system components

• operating system process management -

  – Process: a program in execution

  – Keeps track of each process and it’s state

  – Create, delete, suspend, resume processes; synchronize process communications, handle deadlocks

  – Possibly support threads (executable parts of a process)

• main memory management- Memory is the electronic holding place for instructions and data that the computer's microprocessor can reach quickly. When the computer is in normal operation, its memory usually contains the main parts of the operating system and some or all of the application programs and related data that are being used. Memory is often used as a shorter synonym for random access memory (RAM). This kind of memory is located on one or more microchips that are physically close to the microprocessor in the computer. Most desktop and notebook computers sold today include at least 16 megabytes of RAM, and are upgradeable to include more. The more RAM you have, the less frequently the computer has to access instructions and data from the more slowly accessed hard disk form of storage.

• file management - The term computer file management refers to the manipulation of [document]s and [data] in [Computer file|file]s on a [computer]].Specifically, one may create a new file or edit an existing file and save it; open or load a pre-existing file into memory; or close a file without saving it. Additionally, one may group related files in directories. These tasks are accomplished in different ways in different operating systems and depend on the user interface design and, to some extent, the storage medium being used.

• i/o system management- Input/Output Inc. endured another set of management changes this week, two months after the departures of its top executive.

  But these changes are on the second tier executive level and mark the positioning of the company for participation in the industry's recovery expected next year, say analysts.

  Axel Sigmar will become executive vice president and chief technology officer of I/O. He will also be the president of subsidiary I/O Technologies where he will focus on new generation applications and opportunities for technologies generated within the company.

• secondary amanagement - Secondary storage management is a classical feature of database management systems. It is usually supported through a set of mechanisms. These include index management, data clustering, data buffering, access path selection and query optimization.
  None of these is visible to the user: they are simply performance features. However, they are so critical in terms of performance that their absence will keep the system from performing some tasks (simply because they take too much time). The important point is that they be invisible. The application programmer should not have to write code to maintain indices, to allocate disk storage, or to move data between disk and main memory. Thus, there should be a clear independence between the logical and the physical level of the system.

• protection management-

  – Provide mechanism for controlling access to programs, processes, or users

  – Essential in multitasking and multiuser systems

• command interpreter system - A hardware accelerated I/O data processing engine to execute a minimum number of types of I/O data processing commands in response to a stimulus from a host computer. The data processing engine, referred to as a command interpreter includes a command queue, a logic unit, a multiple purpose interface, at least one memory, and a controlling state machine, that each operate in concert with each other and without software control. The types of commands executed by the command interpreter can include, but are not limited to, an Initialize, Copy, DMA Read, DMA Write, Cumulative Exclusive OR, Verify, Compare, and ECC Check. The execution of commands that specify a source data location and a destination data location are characterized by a plurality of reads to an internal cache from the source data location for each bulk write from the internal cache to the destination data location. The locations of the data operated on by the command interpreter include a local I/O controller memory and a non-local I/O controller memory accessible to the command interpreter by way of an I/O bus.