Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (9th Edition)

Book Preface

WHAT’S NEW IN THE NINTH EDITION

Since the eighth edition of this book was published, the field of operating systems has seen continuous innovations and improvements. In this new edition, I have tried to capture these changes while maintaining a comprehensive coverage of the entire field. To begin the process of revision, the eighth edition of this book was extensively reviewed by a number of professors who teach the subject and by professionals working in the field. The result is that, in many places, the narrative has been clarified and tightened, and illustrations have been improved.
Beyond these refinements to improve pedagogy and user friendliness, the technical content of the book has been updated throughout to reflect the ongoing changes in this exciting field, and the instructor and student support has been expanded. The most noteworthy changes are as follows:
•Updated Linux coverage: The Linux material has been updated and expanded to reflect changes in the Linux kernel since the eighth edition.
•Updated Android coverage: The Android material has been updated and expanded to reflect changes in the Android kernel since the eighth edition.
•New Virtualization coverage: The chapter on virtual machines has been completely rewritten to provide better organization and an expanded and more up-to-date treatment. In addition, a new section has been added on the use of containers.
•New Cloud operating systems: New to this edition is the coverage of cloud operating systems, including an overview of cloud computing, a discussion of the principles and requirements for a cloud operating system, and a discussion of a OpenStack, a popular open-source Cloud OS.
•New IoT operating systems: New to this edition is the coverage of operating systems for the Internet of Things. The coverage includes an overview of the IoT, a discussion of the principles and requirements for an IoT operating system, and a discussion of a RIOT, a popular open-source IoT OS.
•Updated and Expanded Embedded operating systems: This chapter has been substantially revised and expanded including:
◾The section on embedded systems has been expanded and now includes discussions of microcontrollers and deeply embedded systems.
◾The overview section on embedded OSs has been expanded and updated.
◾The treatment of embedded Linux has been expanded, and a new discussion of a popular embedded Linux system, μClinux, has been added.
•Concurrency: New projects have been added to the Projects Manual to better help the student understand the principles of concurrency.

OBJECTIVES

This book is about the concepts, structure, and mechanisms of operating systems. Its purpose is to present, as clearly and completely as possible, the nature and characteristics of modern-day operating systems.
This task is challenging for several reasons. First, there is a tremendous range and variety of computer systems for which operating systems are designed. These include embedded systems, smart phones, single-user workstations and personal computers, medium-sized shared systems, large mainframe and supercomputers, and specialized machines such as real-time systems. The variety is not just confined to the capacity and speed of machines, but in applications and system support requirements. Second, the rapid pace of change that has always characterized computer systems continues without respite. A number of key areas in operating system design are of recent origin, and research into these and other new areas continues.
In spite of this variety and pace of change, certain fundamental concepts apply consistently throughout. To be sure, the application of these concepts depends on the current state of technology and the particular application requirements. The intent of this book is to provide a thorough discussion of the fundamentals of operating system design, and to relate these to contemporary design issues and to current directions in the development of operating systems.

EXAMPLE SYSTEMS

This text is intended to acquaint the reader with the design principles and implementation issues of contemporary operating systems. Accordingly, a purely conceptual or theoretical treatment would be inadequate. To illustrate the concepts and to tie them to real-world design choices that must be made, four operating systems have been chosen as running examples:
•Windows: A multitasking operating system for personal computers, workstations, servers, and mobile devices. This operating system incorporates many of the latest developments in operating system technology. In addition, Windows is one of the first important commercial operating systems to rely heavily on object-oriented design principles. This book covers the technology used in the most recent version of Windows, known as Windows 10.
•Android: Android is tailored for embedded devices, especially mobile phones. Focusing on the unique requirements of the embedded environment, the book provides details of Android internals.
•UNIX: A multiuser operating system, originally intended for minicomputers, but implemented on a wide range of machines from powerful microcomputers to supercomputers. Several flavors of UNIX are included as examples. FreeBSD is a widely used system that incorporates many state-of-the-art features. Solaris is a widely used commercial version of UNIX.
•Linux: An open-source version of UNIX that is widely used.
These systems were chosen because of their relevance and representativeness. The discussion of the example systems is distributed throughout the text rather than assembled as a single chapter or appendix. Thus, during the discussion of concurrency, the concurrency mechanisms of each example system are described, and the motivation for the individual design choices is discussed. With this approach, the design concepts discussed in a given chapter are immediately reinforced with real-world examples. For convenience, all of the material for each of the example systems is also available as an online document