Operation Systems Flashcards
Operating systems (meaning and how it manages things)
> The operating system is the core software that controls how a computer operates.(eg, windows or IOs)
It manages the hardware and provides an inter face for the user and the application software.
Boot Loader (what it does)
> The boot loader in ROM loads the OS into RAM when the computer is switched on
Functions the OS provides: (there’s 6 of them)
> User Interface > Memory Management > interrupt handling > Processor scheduling > Device management > Handles security
The 4 main parts of the OS:
> the Kernel
the Device drivers
the user interface
the system utilities
KERNEL (Task which it does)
KERNEL (Task which it does)
> loading/unloading application from memory
scheduling tasks to run more efficiently on the CPU
memory management
data security
Device driver (Task which it does)
> A device driver enables the OS to control and communicate with the device
(eg.)
> Internal: Graphics card, hard disk
> External: Printer, Mouse
User Interface (Task which it does)
> It allows a person to interact with the computer.
3 Different types of User Interface
> Graphical - which makes use of picture, graphics and icons
Command line - which allows the user to directly interact with the computer system by typing in commands
Natural Language - Interacting with the computer directly using your voice
System Utilities(Task which it does)
> Performs background task such as file management
Memory management
> Memory management is done when the program and/or data is loaded into the RAM.
OS manages the allocation RAM for programs
Memory segmentation / Segmentaion
> ## memory segmentation is the allocation of segments or sections of memory to allow a process to runSegmentation is when the OS sets aside memory for a process to use.
segment/section (size)
> Aren’t fixed size and will be as large as needed.
paging/ pagination(meaning and how it works)
> This is where available memory is divided into equal sized chunks called pages (each page has a memory address)
> A process will be then loaded into the main memory but they may not be contagious(close together in physical terms)
> Memory manager gives each page a number and records it in a page table
> only used if virtual memory is in use
process
> when an executable application is loaded in the main memory it becomes a process
Virtual memory (meaning and how it works )
> Virtual memory is an area in the hard disk designated as temporary storage
Some pages of a current process are stored in VM until they are needed to be swapped back into the RAM
Disk Thrashing
> Repeatedly swapping pages in and out VM can noticeably slow don the computer .
Scheduling(and scheduler)
> The task of allocating CPU processor time amongst all running programs.
The software inside of the OS that manages scheduling is a Scheduler