OSImodels

OSImodels is a family of modeling approaches that describe how operating systems interact with software applications and hardware resources. Used in research, education, and industry, OSImodels provide abstractions to analyze cross‑platform behavior, resource management, and security without exposing low‑level implementation details. The goal is to compare architectures, reason about performance, and support formal verification of OS behavior.

Core concepts include a layered view that typically includes hardware, kernel services, system software, and user space. Interfaces such as system calls, application programming interfaces, interrupts, and virtualization boundaries define how components communicate. Models also represent resource management features—CPU scheduling, memory management, I/O handling, and synchronization—as state machines or process graphs, and they capture the lifecycle of processes and threads, including creation, scheduling, blocking, and termination.

Variants and tools vary by domain. Some editions emphasize formal semantics and are built with Petri nets or process algebras; others use simulation or modeling languages such as UML or SystemC. Extensions may cover distributed or virtualized environments, cloud platforms, or security policies, illustrating how OS decisions affect performance, isolation, and fault tolerance.

Applications include educational curricula, comparative OS design studies, performance evaluation, and security analysis. OSImodels support scenario planning, run-time tuning, and what‑if analysis before implementing changes in real systems. They are most useful when kept at an appropriate level of abstraction to avoid conflating architectural differences with implementation details.

See also: OSI model (Open Systems Interconnection) and operating system design; Notation: OSImodels is distinct from the OSI networking model. The term is not tied to a single standard, and practices vary by community and project.