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systems software Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the two main tiers of storage?

A

Primary storage and secondary storage

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2
Q

What is primary storage?

A

Primary storage refers to the memory areas that the CPU can access very quickly, like CPU registers, cache, ROM and RAM. Primary storage has the fastest read/write speeds and is mostly volatile.

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3
Q

What is secondary storage?

A

Secondary storage is non-volatile- its where all data are stored when not in use. It includes magnetic hard disk drives, solid state drives, CDs and SD cards. Read/write speeds are much slower compared to primary storage.

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4
Q

What are Hard disk drives?

A

Hard disk drives(HDDs) are the traditional internal storage in PCs and laptops. A hard disk drive is made up of a stack of magnetised metal disks spinning at a rate of between 5400 and 15000rpm(revolutions per minute)
Data is stored magnetically in small areas called sectors within circular tracks. Read/write heads on a moving arm are used to access sectors on the disks.
Portable HDDs are popular for backing up and transporting large amounts of data.
Despite their moving parts, HDDs are generally very long lasting and reliable, although they could be damaged by large impacts like being dropped.

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5
Q

What are solid state drives?

A

Solid state drives are storage devices with no moving parts. Most of them use a type of flash memory. SSDs are used for the same purpose as HDDs- for internal storage.
SSDs have significantly faster read/write times than HDDs. Using a SSD rather than traditional HDD can give much quicker times for booting up and opening programs and files.
Hybrid drives exist which use sold state storage for the OS and programs, and a hard disk for data.
Like HDDs, portable SDDs can be used to back up and transport data.

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6
Q

What are other types of flash storage?

A

USB pen drives and memory cards(e.g SD cards) are also flash based, solid state storage.
They are much slower than SSDs and have a much shorter read/write life.
They are used to expand the storage capacity of small devices like cameras, smartphones and tablets(which are too small for SSDs and HDDs). Their capacity is very high relative to their tiny size.

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7
Q

What are the advantages of HDDs compared to SSDs?

A

HDDs are cheaper

  • Both are high capacity, but HDDs are higher
  • HDDs have a longer read/write life than SSDs- SSDs can only be written a certain number of times before they begin to deteriorate.
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8
Q

What are the advantages of SSDs compared to HDDs?

A
  • SSDs are faster
  • SSDs don’t need defragmenting
  • SSDs are more shock proof than HDDs
  • HDDs make some noise, SSDs are silent.
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9
Q

What are optical discs?

A

Optical discs are things life CDs, DVDs and blu ray discs.

CDs can hold around 700mb of data, DVDs can hold around 4.7 GB and blu rays can hold around 25 GB.

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10
Q

What are the disadvantages of optical discs?

A

Nowadays their use is declining:

  • As internet speeds have increased, streaming and download services like netflix, itunes have removed the need for optical discs.
  • Modern devices like phones and tablets don’t have optical disks
  • DVDs used to be popular for backing up data but they can’t compete witj flash storage devices due to their low capacity per disc, very slow read/write speeds and poor reliability of RW discs.
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11
Q

What are the advantages of optical discs?

A

They are very cheap, portable, and won’t be damaged by water or shocks(but easily scratched)

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12
Q

What are magentic tapes?

A

Magnetic tape has much greater storage capacity than HDDs. It also has an extermely low cost.
Magnetic tapes are often used by large organisations in archive libraries to store huge amounts of data.
It comes in plastic cassettes. Cassettes require a special tape drive for read/writing.
Tape is read/written sequentially, meaning it is read/written from the beginning to the end, or until stopped by the computer. This means tape is very slow when finding specific data stored on it, but it has a fast read/write speed once it is in the correct place to begin reading/writing.

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13
Q

What is a systems software?

A

It is software designed to run and maintain a computer system. The most important one is the operating system(OS)

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14
Q

What are the main functions of an OS?

A

OS in a complex piece of software found on most computer systems. the main functions are:

  • communicate with internal and external hardware via the device drivers
  • provide a user interface, allowing a user to interact with the computer and vice versa
  • provide a platform for different applications to run.
  • allow the computer to multi-task by controlling memory resources and the CPU.
  • deal with file management and disk management
  • manage system security and user accounts
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15
Q

What are device drivers?

A

A piece of software that allows applications to communicate with a piece of hardware.

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16
Q

Why does the OS use device drivers?

A

Operating systems use device driver software to communicate with internal hardware or peripherals connected to the computer system.

  • Every piece of hardware connected to the computer system requires a device driver. Drivers essentially act as a ‘translator’ for the signals between OS and hardware.
  • When a computer is booted up, the OS will choose the correct device drivers for the hardware it detects. If new hardware is connected to the computer, the system will install the new, matching driver.
  • Device manufacturers may release updates to device drivers in order to fix bugs, add features or improve the performance of their hardware. Updates may be installed automatically by the OS or manually by the user.
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17
Q

What is a user interface?

A

A user interface allows the user to interact with the computer system. Operating systems provide a user interface.

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18
Q

What are graphical user interfaces and what are they used for?

A

Graphical user interfaces(GIUs) are the most common type of user interface- they are designed to be easy for everyday users by making them visual, interactive and intuitive.
GUI systems are optimised for specific input methods. In the past GUIs have been WIMP based(using windows, icons, menus and pointers). Android and iOS were created for touchscreen devices, using finger like gestures like pinching or swiping in place of a mouse.

19
Q

What are command line interfaces and what are they used for?

A

A command line interface is text based. The user enters specific commands to complete tasks. Command line interfaces are less resource heavy than GUIs.
Command line interfaces are not suitable for everyday users. But for advanced users, they can be for more efficient and powerful than a GUI. They can be used to automate processes using scripts(simple programs).

20
Q

What are multitasking OSs?

A

Operating systems that can run multiple applications at the same time. The OS helps the CPU carry out multi-tasking by efficiently managing memory and CPU processing time.

21
Q

How does the operating system multitask?

A
  • When an application is opened, the OS moves the necessary parts of the application to memory, followed by additional parts when they are required. The OS will decide if applications or features have been recently used- if not, they may be removed from memory.
  • To run multiple applications, the OS needs to make sure that the applications don’t overwrite or interfere with each other. A memory manager allocates certain applications certain memory addresses, to make sure their processes are placed into separate locations.
  • Only one application is processed by the CPU at a time, so the other processes must wait. The OS divides CPU time between open applications and may prioritize certain processes in order for instructions to be executed in the most efficient order.
  • When required, the OS organised the movement of data to and from virtual memory.
22
Q

How does the OS handle file and disk management?

A
  • Computers store data as files. Images, music, videos and spreadsheets are just collections of data. File extensions(e.g jpg, mp3) tell the computer which software should be used to open the file.
  • The OS is responsible for file management- the organisation of data into a usable hierarchical structure. It also deals with movement, editing and deletion of data.
  • The OS manages the hard disk. It splits the physical disk into storage sectors, decides which sectors to write data to, and keeps track of free space on the disk. Ideally the data for a single file would be placed in adjacent sectors, but this is not always possible.
  • The OS also organises and maintains the hard disk with utility software like defragmentation software.
23
Q

What is the difference between single user OSs and multi-user OSs?

A

Single user OSs allow one user to use the computer at once, whereas multi-user OSs allow several users to use the computer at the same time.
Multi-user OSs are often used on mainframes(huge supercomputers) and give many users simultaneous access. For example ATMs allow thousands of people access to a large bank mainframe at the same time.

24
Q

How does the OS control user account?

A

The OS is also responsible for user account control. User accounts allow different users to be granted access to specific data or resources on a computer system.

  • On most desktop operating systems each user has access to their own personal data and desktop, but cannot access other users’ personal data.
  • Operating systems may have anti theft measures to prevent other users from accessing locked devices or accounts to steal information. User accounts may be password, or pin protected. Some devices also require a user to draw a specific pattern on the screen, or have fingerprint and retina scanners.
25
Q

What are utility systems?

A

Utility systems software helps to maintain or configure a computer. Many useful utilities are installed with the operating system, but extra utility software can be installed to perform additional tasks.

26
Q

How do defrangmentation utilities work?

A

Defragmentation utilities put broken up files back together.

  • Files are stored on a hard disk in available spaces. Ideally, entire files would be stored together.
  • However as files are moved, deleted and change size, lots of gaps begin to appear on the disk. When writing files to the disk, the OS splits files into smaller blocks to fill up the gaps.
  • Over time, the disk becomes more and more fragmented. This makes reading and writing files slower as the read/write head has to move back and forth across the disk.
  • Defragmentation software reorganizes data on the hard drive to put fragmented files back together. It also moves files to collect all the free spaces together. This prevents further fragmentation.
  • As SSDs use flash storage with no moving parts, fragmentation doesn’t cause them any problems-they can access data just as quickly however it’s arranged. In fact as SSDs have a limited number of read/writes, defragmentation can shorten their lifespan.
27
Q

What is a backup?

A

A backup is a copy of a computer systems’s files and settings stored externally. This means data can be recovered in the event of data loss. Data loss can happen for many reasons…fire ,theft, flood, malware, hardware failure or when you accidentally delete something.

28
Q

What is a backup utility?

A

A backup utility is a software with facilities such as scheduling of regular backups, creating rescue disks, disk images and options for full or incremental backups.

29
Q

What is a full backup?

A

A full backup is where a copy is taken of every file on the system. They often use a lot of storage space. A full backup can take a long time to create, but is faster to restore from.
To restore from full backups only the latest backup is needed.

30
Q

What are incremental backups?

A

Incremental backups are where only files created or edited since the last backup are copied. They use less storage space and are much quicker to create. But a full system restore is slow- the last backup must be restored, followed by every incremental backup since that point.
A business might have a backup regime where a full backup is taken every week with incremental backups taken daily.

31
Q

What are two other types of utility software?

A

Compression software and encryption software

32
Q

What is compression software?

A

Compression software reduces the size of files so they take up less disk space. Its used loads on the internet to make files quicker to download. Standard file formats include .zip and .rar. Compressed files need to be extracted before they can be used.

33
Q

What is encryption software?

A

Encryption software encrypts data to stop third parties from accessing it. Encrypted data can be decrypted using a special key.

34
Q

What is open source software?

A

Open source software is a software when the source code is made freely available. Users may legally modify the source code to create their own spin off software, which can be shared under the same license and terms as the original software.

35
Q

What is source code?

A

Source code is the actual programming code behind the software. It shows exactly how the software was made.

36
Q

What are some examples of open source software?

A

Well known examples include Apache HTTP server, GIMP, Mozilla firefox.
Linux is a hugely successful open source OS developed in 1991.. Hundreds of Linux based OSs have been developed e.g android.
Popular open source software is always supported by a strong online community. Users actively help to improve the software-anyone can play with the source code and suggest bug fixes and improvements to the original developers.

37
Q

What are the advantages of open source software?

A
  • It is usually free
  • Made for the greater good, not profit- it benefits everyone and encourages collaboration
  • Software can be adapted by users to fit their needs
  • Wide pool of collaborators can be more creative and innovative than the programmers of one company.
  • Popular software is very reliable and secure- any problems are quickly solved by the community.
38
Q

What are the disadvantages of open source software?

A
  • Small projects may not get regular updates and so could be buggy or have unpatched security holes.
  • There may be limited user documentation
  • No warranties if something goes wrong
  • No costumer support
  • Companies using open source code to make custom software may not want competitors to see their source code but they have no choice.
39
Q

What is proprietary software?

A

Proprietary software is software when only compiled code is released. The source code is a closely guarded secret. Proprietary software licenses restrict modification, copying and redistribution of the software. It is usually paid for.

40
Q

What are examples of proprietary software?

A

Big companies include Microsoft, Adobe
Businesses also use proprietary software instead of open source. Proprietary software tends to have better costumer support options.

41
Q

What is compiled code?

A

Complied code is the final code that runs(it doesn’t tell you how the program was made)

42
Q

What are the advantages of proprietary software?

A
  • Comes with warranties, documentation, and costumer support
  • Should be well tested and reliable as the company’s reputation depends on this. Fixes and updates will come regularly
  • Usually cheaper for companies then developing their own custom built software.
43
Q

What are disadvantages of proprietary software?

A
  • Can be expensive
  • Software may not exactly fit a user’s needs and they can’t do anything about it
  • Software companies may not maintain older software after warranties expire-they’ll want people to buy their latest product.

computer science (9 decks)

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