The Runtime Theory

topic / operating-systems

Operating Systems

See how the kernel shares processors, memory, storage, and devices.

Learn how processes, threads, virtual memory, scheduling, synchronization, file systems, and I/O turn hardware into usable abstractions for programs.

7 articles · 4 videos · 2 traces · 2 request flows · 2 interviews · 17 total

Articles

operating systems

Concurrency Basics: Locks and Semaphores

How threads share memory safely using mutexes, semaphores, condition variables, and the race conditions they prevent.

8 min readRead
operating systems

Deadlocks: Conditions and Prevention

How deadlocks form under four necessary conditions, and the strategies (prevention, avoidance, detection) to manage them.

7 min readRead
operating systems

Scheduling: How the OS Chooses What Runs Next

CPU scheduling algorithms from first-come-first-served to modern multi-level feedback queues and the Completely Fair Scheduler.

8 min readRead
operating systems

System Calls: The User-Kernel Boundary

How applications request kernel services through system calls, the cost of mode switching, and common syscall patterns.

7 min readRead
operating systems

What Is a Process?

A process is an executing program with its own memory, state, and identity, tracked by the kernel through a process control block.

6 min readRead
operating systems

What Is an Operating System?

An operating system is the resource manager and abstraction layer between hardware and applications, providing processes, memory, files, and devices.

7 min readRead
operating systems

The Kernel Turns Shared Resources Into Program Abstractions

Understand how processes, virtual memory, scheduling, files, and system calls let programs share a machine.

8 min readRead

Request Flows

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