Software Flashcards
What are the types of software:
Application and system
What is application software used for:
Running programs to do tasks for the user that the user would need to do without a computer
What is system software used for:
Software that’s largely invisible to the user that does the background tasks that need to be done for the computer to work
What are the four types of system software:
Utility, library, translators, and operating system software
What is utility software:
Programs that do specific common tasks related to the running of the computer, e.g. zipping files or compression
What is library software:
Code, data and resources to be called by other programs, for carrying out common tasks
What are translators:
Programs that translate high level code to machine code (binary)
What are the 3 types of translators:
Compilers, assemblers, interpreters
How do compilers work:
It translates all the code and then executes it
How do assemblers work:
For assembly language
How do interpreters work:
It translates then executes each line
What is operating system software:
Software that controls the operations of the computer
What does an operating system do:
It provides a virtual machine, acts as an interface between the user and the computer, and manages operations
What does it mean to provide a virtual machine:
To hide the complexity of a system from the user
What are the four main jobs of the operating system:
Managing the processor, managing I/O devices, managing memory, managing files
What manages the processor:
The scheduler
What manages I/O devices:
Device drivers
What manages memory:
General memory managing programs within the OS
What manages files:
General file managing programs within the OS
Why does the processor need managing:
Because only one task can be done at once, so which task needs to be done first needs to be determined
Why do I/O devices need managing:
Because many programs need access to them at one time, so which program gets access when needs to be determined
Why does the memory need managing:
To determine what needs to be in RAM and what needs to be in virtual memory, and also it checks if there’s space to store a file
Why do the files need managing:
Because different bits of a file are stored in different areas on the hard disk, and they need to be located quickly for the user
