Windows XP is the latest and most robust of the family of all windows operating systems that are popular with PC users worldwide. Windows XP comes in two editions namely the home edition and the professional edition to cater to the varying needs of the respective class of users. One of the main problems with the previous versions (9x) of windows operating systems was that they were prone to frequent system crashes. Microsoft, the developer and marketer of the Windows operating systems, addressed this problem by designing Windows NT based on a new technology that increased the stability and minimized system breakdown. However, this stability was compromised by the lack of compatibility, as NT was selective about the hardware. Microsoft later developed and released windows XP as an operating system for both the desktop as well as the server systems. XP has the compatibility of the earlier Windows 9X versions and at the same time is highly stable and resistant to crashes. Let us study the architecture of Windows XP, and in the process understand, the memory management, process management, device management, file handling functions and other aspects of the operating system.
Memory Management
Memory management is one of the important functions of an operating system. Allocation of memory to applications is a complex task and the frequent problem is that of applications trying access memory regions, which are beyond their preset limits resulting in overwriting memory regions allocated for other applications. This problem, known commonly as clobbering, leads to repeated system crashes. Windows XP, by using a protective memory model, tries to overcome this menace. The maximum amount of addressable memory in any 32-bit operating system is 4,294,967,296 or in other words 4Gb. Though theoretically it is possible to address and operate 4GB of memory space in reality most computers do not have 4GB of memory. However, operating systems make use of the concept of virtual memory to circumvent this limitation. [SYBEX Inc., 638]
Virtual memory refers to the use of hard disk space as part of the memory. Applications are supplied with more memory area than the computer could manage at any given moment of time. The Virtual memory manager jumps into action whenever an application tries to access a page that is currently not available within the physical RAM. The Virtual Memory manager in Windows XP uses the concept of paging to handle this task. Virtual address space is neatly divided into units called pages and the transfers between memory and disk are always carried out in units of a page. Only parts of the program that are currently needed by the application are stored in the RAM and the rest are stored in a page file. A page fault is said to occur when an application tries to access parts of the program, which are currently not in the physical RAM. In a real timesharing situation processes are switched back and forth between main memory and disk and the process is referred to as swapping. [Andrew S. Tanenbaum, 89]
Another novel feature in Windows XP is the memory protection model that it employs. Windows XP recognizes two levels of privilege for any process namely the kernel mode and the user mode privileges. Based on the access privileges Windows XP either allows or disallows any process from reading from or writing to any particular block of memory. Windows XP has many new features such as 'logical prefetcher or the fast boot application launch', 'increased page table entries' and 'reduced paged pool' usage all of which contribute directly to improved memory management. Once Windows XP is booted it automatically saves data about all disk read operations. The 'logical prefetcher' is designed to minimize the number of disk seeks by prefetching data which are frequently accessed by the application. Dynamic paged pool is another new feature, which facilitates quicker response time for applications. Windows XP also dramatically improves the server response time because it makes use of 'individual page charging' scheme whereby a server can understand multiple requests for the same page and hence minimize storage requirements. [Microsoft Corporation]
Process Manager
Windows XP follows the process model for execution of programs. One of the key points is that XP is designed on the 'Client Server model' or what is called as the micro kernel model. The essential idea behind the client server model is that parts of the operating systems consider themselves as clients or servers. As always, the kernel is considered the core of the operating system and keeps track...
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