Characteristics of Modern Operating Systems:
The features like huge lines of code or a large number of
unnecessary features are not only the good characteristics of operating system.
In order to say that a particular OS is modern, we have to consider it’s
designing concepts before in order to say that it is a modern operating system.
Modern
operating systems have the following important characteristics:
1.
Object Oriented Design:
This is the current and latest trend in designing of
operating systems in which the OS creates the object for each facility. Each
object is defined using corresponding attributes and has a set of operations.
2.
Multithreading:
An application or a program is divided into a number of
smaller tasks. These tasks are executed by the processor concurrently. These
smaller tasks are called Threads. A
thread is a lightweight process or a dispatchable unit of work. A thread has
some of the characteristics of the process but there are differences -Threads
share the same memory space, processes don’t share the memory space.
Multithreading is the ability of a processor by which number
of independent threads in an application are executed by the processor at a
time. A notable example of multithreading is when we type a document in MS Word.
The typed text is formatted, it is spell checked automatically to detect errors
and the document can be saved automatically. All these individual tasks are
called threads.
3.
Symmetric Multiprocessing:
A computer having more
than one processor is called a multiprocessor. In a multi processor computer, processes
can share the memory and IO facilities. Further, these processes share the same
job for execution. Such a system is called symmetric multiprocessor system.
An OS designed for symmetric processing is called symmetric
multiprocessing operating system. The main function of OS is to schedule the
jobs over the multiple processors. Symmetric multiprocessing has the following
advantages over uni-processor architecture:
Improved Throughput:
throughput means number of jobs executed by the processor in a given
time. As multiple processes can be executed, we get a better throughput.
Improved Reliability: even if one processor fails due to
hardware problems, even then the jobs can be executed with the help of other
processors. The performance of the system is affected (lowered) but the system
withstands the complete failure.
Faster Execution:
from the user point of view, jobs are executed very fast.
4.
Distributed Operating System:
Distributed operating system is an OS that runs on a network
of computers. The OS, memory, files are shared by the number of users in the
network from the server. For example 10 nodes are connected by server through
LAN. The OS, data files, RAM, processor
slots are shared by 10 users from server. The user thinks that he is running on
a single large system with one operating system. The users of a distributed
system do not need to know where on the network their files reside.
5.
Microkernel architecture:
It’s a minimal kernel of an OS that performs only the
essential functions. The system
processes perform all other OS functions. Note that, here the system processes
means servers, and systems that contains the server are called client server
model systems.
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