Tutorial 3
- Explain 20 core functions of an operating system in your own thoughts.
An operating system (OS) is the software component of a computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. A computer is consisting of several component parts including monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other parts. The operating system provides an interface to these parts using what is referred to as "drivers". Common contemporary operating systems include Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris.
The following are the functions of an OS:
1. Passes information between OS components.
2. User interface : Provides an interface between computer and the outside world.
3. System tools (programs) used to monitor computer performance, debug problems, or maintain parts of the system.
4. Performs specific tasks especially relating to interfacing with computer system components.
5. Program execution : Supports the running of programs by the users.
6. Memory management : Manages all system memory which is currently in use by programs. This ensures that a program does not interfere with memory already used by another program.
7. Prioritizing system requests
8. File systems management : Hierarchical Filing Systems (NTFS, FAT32, FAT, Ext2); Metadata (Permissions, Size, Location, Attributes).
9. Forms a platform for other system software and for application software.
10. Execute and provide services for applications software.
11. Multi-tasking : Allows several programs to be active at the same time, although at an instant in time the CPU is doing only one instruction for one of the active programs. The Operating System manages which instructions to send to the CPU. Since computers are so fast, the operating system can switch the program that gets to execute on the CPU so quickly, the user can not tell. This is what allows the computer to be "listening" for incoming instant messages, for instance, while you use a word processor to write a paper
12. Resources management : Manages the computer's resources, such as the central processing unit, memory, disk drives, and printers. It controls how processes (the active agents) may access resources (passive entities).
13. Transforms the physical world of devices, instructions, memory, and time into virtual world that is the result of abstractions built by the operating system.
14. Disk access and file systems : Allows for faster access to files stored on disks, higher reliability, and to make better use out of the drive's available space.
15. Processes management : Creating, scheduling and deleting processes and often for inter-process communication.
16. CPU : Responsible for scheduling the processes on the CPU(s). This is when in the case that the computer has one or more processes than CPUs.
17. Device management : Manages Input/ Output devices that are accessed by several different processes
18. Virtual memory : The kernel can choose which memory each program may use at any given time, allowing the operating system to use the same memory locations for multiple tasks.
19. Networking : Facilitating networking by supporting a variety of networking protocols, hardware, and applications in a common network for sharing resources such as computing, files, printers, and scanners using either wired or wireless connections.
20. Security : Provides access to a number of resources, which are available to software running on the system, and to external devices like networks via the kernel.
