Question

How do the basic elements of a computer system relate to the design of an operating system? (Specifically address registers, interrupts, caching, input/output, and protection.)

Answer 1

1)As the point of discussion is about how operating system design is related to basic elements of a computer system an operating system is a resource allocator and it manages all the resources which are associated with the system.

2) Registers are available in the processor these registers are used for storage and data transfer in the processor. There are registers which perform the operation of storage of data it is known as data register(DR) and the register which stores the address known as address register(AR) and program counter(PC) register which is used for storing the address of next instruction. After the instructions are processed these instructions are stored in a register called an accumulator register which stores the results produced by the system. A hardware element which holds the address element which is used for adding the portion of an address to form an effective address.

3) Interrupts play the role of sending the signals to CPU and ask to stop the current process execution and execute the operating system request. Interrupts plays a key role in the operating system because it provides the user with better control over the system. Without interrupts, the user has to wait for the resources. There are three types of interrupts they are hardware interrupts software interrupts and Traps. Hardware interrupts are generated by the hardware devices as they want the attention of the operating system. Software interrupts are generated when there is a system call to an operating system. Traps are generated by the processor itself s it is having an internal error and it wants operating system to address it.

4) The cache is used to access the data faster. It stores the frequently accessed data and processor access the data directly from the cache device to save time.

5) Input-output plays the role of sending the data to and from memory. Both the CPU and I/O can concurrently execute the data. Input-output with the help of direct memory access executes the data.

6) Protection is a mechanism used by the operating system to protect the data of a user. Protection in an operating system is provided by creating the user id's and creating administrative id's and group id's which can be used for protection of an operating system.