Computers as Components, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER

6

Processes and Operating

Systems

■ The process abstraction.

■ Switching contexts between programs.

■ Real-time operating systems (RTOSs).

■ Interprocess communication.

■ Task-level performance analysis and power consumption.

■ A telephone answering machine design.

INTRODUCTION

Although simple applications can be programmed on a microprocessor by writing

a single piece of code,many applications are sophisticated enough that writing one

large program does not suffice. When multiple operations must be performed at

widely varying times,a single program can easily become too complex and unwieldy.

The result is spaghetti code that is too difficult to verify ...