Chapter 2

Operating System Overview

Spring 2020 © 2020 by Greg Ozbirn, UT-Dallas, for use 1

with Stalling's 9th Ed. OS book
 OS Objectives
• The OS controls the execution of application programs and
acts as an interface between the user and the system
hardware.

• We can say it has three main objectives:

– Convenience: provide a user/computer interface.
– Efficiency: act as a resource manager for the system.
– Ability to evolve: adaptable to new features, updates
and changes.

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 Convenience
• The OS provide a user/computer interface to make it more
convenient for users to use the system.
• Application programmers and end users need a way to
interact with the system hardware but usually don’t need to
know details of the computer’s hardware.
• The OS acts to insulate the user or programmer from
hardware details, making it easier to access and use the
system.
• The OS provides services like file management and control
of I/O devices that an end user or an application
programmer needs but would not want to write each time a
new program is written.
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 Convenience
Services the OS may provide include:
• Program development: editors and debuggers to assist in
program creation.
• Program execution: details of program execution are
handled by the OS (initialization, obtaining resources, etc.)
• I/O device access: provides generic interface to diverse set
of I/O devices.
• File access: protection mechanisms.
• System access: system access is controlled by the OS.
• Error detection: if a program has an error, the OS takes
action to minimize impact and correct or report the error.
• Accounting: usage statistics can be collected and used for
system optimization or billings.
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 Interfaces
• Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
– Defines the set of machine language instructions that a computer
can follow. This is the interface between the hardware and the
software. Applications and utilities can only utilize a subset of the
instructions. The OS can use the additional instructions.
• Application Binary Interface (ABI)
– Defines a standard for binary portability across programs. The
ABI defines the system call interface to the OS and the hardware
resources and services available in a system through the user ISA.
• Application Programming Interface (API)
– Gives a program access to the hardware resources and services
available in a system through the user ISA supplemented with
high-level language library calls. Any system calls are usually
performed through libraries. A program can run on another system
with the same API after recompilation on the new system.
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 Efficiency
• A computer can be viewed as a set of resources.
• If applications had ownership of system resources then
sharing resources would be difficult.
• It is better to let the OS own the resources, so the OS
decides which programs get which resources.

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 Efficiency
• The OS is therefore in control of the system.
• This situation is a bit unusual—we normally think of a
controller as external to what is controlled, for example, a
thermostat controls a heating unit.
• However, the OS is itself just software, which controls
other software.
• The OS must relinquish the processor to an application and
depends on the processor to regain control.
• Yet, the processor is itself just a resource managed by the
OS.

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 Ability to Evolve
• OS’s evolve for many reasons:
– Hardware upgrades plus new kinds of hardware.
Examples in the past include memory paging
mechanisms and graphics display terminals.
– New services. This can be in the form of new
capabilities the OS needs to provide (for a new
application, for example).
– Fixes. OS’s have bugs, too.

• It is helpful if the OS is modular in design, which will

make the changes listed above easier to implement.

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 History and Evolution of OS’s
1940’s – 50’s
• No operating system, users and applications interacted
directly with the hardware.

• 2 problems with this:

– Scheduling - consisted of sign-up sheet to reserve time
to use the system. This resulted in wasted time because
users might schedule too much or too little time.
– Setup time – without an OS to manage resources,
considerable time was spent in setting up a program to
run with all of the right resources (mount tapes, etc.)

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 Serial Processing
• Because users had access to the system one at a time, this
could be called serial processing.
• Over time, various system software was developed to
make serial processing more efficient.
• Machine utilization was also important because machines
were very expensive.

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 Batch Operating System
1950’s – 60’s.
• A “monitor” program accepts a batch of jobs from the
operator and runs each one in turn.
• The user no longer has direct access to the machine, but
instead submits the job to the computer operator to run.
• The operator batches the jobs together and submits them
for execution by the monitor.
• The monitor (or most of it) remains in memory, called the
“resident monitor”.
• The monitor increases efficiency by scheduling each job in
turn automatically, and by reducing setup time through a
JCL (job control language), which specifies setup steps for
the monitor.
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 Early JCL Example
$JOB new job
$FTN load and run FORTRAN compiler
•
• FORTRAN instructions
•
$LOAD load resulting object file
$RUN run the program
•
• Data
•
$END
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On punched cards or tape
 Early Examples
• General Motors developed perhaps the first batch OS for
the IBM 701.
• The concept was refined by other IBM customers and
implemented on the IBM 704.
• IBSYS was an IBM OS for the 7090/7094 computers,
particularly notable due to its influence on other systems.

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 Batch Operating System
Desirable hardware features to support a batch OS are:
• Memory protection: don’t overwrite the monitor!
• Timer: prevents a job from monopolizing the system (job
ends when timer expires).
• Privileged Instructions: only the monitor can do certain
things, such as I/O commands. If an application wants to
do an I/O, it asks the monitor to do it.
• Interrupts: provides better way to handle transfer of
control from the monitor to user programs.

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 Modes
• Memory protection and privileged instructions lead to the
concept of modes of operation.
• The processor usually supports two modes of operation:
– user mode: for user programs, has limitations
– kernel mode: for the OS, has no limitations

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 Batch Operating System
• Notice that some of the main memory has been given to
the monitor, and some of the processor execution time has
been given to the monitor.
• These are both overhead costs.
• Even so, the batch system improves utilization of the
system.

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 Multiprogrammed Batch Systems
• Even with automatic job sequencing, the processor is often
idle.
• The problem is that I/O devices are slow compared to the
processor.
• As the example on the next slide shows, utilization of the
processor can be very low.

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 Multiprogrammed Batch Systems
• Uniprogramming means running one program at a time.
• Multiprogramming (or multitasking) means running more
than one program at a time.
• Multiprogramming is an extension of uniprogramming.
• With a monitor, there are already two programs (the
monitor and the program).
• Why not have the monitor and two programs? That way,
when one program must wait for an I/O, the other can run.
• Why not three or more programs?

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 Multiprogrammed Batch Systems

In a uniprogramming (one program at a time) environment,

the program waits for an I/O to finish. This is not efficient
use of the processor:

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 Multiprogramming

Running two programs allows one to run

while the other waits:

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 Multiprogramming

Adding more programs further increases the utilization:

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Sample Jobs:

JOB1 JOB2 JOB3

Type of job Heavy compute Heavy I/O Heavy I/O
Duration 5 min. 15 min. 10 min.
Memory required 50M 100 M 75 M
Need disk? No No Yes
Need terminal No Yes No
Need printer? No No Yes

System memory: 250 Meg

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 Results:
Uniprogramming Multiprogramming
Processor use 20% 40%
Memory use 33% 67%
Disk use 33% 67%
Printer use 33% 67%
can
Elapsed time 30 min. 15 min. calculate

Throughput rate 6 jobs/hr 12 jobs/hr

Mean resp. time 18 min. 10 min.

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 Multiprogramming
• Note that hardware features of I/O interrupts or DMA
make multiprogramming effective (interrupts so that the
CPU can proceed with another program after starting an
I/O, or DMA so that the I/O can take place while the
processor runs another program).
• Memory management is also more important for
multiprogramming since several different jobs may be in
memory.
• Scheduling is also important to determine which of the
jobs to run next.

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 Time-Sharing Systems
• Batch systems run programs in the “background” and
generally don’t have direct user interaction.
• For some jobs, an interactive mode of processing is
required.
• Today, most users interact with programs on a PC, but in
the 1960’s this was not an option.
• Instead, a different kind of system known as a time-sharing
system was developed.
• In a time-sharing systems, multiple users interact with the
computer system through computer terminals.
• Processor time is split among the set of users.
• This works well because users are slow compared to the
CPU.
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 CTSS
• An example of an early time-sharing system was the CTSS
system.
• It was developed at MIT in 1961 as part of Project MAC
(Multiple Access Computers), first for the IBM 7090 and
later ported to the IBM 7094.
• It was very influential, leading to Multics which was also
part of Project MAC, and inspired the development of
Unix.
• The project leader, Dr. Corbato, was awarded the Turing
award in 1990.

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 CTSS
• CTSS’s implementation was primitive.
• A clock interrupt occurred every 0.2 seconds and the OS
could decide to give control to another user.
• The preempted user’s program would be written to disk
before reading the next user’s program in.
• To minimize disk I/O, memory was only written out where
the incoming program would overlay it.
• If the new program did not fully overlay the previous
program, then a portion of it might still be present when it
is time to reload it, thus minimizing the loading effort.
• This is shown on the next slide:

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 Batch Multiprogramming versus Time-Sharing

Batch Multiprogramming Time Sharing

Principal objective Maximize processor use Minimize response time

Source of directives to Job control language commands Commands entered at the

operating system provided with the job terminal

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 Major OS Achievements
Major advances in the development of OS’s:
• Processes
• Memory management
• Information protection and security
• Scheduling and resource management

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Major OS Achievements
Processes
• A process can be defined many ways:
– A program in execution
– An instance of a program running on a computer
– The entity that can be assigned to and executed on a
processor
– A unit of activity characterized by a single sequential
thread of execution, a current state, and an associated
set of system resources.

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 Process Development
• Three major lines of development created problems in
timing and synchronization that led to the development of
a process:
1. Multiprogrammed batch systems
Processor is kept busy by switching between programs
in response to events such as I/O activity
2. Time-sharing systems
Processor time is shared among a number of active
users by giving each user a slice of time.
3. Real-time transaction systems
Supports applications written to perform a query or
update against a database by a user, such as an airline
reservation system. 37
 System Problems
• Running multiple programs at the same time presents a
variety of problems, such as:
• Improper synchronization
– Need a reliable way for one program to wait on another.
• Failed mutual exclusion
– Need to prevent multiple programs from accessing a
resource such as a file at the same time.
• Nondeterminate program operation
– Need program results to be independent of other
programs running at the same time.
• Deadlocks
– Need to avoid situations in which programs are waiting
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on each other.
 Processes
• The demands of these systems required a systematic way
to monitor and control the various programs executing on
the processor.
• The concept of a process provides the foundation.
• A process can be thought of as having three parts:
– An executable program
– The data the program is using
– The execution context
• The execution context includes the information required
by the OS to control the process.

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 Processes
• A process list may be used to keep track of processes.
• The process list contains an entry for each process.
• Each entry contains a pointer to the process in memory and
perhaps process context information as well.
• Other context information may be stored with the process
in memory.

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Major OS Achievements
Memory Management
• Requirements for multiple processes in memory:
• Isolation
– Keep process from accessing or overwriting the
memory of another.
• Automatic allocation and management
– Programmer should not worry about memory mgmt.
• Support of modular programming
– Create, destroy, alter size of modules dynamically
• Protection and access control
– Restrict or grant access as needed
• Long-term storage
– Persist after computer is off. 42
 Virtual Memory
• Virtual memory allows a program to have a logical view of
memory.
• This gives the program a view of memory that may be
much larger than physical memory.
• Multiple programs may reside in main memory at the same
time, yet appear to have all of memory to themselves.
• This is accomplished by swapping pieces in and out of
main memory (to the disk drive) as needed.
• A paging system swaps pieces of programs, called pages,
that are the same size. This makes it easy to replace one
piece with another.

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 Virtual Memory
• A program runs in virtual memory as if it had all of
memory to itself.
• It references a memory address which is actually a
“virtual” (or logical) address rather than a physical
address.
• This address consists of a page number and offset.
• The paging system maps the logical page to the physical
page.
• Pages are swapped from disk to main memory as the
program runs.

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Major OS Achievements
Information Protection and Security
• Security has become a concern especially with the
accessibility provided by computer networks.
• It is important that data only be accessed by those
authorized to do so.
• The OS should attempt to control access to the system
itself and the information it stores.
• Examples:
– Availability: protecting the system against interruption
– Confidentiality: protecting against unauthorized access
to data
– Data integrity: protecting against unauthorized
modification
– Authenticity: protecting against false identities
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Major OS Achievements
Scheduling and resource management
Three factors to consider in scheduling:
• Fairness: processes should get equal treatment (if same
class and priority).
• Differential responsiveness: may need to discriminate
among different classes of jobs with different needs. OS
should meet total set of requirements. For example, if a
process is waiting to use an I/O device that is free, may
wish to schedule it.
• Efficiency: maximize throughput and minimize response
time.

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 Process Queues
• Scheduling may be implemented by using queues of
processes.
• A “short-term” queue contains processes currently in main
memory. Any of these processes could be run next.
Running each process in turn is called a “round-robin”
technique.
• A “long-term” queue contains processes waiting to run (by
being moved to the short-term queue).
• There may also be a series of I/O queues for processes
awaiting an I/O device.

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 Modern OS Characteristics
Five categories of modern Operating System design:
• Microkernel architecture
• Multithreading
• Symmetric multiprocessing
• Distributed operating systems
• Object-oriented design

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Modern OS Characteristics
Microkernel Architecture
• The kernel is the core piece, or nucleus, of the OS.
• It contains the most frequently used functions.
• Main memory contains the OS kernel and any other OS
routines currently in use, as well as programs and their
data.
• Older designs were “monolithic”, which means all one
piece.
• A “microkernel architecture” assigns only a few essential
functions to the kernel, and other OS services are provided
by processes that run like any other process.
• This approach simplifies the implementation, provides
flexibility, and lends itself well to distributed computing
by treating remote and local processes the same way.
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Modern OS Characteristics
Multithreading
• Process: one or more threads plus associated system
resources.
• Thread: a dispatchable unit of work.
• A process may have multiple threads of execution, where
each thread belongs to the process and shares its resources,
but executes independently and concurrently with other
threads of the process.
• This is useful for applications that need to perform
independent parallel tasks.
• This is more efficient than creating separate processes.

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Modern OS Characteristics
Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)
• Modern machines may have more than one processor.
• One way to manage multiple processors is known as SMP.

• SMP systems have these characteristics:

– there are multiple processors
– these processors share same main memory and I/O
facilities
– All processors can perform the same functions
(symmetric)

• An SMP OS can schedule threads on any available

processor in the system.
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 SMP Advantages Versus Uniprocessor
• Performance: parallel processing
• Availability: a processor failure only slows the system
versus halting it.
• Incremental growth: add additional processors.
• Scaling: vendors can offer products based on number of
processors available.

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Modern OS Characteristics
Distributed OS
• Multiple machines may be managed together with a
distributed operating system.
• This provides the illusion of a single main memory and
single secondary memory space for a cluster of separate
computers.
• Increasingly common, but still lags behind uniprocessor
and SMP systems.

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Modern OS Characteristics
Object-Oriented Design
• Object-oriented design techniques can be applied to the
operating system.
• Enables adding modular extensions to a small kernel.
• Enables programmers to customize an operating system
without disrupting system integrity.
• Gives the OS many of the benefits of object-orientation.

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 Faults
• MTTF - Mean time to failure
• MTTR – Mean time to repair
• Availability – fraction of time the system is available to
service user requests.
• Downtime – the time the system is not available.
• Uptime – the time the system is available.

• A = MTTF / (MTTF + MTTR)

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 Faults
• A fault could be due to hardware or software.
• A fault could be permanent, meaning it persists until it is
fixed, or temporary, meaning it may appear and go away.
• Temporary faults could be transient, such as a power
supply disturbance, or intermittent, such as a loose wire.

• Redundancy can increase fault tolerance:

• Spatial redundancy – multiple components
• Temporal redundancy – repeating an operation after an
error occurs.
• Information redundancy – use of error correction or
detection techniques.
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 OS Techniques for Fault Tolerance
• Process isolation – helps to prevent a fault in one
application from affecting another.
• Concurrency controls – helps ensure correct operation and
detection of problems such as deadlock.
• Virtual machines – provides a greater degree of isolation
as well as redundancy through multiple virtual machines.
• Checkpoints and rollbacks – save state so that recovery is
possible in the event an error occurs.

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End of Slides

based on Stalling's official slides 63