CHAPTER: - 01

Introduction of Operating System

Q-1: What is Operating System?

Ans: Managing all the hardware components and using them optimally is
an exceedingly challenging job for this reason , computers are equipped
with a layer of software called the ‘operating system ‘ whose job is to
provide user programs with a better dimplier cleaner model of the
computer and to handle managing all the resources.

Q-2: Abstract view of components of computer system.

Ans: The abstract view of components of computer system is shown in

following figure.

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 At the bottom is the hardware which in many cases itself composed of two
or more layers. The lowest layer contains physical devices consisting of
integrated circuit chips, wires, power supplies, cathode ray tubes and
similar physical devices.
 Next comes a layer of primitive software that directly controls these
devices and provides a cleaner interface to the next layer. This software
called the micro program is usually located in read-only memory.
 The set of instructions that the micro program interprets defines the
machine language which is not really part of the hard machine at
implemented in hardware and is not really a distinct layer.
 A major function of operating system is to hide all this complexity and
dive the programmer a more convenient set of instructions to work with.
 On top of the operating system is the rest of the system software here we
find the command interpreter (shell), compilers, editors and similar
application – independent programs. It is important to realize that these
programs are definitely not part of the operating system, even though
they are typically supplied by the computer manufacture this is a crucial
but subtle point. The operating system is that protected from user
tampering by the hardware, compilers and editors run in user mod.
 Finally, above the system programs come the application programs.
These programs are written by the users to solve their particular problems
such as commercial data processing engineering calculation or game
playing.

Q-3: Different views of operating system.

Ans: Basically two different views are there of OS:-

(1)User view [The operating system as extended machine].

(2)System view [The operating system as a Resource manager].

(1)User view [The operating system as extended machine].

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  The architecture (instruction set, memory organization I/O and bus
structure) of most computers at the machine language level is primitive
and awkward to program, especially for input/output.
 The program that hides the truth about the hardware from the
programmer and presents a nice, simple view of named files that can be
read and written is, of course, the operating system.
 Just as the operating system shields the programmer from the disk
hardware and presents a simple file-oriented interface, it also concealed a
lot of unpleasant business concerning interrupt,timers,memory
management and other law level features.
 In each case the abstraction presented to the user of the operating
system is simpler and easier to use than the underlying hardware.
 In this view the function of the operating system is to present the user
with the Equivalent of an ‘extended machine’ or ‘virtual machine ‘ that is
easier to program than the underlying hardware.

(2)System View [The Os as a Resource Manager].

 The concept of the operating system as primarily providing its users

with a convenient interface is a top-down view. An alternative bottom up,
view holds that the operating system is there to manage all the pieces of
a complex system.
 Modern computers consist of processors, memories timers, disks,
terminals, magnetic tapes, drives network interfaces, laser printers and a
wide variety of other devices.
 In the alternative view the job of the operating system is to provide for
an orderly and controlled allocation of the processors, memories and I/O
devices among the various programs competing for them.
 This view of the operating system holds that its primary task is to keep
track of who is using which resource to grant resource requests conflicting
requests from different programs and users.

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 Q-4: Discuss in brief batch system, multiprogramming, time
sharing.

Ans: Batch system:-

 The idea behind this batch system was to collect a tray full of jobs in the
input room and then read them onto a magnetic tape using a small
(relatively) inexpensive computer, such as the IBM 140 which was quite
good at reading cards, copying tapes, and printing output but not at
numerical calculation.
 Some much expensive machines , such as IBM 7094 were used for the
real computing.
 After about an hour of collecting a batch of jobs the cards were read onto
magnetic tapes, which were carried into the machine room where it was
mounted on a tope drive.
 The operator then loaded a special program which read the first job from
tape and ran it. The output was written onto a second tape , instead of
being printed
 After each job finished the operating system automatically read the next
job from the tape and began running it when the whole batch was done
the operator removed the input and output tapes, replaced the input tape
with the next batch, and brought the output tape to a 1401 for printing off
line.

Multiprogramming:-
 The most popularized key technique absent in second- generation operating
systems was multiprogramming.
 On the 7094 when the current job paused to wait from a tape or other I/O
operation to complete the CPU simply the idle Unit the I/O finished.
 With heavily CPU-bound scientific calculations I/O is infrequent so this
wasted time is not significant with commercial data processing the I/O wait
Computer Department: Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Piludara
 time can often be 80or90 present of the total time so something had to be
done to avoid having the CPU be idle so much.
 The situation that evolved was to partition memory into several pieces with
a different job in each partition.
 While one job was waiting for I/O to complete another job could be using
the CPU. It enough job could be held in main memory at once, the CPU
could be kept busy nearly 100 percent of the time .Having multiple jobs
safely in memory at once requires special hardware to protect each job
against snooping and mischief by the other ones, but the 360 and other
third-generation systems were equipped with this hardware.
Timesharing:-
 For quick response time paved the way for time sharing a variant of
multiprogramming in which each user has an online terminal.
 In a timesharing system ,it 20 users are logged in and 17 of them are
thinking or talking or drinking coffee, the CPU can be allocated in turn
to the three job that want service.
 Since people debugging programs usually issue. Short commands
rather than logo ones the computer can provide fast, interactive
service to a number of users and perhaps also work on big batch jobs
in the background when the CPU is otherwise idle.
 The first general purpose timesharing system CTSS (compatible time
shoring system) was developed at M.I.T on a specially modified 7094.
 However, timesharing did not really become popular unit the
necessary protection hardware become widespread during the third
generation.

Q-5: Types of Operating system.

Ans : [1] Mainframe operating system:-

 The operating system for mainframe are heavily oriented toward

processing many job at once, most of which need prodigious
amounts of I/O.
 They typically offer three kinds of services batch, transaction
processing and timesharing.
 These function are closely related, mainframe operating system
often perform all of them.
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  An example ,a descendant of OS/360

[2] Server Operating System:

 Server O.S runs on servers which are very large personal

computers, workstations or even mainframes. They serve multiple
users at once over a network and allow the users to share hardware
and software resources , servers can provide print service, file
service, or web service.

[3] Multiprocessor Operating System:

 An increasingly common way to get major computing power is to

connect multiple CPUs into a single system depending on precisely
how they are connected and what is shared these systems are called
parallel computers ,multiprocessors or multicomputer.
 They need special operating system but often these are variations on
the server operating system with special features for communication
connecting and consistency.

[4] Personal computer Operating System:

 Personal computer operating system are so widely known that

probably little introduction is needed.
 They are widely used for word processing spreadsheet and internet
access.
 Common examples are Linux, free BSD, windows vista and the
Macintosh operating system.

[5] Embedded Operation System.

 Embedded System run on the computers that control devices that is

not generally thought of as computers and which do not accept user-
installed software.
 The main properly which distinguishes embedded system from
handheld is the certainly that no untrusted software will ever run on it.
 System such as QNX and V works are popular in this domain.
[6] Real-Time Operating System.

 Real-Time OS are characterized by having time as a key parameter.

 It the action absolutely must occur at a certain moment (or within a
certain range) we have a hard real-time system.

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  Another kind of real-time system is a soft real time system in which
missing an occasional deadline while not desirable is acceptable and
does not cause any permanent damage.

[7] Smart Operating System.

 The smallest operating system run on smart card which is credit card sized
devices containing a CPU chip.
 They have very severe processing power and memory constraints. Some
are powered by contacts in the reader into which they are inserted , but
contactless smart cards are inductively powered which greatly limits what
they can do some of them can handle only a single function such as
electronic payments but others can handle multiple functions on the same
smart card.

Q-6: Explain shell.

Ans: The kernel interacts with the machine’s hardware the kernel is the core
of the operating system a collection of routines mostly written in C.
 These routines communicate with the hardware directly. User
programs (the application) that need to communicate with the
hardware (like the hard disk or the terminal) use the services of the
kernel , which performs the job on the user’s behalf these
Programs access the kernel through a set of functions called system
Calles which is taken up shortly.
 Apart from providing support to user programs the kernel has a great
deal of housekeeping to do. It manages the systems memory, a
schedules process decides their priorities and performance of other
tasks which you wouldn’t like to bother about.
 The kernel has to do a lot of this work even it no user program is
running. It is often called the operating system, programs gateway to
the computer’s resources.
 Computer don’t have any inherent capability of translating commands
into action .That requires an interpreter and that job in UNIX is
handled by the “Outer part “of the OS the ‘Shell’.
 It is actually the interface between the user and the kernel. Even
though there’s only one kernel running on the system there could be
several shell in action one for each user who is logged in.
 When you enter a command through the keyboard the shell thoroughly
examines the keyboard input for special characters. It if finds any it

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 rebuilt a simplified command line, and finally communicate with the
kernel.

Q-7: Explain in brief distributed OS and network OS

Ans:

 Distributed operating system:-

 A distributed operating system in contrast is one that appears to its
users as a tradition uniprocessor system even though it is actually
composed of multiprocessors.
 In a true distributed system users should not be aware of where their
programs are being run or where their files are located , that should all
be handled automatically and efficiently by the operating system
 True distributed OS requires more than just adding a little code to a
uniprocessor O.S because distributed and centralized system differ in
critical ways.
 Distributed system for example often allows programs to run on
several processors at the same time. Thus requiring more complex
processor scheduling algorithms in order to optimize the amount of
parallism achieved.

 Network operating system:-

 In a network operating system the users are aware of the existence of
multiple computers and can log into remote machine and copy files
from one machine to another. Fatch machine runs its own local
operating system and has its own user.
 Network operating system are not fundamentally different from single
processor OS. They obviously need a network interface controller and
some low level software to drive it, as well as programs to achieve
remote login and remote file access but these additions do not change
the essential structure of the OS.
 Communication delays within the network often mean that these
algorithms must run with in complete , out data or even incorrect
information this situation is radically different from a single processor
has complete information about the system state.

Computer Department: Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Piludara