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Top 10 List of Week 00

1. What is an Operating System

An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, printing, and other resources.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVzRTmdd9j0

This is a video where one of my favourite Youtubers, Linus, explains what an Operating System is. Provided with interesting visuals and easy to follow languague.

2. Functions of an Operating System

An Operating System acts as a communication bridge (interface) between the user and computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide a platform on which a user can execute programs in a convenient and efficient manner. An operating system is a piece of software that manages the allocation of computer hardware. The coordination of the hardware must be appropriate to ensure the correct working of the computer system and to prevent user programs from interfering with the proper working of the system.

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/functions-of-operating-system/

This Geeks for Geeks page explains best about functions of an OS. It’s not that long and the functions are written points by points, followed by a short paragraph so the reader can have an easy time understanding it.

3. Client-server models mechanism

The Client-server model is a distributed application structure that partitions task or workload between the providers of a resource or service, called servers, and service requesters called clients. In the client-server architecture, when the client computer sends a request for data to the server through the internet, the server accepts the requested process and deliver the data packets requested back to the client.

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/client-server-model/

Also a Geeks for Geeks page, i think this page explains best of what a Client-server model is.

4. Design issues of an Operating System: Flexibility

Flexible operating systems are taken to be those whose designs have been motivated to some degree by the desire to allow the system to be tailored, either statically or dynamically, to the requirements of specific applications or application domains.

https://www.ques10.com/p/25212/discuss-operating-system-design-issues/

This page gives the reader a complete list followed by an explanation of each design issues of an OS.

5. Design issues of an Operating System: Security

Access control has to be performed across a physical network with heterogeneous components under different administrative units using different security models. Operating system authentication (OS authentication) is a way of using operating system login credentials to authenticate database users. One aspect of OS authentication can be used to authenticate database administrators. OS authentication is needed because there must be a way to identify administrative users even if the database is shut down.

https://www.ques10.com/p/25212/discuss-operating-system-design-issues/

This page gives the reader a complete list followed by an explanation of each design issues of an OS.

6. What is API

An application programming interface (API) is a computing interface which defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries. It defines the kinds of calls or requests that can be made, how to make them, the data formats that should be used, the conventions to follow, etc. It can also provide extension mechanisms so that users can extend existing functionality in various ways and to varying degrees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API

I think the wikipedia page for API is the best page to gain the complete information of API itself, because it includes everthing starting from the definiton, purpose, history, and usages.

7. Advantages of a Modern Operating System

Modern operating systems provide a general-purpose mechanism for processing data larger than available main memory called virtual memory. Transparent to the program, swapping moves parts of the data back and forth from disk as needed.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/modern-operating-system

This page explains what a modern operating system is and also the advanteges of using it.

8. Device Management of an Operating System An Operating System manages device communication via their respective drivers. It does the following activities for device management: Keeps tracks of all devices. Program responsible for this task is known as the I/O controller, decides which process gets the device when and for how much time, allocates the device in the efficient way, and de-allocates devices.

https://iphtechnologies.com/device-management-in-operating-system/

This page provides a complete understanding of what is a Device Management in Operating System.

9. Methods and implementations of an Interruption

Interrupts are signals sent to the CPU by external devices, normally I/O devices. They tell the CPU to stop its current activities and execute the appropriate part of the operating system. There are three types of interrupts: Hardware Interrupts, Software Interrupts, and Traps. Interrupts are important because they give the user better control over the computer. Without interrupts, a user may have to wait for a given application to have a higher priority over the CPU to be ran. This ensures that the CPU will deal with the process immediately.

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/computer-science/interrupts-in-operating-systems-computer-science-essay.php

This page is the best place to learn on what is Interruption in the context of Operating System because it provides a list of Q&A’s related to interuption and also examples so the reader can imagine it better.

10. Operation System states

The operating system can be in one of four states:

• Executing in user mode The CPU is executing the text (machine code) of a process that accesses its own data space in memory.

• Executing in system mode If a process makes a system call in order to perform a privileged task requiring the services of the kernel (such as accessing a disk), then the operating system places the CPU in system mode (also known as kernel mode).

• Idle waiting for I/O Processes are sleeping while waiting for the completion of I/O to disk or other block devices.

• Idle No processes are ready-to-run on the CPU or are sleeping waiting for block I/O. Processes waiting for keyboard input or network I/O are counted as idle. The combination of time spent waiting for I/O and time spent idle makes up the total time that the operating system spends idle.

http://osr507doc.sco.com/en/PERFORM/OS_states.html

This page is short yet contains useful information about of what is the four Operating System states and its definitions.