Architecture of UNIX Operating System with Diagram

The UNIX operating system was pioneered by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Lab in 1960. The primary goals in the design of this operating system were to create an environment that prompted efficient program development and also important that the operating system is small and memory efficient and that it be easy to maintain. The UNIX operating system can be broken down into three basic components:

1. UNIX Scheduler
2. UNIX Shell
3. UNIX file system

UNIX Scheduler:

The UNIX Scheduler is a program that allows several users to use the computer at the same time, the scheduler shares the computer resources among these users, allowing each a small slice of the computer processor.

UNIX Shell:

The UNIX Shell is a command interpreter. It is a program that reads the lines you type in at a terminal and performs various operations depending and what you type in. The shell is the part of the UNIX system that sits between you and the kernel of this system. Everyone on a UNIX system has a copy of the shell program. So, a user doesn’t bother other users.

UNIX file system:

A file system is a collection of files stored on a storage device, usually a storage disk. The UNIX system always associates each other of the system with a particular directory. When you log in to the system, you are placed automatically call into a directory called Home Directory. This directory was assigned to you by the system administrator when your account was created on the system.