IBM OS/360

DESIGN PRINCIPLES
DONALD MICHAEL LUDLOW
>>Principle designer of OS/360.
 BATCH + REAL-TIME =
COMMERCIAL SCIENTIFIC
APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS

IBM
OS/360
 “2 GENERATION OS”!
nd

Primary Objectives
 Produce a “General Purpose System”.
 Accommodate an environment of diverse
applications and operating modes

Secondary Objectives
 Increased throughput.
 Lowered response time.
 Increased programmer productivity.
 Adaptability and expandability.
 PROBLEM: THE TWO OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS

1ST GENERATIONS OS
 The machine executed an incoming stream of
programs.
 Each program and its associated input data
corresponded to one application or problem.

1ST GENERATIONS REAL-TIME SYSTEM

 Incoming pieces of data were routed to one of a
number of processing programs.

These attitudes led to quite different system structures…

 THE ANSWER!!!

 Itwas not recognized that these points of view were matters

of degree rather than kind.
 The basic consideration, is one of emphasis:

Programs are used to process data in

both cases.

Because it is the combination of program and data that marks

a unit of work for control purposes, OS/360 takes such a
combination as the distinguishing property of a task.
 Examples…
TRANSACTION PROCESSING PROGRAM
 Two input transactions, A and B.
 To process A and B, two tasks are introduced into the system:
 A plus the program
 B plus the program.
 Here, the two tasks use the same program but different sets of
input data.

A MASTER FILE
 Two programs, X and Y
 Two tasks are introduced into the system:
 master file plus X
 master file plus Y
 Here the same input data join with two different programs to
form two different tasks.
 system capable of supporting
both commercial and scientific
applications.
 multiprogramming operating
system.
 general purpose mainframe
computer.
 The System/360 introduced a number of industry
standards to the marketplace, such as:
  The 8-bit byte (against financial pressure during development to reduce the
byte to 4 or 6 bits)
  Byte-addressable memory (as opposed to word-addressable memory)
  32-bit words
  Two's complement arithmetic
  Commercial use of microcoded CPUs
 The EBCDIC(extended binary coded decimal interchange code) character set
(a binary computer character code, representing 256 standard letters, numbers,
symbols, and control characters by means of eight binary digits).
  The IBM Floating Point Architecture (until superseded by the IEEE 754-1985
floating-point standard, 20 years later).
  System/360 could handle logic instructions as well as three types of
arithmetic instructions (fixed-point binary, fixed-point decimal and floating-point
hexadecimal).
  The system’s architectural unity helped lower customer costs, improved
computing efficiency and, quite frankly, took a lot of the mystery out of the art of
computing.
 IBM OS/360

KERNEL MODULES
 To create a General Purpose System, IBM
decided to allow each customer to generate the
kind of operating system they required by the
process of modular construction .

Modular Construction - creating an operating system by

modules where they can be assembled and linked together
in many combinations to form a unique operating system and
can be replaced independently of one another.

3 Types of Modules:
Required, Alternative and Optional.
 The
System/360’s
standardized
input and output
interfaces made it
possible for
customers to
tailor systems to
their specific
needs.
 REQUIRED PARTS
 TRANSLATORS

 SERVICE PROGRAMS

 CONTROL PROGRAM
 TRANSLATORS

A variety of translators are being provided for FORTRAN, COBOL, and

RPGL (a Report Program Generator Language). Also to be provided is
a translator for PL/I, a new generalized language.
 SERVICE PROGRAMS

 LINKAGE EDITOR
- makes it possible to change a program without re-translating more than the
affected segment of the program.
- individually translated programs can be combined into a single executable
program.
- handles program segments and overlays

 SORT/MERGE
- a generalized program that can arrange the fixed- or variable-length records
of a data set into ascending or descending order.

 Other service programs are routines for editing, arranging, and updating the
contents of the library; revising the index structure of the library catalog; printing
an inventory list of the catalog; and moving and editing data from one storage
medium to another.
 CONTROL PROGRAM

SUBDIVIDED INTO:
 SUPERVISOR  JOB SCHEDULER
 Allocating main storage  The primary activities of the job
 Loading programs into main storage scheduler are as follows:
 Controlling the concurrent execution of  Reading job definitions from source
tasks inputs
 Providing clocking services  Allocating input/output devices
 Attempting recoveries from exceptional  Initiating program execution for each
conditions
job step
 Logging errors  Writing job outputs
 Providing summary information on facility
usage
 Issuing and monitoring input/output
operations

 MASTER SCHEDULER
The master scheduler serves as a communication control link between the operator
and the system.

The control program as a whole performs three main functions: job management, task
management, and data management.