Chapter3Operating-SystemStructures.ppt

* * User mode: operations are restricted Kernel mode: full power of the machine is available * * It knows this because when the OS booted up, it tried to install its own trap handlers; when the OS did so, it was trying to do something privileged, and therefore trapped into the VMM; at that time, the VMM recorded the necessary information (i.e., where this OS’s trap handlers are in memory) * * supervisor mode: one still doesn’t have access to privileged instructions, but one can access a little more memory than when in user mode; the OS can use this extra memory for its data structures and al