1. core of the operating system is typically known as kernel 2. kernel is made of several core components of an operating system 3.

kernel typically resides in kernel space/system space of the system 4. non-core components of an OS are typically located in user-space of the computing/os system - in addition, applications also reside in user-space of the system !! 5. kernel is made of several components - some of the important components are listed below: - hardware abstraction layer(HAL) - device drivers - process manager - physical memory manager - virtual memory manager - scheduler(s) - ipc manager - interrupt manager - logical file manager - different file system managers - time management subsystem - I/O management subsystems - system call interface layer - and other long list of specific components 6. what is the role of HAL ?? - this is the component that is responsible for architecture specific features of a hardware platform of a computing system - in fact, any other component of the operating system must go thru. HAL to interact with any part of h/w platform !!! - if an OS is implemented on different h/w platforms, HAL is different in each case - in short, OS is built with a different HAL for a different h/w platform !!1 - this layer of the OS is written and implemented using architecture specific machine instructions - meaning, this layer is written using low-level language, not high-level language, typically !!! 7. device drivers are part of the kernel/kernel-space that typically enable operating system and applications to access peripheral devices !!! 8. apart from HAL and device drivers, there are several other components - many of them can be spotted in the previous points, above 9. in addition, there is one special layer/component in the kernel known as system call interface layer - this layer along with system libraries is responsible for implementing and accessing system call(s) of the kernel / operating system - it is via system call(s) that core services of any operating system are made available to user-space/ applications 10.memory regions containing kernel components are together known as kernel - space - do not assume that a contiguous physical memory region is assigned to kernel - space - several non-contiguous memory regions may be logically put together

to form the kernel space !!! a special attribute may be enabled for the memory regions associated with kernel space 11.memory regions containing non core components of the operating system and applications are together known as user-space !!! - do not assume that a contiguous physical memory region is assigned to users-space - several non contiguous regions may put together - a special attribute may not be set for the memory regions associated with user-space !!! 12.since the core services of operating system are exported via system calls/system call APIs, user-space components/applications can access kernel services only via system calls/system callAPIs if user-space components/applications attempt to access core services of the operating system by bypassing system call APIs, processor will generate an exception - invariably, this exception will terminate the user-space process that attempted direct access of kernel services !!! - typically system call APIs are provided via system libraries - system call APIs may be used by other libraries , applications and utilities, as needed !!! - can we say that all the core services are exported via system call APIs ??? No - not all services are exported via system callAPIs - can you name one or more services offered by the operating system, but not available via system call APIs ??? - there are certain services exported by the operating system via system APIs, which are available for access only by system space components - these are not available to use space components !!! 13. in the above case, why should the processor generate an exception ??? - in most modern operating systems, processors used are sophisticated - meaning, processors support a priviliged mode of operation and less priviliged mode of operationin the priviliged mode of operation, a processor can access entire set of memory regions in the system meaning, user-space and system-space - when a processor is working is less priviliged mode of operation, a processor can access only part of the entire set of memory regions - meaning, user-space part only !!! - it is partly the responsibilty of operating system to force the processor to work in priviliged mode, when kernel components are executing on the processor - it is partly the responsibility of operating system to force the processor to execute in less priviliged mode when user-space components and applications are executing on the processor !!!

- kernel space components have unlimited access/priviliges to h/w components subject to the rules of the operating system - user-space components/applications must access h.w. resources only via core services - subject to the rules of operating system !!! 14. system call APIs and system call system routines !!! - what is so special about system call APIs, compared to other APIs ?? - system call APIs are implemented using special machine instructions - we discuss more about these machine instructions, when we discuss about interrupts and also during system call assignment !!! - each system call API is coded with a special machine instruction (of the underlying processor arch.) , which generates an interrupt that is not a hw interrupt !!! - user-space components and applications may access h.w. components and other core services via system call APIs how is this implemented ?? - refer to os_intro11.txt and also certain sample code used during system call assignments !! - what is a system call (system) routine ?? - different components provide different services and may be responsible for providing one or more system call services as well - although system call APIs are implemented in user-space system libraries, system call system routines are actually implemented in different components of the kernel space - there is a one to one mapping between user-space system call APIs and system space system call routines !! - the actual work is done in the system call system routines, system call APIs are mainly helpful in invoking the appropriate system call system routine!!! - to get a complete picture of system call APIs, one needs to understand the working of interrupts - interrupt mechanism is also used to implement system calls - every system call API invokes the same machine instruction, which generates identical interrupt !!! which means, the same vector entry in the interrupt table will be used for all system call APIs !!! - how many system call APIs/system call system routines may exist in the system ?? - may be 100s of such APIs - the exact no. varies from operating system to operating system - also depends on version of an operating system !!! - what are their typical uses ??? meaning, what the services offered via system call APIs - this is the meaning of exporting core services via system call APIs !! - process creation, process termination, thread creation/ termination, I/O access, memory allocation/deallocation, synchronization, data-exchange, tuning scheduler parameters, file I/O access , network I/O and many more !!!

- many operating system parameters may need system call APIs!!! 15. h.w interrupt mechanism - this is highly h/w dependent and also architecture dependent - still, we will try to understand for our purpose by ignoring certain details of h/w - we will see further details when we look into certain pseudo code implementation of operating system components !! - whenever a h.w interrupt signal is generated, the following sequence of actions are taken by the processor and followed by operating sytem actions : - typically peripheral hw controllers or hw timer controller generate hw interrupts directed to the processor - processor responds by taking one or more actions - processor may save certain critical registers' statecurrent information of registers - on stack memory - we will see more details later !! - processor may switch its current privilige mode of operation - say, less priviliged mode of operation to priviliged mode of operation - when there is an interrupt event, processor's control register responsible for privilige setting will be modified , implicitly !!! - processor may jump to a predefined routine in system space - such a routine is known as interrupt handler - several interrupt handlers for managing several hw interrupts are managed in the system's interrupt table !!! (special jump) - typically, base address of the interrupt table is maintained in a control register of the processor it is the responsibility of the operating system to initialize the processor's control registers such that processor is enabled to handle hw events consistently !!! OS must also be responsible for initializing the interrupt table !!! - interrupt table is part of interrupt manager, in system space !!! - where are the interrupt handlers located ?? -located in system - space - which components /subsystems contain interrupt handlers !!! - I/O subsystems and device drivers !!! - once interrupt handling is completed by the respective interrupt handler, following actions may be taken currently, interrupt handler is treated as a single routine - in reality, it may be a chain of routines we will understand more of it later !!1 - once interrupt handling is completed, a special machine instruction is executed - this instruction typically does the reverse of what interrupt signal initiated - meaning, processor's privilige mode is restored to less priviliged mode - original context/state of processor's registers are restored - processor is forced to jump back to user-space instruction in the interrupted process !!! - 3 parts in interrupt handling - first part is actions, when an interrupt signal

is generated (by processor) - executing ISR/interrupt handler+ related methods - return from interrupt handling using special machine instruction !!! - hw interrupts typically do the following : - whenever there is a h/w interrupt, corresponding interrupt handler is invoked/serviced - interrupt handler may do the following: - service a h/w peripheral controller(via a device driver) - in addition, service a kernel subsystem - one such subsystem is scheduler - another such subsystem is networking and many more !!! - in addition, indirectly service an application which is dependent on a h/w peripheral controller or a kernel subsystem !!! Note: core components of an os are together known as kernel of the OS - this is one of the typical naming conventions !!! 16. kernel components are typically passive entities loaded in system space and exist through the life of the system a component or a routine in a component is invoked, when user-space invokes a system call API or a h/w interrupt is generated and action is taken - this implies that kernel components are not processes or threads, typically - they execute as part of interrupt handling or as an extension to user-space processes !!! - however, there may be deviations to the above statements we will see such cases, in appropriate contexts !!! - what do the os components do when there are no interrupts , system calls or exceptions ??? - in most cases, os components are passively resident in the system space of the computing system !!! - why should user-space applications/components invoke system call APIs ??? - file I/O - network I/O - application launching - memory allocation - access USB modem - creating a file system on a disk partition !!! - it may be directly or indirectly !!!most core services are offered via system call APIs - you may use them directly or indirectly via libraries or indirectly via utilities libraries and utilities may end up calling system call APIs - what happens, if system call APIs are invoked ??? 17. as mentioned above, system calls are implemented using interrupt mechanism - a specific machine instruction of the processor is used to generate an interrupt - a specific entry in the interrupt table is reserved for corresponding system call interrupt handler - every system call API uses the same specific machine instruction - the end result is a special jump to the same system call interrupt handler in addition, following actions are also taken : - each system call API uses a different set of parameters and these parameters are passed to system space via

processor registers - one such parameter defines the identity of a system call API - this parameter is known as system call no. - system call interrupt handler is programmed such that it interprets the system call no. and invokes appropriate system call system routine !! - each system call API is associated with a specific system call system routine - system call interrupt handler invokes the appropriate system call system routine with the help of system call no. - system call table maintains system call routine addresses !!! - where are the system call routines actually located , in system space ??? several hundreds of system call routines are located in various different subsystems and their components !!! - once a system call system routine is executed, it will return to the system call interrupt handler, which uses a special machine instruction to jump back to the process and resume its execution in user-space !!! - during the first jump from user-space to system-space and return jump to user-space, most steps are same as in the case of a h/w interrupt handling !!! - many of the parameters are passed to system call system routine - based on the parameters, system call system routine will do appropriate service or resource allocation - various system call system routines, are implemented in different subsystems of the kernel space !!! 18. one of the common h/w interrupt sources is timer h/w controllerin most systems, this controller is programmed to generate h/w interrupts, periodically !!! these h/w interrupts invoke timer interrupt handler - timer interrupt handler is tightly coupled with cpu scheduler of the system - invariably, time-sharing/time-slicing based scheduling require timer interrupt handler's service !!! timer interrupt handler is also used to service other subsystems of the kernel !!! these subsystems may in turn service applications/processes/threads as needed !!! 19. which entity is executing, when a hw interrupt is being serviced ?? - interrupt handler and related code !!! - in this context, current process is said to be interrupted !!!! 20. which entity is executing, when a system call execution is being serviced ?? - current process, which is active on the current processor !!! - in this context, current process is not interrupted !!!!

- this is what is treated as extended execution of the process, in system space !!!