Operating systems Flashcards
What’s an operating system?
Manages computer memory and processes everything including software and hardware.
Functions of an operating system
- Allows communication between internal & external hardware using drivers
- Supplies user with interface, to interact with the PC.
- Imitates multi-tasking by managing the memory, resources and CPU
- Functions file and disk management
- Functions user account control
Communication features
- Each piece of hardware need drivers, to translate between OS & hardware.
- Booting up, OS software will choose the right device software for hardware it detected.
- OS installs updates to prevent bugs.
Interface features
Types of interfaces:
- GUI = visual, interactive and intuitive.
- WIMP = windows, icons, menus, pointers.
- post WIMP = is for android and iOS for touch screen. - Command line interface = text based -user enters commands to complete tasks. Not easy for daily use, advanced users may find it efficient + powerful.
Multi-tasking features
- OS provide a base to run apps, hardware is configured & gives access to CPU + memory, forms base.
- OS helps the CPU carry out multiple tasks by managing memory + CPU processing time.
File and disk management features
- OS responsilbe for file management + organising saved data into a usable structure
- OS manages the hard disk, keeps track of free space on disk and where to store it.
User account control features
- user accounts allow different users to access, specific data or resources.
- each user has their own personal data
- anti-theft measures, data secure.
Command Line Interface + and -
+ Use of CLI is more more efficient if user is able to function commands well.
+Requires less RAM compared to others and doesn’t need windows to function
- CLI is hard for new users.
- If command are entered & error has been made from the wrong input, command fails.
- Large amount of commands to learn, time consuming.
Graphical User Interface + and -
+ Easy to use, don’t need to learn complicated commands,& help system included with WIMP.
- GUI takes a lot of hard disk space, uses more processing power - this may be slow for experienced programmers to use.
What’s a multi-user operating system?
- Found on Mainframe/ supercomputers.
- Designed for people running many programs at once.
- Commonly used in firms/offices, when many need to access the same resources. - resources can’t be installed on every system.
What does an operating system manage?
- Manages all user log ins on the system.
- OS allocate resources to the jobs they want to run.
- OS keeps record of processing time & resources used.
- OS detects best computer processing cycles.
- OD maintain security.
What’s a single user operating system?
This system only has to manage one person at a time, running one user app at a time.
What does a single use operating system manage?
- Handles a n.o of different tasks
- Manages memory use, resources, hardware connectivity & execution of other apps.
