Systems Software Flashcards
Application Software
Programs used to perform non-maintenance tasks
BIOS
Basic operating system used to initialise hardware devices when booting a computer system
Closed-Source
Type of software that is provided without its source code files being accessible
Device Driver
Software that allows a computer to communicate with a peripheral device
Distributed
Operating system that uses multiple computer systems to work on the same task
Embedded
Operating system that is built in to a particular device
First Come First Served
Scheduling algorithm where each process is executed in the order it arrives
Interrupt
Signal sent to a component to request that it handle some process
Memory Management
Organising how memory locations are made available to different programs
Multi-Level Feedback Queues
Splitting processes into different queues depending on their priority and running higher-priority processes first
Multi-Tasking
Rapidly switching between running different programs so that they appear to be running simultaneously
Multi-User
Operating system that can handle multiple users simultaneously
Open-Source
This type of software is provided with its source code freely accessible
Operating System
Software that manages the basic operations of a computer
Real-Time
Operating system that executes commands with little delay
Round Robin
Scheduling algorithm where each process runs for a fixed amount of time, in the order in which it requests to use the CPU
Scheduling
Organising the order in which processes are executed
Shortest Job First
Running each process to completion in order from the shortest process to the longest process
Shortest Remaining Time
Running the process that will take the least time to be run to completion, switching if a process with less time to completion is added to the queue
Translator
Software that converts code written in a high-level language into low-level code
Utility Software
System software used to analyse or perform maintenance on a computer system
Virtual Machine
Software that allows a computer system to simulate another computer system
