HOME
| NEXT »
Top 10 List of Week 00
- What is an Operating System?
An operating system is the most important software that runs on a computer. It manages the computer’s memory and processes, as well as all of its software and hardware. It also allows you to communicate with the computer without knowing how to speak the computer’s language. Without an operating system, a computer is useless.
- Most Popular Operating Systems
There are five main types of operating systems. These five OS types are likely what run your phone or computer. Whether you’re just a normal computer and phone user, or someone hoping to get involved in an IT career, knowledge of applications and systems types will help you maintain security and user access, perform routine operations, and much more.
- History of Operating Systems
This might be surprising for many of you, but earlier the operating systems were not there. With the development of technology, operating systems have also been introduced. Earlier in the 1940s, the computer systems used to work on the programs.
- Role and purpose of Operating Systems
An operating system has three main functions: (1) manage the computer’s resources, such as the central processing unit, memory, disk drives, and printers, (2) establish a user interface, and (3) execute and provide services for applications software.
- Types of Operating Systems
Some of the most widely used types of Operating System are: Batch OS, Time-Sharing OS, Distributed OS, Network OS and Real-Time OS.
- Operating System Evolution
Computer software is roughly divided into two main categories - application software and operating system software. Applications are programs used by people to carry out various tasks, such as writing a letter, creating a financial spreadsheet, or querying a customer database. Operating systems, on the other hand, manage the computer system on which these applications run.
- Operating System Architecture
The core software components of an operating system are collectively known as the kernel. The kernel has unrestricted access to all of the resources on the system. In early monolithic systems, each component of the operating system was contained within the kernel, could communicate directly with any other component, and had unrestricted system access.
- OS Management Functions
The four main operating system management functions (each of which will be dealt with in greater depth elsewhere) are: Process management, Memory management, File and disk management, and I/O system management.
- What is an API?
API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.
- Role of Interrupts
Interrupts are signals sent to the CPU by external devices, normally I/O devices. They tell the CPU to stop its current activities and execute the appropriate part of the operating system. Interrupts are important because they give the user better control over the computer. Without interrupts, a user may have to wait for a given application to have a higher priority over the CPU to be ran. This ensures that the CPU will deal with the process immediately.