Introduction to Operating System
An operating system acts as an intermediary between the user of a computer
and computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide an
environment in which a user can execute programs in a convenient and
efficient manner.
An operating system is a software that manages the computer hardware. The
hardware must provide appropriate mechanisms to ensure the correct
operation of the computer system and to prevent user programs from
interfering with the proper operation of the system.
Operating System
Definition:
An operating system is a program that controls the execution of application programs and
acts as an interface between the user of a computer and the computer hardware.
A more common definition is that the operating system is the one program running at all
times on the computer (usually called the kernel), with all else being application programs.
An operating system is concerned with the allocation of resources and services, such as
memory, processors, devices, and information. The operating system correspondingly
includes programs to manage these resources, such as a traffic controller, a scheduler,
memory management module, I/O programs, and a file system.
Functions of Operating system
Operating system performs three functions:
1. Convenience: An OS makes a computer more convenient to use.
2. Efficiency: An OS allows the computer system resources to be used in an efficient
manner.
3. Ability to Evolve: An OS should be constructed in such a way as to permit the effective
development, testing and introduction of new system functions at the same time without
interfering with service.
Operating system as User Interface –
1. User
2. System and application programs
3. Operating system
4. Hardware
Every general-purpose computer consists of the hardware, operating system, system programs,
and application programs. The hardware consists of memory, CPU, ALU, and I/O devices,
peripheral device, and storage device. System program consists of compilers, loaders, editors, OS,
etc. The application program consists of business programs, database programs.
Every computer must have an operating system to run other programs. The operating system
coordinates the use of the hardware among the various system programs and application
programs for various users. It simply provides an environment within which other programs can
do useful work.
The operating system is a set of special programs that run on a computer system that allows it to
work properly. It performs basic tasks such as recognizing input from the keyboard, keeping track
of files and directories on the disk, sending output to the display screen and controlling peripheral
devices.
OS is designed to serve two basic purposes:
1. It controls the allocation and use of the computing System’s resources among the various
user and tasks.
2. It provides an interface between the computer hardware and the programmer that
simplifies and makes feasible for coding, creation, debugging of application programs.
The Operating system must support the following tasks. The task are:
1. Provides the facilities to create, modification of programs and data files using an editor.
2. Access to the compiler for translating the user program from high level language to
machine language.
3. Provide a loader program to move the compiled program code to the computer’s memory
for execution.
4. Provide routines that handle the details of I/O programming.
I/O System Management
One of the important jobs of an Operating System is to manage the operations of various I/O
devices including mouse, keyboards, touch pad, disk drives, display adapters, USB devices, Bit-
mapped screen, LED, Analog-to-digital converter, On/off switch, network connections, audio I/O,
printers etc.
The I/O system of an OS works by taking I/O request from an application software and sending it
to the physical device, which could be an input or output device then it takes whatever response
comes back from the device and sends it to the application.
Components of I/O Hardware
I/O Device
Device Driver
Device Controller
I/O Device:
I/O devices such as storage, communications, user-interface, and others communicate with the
computer via signals sent over wires or through the air. Devices connect with the computer via
ports, e.g. a serial or parallel port. A common set of wires connecting multiple devices is termed a
bus.
I/O devices can be divided into two categories:
Block devices − A block device is one with which the device driver communicates by
sending entire blocks of data. For example, Hard disks, USB cameras, Disk-OnKey etc.
Character devices − A character device is one with which the device driver communicates
by sending and receiving single characters (bytes, octets). For example, serial ports,
parallel ports, sounds cards etc
Device Driver: Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a
particular device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O devices.
Device Controller: The Device Controller works like an interface between a device and a device
driver. I/O units (Keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) typically consist of a mechanical component and
an electronic component where electronic component is called the device controller.
History of Operating system
Operating system has been evolving through the years. Following Table shows the history of OS.
Electronic device
Generation Year Types of OS Device
used
First 1945-55 Vacuum Tubes Plug Boards
Second 1955-65 Transistors Batch Systems
Integrated
Third 1965-80 Multiprogramming
Circuits(IC)
Large Scale
Fourth Since 1980 PC
Integration