Platforms and Operating Systems

Learning Outcome 1: Understand the concepts of Operating Systems (OS) and the role of the OS when interacting with a computer system.

Learning Outcome 2: Make use of services provided by the OS, such as process control, file and memory management.

Learning Outcome 3: Discuss key differences between approaches taken by different OS, with regard to File, Memory and process management.

Task 1: OS Architecture
Operating systems developers are exploring the use of different types of operating system kernel. They have found out that there are two main types of operating systems kernel, microkernel and monolithic kernel. In no more than 750 words and using at least 4 in text citations, describe the main features of microkernel and monolithic kernel, include a comparison of these kernel approaches, and how they might be combined to improve the performance of the operating system. Reference your report using the appropriate APA approach.

Task 2: Processes Control
Develop a shell script that gains information from the /proc directory that allow the user to display the following information:
• The processor information
• The memory allocation and usage
• The memory map for an input/output device
• The ports that are used for an input/output device
• The kernel version info
• The file system types currently supported by the kernel.
• The running processes
• The PID and status for a process

Task 3: Assembly
In a substitution cipher, any character of plain text from the given fixed set of characters is substituted by some other character from the same set depending on a key. For example, with a shift key of 3, A would be replaced by D, B would become E, and so on as shown in the figure.

Using assembly, create a program that accepts the shift key number and a plain text as inputs from the user and converts the plain text into a cipher text using substitution cipher algorithm.

The task is to write the assembly code and provide a demonstration that it is working perfectly. You can use screenshots of the outputs for the following examples to demonstrate its success. More test examples can be created via the online tool at https://cryptii.com/pipes/caesar-cipher. Marks are given for the logic being correct.

Task 4: Memory Management
First fit, best fit and worst fit are memory management algorithms that allocates a process to a memory block in different ways as shown below.

Using a language of your choice write a program that allows the user to select one of these three algorithms in addition to the number and sizes of the memory blocks and processes. Then, the program should allocate the processes according to the selected algorithm.

Report Structure and Presentation:
1. The report should have a good structure and nice presentation style that will help the organisation and coherence of its content.
2. The report should have a clear narrative linking propositions, evidence and judgments. Facts will be clearly differentiated from opinions, all sources used must be evidenced by reference to other works following the APA Reference Style.