, and fast.
• System goals – operating system should
be easy to design, implement, and
maintain, as well as flexible, reliable,
error-free, and efficient.

Operating System Concepts

11
 Operating-System Implementation

• Traditionally written in assembly language,

operating systems can now be written in
higher-level languages.
• Code written in a high-level language:
– can be written faster.
– is more compact.
– is easier to understand and debug.
• An operating system is far easier to port
(move to some other hardware) if it is written
in a high-level language.

Operating System Concepts

Operating-System Structure – Simple Approach

• MS-DOS – written to provide the most

functionality in the least space
– Not divided into modules
– Although MS-DOS has some
structure, its interfaces and levels of
functionality are not well separated.
– No dual mode and no hardware
protection (Intel 8088) in MS-DOS.

Operating System Concepts

12
 MS-DOS Layer Structure

Application
application Program
program

Resident Systemprogram
resident system Program

MS-DOS
MS-DOS Device
device Drivers
drivers

ROM BIOS
ROM BIOS device
Device drivers
Drivers

Operating System Concepts

System Structure – Simple Approach (Cont.)

• UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original

UNIX operating system had limited structuring. The
UNIX OS consists of two separable parts.
– Systems programs
– The kernel
1. Consists of everything below the system-call
interface and above the physical hardware
2. Provides the file system, CPU scheduling,
memory management, and other operating-
system functions; a large number of functions
for one level.

Operating System Concepts

13
 UNIX System Structure

Users

Shells and commands

Compilers and interpreters
System Libraries
System – call interface to the kernel

Signals terminal File system CPU scheduling

handling character swapping I/O page replacement
Kernel I/O system system disk and demand paging
terminal drivers tape drivers virtual memory

Kernel interface to the hardware

Terminal controllers Device controllers Memory controllers

Hardware disks and tapes physical memory
terminals

Operating System Concepts

System Structure – Layered Approach

• The operating system is divided into a number of layers (levels),
each built on top of lower layers. The bottom layer (layer 0), is the
hardware; the highest (layer N) is the user interface.
• Main advantage of layered approach:
– First layer can be debugged without any concern, because it
uses only basic hardware.
– Once the first layer is debugged, its correct functioning while
second layer is worked on and so on.
– If an error occur we know in which layer.
– Each layer is implemented using those operations provided by
lower-level layers.
– A layer does not need to know how the low-level operations
are implemented, it needs to know what these operations do.
– Each layer hides the existence of data structures, operations,
and hardware from higher-level layer.

Operating System Concepts

14
 An Operating-System Layer
It consists of data structures and a set of routines that can be
invoked by higher-level layers.

layer MM
Layer
new ..
new
operations
operations
.

hidden
Hidden
.. layer M –M1 - 1
Layer
operations
operations .
existing
existing
..
operations
operations .

Operating System Concepts

Layered Structure of the THE OS

• A layered design was first used in THE operating
system. Its six layers are as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 5: user programs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 4: buffering for I/O devices
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 3: operator-console device deriver
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 2: memory management (virtual memory)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 1: CPU scheduling
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 0: hardware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Operating System Concepts

15
 Venus Layer Structure
• It consists of 7 layers as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 6: user programs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 5: device drivers and schedulers
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 4: virtual memory
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 3: I/O channel
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 2: CPU scheduling
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 1: instruction interpreter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Layer 0: hardware
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Operating System Concepts

Venus Layer Structure (Cont.)

• The low layers (layer 4 to layer 0) put into

micro-code.
• Advantage: Additional speed of execution and
clarity between micro-coded layers and higher
layers.
• Order is important in layers.
• Each layer adds overhead to the system call,
and the result is a system call takes longer than
one does on a non-layered system.

Operating System Concepts

16
 OS/2 Layer Structure

• OS/2 is a descendant of MS-DOS that adds

multitasking and dual mode operation.
• Access to low-level facilities directly by user is
not allowed.
• OS/2 provides more control over the hardware
and more knowledge of which resources each
user program is using than the MS-DOS.

Operating System Concepts

OS/2 Layer Structure (Cont.)

application
application application
application application
application

application - programming
Application interface
– programming interface API extension

subsystems
subsystem subsystems
subsystem subsystems
subsystem

System
system
kernel • memory management
kernel • memory management
• task dispatching
• task dispatching
• device management
• device management

device driver device driver device driver device driver

Device driver Device driver Device driver Device driver

Operating System Concepts

17
 Virtual Machines (VM)
• A virtual machine takes the layered approach to its
logical conclusion. It treats hardware and the operating
system kernel as though they were all hardware.
• A virtual machine provides an interface identical to the
underlying bare hardware.
• Example of disk systems in virtual machines: suppose
you have 3 disks drives in physical machine and you
want 7 disks drives in virtual machine. The solution is to
provide virtual disks, which are identical in all respects
except size, called minidisks in IBM’s VM. The sum of
the sizes of all minidisks must be less than the actual
amount of physical disk space available.

Operating System Concepts

Virtual Machines (Cont.)

• The resources of the physical computer are

shared to create the virtual machines.
• Implementation:
– Two modes for protection.
– In virtual machine, we must have a virtual
user mode and a virtual monitor mode.
– Both modes run in a physical user mode.

Operating System Concepts

18
 System Models

Non-virtual Machine Virtual Machine

processes
processes

processes
processes

processes
processes processes
processes

Programming
programming
interface
interface
kernel
kernel kernel
kernel kernel
kernel
kernel
kernel Virtual machine
virtual machine

hardware
hardware hardware
hardware

(a)
(a) (b)
(b)

Operating System Concepts

Advantages/Disadvantages of Virtual Machines

• The virtual-machine concept provides complete protection of
system resources since each virtual machine is isolated from all
other virtual machines. This isolation, however, permits no direct
sharing of resources.
• The virtual machine concept is difficult to implement due to the
effort required to provide an exact duplicate to the underlying
machine.
• Sharing minidisk: Files can be shared.
• Sharing using a network of virtual machines, each of which can
send information over the virtual communication networks. Note
that virtual minidisks and communication networks are modeled
after physical disks and communication networks. The virtual
minidisks and communication networks are implemented in
software.
• So, two ways for sharing in virtual: minidisks and communication
networks.
Operating System Concepts

19
 Advantages/Disadvantages of VM (Cont.)

• Modifying or changing an O.S. is difficult. Do it

at night; the machine should be stopped, since
the O.S. runs on and controls the entire
machine.
• Virtual machines solves system compatibility
problems: For example, MS-DOS programs on
Intel CPU-based systems. Users like to use
Sun Microsystems and DEC (faster
processors). Solution is to create a virtual Intel
machine on top of the Sun processors.

Operating System Concepts

20