CS-2301 Discussion Forum Unit 1 final PDF

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CS-2301: OPERATING SYSTEMS 1 - Discussion Forum Unit 1...

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Using one of the referenced website articles discuss how operating systems use a general technique called virtualization and virtual machines. The operating system takes a physical resource (such as the processor, or memory, or a disk) and transforms it into a more general, powerful, and easy-to-use virtual form of itself called a virtual machine (VM). According to the WordWeb Dictionary and Thesaurus, virtualization is simulating or emulating something actual on a computer or online/ using cloud computing in abstract. Once something is simulated on a computer or online, scalability becomes an automatic advantage: You can have an unlimited number of whatever is being simulated that can be distributed for use. In their utility, virtualized appliances are called virtual machines (VMs). All these cannot be possible minus an operating system because it is the operating system that enables you to boot and run a PC. The OS is responsible for delegating tasks and allocating resources for tasks initiated by the user. An operating system serves as a hypervisor, allowing several virtual machines to run simultaneously from one computer. According to the WordWeb Dictionary and Thesaurus, a hypervisor is a software that allows one or more virtual machines to operate directly on underlying hardware. The hypervisor (the operating system) serves as the intermediary between a physical PC and the virtual machine. The OS is the enabler and the resource allocator that makes virtualization possible. Below is a visual representation of the hypervisor (OS)-VM relationship.

Fig 1.0: One PC is virtualized to many VMs

An operating system can use virtualization to infinitely duplicate physical resources of a computer (Rouse, n.d.). The physical resources of a PC such its R.A.M and hard drive space can be infinitely replicated in abstract online. Through one computer, one can have several cloudbased/ virtual computers each customized according to one’s preferences. Amazon is a good example of a platform that offers virtual PCs on the cloud. With the virtual PCs, you have unlimited storage space that also serves as an added data loss back-up plan. You also have the option to access your virtual PC from any other computer with an internet connection. It should however be noted that any instance of virtual use/ access implies use of physical resources in the process as well because you have to use an actual computer to access the virtual one, online. Maximum utility of the physical PC can therefore be achieved through virtualization. With reference to PC processors, as an example, the processor runs all applications and executes all commands. A physical processor on a PC only has one Application Programming Interface (API). Utility of this API is limited and not many applications can make use of the API simultaneously. However, once the processor is virtualized, it could have an unlimited number of APIs and different apps can utilize these virtualized APIs simultaneously thereby optimizing utility of the single API of the physical processor on a PC. Likewise, a computer’s Random Access Memory (R.A.M) can be virtualized. According to the Avast Academy website (https://www.avast.com/c-what-is-ram-memory) RAM is the extremely fast and temporary data storage space that a computer needs to access forthwith/ here and now, or in the next few moments. No application can run in the absence of RAM. A PC can’t even start-up minus RAM. Just like with virtualization of the processor, virtualization of RAM also allows for optimum/ maximum utility of the available physical RAM on a PC. It should however be noted that it’s the operating system’s responsibility to prioritize the order in which data and/or commands are stored and from which application assuming there are several applications running simultaneously. This helps ensure that all apps are able to run simultaneously seamlessly optimizing RAM utility. In a nutshell, virtualization allows for simultaneous running of several apps with virtualized processors that afford a user an unlimited number of APIs, while having the app data and/ or commands stored and accessed efficiently with the virtualized RAM, with unlimited virtual hard drive space available given that it’s on the cloud (Remzi & Andrea, 2018).

References (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from http://www.automationexchange.com/proddir/dir_product.asp?dir_id=11&p_id=340 Remzi H. A. & Andrea C. A. (2018, August). Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces. Retrieved from http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ Rouse M. (n.d.). Villinger, S. (2020, November 11). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.avast.com/cwhat-is-ram-memory WordWeb Pro Windows dictionary and thesaurus. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://wordweb.info/free/

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