CIS 307: TOPIC: OS Concepts and History

Summary

What is an Operating System: history with examples. Review of terms and concepts at the border between hardware and software: input-output device, interrupts, addressing, protection, hardware context of a program.

Reading in Tanenbaum

Chapter 1: Read it completely

Section 1.1: What is an Operating System?
Read carefully. Think of OS as a Virtual Machine, or an Extended Machine, or as Resource Manager, or as a Reactive System.
Section 1.2: History of Operating Systems.
Try to have a sense of when computer systems changed in terms of their implementation technology and of their functionality.
Section 1.3: Operating Systems Concepts
This material will be expanded upon in the rest of the book. If you do not understand something now, you will as the course progresses. If you still have difficulty after the middle of October, it is time to talk about it with the instructor and the TA.
Operating System Structure
This is an important and difficult section. Your understanding will grow during the course, but probably you will still be uncertain about some concepts next year!

Be sure to think about the rapidity with which computer systems are changing. Keeping cost constant, the performance of computers doubles each year. Think how this impacts the architecture of systems, how it requires you to learn new things all the time.

Read the problems at the end of the chapter and discuss them with other students. If you are not sure about the correct answers, ask the instructor or the TA.

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