Operating System 8.1

[Francoise Witsell]

Timesharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, peripherals, and other resources.

In the personal computer market, as of September 2023[update], Microsoft Windows holds a dominant market share of around 68%. macOS by Apple Inc. is in second place (20%), and the varieties of Linux, are collectively in third place (7%).[3] In the mobile sector (including smartphones and tablets), as of September 2023[update], Android's share is 68.92%, followed by Apple's iOS and iPadOS with 30.42%, and other operating systems with .66%.[4] Linux distributions are dominant in the server and supercomputing sectors. Other specialized classes of operating systems (special-purpose operating systems),[5][6] such as embedded and real-time systems, exist for many applications. Security-focused operating systems also exist. Some operating systems have low system requirements (e.g. light-weight Linux distribution). Others may have higher system requirements.

Some operating systems require installation or may come pre-installed with purchased computers (OEM-installation), whereas others may run directly from media (i.e. live CD) or flash memory (i.e. USB stick).

Embedded operating systems are designed to be used in embedded computer systems, whether they are internet of things objects or not connected to a network. Embedded systems include many household appliances. The distinguishing factor is that they do not load user-installed software. Consequently, they do not need protection between different applications, enabling simpler designs. Very small operating systems might run in less than 10 kilobytes,[27] and the smallest are for smart cards.[28] Examples include Embedded Linux, QNX, VxWorks, and the extra-small systems RIOT and TinyOS.[29]

A real-time operating system is an operating system that guarantees to process events or data by or at a specific moment in time. Hard real-time systems require exact timing and are common in manufacturing, avionics, military, and other similar uses.[29] With soft real-time systems, the occasional missed event is acceptable; this category often includes audio or multimedia systems, as well as smartphones.[29] In order for hard real-time systems be sufficiently exact in their timing, often they are just a library with no protection between applications, such as eCos.[29]

A virtual machine is an operating system that runs as an application on top of another operating system.[15] The virtual machine is unaware that it is an application and operates as if it had its own hardware.[15][30] Virtual machines can be paused, saved, and resumed, making them useful for operating systems research, development,[31] and debugging.[32] They also enhance portability by enabling applications to be run on a computer even if they are not compatible with the base operating system.[15]

Early computers were built to perform a series of single tasks, like a calculator. Basic operating system features were developed in the 1950s, such as resident monitor functions that could automatically run different programs in succession to speed up processing. Operating systems did not exist in their modern and more complex forms until the early 1960s.[33] Hardware features were added, that enabled use of runtime libraries, interrupts, and parallel processing. When personal computers became popular in the 1980s, operating systems were made for them similar in concept to those used on larger computers.

In the 1940s, the earliest electronic digital systems had no operating systems. Electronic systems of this time were programmed on rows of mechanical switches or by jumper wires on plugboards. These were special-purpose systems that, for example, generated ballistics tables for the military or controlled the printing of payroll checks from data on punched paper cards. After programmable general-purpose computers were invented, machine languages(consisting of strings of the binary digits 0 and 1 on punched paper tape) were introduced that sped up the programming process (Stern, 1981).[full citation needed]

In the early 1950s, a computer could execute only one program at a time. Each user had sole use of the computer for a limited period and would arrive at a scheduled time with their program and data on punched paper cards or punched tape. The program would be loaded into the machine, and the machine would be set to work until the program completed or crashed. Programs could generally be debugged via a front panel using toggle switches and panel lights. It is said that Alan Turing was a master of this on the early Manchester Mark 1 machine, and he was already deriving the primitive conception of an operating system from the principles of the universal Turing machine.[33]

Later machines came with libraries of programs, which would be linked to a user's program to assist in operations such as input and output and compiling (generating machine code from human-readable symbolic code). This was the genesis of the modern-day operating system. However, machines still ran a single job at a time. At Cambridge University in England, the job queue was at one time a washing line (clothesline) from which tapes were hung with different colored clothes-pegs to indicate job priority.[citation needed]

By the late 1950s, programs that one would recognize as an operating system were beginning to appear. Often pointed to as the earliest recognizable example is GM-NAA I/O, released in 1956 on the IBM 704. The first known example that actually referred to itself was the SHARE Operating System, a development of GM-NAA I/O, released in 1959. In a May 1960 paper describing the system, George Ryckman noted:

One of the more famous examples that is often found in discussions of early systems is the Atlas Supervisor, running on the Atlas in 1962.[35] It was referred to as such in a December 1961 article describing the system, but the context of "the Operating System" is more along the lines of "the system operates in the fashion". The Atlas team itself used the term "supervisor",[36] which was widely used along with "monitor". Brinch Hansen described it as "the most significant breakthrough in the history of operating systems."[37]

Through the 1950s, many major features were pioneered in the field of operating systems on mainframe computers, including batch processing, input/output interrupting, buffering, multitasking, spooling, runtime libraries, link-loading, and programs for sorting records in files. These features were included or not included in application software at the option of application programmers, rather than in a separate operating system used by all applications. In 1959, the SHARE Operating System was released as an integrated utility for the IBM 704, and later in the 709 and 7090 mainframes, although it was quickly supplanted by IBSYS/IBJOB on the 709, 7090 and 7094, which in turn influenced the later 7040-PR-150 (7040/7044) and 1410-PR-155 (1410/7010) operating systems.

During the 1960s, IBM's OS/360 introduced the concept of a single OS spanning an entire product line, which was crucial for the success of the System/360 machines. IBM's current mainframe operating systems are distant descendants of this original system and modern machines are backward compatible with applications written for OS/360.[citation needed]

OS/360 also pioneered the concept that the operating system keeps track of all of the system resources that are used, including program and data space allocation in main memory and file space in secondary storage, and file locking during updates. When a process is terminated for any reason, all of these resources are re-claimed by the operating system.

Control Data Corporation developed the SCOPE operating system in the 1960s, for batch processing. In cooperation with the University of Minnesota, the Kronos and later the NOS operating systems were developed during the 1970s, which supported simultaneous batch and timesharing use. Like many commercial timesharing systems, its interface was an extension of the Dartmouth BASIC operating systems, one of the pioneering efforts in timesharing and programming languages. In the late 1970s, Control Data and the University of Illinois developed the PLATO operating system, which used plasma panel displays and long-distance time sharing networks. Plato was remarkably innovative for its time, featuring real-time chat, and multi-user graphical games.

In 1961, Burroughs Corporation introduced the B5000 with the MCP (Master Control Program) operating system. The B5000 was a stack machine designed to exclusively support high-level languages with no assembler;[b] indeed, the MCP was the first OS to be written exclusively in a high-level language (ESPOL, a dialect of ALGOL). MCP also introduced many other ground-breaking innovations, such as being the first commercial implementation of virtual memory. MCP is still in use today in the Unisys company's MCP/ClearPath line of computers.

UNIVAC, the first commercial computer manufacturer, produced a series of EXEC operating systems.[38][39][40] Like all early main-frame systems, this batch-oriented system managed magnetic drums, disks, card readers and line printers. In the 1970s, UNIVAC produced the Real-Time Basic (RTB) system to support large-scale time sharing, also patterned after the Dartmouth BC system.

General Electric developed General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor (GECOS), which primarily supported batch processing. After its acquisition by Honeywell, it was renamed General Comprehensive Operating System (GCOS).

Digital Equipment Corporation developed many operating systems for its various computer lines, including TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 time-sharing systems for the 36-bit PDP-10 class systems. Before the widespread use of UNIX, TOPS-10 was a particularly popular system in universities, and in the early ARPANET community. RT-11 was a single-user real-time OS for the PDP-11 class minicomputer, and RSX-11 was the corresponding multi-user OS.

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