1.5 - System Software
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What is the purpose of the operating system?
• To manage and run the computer’s hardware • To act as a platform for other software to be installed upon and run • To provide an interface between the user and the hardware
What do operating systems manage?
• Memory management and multitasking • Peripheral management and drivers • User management • File management • User interface
What is memory management?
The operating system loading programs from the hard drive into RAM when processing is required
What is a peripheral?
An external device connected to a computer system A peripheral is an external device connected to a computer system to input or output data. Each peripheral needs a device driver.
What is a device driver?
A program that provides interface for the OS to communicate with a peripheral. It translates operating system instructions into commands that the device will understand.
What is user management?
Creating, managing, deleting and granting different access rights to individual accounts
What is file management?
Allowing files and folder to be named, renamed, opened, copied, moved, saved, searched for, sorted and deleted
What is a user interface?
The means by which a human is able to interact with the computer system
What are the features of a Graphical User Interface (GUI)?
• WIMP (Windows, icons, menus, pointers) • Optimised for mouse and touch gesture input
What are the features of a Command Line Interface (CLI)?
• Text based • Takes up less storage space compared to a GUI • For experts as it is complicated
What are the features of a Menu-Driven Interface?
• Successive menus presented to the user • Often with buttons on a keypad • User friendly and easy to use
What are the features of a Voice-Driven Interface?
• Responds to questions in spoken language • Not always reliable • Commands may be misheard or limited in what can be performed • Hands-free to speed up processes
What is utility software?
Dedicated programs for the maintenance and organisation of a computer system
What are examples of utility software?
• Anti-malware, firewall and encryption (1.4) • Compression (1.2) • Defragmentation • Backup software, disk checkers, disk formatters and auto-updaters
What is fragmentation?
Files on a hard disk drive split into parts saved in different storage locations
How does fragmentation affect the time it takes to load and read a file?
The distance between the fragments of the file increases access time
How does defragmentation work?
Empty spaces are collected together and file fragments are moved to be stored together. Fewer disc accesses are then needed.
What are the advantageous outcomes of defragmentation?
-It takes less time to read/access a file because the data is contiguous so the read/write head does not need to move as far to read the next piece of data -Takes less time to save new files because there is larger free space together so it does not need to split the file and can store the data contiguously.
What is multitasking?
When you have more than one program open and running at the same time. The processor allocates a small amount of time to each process and cycles between them. As this happens so quickly it appears as if multiple programs are executing simultaneously.