Operating Systems: Concurrent and Distributed Software Design

3.1. Overview

The kinds of hardware on which a concurrent system might be built were outlined in Chapter 1. In most application areas we do not have to program devices directly but are likely to use an operating system in each component of the system. An operating system provides a high-level interface to the hardware which abstracts away from the specific details of how each device is programmed. This makes life easier for the programmer, but as designers of concurrent systems we have to take care that nothing crucial is lost in this process: that the interface we use gives us the performance and functionality we require. For example, if a hardware event must have a response within a specified time we need to understand all that can happen in ...