Page 323 - DCAP403_Operating System

Operating System

Notes 14.7 Summary

Microsoft designed Windows 2000 to be an extensible, portable operating system - one able to
take advantage of new techniques and hardware. Windows 2000 supports multiple operating
environments and symmetric multiprocessing. The use of kernel objects to provide basic services,
and the support for client-server computing, enable Windows 2000 to support a wide variety of
application environments. For instance, Windows 2000 can run programs compiled for MS-DOS,
Win16, Windows 95, Windows 2000, and/or POSIX. It provides virtual memory, integrated
caching, and preemptive scheduling. Windows 2000 supports a security model stronger than
those of previous Microsoft operating systems, and includes internationalization features.
Windows 2000 runs on a wide variety of computers, so users can choose and upgrade hardware
to match their budgets and performance requirements, without needing to alter the applications
that they run.

14.8 Keywords

I/O Manager: It allows devices to communicate with user-mode subsystems by translating user-
mode read and write commands and passing them to device drivers.
IPC Manager: Short form of Inter-Process Communication Manager, manages the communication
between clients (the environment subsystem) and servers (components of the executive).

Object manager: It is a special executive subsystem that all other executive subsystems must pass
through to gain access to Windows 2000 resources.
PnP Manager: It handles Plug and Play and supports device detection and installation at boot
time.
Power Manager: The power manager coordinates power events and generates power IRPs.
Process Manager: Handles process and thread creation and termination
Security Reference Monitor (SRM): The primary authority for enforcing the security rules of the
security integral subsystem.
Virtual Memory Manager: It manages virtual memory, allowing Windows 2000 to use the hard
disk as a primary storage device (although strictly speaking it is secondary storage).
Windows 2000 Advanced Server: It is an operating system which supports up to eight processors
and up to 8GB of RAM. It is used in an enterprise network and very useful as an SQL server.

Windows 2000 Datacenter Server: It is an operating system which upports up to 32 processors
and up to 64GB of RAM. It is used in an enterprise network to support extremely large databases
and real time processing.

Windows 2000 Professional: It is an operating system which supports up to two processors
and up to 4GB of RAM. Used as a workstation or client computer and it is the replacement for
Windows NT Workstation.
Windows 2000 Server: It is an operating system which supports up to four processors and up to
4GB of RAM. It is used for web, application, print and fi le servers.

14.9 Review Questions

1. What are the differences between Windows 2000 Professional, Server, Advanced Server,
and DataCenter?
2. Write short notes on:
(a) NTFS

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