Operating Systems

Introduction to Operating System 3

Operating Systems

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Storage Hierarchy
Primary storage: memory

Critical to system performance

Secondary storage: hard disk (typically)

Crucial to system performance

Tertiary storage: CD/DVD, tape drive

Not crucial to system performance, but needs to be managed

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Operating Systems

Storage Management

OS provides a uniform, logical view of information storage Logical storage unit abstraction: file

Maps onto physical media (e.g, magnetic disk, optical disk) Unique properties of physical media (access speed, capacity, transfer rate, sequential/random)

Organized into directories for ease of use

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Operating Systems

Storage Management (2)

OS takes care of following responsibilities in connection with file management:

Creating and deleting files Creating and deleting directories Supporting primitives for manipulating files and directories Mapping files onto secondary storage Storing files to non-volatile storage medium
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Operating Systems

Mass-Storage Management

Main memory cannot hold all programs It's also volatile Computer must provide secondary storage for when power is lost

Also enables storing much more data

Modern computers use HDD as principal non-volatile storage Most programs stored on HDD Then use it as source & destination of their processing
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Operating Systems

Mass-Storage Management (2)

Secondary storage plays a very important role Hence, proper management is essential It involves:

Free-space management Storage allocation Disk scheduling

Operating Systems

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Storage Structure (simplified)

Register

Faster

Cache (SRAM)

Greater Capacity

Main memory (RAM / DRAM)

Magnetic disk (Hard Disk)

Operating Systems Slide 7 of 20

Caching

Tries to hide/bridge speed differences Information for CPU kept in storage medium usually memory Needs to be transferred to faster storage (cache) To use data

Check if in cache If yes, use it If no, fetch from memory & also copy to cache
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Operating Systems

Caching (2)

Internal programmable registers provide high-speed caching

Under programmer control

Some caches implemented totally in hardware (e.g., instruction cache) Cache size is limited, so cache management important Main memory acts as cache for secondary storage
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Operating Systems

Caching (3)

File-system data may appear at several levels in storage hierarchy Solid State Disks (SSD) as add-on to or replacement for HDD Movement of data either explicit or implicit

Cache to CPU implicit HDD to memory explicit

Ensuring data consistency is very important in a multitasking environment

Multiple programs could access same data

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Operating Systems

Protection
Protection is a mechanism for controlling access of users and processes to computer resources

Multiple user, multiple processes

Access to data needs to be regulated

OS needs to verify proper authorization of processes for resources

E.g., process can only access memory allocated to it Timer stops runaway processes

Operating Systems

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Security
Security is trying to defend a system from internal or external attacks

Viruses, worms Denial of Service (DOS) attacks Identity theft Theft of service (unauthorized use)

Operating Systems

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Protection and Security

Requires system to be able to distinguish between users

User identifiers (UID)

Process runs with UID of person that started it This determines access to system resources

Group identifiers (GID) E.g., for installing software When escalated, process runs with effective UID
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Occasionally need to escalate privileges

Operating Systems

Distributed Systems
A collection of physically separate, possibly heterogeneous computers, networked to provide access to system resources

Access to a shared resource improves speed, functionality, data availability, reliability Network Operating System provides features like sharing files across network, inter-process communication across computers
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Operating Systems

Special-Purpose Systems

Real-time systems

Primitive Limited, fixed functionality Time limits on operations Optimized for multimedia Optimized for mobility, low power & unreliable connections
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Multimedia systems

Handheld systems

Operating Systems

Computing Environments

Traditional computing Client-server computing Peer-to-peer computing Web-based computing

Operating Systems

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Traditional Computing

Started off as self-contained computers & networks Low portability Remote access difficult Home computing was simple, limited

Now expanding to include networks & shared devices (e.g., printers) Same techniques used in newer multitasking systems

Time-sharing systems less common

Operating Systems

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Client-Server Computing
Client 1 Client 2 Client 3 Client n

Server

Single computer serving multiple clients

Service request sent to server Server does processing Results returned to client

Server is the bottleneck/single point of failure

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Operating Systems

Peer-to-Peer Computing

All computers in network considered equal (peers) To participate

Join network of peers Provide service to peers Request service from peers

Centralized registry of service providers Or discovery-based service provisioning No central point of failure/bottleneck
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Operating Systems

Web-based Computing

The Web has become ubiquitous Increased emphasis on networking Anytime, anywhere access Best/most extreme example?

Chrome OS

Operating Systems

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