Random-access memory (RAM) is used to store both program instructions and data. Typically, both need to be present in memory in order for a program to execute. Often multiple programs will want access to memory, … See more

I/O devices include such peripherals as keyboards, mice, disk drives, printers, USB devices, network adapters, and display devices. The kernel allocates requests from applications to perform I/O to an appropriate device and provides convenient methods … See more

The kernel has full access to the system's memory and must allow processes to safely access this memory as they require it. Often the first step in doing this is virtual addressing, usually achieved by paging and/or segmentation. Virtual addressing allows the kernel to … See more

Protection
An important consideration in the design of a kernel is the support it provides for protection from faults (fault tolerance) and from malicious behaviours (security). These two aspects are usually not clearly distinguished, and the See more

Key aspects necessary in resource management are defining the execution domain (address space) and the protection mechanism used to mediate access to the resources within a domain. Kernels also provide methods for synchronization See more

To perform useful functions, processes need access to the peripherals connected to the computer, which are controlled by the kernel through See more

In computing, a system call is how a process requests a service from an operating system's kernel that it does not normally have permission to run. System calls provide the … See more