Operating System

In this class, we will learn about the operating system basics.

This class will focus on:

• What it is?
• Its functions
• Multiprogramming
• Resource Management
• Its features

What is an operating system?

You already know that software can be divided into application software and operating system software.

The operating system is a layer of software between the user and the hardware. It is responsible for a set of operations that coordinates the access to the hardware by the application softwares.

Functions

The operating system has two primary functions:

• Administer the hardware resources (RAM, processor, peripherals).
• Assist the execution of user applications.

Multiprogramming

Multiprogramming is the feature of an operating system being able to process several applications at the same time.

The old operating systems were monoprogramming. So they were only allowed to execute one application at a time.

Although multiprogramming increases the productivity of the hardware, it may cause some problems if multiple applications try to use the same processor core or the same space in memory simultaneously.

Resource Management

The resource management role is to prevent the errors mentioned in the last topic to occur. It acts in two instances:

• Time sharing: several applications trying to use the same processor core.

• Memory sharing: several applications are trying to use the same space in memory.

In both instances, the operating system through the resource management acts to guarantee that each program uses only one processor core and one space in memory at a time, preventing hardware from overloading.

Features

For an operating system to be considered good, it needs to have some features, among which are:

• Competition: multiples applications are running at the same time, "competing" by processing power and memory.
• Efficiency: manage this competition fast, running these applications simultaneously.
• Reliability: during that management only a few mistakes occur.
• Ease of maintenance: any update and maintenance can be made easily.
• Small scale: the operating system have to take up little space in memory.

That is it for now 😄

In this class, you learned what is an operating system and its main functions.

Let's go to the next lesson!