Principles of

Operating Systems
Lecture 1-2 - Introduction and overview, operating system structure
Ardalan Amiri Sani ([email protected])
[lecture slides contains some content adapted from : Silberschatz textbook authors, Anerson textbook
authors, John Kubiatowicz (Berkeley), John Ousterhout(Stanford), previous slides by Prof. Nalini
Venkatasubramanian, http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs162/ and others]

Staff
The course will be co-taught by
Nalini Venkatasubramanian ([email protected])
Ardalan Amiri Sani ([email protected])

Prof. Venkat will cover the first half of the course

Prof. Amiri Sani will cover the second half

Staff
Teaching Assistants:
Kyle Benson ( [email protected] )
Joseph Nash ( [email protected] )
Qiuxi Zhu ( [email protected] )
Readers:
Hao Zhang ( [email protected] )
Purvi Kaul ( [email protected] )

Course logistics and details

Course web page http://www.ics.uci.edu/~ics143

Discussions Fridays 9:00-9:50 a.m, 10-10:50 a.m, 2-2:

50 p.m, ICS 174
Pop quizzes

Course logistics and details

Textbook:
Operating System Concepts -- Ninth Edition
A. Silberschatz, P.B. Galvin, and G. Gagne
(Eighth, Seventh,Sixth and Fifth editions,
and Java Versions are fine as well).

Alternate Books
Operating Systems: Principles and Practice, by T. Anderson and M. Dahlin (second
edition)
Modern Operating Systems, by Tanenbaum (Third edition)
Principles of Operating Systems, by L.F. Bic and A.C. Shaw, 2003.

Course logistics and details

Homeworks and Assignments
4 written homeworks in the quarter
1 programming assignment (knowledge of C++ or Java
required).
Handed out at midterm; submit/demo during Finals Week
Multistep assignment dont start in last week of classes!!!

Late homeworks will not be accepted.

All submissions will be made using the EEE Dropbox for the
course

Tests
Midterm tentatively Thursday, Week 6 in class
Final Exam per UCI course catalog

Grading Policy
Homeworks - 30%
4 written homeworks each worth 5% of the final grade.
1 programming assignment worth 10% of the final grade

Midterm - 30% of the final grade

Final exam - 40% of the final grade
Final assignment of grades will be based on a curve.

Lecture Schedule
Week 1: Prof. Amiri Sani
Introduction to Operating Systems, Computer System Structures,
Operating System Structures

Week 2 : Prof. Venkat

Processes and Threads

Week 3: Prof. Venkat/Prof. Amiri Sani

Processes and Threads, and CPU Scheduling

Week 4: Prof. Venkat

Scheduling

Week 5: Prof. Venkat

Process Synchronization

Course Schedule
Week 6 Prof. Venkat
Deadlocks, Midterm review and exam

Week 7 Prof. Amiri Sani

Memory Management

Week 8 Prof. Amiri Sani

Memory Management, Virtual Memory

Week 9 Prof. Amiri Sani

File Systems Interface and Implementation

Week 10 Prof. Amiri Sani

I/O Subsystems

Office hours
Instructors
Mondays 3-4:30pm
Weeks 2-6 at Prof. Venkats office (DBH 2086)
Weeks 7-10 at Prof. Amiri Sanis office (DBH 3062)

TAs
TBD

10

Piazza
https://piazza.com/uci/spring2016/compsci143a
Post questions here.

11

Overview
What is an operating system?
Operating systems history
Computer system and operating system structure

12

What is an Operating System?

13

What is an Operating System?

OS is the software that acts an intermediary between
the user applications and computer hardware.

14

Computer System Components

Hardware
Provides basic computing resources (CPU, memory, I/O devices).

Operating System
Controls and coordinates the use of hardware among application programs.

Application Programs
Solve computing problems of users (compilers, database systems, video
games, business programs such as banking software).

Users
People, machines, other computers

15

Abstract View of System

User
1

compiler

User
2

User
3

assembler

Text editor

...

User
n

Database
system

Application Programs
Operating System
Computer
Hardware

16

Operating system roles

Referee:
Resource allocation among users, applications
Isolation of different users, applications from each other
Communication between users, applications

17

Operating system roles

Illusionist
Each application appears to have the entire machine to itself
Infinite number of processors, (near) infinite amount of memory,
reliable storage, reliable network transport

18

Operating system roles

Glue
Libraries, user interface widgets,
Reduces cost of developing software

19

Example: file systems

Referee
Prevent users from accessing each others files without
permission

Illusionist
Files can grow (nearly) arbitrarily large
Files persist even when the machine crashes in the middle of a
save

Glue
Named directories, printf,

20

OS challenges

21

OS challenges
Reliability
Does the system do what it was designed to do?

22

OS challenges
Availability
What portion of the time is the system working?
Mean Time To Failure (MTTF), Mean Time to Repair

23

OS challenges
Security
Can the system be compromised by an attacker?

24

OS challenges
Privacy
Data is accessible only to authorized users

25

OS challenges
Performance
Latency/response time
How long does an operation take to complete?

Throughput
How many operations can be done per unit of time?

Overhead
How much extra work is done by the OS?

Fairness
How equal is the performance received by different users?

Predictability
How consistent is the performance over time?

26

OS challenges
Portability
For programs:
Application programming interface (API)
For the kernel
Hardware abstraction layer

27

OS needs to keep pace with

hardware improvements

28

Why should I study Operating

Systems?

29

Why should I study Operating

Systems?
Need to understand interaction between the hardware and
software
Need to understand basic principles in the design of computer
systems
efficient resource management, security, flexibility

30

Why should I study Operating

Systems?
Because it enables you to do things that are difficult/impossible
otherwise.

31

Example: Rio: I/O sharing implemented in

the operating system kernel

32

Observation: I/O devices important for

personal computers

33

A personal computer today

Super AMOLED display

Capacitive touchscreen (multitouch)
Audio (speaker, microphone)
Vibration
S pen
13 MP front camera
2 MP back camera
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Proximity sensor
Compass
Barometer
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
Gesture sensor
GPS
4G LTE
NFC
WiFi
Bluetooth
Infrared
64 GB internal storage (extended by microSD)
Adreno 330 GPU
Hexagon DSP
Multimedia processor

34

A personal computer today

Super AMOLED display

Capacitive touchscreen (multitouch)
Audio (speaker, microphone)
interaction
Vibration
S pen
13 MP front camera
2 MP back camera
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Proximity sensor
Compass
Barometer
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
Gesture sensor
GPS
4G LTE
NFC
WiFi
Bluetooth
Infrared
64 GB internal storage (extended by microSD)
Adreno 330 GPU
Hexagon DSP
Multimedia processor

35

A personal computer today

Super AMOLED display

Capacitive touchscreen (multitouch)
Audio (speaker, microphone)
Vibration
S pen
13 MP front camera
2 MP back camera
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Proximity sensor
Compass
sensing
Barometer
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
Gesture sensor
GPS
4G LTE
NFC
WiFi
Bluetooth
Infrared
64 GB internal storage (extended by microSD)
Adreno 330 GPU
Hexagon DSP
Multimedia processor

36

A personal computer today

Super AMOLED display

Capacitive touchscreen (multitouch)
Audio (speaker, microphone)
Vibration
S pen
13 MP front camera
2 MP back camera
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Proximity sensor
Compass
Barometer
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
connectivity,
Gesture sensor
storage
GPS
4G LTE
NFC
WiFi
Bluetooth
Infrared
64 GB internal storage (extended by microSD)
Adreno 330 GPU
Hexagon DSP
Multimedia processor

37

A personal computer today

Super AMOLED display

Capacitive touchscreen (multitouch)
Audio (speaker, microphone)
Vibration
S pen
13 MP front camera
2 MP back camera
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Proximity sensor
Compass
Barometer
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
Gesture sensor
GPS
4G LTE
NFC
WiFi
Bluetooth
Infrared
64 GB internal storage (extended by microSD)
Adreno 330 GPU
Hexagon DSP
acceleration
Multimedia processor

38

Multiple computers for unique I/O

39

Multiple computers for unique I/O

40

Multiple computers for unique I/O

41

I/O sharing

42

How to build this?

43

How to build this?

44

Application layer
Application

Application

Daemons, Libraries

Daemons, Libraries

User space
Kernel

Device driver

I/O device

Client

User space
Kernel

Device driver

IP Webcam
Wi-Fi Speaker
MightyText

I/O device

Server

45

Do not meet our criteria

High engineering effort
No support for legacy applications
No support for all I/O device features

46

Rio: I/O servers for sharing I/O between

mobile systems

Ardalan Amiri Sani, Kevin Boos, Min Hong Yun, and Lin Zhong, "Rio: A System Solution for Sharing I/O between Mobile
Systems," in Proc. ACM MobiSys, June 2014. (Best Paper Award)

47

Key idea: device files as the boundary

I/O devices abstracted as

(device) files in Unix-like OSes
e.g., /dev/foo

48

Key idea: device files as the boundary

Application
File operations

User space
Kernel

Device file
/dev/foo

Device driver

I/O device

49

Key idea: device files as the boundary

Application
File operations

User space

User space

Kernel

Kernel

Device file
/dev/foo

Device driver

I/O device

Client

Server

50

Key idea: device files as the boundary

Application
File operations

User space

User space

Kernel

Kernel

Virtual device file

Device file

/dev/foo

/dev/foo

Device driver

I/O device

Client

Server

51

Key idea: device files as the boundary

Application
File operations

User space

Wireless
Link

Kernel

Virtual device file

/dev/foo

User space

Stub

Kernel

Stub

Device file
/dev/foo

Device driver

I/O device

Client

Server

52

Video demo of Rio

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~mobile/rio.html

53

Operating systems are everywhere

54

Operating systems are everywhere

55

Operating systems are everywhere

56

Operating systems are everywhere

57

Overview
What is an operating system?
Operating systems history
Computer system and operating system structure

58

Operating systems history

Early Operating Systems
Simple Batch Systems
Multiprogrammed Batch Systems
Time-sharing Systems
Personal and mobile Computer Systems

59

People-to-Computer Ratio Over

Time
From David Culler (Berkeley)

60

Early Systems - Bare Machine

(1950s)
Hardware expensive ; Human cheap
Structure
Large machines run from console
Single user system
Programmer/User as operator

Paper tape or punched cards

Early software
Assemblers, compilers, linkers, loaders,
device drivers, libraries of common subroutines.

From John Ousterhout slides

Secure execution
Inefficient use of expensive resources
Low CPU utilization, high setup time.

61

Batch Systems (1960s)

Reduce setup time by batching jobs with similar requirements.
Hire an operator
User is NOT the operator
Automatic job sequencing
Forms a rudimentary OS.

Resident Monitor
Holds initial control, control transfers to job
and then back to monitor.

From John Ousterhout slides

Problem
Need to distinguish job from job and data from program.
Special cards indicate what to do.
User program prevented from performing I/O

62

Batch Systems (1960s)

Solutions to speed up I/O:
Offline Processing
load jobs into memory from tapes, card reading and line printing are done
offline.
User submits card deck
cards put on tape
tape processed by operator
output written to tape
tape printed on printer
Separate user from computer

Problems
Long turnaround time - up to 2 DAYS!!!
Low CPU utilization
I/O and CPU could not overlap; slow mechanical devices.

63

Batch Systems (1960s)

Solutions to speed up I/O:
Spooling (Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On-Line)
Use disk (random access device) as large storage for reading as many input
files as possible and storing output files until output devices are ready to
accept them.
Allows overlap - I/O of one job with computation of another.
Introduces notion of a job pool that allows OS choose next job to run so as
to increase CPU utilization.

64

Speeding up I/O: Direct Memory

Access (DMA)
Data moved directly between I/O devices and memory
CPU can work on other tasks
Memory

CPU
I/O instructions

I/O devices

65

Batch Systems - I/O completion

How do we know that I/O is complete?
Polling:
Device sets a flag when it is busy.
Program tests the flag in a loop waiting for completion of I/O.

Interrupts:
On completion of I/O, device forces CPU to jump to a specific
instruction address that contains the interrupt service routine.
After the interrupt has been processed, CPU returns to code it was
executing prior to servicing the interrupt.

66

Multiprogramming
Use interrupts to run multiple programs simultaneously
When a program performs I/O, instead of polling, execute another
program till interrupt is received.

Requires secure memory, I/O for each program.

Requires intervention if program indefinite loops.
Requires CPU scheduling to choose the next job to run.

67

Timesharing
Hardware getting cheaper; Human getting expensive
Programs queued for execution in FIFO order.
Like multiprogramming, but timer device interrupts after
a quantum (timeslice).
Interrupted program is returned to end of FIFO
Next program is taken from head of FIFO

Control card interpreter replaced by command

language interpreter.

68

Timesharing (cont.)
Interactive (action/response)
when OS finishes execution of one command, it seeks the next
control statement from user.

File systems
online filesystem is required for users to access data and code.

Virtual memory
Job is swapped in and out of memory to disk.

69

Personal Computing Systems desktops

Hardware cheap ; Human expensive
Single user systems, portable.
I/O devices - keyboards, mice, display screens, small
printers.
Single user systems may not need advanced CPU
utilization or protection features.
Advantages:
user convenience, responsiveness, ubiquitous

70

Personal Computing Systems Mobile and wearable Systems

Hardware very cheap ; Human very expensive
Single user, multiple computers
Laptops
Smartphones
Tablets
Smart glasses
Smart watches

71

Overview
What is an operating system?
Operating systems history
Computer system and operating system structure

72

Computer System & OS Structures

Computer System Organization
Process abstraction and hardware protection
System call and OS services
Storage architecture
OS organization
OS tasks
Virtual Machines
73

Computer System Organization

74

CPU execution
Addr 232-1
R0

R31
F0

F30
PC

Fetch
Exec

Execution sequence:
Fetch Instruction at PC
Decode
Execute (possibly using registers)
Write results to registers/mem
PC = Next Instruction(PC)
Repeat

Data1
Data0
Inst237
Inst236

Inst5
Inst4
Inst3
Inst2
Inst1
Inst0

PC
PC
PC
PC

Addr 0
From Berkeley OS course

75

Computer System Organization

I/O devices

76

I/O devices
I/O devices and the CPU execute concurrently.
Each device controller is in charge of a particular
device type
Each device controller has a local buffer. I/O is from the
device to local buffer of controller

CPU moves data from/to main memory to/from the

local buffers
Device controller interrupts CPU on completion of
I/O

77

Interrupts
Interrupt transfers control to the interrupt service routine
Interrupt Service Routine: Segments of code that determine action
to be taken for interrupt.

Determining the type of interrupt

Polling: same interrupt handler called for all interrupts, which then
polls all devices to figure out the reason for the interrupt
Interrupt Vector Table: different interrupt handlers will be executed
for different interrupts

78

Interrupt handling
OS preserves the state of the CPU
stores registers and the program counter (address of interrupted
instruction).

Incoming interrupts are disabled while another

interrupt is being processed to prevent a lost

interrupt.

79

Different types of I/O processing for

programs
Synchronous I/O
After I/O is requested, wait until I/O is done. Program will be
idle.
no simultaneous I/O processing, at most one outstanding I/O
request at a time.

Asynchronous I/O
After I/O is requested, control returns to user program
without waiting for I/O completion.Device Status table - holds
type, address and state for each device
OS indexes into I/O device table to determine device status and
modify table entry to include interrupt.

80

Direct Memory Access (DMA)

Used for high speed I/O

devices able to transmit
information at close to memory
speeds.
Device controller transfers
blocks of data from buffer
storage directly to main
memory without CPU
intervention.
Only one interrupt is generated
per block, rather than one per
byte (or word).

Memory

CPU
I/O instructions

I/O devices

81

Process Abstraction

82

Process Abstraction
Process: an instance of a program, running
with limited rights

83

Process Abstraction
Process: an instance of a program, running
with limited rights
Thread: a sequence of instructions within a
process
Potentially many threads per process (for now 1:1)

Address space: set of rights of a process

Memory that the process can access
Other permissions the process has (e.g., which system
calls it can make, what files it can access)

84

How to limit process rights?

85

Hardware Protection
Dual Mode Operation
Memory Protection
CPU Protection
I/O Protection

86

Should a process be able to execute

any instructions?

87

Should a process be able to execute

any instructions?
No

Can alter system configuration

Can access unauthorized memory
Can access unauthorized I/O
etc.

How to prevent?

88

Dual-mode operation
Provide hardware support to differentiate between at
least two modes of operation:
1. User mode -- execution done on behalf of a user.
2. Kernel mode (monitor/supervisor/system mode) -execution done on behalf of operating system.

Privileged instructions are only executable in the

kernel mode
Executing privileged instructions in the user mode
traps into the kernel mode
Trap is a software generated interrupt caused either by an error or
a user request

89

Dual-mode operation(cont.)
Mode bit added to computer
hardware to indicate the current
mode: kernel(0) or user(1).
When an interrupt or trap
occurs, hardware switches to
kernel mode.

User
Interrupt/
fault

Set
user
mode

Kernel

90

How to isolate memory access?

91

Process address space

For a 32-bit processor there are 232 = 4 billion
addresses

What happens when you read or write to an

address?
Perhaps Nothing
Perhaps acts like regular memory
Perhaps ignores writes
Perhaps causes I/O operation
(Memory-mapped I/O)

Process Address Space

Address space the set of accessible

addresses + state associated with them:

Perhaps causes exception (fault)

(code)

92

Virtual Address

93

Providing the Illusion of Separate Address Spaces

Code
Data
Heap
Stack

Data 2

Code
Data
Heap
Stack

Stack 1
Heap 1
Code 1
Stack 2

Prog 1
Virtual
Address
Space 1

Prog 2
Virtual
Address
Space 2

Data 1
Heap 2
Code 2
kernel code

Translation Map 1

kernel data
kernel heap &
Stacks

Translation Map 2
Load new Translation Map on Switch

Physical Address Space

94

Address translation and memory

protection
Processor

Virtual
address

Translation Invalid

Raise
Exception

Valid

Data

Physical
address

Physical
Memory

Data

95

Memory Protection
Must provide memory protection at least for the interrupt
vector and the interrupt service routines.
When a process is running, only memory in that process
address space must be accessible.
When executing in kernel mode, the kernel has
unrestricted access to all memory.

96

Memory Protection: base and bounds

To provide memory protection, add
two registers that determine the
range of legal addresses a program
may address.
Base Register - holds smallest
legal physical memory address.
Limit register - contains the size of
the range.

Memory outside the defined range

is protected.

300040

420940

Base register
300040

120900
Limit register

1024000

97

Virtually Addressed Base and Bounds

The load instructions for the base and limit

registers are privileged instructions.
98

CPU Protection

How to prevent a process from executing

indefinitely?

99

CPU Protection
Timer - interrupts computer after specified period to
ensure that OS maintains control.
Timer is decremented every clock tick.
When timer reaches a value of 0, an interrupt occurs.

Timer is commonly used to implement time sharing.

Timer is also used to compute the current time.
Load timer is a privileged instruction.

100

I/O Protection
All I/O instructions are privileged instructions.
Must ensure that a user program could never gain
control of the computer in kernel mode, for e.g. a
user program that as part of its execution, stores a
new address in the interrupt vector.

101

Question
Given the I/O instructions are privileged, how do
users perform I/O?

102

Question
Given the I/O instructions are privileged, how do
users perform I/O?
Via system calls - the method used by a process to
request action by the operating system.

103

System Calls
User code can issue a syscall, which causes a trap
Kernel handles the syscall

104

System Calls
Interface between running
program and the OS.
Assembly language instructions
(macros and subroutines)
Some higher level languages
allow system calls to be made
directly (e.g. C)

Passing parameters between a

running program and OS via
registers, memory tables or
stack.
Linux has about 300 system
calls
read(), write(), open(), close(),
fork(), exec(), ioctl(),..

105

System services or system programs

Convenient environment for program development
and execution. User view of OS is defined by
system services, not system calls.
Command Interpreter (sh, csh, ksh) - parses/executes
other system programs
File manipulation - copy (cp), print (lpr), compare(cmp,
diff)
File modification - editing (ed, vi, emacs)
Application programs - send mail (mail), read news (rn)
Programming language support (cc)
Status information, communication
etc.

106

Command Interpreter System

Commands that are given to the operating system
via command statements that execute
Process creation and deletion, I/O handling, Secondary
Storage Management, Main Memory Management, File
System Access, Protection, Networking.

Obtains the next command and executes it.

Programs that read and interpret control
statements also called Control card interpreter, command-line interpreter, shell
(in UNIX)

107

System Design and Implementation

Establish design goals
User Goals
System Goals

Software Engineering Separate mechanism from policy. Policies determine what

needs to be done, mechanisms determine how they are
done.

Choose a high-level implementation language

faster implementation, more compact, easier to debug

108

System Generation
OS written for a class of machines, must be
configured for each specific site.
SYSGEN is the process to customize OS for the
exact hardware
Source code can be customized
Pre-compiled modules selected and linked based on hardware
All code is compiled, but right code is chosen at execution time,
e.g., by using a table

109

System Boot

Bootstrap program - loader program loads kernel,

kernel loads rest of OS.
Bootstrap program stored in ROM

110

Storage Structure
Main memory - only large storage media that the
CPU can access directly.
Secondary storage - extension of main memory
that has large nonvolatile storage capacity.
Magnetic disks - rigid metal or glass platters covered with
magnetic recording material.
Disk surface is logically divided into tracks, subdivided into
sectors.
Disk controller determines logical interaction between device
and computer.

111

Storage Hierarchy
Storage systems are organized in a hierarchy
based on
Speed
Cost
Volatility

Caching - process of copying information into faster

storage system; main memory can be viewed as
fast cache for secondary storage.

112

Storage Device Hierarchy

113

Operating Systems: How are they

organized?
Simple
Only one or two levels of code

Layered
Lower levels independent of upper levels

Modular
Core kernel with Dynamically loadable modules

Microkernel
OS built from many user-level processes

114

OS Structure - Simple Approach

MS-DOS - provides a lot of functionality in little
space.
Not divided into modules, Interfaces and levels of
functionality are not well separated

115

Original UNIX System Structure

Limited structuring, has 2 separable parts
Systems programs
Kernel
everything below system call interface and above physical hardware.
Filesystem, CPU scheduling, memory management

116

Layered OS Structure

OS divided into number of

layers - bottom layer is
hardware, highest layer is
the user interface.
Each layer uses functions
and services of only lowerlevel layers.
THE Operating System and
Linux Kernel has successive
layers of abstraction.
117

Layered Operating System

118

Modules-based Structure
Most modern operating systems implement modules
Each core component is separate
Each talks to the others over known interfaces
Each is loadable as needed within the kernel

Overall, similar to layers but with more flexibility

Linux makes extensive use of modules

119

Monolithic vs. Microkernel OS

Monolithic OSes have large kernels with a lot of components
Linux, Windows, Mac

Microkernels moves as much from the kernel into user

space
Small core OS running at kernel level
OS Services built from many independent user-level processes

Communication between modules with message passing

Benefits:
Easier to extend a microkernel
Easier to port OS to new architectures
More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode)
Fault Isolation (parts of kernel protected from other parts)
More secure

Detriments:
Performance overhead severe for nave implementation

120

A microkernel OS

Slide adapted from http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~walpole/class/cs533/fall2015/home.html

121

OS Task: Process Management

Process - fundamental concept in OS
Process is an instance of a program in execution.
Process needs resources - CPU time, memory, files/data
and I/O devices.

OS is responsible for the following process

management activities.
Process creation and deletion
Process suspension and resumption
Process synchronization and interprocess communication
Process interactions - deadlock detection, avoidance and
correction

122

OS Task: Memory Management

Main Memory is an array of addressable words or
bytes that is quickly accessible.
Main Memory is volatile.
OS is responsible for:
Allocate and deallocate memory to processes.
Managing multiple processes within memory - keep track of which
parts of memory are used by which processes. Manage the
sharing of memory between processes.
Determining which processes to load when memory becomes
available.

123

OS Task: Secondary Storage and I/O

Management
Since primary storage is expensive and volatile,
secondary storage is required for backup.
Disk is the primary form of secondary storage.
OS performs storage allocation, free-space management
and disk scheduling.

I/O system in the OS consists of

Buffer caching and management
Device driver interface that abstracts device details
Drivers for specific hardware devices

124

OS Task: File System Management

File is a collection of related information defined by
creator - represents programs and data.
OS is responsible for
File creation and deletion
Directory creation and deletion
Supporting primitives for file/directory manipulation.
Mapping files to disks (secondary storage).
Backup files on archival media (tapes).

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OS Task: Protection and Security

Protection mechanisms control access of programs and
processes to user and system resources.
Protect user from himself, user from other users, system from
users.

Protection mechanisms must:

Distinguish between authorized and unauthorized use.
Specify access controls to be imposed on use.
Provide mechanisms for enforcement of access control.
Security mechanisms provide trust in system and privacy
authentication, certification, encryption etc.

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OS Task: Networking
Connecting processors in a distributed system
Distributed System is a collection of processors
that do not share memory or a clock.
Processors are connected via a communication
network.
Advantages:
Allows users and system to exchange information
provide computational speedup
increased reliability and availability of information

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Virtual Machines

Physical Machine
Application

OS

Hardware

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Virtual Machines
Virtual Machine 1

Virtual Machine 2

Virtual Machine 3

Application

Application

Application

OS

OS

OS

Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) (aka Hypervisor)

Hardware

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Virtual Machines

Use cases
Resource configuration
Running multiple OSes, either the same or different
OSes
Run existing OS binaries on different architecture

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Summary of this weeks lecture

What is an operating system?
Operating systems history
Computer system and operating system structure

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