Operating Systems in Depth

Chapter 1. Introduction

• 1.1 Operating Systems

  • 1.1.1 Operating Systems as a Field of Study

• 1.2 A Brief History of Operating Systems

  • 1.2.1 The 1950s: The Birth of the Concept

  • 1.2.2 The 1960s: The Modern OS Takes Form

  • 1.2.3 Minicomputers and Unix

  • 1.2.4 The Personal Computer

    • 1.2.4.1 Hobbyist Computing

    • 1.2.4.2 Computer Workstations

    • 1.2.4.3 Microsoft Windows

    • 1.2.4.4 Unix Continues

• 1.3 A Simple OS

  • 1.3.1 OS Structure

    • 1.3.1.1 Traps

    • 1.3.1.2 System Calls

    • 1.3.1.3 Interrupts

  • 1.3.2 Processes, Address Spaces, and Threads

  • 1.3.3 Managing Processes

  • 1.3.4 Loading Programs into Processes

  • 1.3.5 Files

    • 1.3.5.1 Naming Files

    • 1.3.5.2 Using File Descriptors

    • 1.3.5.3 Random Access

    • 1.3.5.4 Pipes

    • 1.3.5.5 Directories

    • 1.3.5.6 Access Protection

    • 1.3.5.7 Creating Files

• 1.4 Beyond a Simple OS

  • 1.4.1 Extensions

    • 1.4.1.1 Multithreaded Processes

    • 1.4.1.2 Virtual Memory

    • 1.4.1.3 Naming

    • 1.4.1.4 Object References

    • 1.4.1.5 Security

  • 1.4.2 New Functionality

    • 1.4.2.1 Networking

    • 1.4.2.2 Interactive User Interfaces

    • 1.4.2.3 Software Complexity

• 1.5 Conclusions

• 1.6 Exercises

• 1.7 References

We begin by explaining what an operating system is and why the field is not only worthy of study, but worthy of continued research and development. Next we delve briefly into the history of operating systems, one that combines brilliant research in both academia and industry with a colorful cast of characters. Finally we introduce the study of operating systems by looking carefully at an early version of Unix so as to understand its basic concepts and some of how it was implemented.

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