Unit 1 - 5 Flashcards
What is a system software?
A software that governs the computer system, controlling hardware, peripherals, applications, provides an interface
What are the two types of system software?
Operating system (OS), Utilities
Define an operating system?
A collection of programs that manages and controls the computer
What are the functions of an operating system?
Controlling hardware components, proving user interface, managing files, multitasking facilities, managing computer’s memory
Give 3 examples of operating systems?
Microsoft Windows, IOS, Android
What is a user interface?
A program or suite (group) of programs that allows a user to interact with the computer
What are the 3 types of user interface?
GUI (Graphical user interface) - Mobile UI (Mobile user interface) - CLI (Command line interface)
What is GUI?
Graphical user interface - Require a large amount of processing power, they feature a desktop that displays everything such as applications that the user is able to interact with
What is Mobile UI?
Very similar to GUI, HOWEVER respond to touch, fingers can be used to interact with the device often found in smartphones and tablets
What is multi-tasking?
Being able to run more than one application or program on a computer, older computers could not do this because they ran off only CLI
What 2 things are needed for multi-tasking to be successful?
Operating system needs to support multi-tasking
Device needs enough memory to hold more than one program in the RAM
Why does a computer need to manage its memory?
More than one program can run at same time
More than one document can run at same time
What is a method of memory management?
Paging - Where memory is broken up into fixed blocks
What do you need to operate a peripheral?
A device driver
What is a device driver?
Contains instructions on how to control a device
What are 2 advantages of using a device driver?
Any device can be used if it has a driver
They can be updated to give a better performance and remove bugs
What is file handling?
Allows users to create, modify, and delete files and folders
What is user management?
Allow access levels to be given to user such as administrator rights or or standard user
Define utility software?
Utility software helps maintain the system, it includes encryption, defragmentation, data compression and backup software
What is encryption software?
Disguises the contents of the files so they can only be understood by authorised users, it uses a complex algorithm to do this
What is defragmentation?
When a file is stored on a hard disk it is actually not stored as a whole file but as a series of segments, these segments are split up known as fragmentation and defragmentation organises these files to speed up computer performance
What is data compression?
A compression software that reduces the file size of a file stored on secondary storage
What is backup software?
A copy of data is known as backup, contain copy of all files on a computer or just ones specified by the user
