An operating system acts as an intermediary between the user of a computer and computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which a user can execute programs in a convenient and efficient manner. An operating system is a software that
manages the computer hardware. The hardware must provide appropriate mechanisms to ensure the correct operation of the computer system and to prevent user programs from interfering with the proper operation of the system. Operating System – Definition: Functions of
Operating system – Operating system performs three functions:
Operating system as User Interface –
Every general-purpose computer consists of the hardware, operating system, system programs, and application programs. The hardware consists of memory, CPU, ALU, and I/O devices, peripheral device, and storage device. System program consists of compilers, loaders, editors, OS, etc. The application program consists of business programs, database programs. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Conceptual view of a computer system ("Conceptual view of a computer system" by Unknown, Geeks for Geeks is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0) Every computer must have an operating system to run other programs. The operating system coordinates the use of the hardware among the various system programs and application programs for various users. It simply provides an environment within which other programs can do useful work. The operating system is a set of special programs that run on a computer system that allows it to work properly. It performs basic tasks such as recognizing input from the keyboard, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, sending output to the display screen and controlling peripheral devices.
The Operating system must support the following tasks. The task are:
I/O System Management –
Drivers for specific hardware devices. Assembler – The input to an assembler is an assembly language program. The output is an object program plus information that enables the loader to prepare the object program for execution. At one time, the computer programmer had at their disposal a basic machine that interpreted, through hardware, certain fundamental instructions. The programmer would program the computer by writing a series of ones and zeros (machine language), and place them into the memory of the machine. Compiler/Interpreter – The high-level languages - for example C/C++, are processed by compilers and interpreters. A compiler is a program that accepts source code written in a “high-level language “and produces a corresponding object program. An interpreter is a program that directly executes a source program as if it was machine language. Loader – A loader is a routine that loads an object program and prepares it for execution. There are various loading schemes: absolute, relocating and direct-linking. In general, the loader must load, relocate and link the object program. The loader is a program that places programs into memory and prepares them for execution. In a simple loading scheme, the assembler outputs the machine language translation of a program on a secondary device and a loader places it in the core. The loader places into memory the machine language version of the user’s program and transfers control to it. Since the loader program is much smaller than the assembler, those make more core available to the user’s program. History of Operating system –
Adapted from: What system coordinates computer resources provides an interface?Operating System (OS) - a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system acts as an interface between the hardware and the programs requesting I/O. It is the most fundamental of all system software programs.
What is a system software that manages the computer resources and provides users the interface through GUI to communicate with the computer hardware?An operating system (OS) is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all of the other application programs in a computer. The application programs make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface (API).
Which one of these provides an interface between the computer and the user?An Operating System (OS) is an interface between a computer user and computer hardware.
What is software that manages and coordinates activities on a computer?An operating system (OS) is important software that runs on a computer. It manages the computer's memory and processes, as well as all of its software and hardware.
|