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Operating System

1 Introduction to Operating System

Definition: Special layer of software that provides application software access to hardware resources.

Operating System

What is an Operating System?

  • Illusionist: Provide clean, easy-to-use abstractions of physical resources.

  • Referee: Manage protection, isolation, and sharing of resources.

  • Glue: Common services.

1.1 Operating System as Illusionist - Provide clean, easy-to-use abstractions of physical resources

Operating System as Illusionist
  • Application's "machine" is the process abstraction provided by OS.

  • Each running program runs in its own process.

  • Processes provide nicer interfaces than raw hardware.

A process consists of:

  • Address Space

  • One or more threads of control executing in that address space

  • Additional system state associated with it, e.g., open files, open sockets, etc.

  • OS translates from hardware interface to application interface.

  • OS provides each running program with its own process.

1.2 Operating System as Referee - Manage protection, isolation, and sharing of resources

Last modified: 25 November 2024