what is executive ? (Intel manuals)

Hello,
I see many times in IA-32 mauals
(like IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer s Manual Volume 3:
System Programming Guide) the term "executive". (usually in conjunction
to "operating system").

what is exactly "executive" in x386 context, and what is the
diffrence between it and an operating system?

Regards,
MR

wrote:
Hello,
I see many times in IA-32 mauals
(like IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer s Manual Volume 3:
System Programming Guide) the term "executive". (usually in conjunction
to "operating system").

what is exactly "executive" in x386 context, and what is the
diffrence between it and an operating system?

Regards,
MR


My mental dictionary defines "executive" as a program which is intended
to execute on top of the operating system. ie, a .exe file in Windows land.

Alex

wrote:
Hello,
I see many times in IA-32 mauals
(like IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer s Manual Volume 3:
System Programming Guide) the term "executive". (usually in conjunction
to "operating system").

what is exactly "executive" in x386 context, and what is the
diffrence between it and an operating system?

IMO, it means any kind of compiled program. They usually run on top of
an operating system, which itself is a compiled program.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:
wrote:

Hello,
I see many times in IA-32 mauals
(like IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer s Manual Volume 3:
System Programming Guide) the term "executive". (usually in conjunction
to "operating system").

what is exactly "executive" in x386 context, and what is the
diffrence between it and an operating system?


IMO, it means any kind of compiled program. They usually run on top of
an operating system, which itself is a compiled program.

Yousuf Khan

That sounds more like an executable.

I would think the executive is more like the portion of the OS
responsible for things like scheduling that involve decisions
having an impact on all processes.

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CJT wrote:
That sounds more like an executable.

I would think the executive is more like the portion of the OS
responsible for things like scheduling that involve decisions
having an impact on all processes.


That sounds more plausible.

Yousuf Khan

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"CJT" wrote in message
...

I would think the executive is more like the portion of the OS
responsible for things like scheduling that involve decisions
having an impact on all processes.

In the context of computer software, the term "executive" usually means
the portion of an operating system that provides core services. This would
include basic thread, process, memory, scheduling, and exception handling
code. It would not include things like drivers and higher-level APIs.

The term is sometimes used in amibiguous way. Much like "kernel", some
people use the term to include the drivers or distinguish based on run-time
versus static linking.

Intel specifically means the portion of the operating system that
includes operating system's interface to the processor and deals with the
processor's interface specifically for the operating system. That would
include things like transitions between user and kernel space, interrupts,
exceptions, page tables, MMU configuration, fault handling, and so on.

DS