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Media and Storage

The document discusses operating systems and their functions. It explains that operating systems manage hardware resources, control application access to those resources, perform tasks like scheduling and memory management, and provide a standardized interface to hardware through abstractions. It describes the typical structure of an operating system, including the kernel, applications/libraries, system calls, hardware abstraction layer, and device drivers. It also discusses file systems, I/O streams, and how operating systems are crucial for managing shared resources and deciding which programs run in a system.

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amzeus
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134 views

Media and Storage

The document discusses operating systems and their functions. It explains that operating systems manage hardware resources, control application access to those resources, perform tasks like scheduling and memory management, and provide a standardized interface to hardware through abstractions. It describes the typical structure of an operating system, including the kernel, applications/libraries, system calls, hardware abstraction layer, and device drivers. It also discusses file systems, I/O streams, and how operating systems are crucial for managing shared resources and deciding which programs run in a system.

Uploaded by

amzeus
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MEDIA AND STORAGE

Today
 Operating systems
 What are they for
 What do they do
Not really
 I wouldn’t use that OS
 But what does that mean and why?
 Is there something I’m looking for?

 Youwill be able to answer these questions


and many more
Today
 Operating systems
 What are they for
 What do they do
Operating Systems
 Group discussion
 What is an operating system ?
 What are its key functions ?
 How many OS can you name
Versions of OS
 There is over 600 main stream OS’s
 Windows Is not the only OS
 MicroSoft are not the only OS makers
 Just a Few of them #
Operating System
 They all have the same basics in
common
 What are they ?
 Manages the resources of the hardware
 Attempts to optimise use of available
resources by enabling and controlling
application access.
O/S functions
 Scheduling
 Memory Management
 File System
 Device Management
Typical O/S structure
User

Applications
Librarie
s
System Function
Calls
Kernel

Hardware Abstraction
Device Device
driver driver
O/S structure
 Applications : programs used by users
or other programs
 Libraries : re-usable code implementing
useful functions
 System calls : points of interaction with
the kernel
O/S structure

 Kernel - the main part of the O/S


 kernel implements the critical
functions and is, usually, the only
program which is guaranteed to get
access to all resources.
 responsible for starting, managing
and ending ALL other programs in
the system
 CANNOT be interrupted/terminated
by anything except itself.
O/S structure

 Hardware Abstraction Layer


 found in modern portable O/S
 capable of running on different
architectures
 Provides a standardised view of the
underlying hardware through a
virtual machine implementation
 O/S need not know much/anything
about the real hardware
Device drivers
 Plug into H.A.L. to allow access to real
hardware.
 Translate from O/S command to real
device commands
 e.g. allow O/S to work with ANY storage
device (ATA, SATA, USB) transparently
 e.g. allow O/S to use ANY graphics
device
Example

 Unix streams model of I/O


 Unix treats ALL Input/Output
devices as streams
 a sequence of bits which can be
read/written
 File system is implemented on top
of the device stream
 filesystem is ALSO a stream
 so are files...
So...
 what does this mean for DE examiners ?
Examining devices
 Applying ACPO principles means that
we usually have to produce a verifiably
accurate copy of the device to be
examined
 How ?
Old method
 When HAL was less-common
 Device to device copy using an
IDENTICAL target device
 Not always successful
 subtle difference between devices (bad
block positions etc.)
Current Method
 Apply streams concept and perform a
bitwise copy
 Contents of device copied to some
medium
 file, partition etc.
Why is this valid ?
 Interpretation of data is independent of
hardware
 Bitwise copy can be shown to be
equivalent to the device at all levels
above device driver
 stream is already an abstract view of the
device
Verifying equivalence
 Compute “hashes’
 a mathemetical operation using all
data in the input
 provides a near-unique “signature”
for the stream
 very low probability that any two
different streams will generate the
same hash
 e.g. MD5 gives 128 bit = 1 in 2^128
chance of collision
Proposition
 hash(device)=hash(copied stream) =>
copied stream can be used as if it is the
device for investigation

 Is this acceptable ?
Operating System
 Performs system management
 Scheduling
 Resource access control
 Resource allocation
Share fairly
 In groups work out the best method for
 Sharing a cake when
2 people love the cake and what to have more
than the other
 3 people love the cake and what to have more
than the other
O/S Critical functions :
Scheduling
 Scheduling - deciding which program
(process) should be running now

Running Waiting

Blocked
Scheduling
 Only one process can be running at any
time
 O/S “timeslices” to create appearance
of parallelism
 Data for waiting or blocked processes is
held in RAM or swapped to disk
O/S Critical functions :
Filesystem
 File-system management
 Managing storage devices
 Deciding where to write data on
 disk, memory devices, etc.
 Detecting device errors
 Tracking used (allocated) space
 Tracking unused (unallocated) space
 Dealing with file deletion
Filesystems
 There are more file systems than
O/S
 Most O/S support multiple file
systems
 File systems have their own
strengths, weaknesses
What does this mean and
idiosyncrasies
 All have the same 4 basic
operations
C RUD
 Create,
 read,
O/S
 is “god” in the system
 ALL programs MUST request access to
resources via the O/S
 Programs only run if the O/S allows
them to
 => understanding of O/S is crucial

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