Operating System Design, 2nd Edition

Chapter Contents

• 1.1 Operating Systems,
• 1.2 Approach Used In The Text
• 1.3 A Hierarchical Design
• 1.4 The Xinu Operating System
• 1.5 What An Operating System Is Not
• 1.6 An Operating System Viewed From The Outside
• 1.7 Remainder Of The Text
• 1.8 Perspective
• 1.9 Summary

1 Introduction And Overview

Our little systems have their day.

— Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1.1 Operating Systems

Hidden in every intelligent device and computer system is the software that controls processing, manages resources, and communicates with peripherals such as display screens, disks, computer networks, and printers. Collectively, the code that performs control and coordination chores has been referred to as an executive, a monitor, a task manager, and a kernel; we will use ...