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Components of Operating system
Operating system has several components which manage all the activities. The major components are:
The component of operating systems which is responsible to address all the tasks regarding the process, is called Process Management. As we have discussed earlier that a program in execution is referred as a Process. Here are some common examples of the Processes:
- A compiler is a process.
- A word processing program which is running, is also a process.
- Sending output to a printer is also a process.
A process nay need certain resources such as CPU timing, files, memory and I/O device, in order to accomplish task assigned. These resources are either allocated to process when it is created or while it is running.
The operating system is responsible for performing the following tasks regarding the processes:
- It performs the scheduling of processes.
- It performs the creation and termination of process.
- It also performs the suspending and resuming of processes.
- It provides the mechanism for process synchronization.
- It provides the mechanism for process communication.
The memory management is vital task in the operation of modern computer systems. Main memory consists of billions of words or bytes and each word or byte has its own address. Main memory consists of the shared data by the CPU and I/O devices. Main memory is directly accessible by the CPU, and it is used vitally by CPU.
The operating system is responsible for performing the following tasks regarding the memory management:
- It keeps track that which part of memory is being used and it is being used by whom.
- It decides that which process and data will move into or out of memory.
- It performs the allocation and de-allocation of memory spaces as needed.
In order to make the use of computer easy, the operating system performs the storage management. It has classified into following types:
Computers store information on the several types of the physical media. Each physical media has its own characteristics. A file is the collection of the related information defined by its creator.
The operating system is responsible for performing the following tasks regarding the file-system management:
- It helps in creating and deleting of files.
- It also helps in creating and deleting of directories for the purpose of organizing files.
- Stores files on the secondary storage.
- Back-up the files on some external media.
The main memory is too small to store all the data and programs. The data stored in it is volatile. Thus, the operating systems must also provide the secondary storage which can be used to store data on permanent basis. Most of the computer systems use disks for this purpose. All the programs are stored on this disk and are loaded in the main memory as needed.
The operating system is responsible for performing the following tasks regarding the Mass-storage management:
- Free-space management.
- Disk scheduling.
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