Operating System Overview and Evolution

Internal Continuous Assessment, a component of the course grade.

Assessments given in class to evaluate understanding of course material.

Part of ICA, consisting of lab submissions and assignments.

Weekly assessments of lab work, based on viva, performance, and lab manual submission.

Tasks given to students, assessed through submission and viva.

Research paper or implementation presentation, involving topic selection, implementation and presentation, assessed by faculty.

Generative Artificial Intelligence, potentially useful for paper creation and implementation.

Individual component weightings for calculating the overall marks in the course.

A program that acts as a go-between for computer users and the hardware.

Convenience, efficiency, and adaptability.

Hardware, OS, applications, and users.

An OS that processes a collection of tasks without user interaction.

The physical parts of a computer (CPU, memory, I/O).

Software that defines how resources are used.

Batch systems that run multiple jobs simultaneously.

Systems that allow multiple users to use resources simultaneously and responsively.

Systems running multiple programs simultaneously by sharing processor time.

Systems that share processor time among multiple users.

A short period of time a program uses the processor.

The core of an operating system, managing essential functions.

Part of the computer memory used for user processes.

Part of the computer memory exclusively used for the OS kernel.

Processor state when running user applications.

Processor state when running operating system functions.

Operating system mode with unrestricted hardware access.

Application mode with limited hardware access, relying on system calls.

Interface for user programs to request OS services.

Mechanism when a system call is executed, similar to a hardware interrupt.

Change between kernel and user modes, controlled by hardware.

Kernel mode error causing system halt.

User mode error solvable without system shutdown.

Manages hardware and software resources in a computer.

A program loaded during startup or reboot. It initializes the system, finds the operating system kernel, and starts its execution.

A signal from either hardware or software indicating an event. The CPU pauses its current task to handle the interrupt.

RAM; the primary storage area for programs to execute. Accessed quickly.

Larger, non-volatile storage (e.g., hard drive) that extends main memory’s capacity.

An organized structure of memory devices (CPU, main memory, and secondary storage) ranging from fastest to slowest, smallest to largest, and cheapest to most costly storage.

A component that manages communication between the central processing unit (CPU) and a specific input/output (I/O) device.

A signal from a device controller to the CPU indicating completion of an operation or an error.

A computer system with multiple central processing units (CPUs).

A program in execution, possessing an address space, memory, registers, and other hardware resources.

Mechanisms for enabling communication between different processes.

Actions performed on files, like creating, reading, and deleting, mediated through system calls.

A command interpreter that facilitates interaction between a user and the operating system.

Operating systems can be categorized as monolithic or layered systems.