Publisher's Synopsis
The book is basic in the sense that it begins at the beginning and is entirely self-contained. It is also comprehensive and contains detailed descriptions of modern techniques in Operating systems. The aim has been to make the subject matter broadly accessible to advanced students, whilst at the same time providing a reference text for graduate scholars and research scientists active in the field. An operating system is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is a component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs usually require an operating system to function. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, printing, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computer - from cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers. Operating systems, like computer hardware, have undergone a series of revolutionary changes called generations. In computer hardware, generations have been marked by major advances in componentry from vacuum tubes (first generation), to transistors (second generation), to integrated circuitry (third generation), to large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuitry (fourth generation). The successive hardware generations have each been accompanied by dramatic reductions in costs, size, heat emission, and energy consumption, and by dramatic increases in speed and storage capacity. With the widespread use of computer networking and on-line processing, user gain access to networks of geographically dispersed computers through various type of terminals. The microprocessor has made possible the development of the personal computer, one of the most important developments of social consequence in the last several decades. Now many users have dedicated computer systems available for their own use at any time of the day or night. Computer power that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early 1960s is now available for less than a thousand dollars.