AC51001 - Internet & Computer Systems

Section 1 - Lecture 2: Operating Systems 1

Housekeeping
A change in our Registry system means that students not taking this module compulsorily are not on the register (and this module is thus not on their My Dundee) Students who have done a computing degree previously should NOT be taking this module Login details for everyone to be resolved

In todays lecture ...

What is an operating system? Parts of an operating system Background history and PC memory

Overview

Background - why an OS?

Memory

CPU

I/O

No Operating System
APPLICATIONS (standard software)

HARDWARE (partly standard)

6

With Operating System

APPLICATIONS (standard software)

OPERATING SYSTEM

HARDWARE (partly standard)

7

What is an operating system?

An operating system is software (usually a substantial program) which provides the basic level of operation of a computer, to both the user and the hardware. In addition, it avoids the user/programmer having to know intimate details about the system hardware, and thus makes life easier for them! As all the basic operations are part of the OS, the programmer does not have to code all of these within their own application programs.
8

What is an operating system?

The two main functions of an OS are: providing a user interface: gives user the means to operate the computer (via text and/or graphics) gives user basic tools for manipulation of hardware and files providing efficient and safe management of the computers resources: memory, disks, serial devices, parallel devices, sound devices, other devices

Parts of the OS - Kernel

The kernel is the main OS program, containing code for all standard functions: user interface display I/O support: read keyboard, disk access, read/write serial and parallel devices memory management, CPU management always stored in main memory

10

Parts of the OS - Drivers

(Device) drivers are additional OS software: specific to certain hardware provide standard interface between main OS and non-standard hardware usually supplied by hardware manufacturer

11

Parts of the OS - Drivers

Application Application etc. ...

Operating System Kernel

Device-indep. s/ware etc. ...

Device driver

Device driver

Hardware component e.g. CD-ROM

Hardware component e.g. sound card

12

To summarise ...

Application

Application

Application

User Interface
OPERATING SYSTEM Device Driver Hardware Hardware

Hardware

13

A Brief History of OSs

14

History - main PC OSs

1980 1985 1990 1995 Unix 2000 2005 2010

MS-DOS MacOS
Windows 3 Win 95/98 Win NT

Win 2000/XP
Windows Vista / Win 7
15

PC Memory

16

Memory Hierarchy
For reasons of cost, the memory storage available consists of several different types of memory:
CPU registers
Cache Main memory

Virtual memory
Hard disk storage ( Backup storage )
17

Memory Hierarchy
Registers (~64) - internal to the processor Cache (~1MB) - very near the processor, very fast (operates automatically) Main memory (>1GB) - separate memory chips within computer hardware, fast Virtual memory (~size of main memory) hard disk space used to expand main memory (requires management), slow Hard disk (>250GB) - main secondary memory, also non-volatile, slow

18

Summary
We have seen: overview of operating systems concept brief history of operating systems
Next meeting: Friday at 9.00am in QMSR Operating systems 2

19

20