Week 26: Week 1 Operating Systems

The beginning of this course didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped; I quickly ran into some frustrating issues with the school server that slowed me down. This week, we covered the fundamentals of operating systems, focusing on how the OS acts as a bridge between hardware and applications, abstracting complex functions and efficiently managing resources like the CPU, memory, and devices. We explored how virtualization allows each process to run in an isolated environment, giving the appearance of dedicated resources.

We also delved into the design and architecture essential to OS functionality, including the CPU, memory hierarchy, and I/O systems. Key interfaces, such as the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), Application Binary Interface (ABI), and Application Programming Interface (API), define the layers of communication between hardware, the OS, and applications, with protection mechanisms like user and kernel modes ensuring secure hardware access. In addition, we studied Linux, a Unix-based OS kernel that promotes open-source development and versatility across platforms. The shell provides a command-line interface (CLI) for interacting with the OS, facilitating tasks like command execution, automation, and remote management. Concepts of concurrency, which involves managing multiple programs or threads simultaneously, and persistence, which focuses on the reliable storage of data, were also covered. Finally, the history of OS development highlighted its evolution from simple batch processing to complex, multitasking platforms supporting diverse applications through resource abstraction and system calls. I can’t wait to keep building on this foundation and dive deeper into what makes operating systems so essential!