DISTRIBUTED OPERATING SYSTEMS

Abstract

Distributed Operating System (DOS) is an operating system which manages a set of independent computer systems, and makes these computer systems appear as a single unit to the user of a system. In DOS, two types of hardware architectures—parallel and distributed—can be used. Parallel architecture is a hardware architecture in which there are multiple processors that are tightly coupled and have a shared memory. Distributed hardware architecture is a hardware architecture in which there are multiple loosely coupled computer systems, each system with its own memory. Software architectures which can be used for DOS, include multiprocessor Operating System (OS), network OS and distributed OS. Multiprocessor OS is an operating system in which communication between processors takes place through shared memory and a single-run queue. Network OS is an operating system in which communication takes place using shared files and n-run queues. Distributed OS is an operating system in which communication takes place using messages and N-run queues.