E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University Operating Systems Functions of an operating system: 1. Manage the resources of the computer system –CPU time –memory –I/O devices –File system –Interrupts 2. Provide a user interface (insulate users from complexity) –GUI –Command Line –voice –virtual reality

E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University OS Functions 3. Provide a programming interface (encapsulate HW complexity) –all programmers to “call” OS routines –Application Programming Interface: a set of function calls to allow programs to interface with the OS in a controlled fashion. –Example: GUI functions/methods - standard “look and feel” –systems software structure –Present a layered structure to allow OS component replacement/substitution/upgrade –Device Driver Connection points/standards 4. Provide or support a Network Environment Interface –internet, , www –file and resource sharing on a network

E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University Time Management Multiple concurrent processes (multi-user, multi-tasking) Divide up CPU time into “slices”, “pieces”, or “quantum” Each process gets a small slice of time Programs appear to run concurrently in human time-scale Requires that the CPU is switched between processes –CONTEXT SWITCH The work to switch between processes is overhead Minimize non-productive overhead time, in order to maximize efficiency and performance CONTEXT SWITCH must be as fast as possible –multiple context switches per second

E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University Context Switch 1. Save the “state” of the current process Save where - in memory, on stack 2. Load the state of the next process 3. Execute the process (now the current one) 4. Save the state of the current process, etc.

E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University Process State The process state: The program counter The contents of registers Memory addressing limits and page tables OS management info –CPU scheduling data –Priorities –membership in queues –Process accounting data –Resources open (I/O)

E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University Threads “lightweight” processes one regular or “heavyweight” process may be composed of multiple threads threads are independent streams of instructions threads share memory space and I/O resources Context Switch between threads is very minimal, just the program counter and register contents -- very fast and efficient DRAWBACK OF THREADS Threads must be well-behaved, since they share so many resources The OS does not “manage” the interactions between threads as it does between processes No protection from adverse interactions

E X C E E D I N G E X P E C T A T I O N S OP SYS Linux System Administration Dr. Hoganson Kennesaw State University Scheduler and Dispatcher The scheduling of CPU time is done by the part of the OS called the SCHEDULER –determines which process should be executed next –more overhead processing –interrupts the currently executing process The DISPATCHER actually does the context switch