OPS102: OPERATING SYSTEMS FOR PROGRAMMERS

MODULE 1

OPERATING SYSTEMS
 WHAT IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM?
 An operating system (OS) does exactly what the name states: It is
software that operates a computer system!
 Not all computers have had or required an operating system.
Particularly simple computers, including the earliest models of both
business computers and microcomputers, as well as very simple
embedded computers, do not require an operating system.
 The computer embedded into a simple mass-market microwave oven,
for example, only ever runs one program, does not have
communications capabilities, does not multitask, and is never updated,
and therefore has no operating system.
 However, virtually all contemporary computer systems, including
embedded devices, are sufficiently complex that they are equipped
with an operating system.
WHAT DOES AN OPERATING SYSTEM DO?

An operating system performs four main functions:

1. Management & Separation of Resources.

2. Security Enforcement
3. Hardware Abstraction
4. Maintaining the Programming Model
MANAGEMENT & SEPARATION OF RESOURCES

 Think of the specifications that were advertised when you bought your last computer (or smartphone):
 multiple CPU cores
 several gigabytes of memory (RAM)
 storage in the gigabytes-to-terabytes range
 a display with a particular resolution
 various peripherals, such as cameras, speakers, and so forth
 All of these are system resources. The operating system manages these resources to ensure that they are used
effectively, and to ensure that there are no conflicts over their use.
 As requested by the user(s), or as triggered by other factors such as the time of day or operational requirements, the
OS will create processes -- running copies of computer programs. Each process is allocated compute resources by
being permitted to run on one or more computer cores. To run a large number of processes, the OS will switch
between them, stopping one process and starting another as needed to ensure that all of the processes get a fair
share of system resources (which may not always be an equal share).
MANAGEMENT & SEPARATION OF RESOURCES
(CONT’D)

 The operating system will allocate the available memory to processes and to the operating system's internal
operations. The OS will program the system hardware to ensure that no process can overwrite memory allocated to
another process.
 The OS will also allocate storage space to various files as they are created and extended, and deallocate space
when those files are truncated (shortened) or deleted. The space allocated to one file will be protected from use in
other files.
 Display space is similarly shared; the operating system will ensure that multiple programs can each display in their
own windows, but prevent them from destroying graphics being displayed by other windows.
 Peripheral devices are managed in different ways according to the characteristics of the device. For example,
sound output from multiple processes will be combined for simultaneous output to the speakers (or other output
devices). However, when a process accesses a printer, output from that processes is collected into a document,
and the documents are queued for sequential printing, because simultaneous access would result in garbled
output.
SECURITY ENFORCEMENT

 It’s important to keep information private in some contexts, and to share

information in other contexts. The operating system is responsible for enforcing
security rules. For example, on a smartphone, a social media app shouldn’t be
able to access data from a banking app, and on a cloud server, one customer
shouldn’t be able to access another customer’s data. However, multiple
smartphone apps might be permitted to access a photo album, and a company
employee might need to view a report generated on a server from multiple
customers’ data.
 The operating system is responsible for enforcing the security rules but not for
creating them -- the system administrators and/or users are responsible for
creating and maintaining the security settings and policies which the operating
system enforces.
HARDWARE ABSTRACTION
 There are many different types of devices that perform similar functions, and multiple ways that these devices can
be connected. For example:
 A keyboard may be connected via a USB connection or a wireless Bluetooth connection, or may be created as a
virtual keyboard on a touchscreen.
 A mouse may be connected via a wired USB, wireless USB dongle, or wireless Bluetooth connection. But there are
also other types of devices which can provide the same capability of allowing the user to interact with the display,
including trackpads, trackballs, and touchscreens.
 Sound may be played over built-in speakers, an external analog speaker, an analog headset, a digital speaker or
headset with a USB connection, a Bluetooth speaker, earbuds, or headset, or played through a television
connected via HDMI.
 The operating system abstracts away these hardware details. This means that programs can access devices in a
general way without having to be programmed to individually deal with each type of device that may be used.
This enables a program to request keyboard input or play sounds without regard to the details of the specific
hardware available.
MAINTAINING THE PROGRAMMING MODEL

 The operating system, computer hardware, and development tools (compiler, linker, and so forth)
work together to present the “programming model” – a conceptual framework which software
developers use when creating software. For example, several different application program may be
designed to occupy the same area of memory; obviously, this presents a conflict when these
applications are used at the same time, so the operating system works with the computer’s hardware
to load the applications into different areas of physical memory, and then use the computer’s virtual
memory capabilities to make each program appear to be loaded into the region of memory for
which it was written.
COMPONENTS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM
 Most modern operating systems are delivered as five separate and inter-related
parts:
 The Kernel
 This is the heart of the operating system, the main program (or group of
programs) that controls the computer. The kernel operates in a special privileged
mode, which allows it to manage the resources and security settings for all other
software. The kernel is loaded by the computer’s firmware (built-in software) and
sets up the computer’s hardware and resources before starting the services and
user interface(s) in non-privileged mode, programming the computer’s hardware
to enforce the privilege level.

COMPONENTS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM (CONT’D)

 System Libraries
 Many programs need to perform the same operations, such as accessing the
network, playing sound, or drawing something on the screen. Libraries provide a
common set of software routines (also known as functions, methods, procedures,
or subroutines) which programs access to perform these common operations.
This eliminates the need for each program to contain duplicate code for these
common operations, which reduces software duplication and program size.
Although additional libraries may be installed on the computer, the system
libraries provided as part of the operating system provide the most broadly-used
routines required by nearly every program.

COMPONENTS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM (CONT’D)

 Services
 These are programs that run continuously in the background, providing services
such as WiFi authentication, print management, and file sharing. Unlike the
kernel, these programs don’t operate with full system privilege, and are therefore
subject to the same type of resource and security management as regular
programs, and they also utilize the system libraries.

COMPONENTS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM (CONT’D)

 The User Interface(s)

 This is the software that enables the user to interact with the system. Most
operating systems provide at least two user interfaces:
1. A text-based user interface that enables the user to enter commands, view the output from those
commands, and interact with full-screen text interfaces such as file editors and file managers. This
may be referred to as a text user interface (TUI) or a command line interface (CLI).
2. A graphical user interface (GUI) that typically enables the user to interact with multiple
application windows, using a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse, trackpad, or
touchscreen.