HOW OPERATING SYSTEMS WORK

When you turn on your computer, it's nice to think that you're in control. There's the trusty computermouse, which
you can move anywhere on the screen, summoning up your music library orInternet browser at the slightest whim.
Although it's easy to feel like a director in front of your desktop orlaptop, there's a lot going on inside, and the real
man behind the curtain handling the necessary tasks is the operating system.
Most desktop or laptop PCs come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows. Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with
Mac OS X. Many corporate servers use the Linux or UNIX operating systems. The operating system (OS) is the first
thing loaded onto the computer -- without the operating system, a computer is useless.

More recently, operating systems have started to pop up in smaller computers as well. If you like to tinker with
electronic devices, you're probably pleased that operating systems can now be found on many of the devices we use
every day, from cell phones to wireless access points. The computers used in these little devices have gotten so
powerful that they can now actually run an operating system and applications. The computer in a typical modern cell
phone is now more powerful than a desktop computer from 20 years ago, so this progression makes sense and is a
natural development.
The purpose of an operating system is to organize and control hardware and software so that the device it lives in
behaves in a flexible but predictable way.

What is an Operating System?

Not all computers have operating systems. The computer that controls the microwave oven in your kitchen, for
example, doesn't need an operating system. It has one set of tasks to perform, very straightforward input to expect (a
numbered keypad and a few pre-set buttons) and simple, never-changing hardware to control. For a computer like
this, an operating system would be unnecessary baggage, driving up the development and manufacturing costs
significantly and adding complexity where none is required. Instead, the computer in a microwave oven simply runs a
single hard-wired program all the time.

For other devices, an operating system creates the ability to:

 serve a variety of purposes
 interact with users in more complicated ways
 keep up with needs that change over time
All desktop computers have operating systems. The most common are the Windows family of operating systems
developed by Microsoft, the Macintosh operating systems developed by Apple and the UNIX family of operating
systems (which have been developed by a whole history of individuals, corporations and collaborators). There are
hundreds of other operating systems available for special-purpose applications, including specializations for
mainframes, robotics, manufacturing, real-time control systems and so on.
In any device that has an operating system, there's usually a way to make changes to how the device works. This is far
from a happy accident; one of the reasons operating systems are made out of portable code rather than permanent
physical circuits is so that they can be changed or modified without having to scrap the whole device.
For a desktop computer user, this means you can add a new security update, system patch, new application or even an
entirely new operating system rather than junk your computer and start again with a new one when you need to make
a change. As long as you understand how an operating system works and how to get at it, in many cases you can
change some of the ways it behaves. The same thing goes for your phone, too.

Operating System Functions

At the simplest level, an operating system does two things:
1. It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer, these resources
include such things as the processor, memory, disk space and more (On acell phone, they include the keypad,
the screen, the address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection).
2. It provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the
details of the hardware.
The first task, managing the hardware and software
resources, is very important, as various programs and
input methods compete for the attention of the central
processing unit (CPU) and demand memory, storage
and input/output (I/O) bandwidth for their own
purposes. In this capacity, the operating system plays
the role of the good parent, making sure that each
application gets the necessary resources while playing
nicely with all the other applications, as well as
husbanding the limited capacity of the system to the
greatest good of all the users and applications.

The second task, providing a consistent application

interface, is especially important if there is to be more
than one of a particular type of computer using the
operating system, or if the hardware making up the
computer is ever open to change.
A consistent application program interface (API) allows a software developer to write an application on one computer
and have a high level of confidence that it will run on another computer of the same type, even if the amount of
memory or the quantity of storage is different on the two machines.
Even if a particular computer is unique, an operating system can ensure that applications continue to run when
hardware upgrades and updates occur. This is because the operating system -- not the application -- is charged with
managing the hardware and the distribution of its resources. One of the challenges facing developers is keeping their
operating systems flexible enough to run hardware from the thousands of vendors manufacturing computer
equipment. Today's systems can accommodate thousands of different printers, disk drives and special peripherals in
any possible combination.

Types of Operating Systems

Within the broad family of operating systems, there are generally four types, categorized based on the types of
computers they control and the sort of applications they support. The categories are:
 Real-time operating system (RTOS) - Real-time operating systems are used to control machinery, scientific
instruments and industrial systems. An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability, and no end-user
utilities, since the system will be a "sealed box" when delivered for use. A very important part of an RTOS is
managing the resources of the computer so that a particular operation executes in precisely the same amount of
time, every time it occurs. In a complex machine, having a part move more quickly just because system resources
are available may be just as catastrophic as having it not move at all because the system is busy.
 Single-user, single task - As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that
one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computers is a good example of a
modern single-user, single-task operating system.
 Single-user, multi-tasking - This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop
computers today. Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS platforms are both examples of operating systems that
will let a single user have several programs in operation at the same time. For example, it's entirely possible for a
Windows user to be writing a note in a word processor while downloading a file from the Internet while printing
the text of an e-mail message.
 Multi-user - A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computer's
resources simultaneously. The operating system must make sure that the requirements of the various users are
balanced, and that each of the programs they are using has sufficient and separate resources so that a problem
with one user doesn't affect the entire community of users. Unix, VMS and mainframe operating systems, such
as MVS, are examples of multi-user operating systems.

It's important to differentiate between multi-user operating systems and single-user operating systems that support
networking. Windows 2000 and Novell Netware can each support hundreds or thousands of networked users, but the
operating systems themselves aren't true multi-user operating systems. Thesystem administrator is the only "user"
for Windows 2000 or Netware. The network support and all of the remote user logins the network enables are, in the
overall plan of the operating system, a program being run by the administrative user.
With the different types of operating systems in mind, it's time to look at the basic functions provided by an operating
system.
Computer Operating Systems
When you turn on the power to a computer, the first program that runs is usually a set of instructions kept in the
computer's read-only memory (ROM). This code examines the system hardware to make sure everything is
functioning properly. This power-on self test (POST) checks the CPU, memory, and basic input-output systems (BIOS)
for errors and stores the result in a special memory location. Once the POST has successfully completed, the software
loaded in ROM (sometimes called the BIOS or firmware) will begin to activate the computer's disk drives. In most
modern computers, when the computer activates the hard disk drive, it finds the first piece of the operating system:
the bootstrap loader.

The bootstrap loader is a small program that has a single function: It loads the operating system into memory and
allows it to begin operation. In the most basic form, the bootstrap loader sets up the small driver programs that
interface with and control the various hardware subsystems of the computer. It sets up the divisions of memory that
hold the operating system, user information and applications. It establishes the data structures that will hold the
myriad signals, flags and semaphores that are used to communicate within and between the subsystems and
applications of the computer. Then it turns control of the computer over to the operating system.
The operating system's tasks, in the most general sense, fall into six categories:
 Processor management
 Memory management
 Device management
 Storage management
 Application interface
 User interface
While there are some who argue that an operating system should do more than these six tasks, and some operating-
system vendors do build many more utility programs and auxiliary functions into their operating systems, these six
tasks define the core of nearly all operating systems. Next, let's look at the tools the operating system uses to perform
each of these functions.