Operating System(4)--Virtual Machine & OS Generation & System Boot

Content

Virtual Machine

OS Generation

System Boot

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Virtual Machine

1. Definition:

The fundamental idea behind a virtual machine is to abstract the hardware of a single computer (the CPU, memory, disk drives, network interface cards, and so forth) into several different execution environments, thereby creating the illusion that each separate execution environment is running its own private computer.

2. Implementation:

Virtual Machine Software - runs in virtual Kernel mode

Virtual Machine itself - runs in virtual User Mode

(A virtual user mode and a virtual kernel mode, both runs in Physical User Mode)

OS Generation

The system must then be configured or generated for each specific computer site, a process sometimes known as system generation(SYSGEN) is used for this.

SYSGEN must determine:

• What CPU is to be used?
• How much memory is available?
• What devices are available?
• What operating-system options are desired?

System Boot

1. Definition

The procedure of starting a computer by loading the kernel is known as booting the system.

2. Program

On most computer systems, a small piece of code known as the bootstrap program or bootstrap loader locates the kernel.

3. Storage

This program is in the form of read-only memory(ROM), because the RAM is in an unknown state at system startup. ROM is convenient because it needs no initialization and cannot be infected by a computer virus.

Firmware

EPROM(Erasable Programable Read Only Memory)

When the full bootstrap program has been loaded, it can traverse the file system to find the operating system kernel, load it into memory, and start its execution. It is only at this point that the system is said to be running.