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Operating System Structures&

Processes

Notice: The slides for this lecture have been largely based on those accompanying the textbook Operating Systems Concepts with Java, by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne (2003). Many, if not all, the illustrations contained in this presentation come from this source.

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System Programs• System programs provide a convenient environment

for program development and execution. They can be divided into:– File manipulation – Status information– File modification– Programming language support– Program loading and execution– Communications– Application programs

• Most users’ view of the operation system is defined by system programs, not the actual system calls.

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UNIX System Structure

UNIX – limited by hardware functionality, the original UNIX operating system had limited structuring. The UNIX OS consists of two separable parts:– Systems programs, and– The kernel:

• Consists of everything below the system-call interface and above the physical hardware,

• Provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management, and other operating-system functions; a large number of functions for one level.

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UNIX System Structure

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Layered Approach

• The operating system is divided into a number of layers (levels), each built on top of lower layers. The bottom layer (layer 0), is the hardware; the highest (layer N) is the user interface.

• With modularity, layers are selected such that each uses functions (operations) and services of only lower-level layers.

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An Operating System Layer

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Microkernel System Structure

• Moves as much from the kernel into “user” space.• Communication takes place between user modules using

message passing.• Benefits:

– Easier to extend a microkernel,– Easier to port the operating system to new architectures,– More reliable (less code is running in kernel mode),– More secure.

• Detriments:– Performance overhead of user space to kernel space

communication.

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Modules

• Most modern operating systems implement kernel modules:– Uses object-oriented approach,– Each core component is separate,– Each talks to the others over known interfaces, and– Each is loadable as needed within the kernel.

• Overall, similar to layers but with more flexibility.

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Virtual Machines

• A virtual machine takes the layered approach to its logical conclusion. It treats hardware and the operating system kernel as though they were all hardware.

• A virtual machine provides an interface identical to the underlying bare hardware.

• The operating system creates the illusion of multiple processes, each executing on its own processor with its own (virtual) memory.

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Virtual Machines (Cont.)

The resources of the physical computer are shared to create the virtual machines:– CPU scheduling can create the appearance

that users have their own processor,

– Spooling and a file system can provide virtual card readers and virtual line printers,

– A normal user time-sharing terminal serves as the virtual machine operator’s console.

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System Models

Non-virtual Machine Virtual Machine

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[Ad|Disad]vantages of Virtual Machines

• The virtual-machine concept provides complete protection of system resources since each virtual machine is isolated from all other virtual machines. This isolation, however, permits no direct sharing of resources.

• A virtual-machine system is a perfect vehicle for operating-systems research and development. System development is done on the virtual machine, instead of on a physical machine and so does not disrupt normal system operation.

• The virtual machine concept is difficult to implement due to the effort required to provide an exact duplicate to the underlying machine.

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Java Virtual Machine

• Compiled Java programs are platform-neutral bytecodes executed by a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

• JVM consists of:– Class loader,– Class verifier,– Runtime interpreter.

• Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers increase performance.

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The Java Virtual Machine

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Operating System Design Goals

• User goals – operating system should be convenient to use, easy to learn, reliable, secure, and fast.

• System goals – operating system should have a simple design, be easy to implement, and maintain, as well as be flexible, reliable, error-free, and efficient.

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System Implementation

• Traditionally written in assembly language, operating systems can now be written in higher-level languages.

• Code written in a high-level language:– Can be written faster,– Is more compact, and– Is easier to understand and debug.

• An operating system is far easier to port (move to some other hardware) if it is written in a high-level language.

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Chapter 4

Processes

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Process Concept

• Process – a program in execution; process execution must progress in sequential fashion.

• A process includes:– program counter, – stack,– data section.

heap

stack

data

code

program counter

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Process State

As a process executes, it changes state:

– new: The process is being created.– running: Instructions are being executed.– waiting: The process is waiting for some event to

occur.– ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a

process.– terminated: The process has finished execution.

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Process State Transition Diagram

new

ready

terminated

running

waiting

admitted interruptexit

scheduler dispatch

I/O or event waitI/O or event completion

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Process Control Block (PCB)

OS bookkeeping information associated with each process:

• Process state,• Program counter,• CPU registers,• CPU scheduling information,• Memory-management information,• Accounting information,• I/O status information,

process id

process state

program counter

registers

memory limits

list of open files

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CPU Switching

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Process Scheduling Queues• Job queue – set of all processes in the system.

• Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory, ready and waiting to execute.

• Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device.

Processes migrate between the various queues.

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Processes and OS Queues

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Process Scheduling

CPUready queue

I/O I/O queue I/O request

time slice expired

fork a child

wait for interruptinterruptoccurs

child executes