Technical evaluation of an operating system includes analyses and assessments of the hardware-software interface, the techniques used to implement processes and threads, the file systems supported by the operating system, the i/o subsystem, and the operating system security features.

You will use these analyses and assessments to produce a comprehensive evaluation, which will be written in the form of a detailed technology review. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Organizational needs and requirements a. Develop an organizational profile that analyzes the tasks performed by the organization, the computer applications in use or expected to be in use, and the estimated system loads anticipated for the operating system. B. What is the organizational, security, and performance and reliability requirements related to operating system function, management, and maintenance?

Ii. Computer architecture a . What hardware is required to host the operating system? This should include an identification of the minimal hardware required and an assessment of what would be needed to support organizational needs and requirements. B. Analyze the architecture in terms of support and functionality of process management, memory management, i/o, and mass storage. C. Analyze the architectural support for multiprocessor systems and assess the organization, connection, and control aspects. What are some architectural issues that might arise regarding technologies used in multiprocessor systems and how would you recommend utilizing multiprocessor systems in light of these issues?

Iii. Process management a. Assess the operating system process management in terms of its responsiveness to organizational requirements. Use process monitoring tools to gather data for your assessment. B. Assess software tools for thread analysis and deadlock detection that are available for the operating system. What strategies does the operating system provide for handling deadlocks? C. What support does the operating system provide for multiprocessing? Assess the applicability and ability of the operating system to allocate tasks between multiple processors.

Iv. Memory management a. Describe how the types of memory supported by the operating system are used. What memory abstraction does the system use? Use an analysis tool to investigate the mapping to physical memory. B. Describe the system support for virtual memory, memory paging, and segmentation. Use a monitoring tool to assess their activity under heavily loaded conditions. C. Assess the techniques used for memory management policy and mechanism separation and their utility in managing complexity.

V. I/o and mass storage a. describe the hardware-software interface for i/o management used by the operating system. Various techniques are used for enabling the operating system to communicate with devices. What techniques are supported and what are their advantages and disadvantages? B. Analyze the file systems supported by the operating system. Use file system performance tests to assess the available file systems. C. What is the relationship between scheduled process context switching and i/o interrupt handling? Analyze the use of device interrupts in the operating system and compare them to other possible approaches to input/output.

Vi. Security a. What formal security model does the system support? Analyze the system to determine what support it provides for implementing security models and assess the relevant tools and services made available to administrators. B. Recommend techniques and best practices to further support security of the operating system.

Vii. Overall evaluation: using the defined requirements, analyses, and assessments, develop a comprehensive detailed technology recommendation. Include an integrated assessment of the operating system’s capability to support organizational needs and technical requirements.