Operating Systems Fundamentals: Processes, Scheduling, and Security
Operating Systems Fundamentals: Processes, Scheduling, and Security An operating system (OS) acts as a manager between software and hardware. Three ideas help it do its job well: processes, scheduling, and security. A process is a running program with its own memory and state. Scheduling decides which process uses the CPU and for how long. Security keeps data and resources safe from harm or unauthorized access. What is a process? A process is more than the program file. It carries instructions, data, and a slice of memory. The OS keeps a control block with information like where it is in memory, what resources it needs, and its current state (ready, running, waiting). Processes run in isolation from each other to protect programs and data from accidental or intentional interference. On a typical computer, many processes share the same hardware, but they do not see each other’s memory directly. ...