How does your computer manage competition for limited resources?

Every program or application is a process. Your computer is always juggling hundreds of processes. You might only see two or three programs running, but your computer's operating system hides complexity so your system is easier to use. In Resource Management we are concerned with how a computer make sure every process has enough memory, processor speed and storage in order to do what it is supposed to do.

Every time you move your mouse there is a process which must translate the electrical signals from the mouse (a peripheral) into a new cursor position on your screen. When we move the mouse, we expect to see the cursor on the screen move very quickly. But what about the other processes?

Resource management is a higher level topic. Major topics within resource management are:

• Identify the resources that need to be managed within a computer system.
• Evaluate the resources available in a variety of computer systems.
• Identify the limitations of a range of resources in a specified computer system.
• Describe the possible problems resulting from the limitations in the resources in a computer system.
• Explain the role of the operating system in terms of managing memory, peripherals and hardware interfaces.
• Outline OS resource management techniques: scheduling, policies, multitasking, virtual memory, paging, interrupt, polling.
• Discuss the advantages of producing a dedicated operating system for a device.
• Outline how an operating system hides the complexity of the hardware from users and applications.

With the deep understanding of operating systems, we should be able to understand log files related to kernel operations. We should be able to adjust the priority of a process and understand the consequences of doing this. We should be able to understand pages in memory, and use our knoweldge of operating systems to build highly efficient algorithms. 

Identify the resources that need to be managed within a computer system.
Evaluate the resources available in a variety of computer systems.
Identify the limitations of a range of resources in a specified computer system.
Describe the possible problems resulting from the limitations in the resources in a computer system.
Explain the role of the operating system in terms of managing memory, peripherals and hardware interfaces.
Outline OS resource management techniques: scheduling, policies, multitasking, virtual memory, paging, interrupt, polling.
Discuss the advantages of producing a dedicated operating system for a device.
Outline how an operating system hides the complexity of the hardware from users and applications.