What is Distributed Operating System? | Why are distributed systems becoming popular? | Brain Corner

shivamsah969
Oct 5, 2021
2 min read

'Distributed Operating System'

A distributed computing system is basically a collection of processors interconnected by a communication network in which each processor has its own local memory and other peripherals, and the communication between any two processors of the system takes place by message passing over the communication network. For a particular processor, its own resources are local, where as the other processors and their resources are remote. Together, a processor and its resources are usually referred to as a node or site or machine of the distributed operating system.

'Why Distributed System is becoming so popular?'

In recent years, distributed systems have become increasingly popular and important in mordern computing. They provide opportunities for increasing the reliability, availability and performance of applications. However, perhaps the most important feature of a distributed system is that it allows the integration of existing systems. Companies do not wish to rewrite large numbers of legacy applications and a distributed system allows these applications to be integrated in a relatively straightforward manner. A distributed system may comprise components written in a number of different programming languages, running on different operating systems on a variety of computer architectures. In many cases, a distributed system may be cheaper than a single, centralised system. A large number of small, low-power systems may prove cheaper to purchase than a single mainframe or supercomputer. This is the approach employed in Beowulf clusters, which allow a collection of computers to act as a single large computer.