How an operating system provides an interface between applications and hardware?
This is confined to a single-user operating system. Technical details are not needed. For example, memory management should be described but how this is handled in a multitasking environment is not expected. Show
Sample Question -FORMER CURRICULUM: One of the functions of an operating system is file maintenance. JSR Notes DefinitionsTo understand the context in which we find an operating system, you should know some other terms too, like hardware, system software, and application software.
Hardware is all of the parts of a computer system you can physically touch; the keyboard, the monitor, the hard drive, the motherboard etc. Software are the computer programs loaded onto a computer.
System software are all of the software programs that run the computer and various hardware, whereas application software are the program used by the user to apply the computer in some useful way, like Chrome, Photoshop or Solitaire. Operating systems are a particular kind of system software. But the OS is not the only system software; to just pick one other important category of system software, hardware drivers are software programs made by hardware companies to run their specific hardware.
The operating system is the collection of software programs that run the computer, or phone, or other complex IT device. For example, two key general parts of the operating system are the parts that manage the interactions between hardware and software, and also the parts that manage the interface between computer and user. And it is a key point that an operating system is not just one thing; it is defined collectively by all of the various jobs that it does in operating the computer. (Many of those jobs will be listed below.) The OS is the core of the software that comes pre-installed on a machine, though there may be other application software such as iTunes, or Solitaire that may come packaged with the computer when it is sold. - Examples of operating systems: Mac, DOS, Windows, Windows 10 etc., UNIX, Linux (a free version of UNIX) iOS, Android, and Symbian One way to look at the OS: Higher vs. Lower Level Operations of an OS"Higher" Level Operations Operating systems do many things at a "higher" level, meaning closer to the user, indeed things that the user can interact with. So along with doing many other things deep within the computer, one main function of the operating system (OS) is to provide the interface between user and machine. And part of an OS's interface capabilities will be an actual user application that provides the user interface, and allows the user to manage the files of the computer. On a Mac, it is called the Finder, and on Windows machines it is called Windows Explorer. Do remember that while the graphical user interface (GUI) is one part of the OS, it is not the entire OS itself - it is just the part that the user sees and interacts with.
What is meant by "lower" level operations is all the things that the computer has to do to run itself, which the user has no control over, and which the user is basically unaware of. The lowest level of the operating system is referred to as the Kernel and there are several other distinct layers of software above it, all the way up to the user interface. Among the fundamental operations that the Kernel is responsible for is BIOS operations (the Basic Input and Output System), though upon startup, even more basic BIOS operations are loaded right from the ROM. Some operating systems provide both a graphical user interface (GUI) and also a console input option, for advanced users. An example of a console input application is Terminal on Mac computers. In the case of this assessment statement, do read on, and use all of the information below. And ultimately be prepared, from all of this information, to do what the assessment statement points to: describe the functions of an operating system. The more of the list below you can remember, the better - use a Mnemonic, perhaps? And the more you can demonstrate your appreciation of the high-level/low-level dual nature of operating systems (as described in the above section) the better. List of OS OperationsI. "Machine" Management
The OS helps aid... (Above) The Activity Monitor of the Mac OS, showing CPU activity, and some of the many processes running at the same time.
(Above) The Activity Monitor of the Mac OS, showing (RAM) memory usage, sorted from largest to smallest. To get an idea of how the CPU and even RAM can get hogged, try running a loop within a loop within a loop etc. program, and look at Activity Monitor. The OS plays a part in... Take, for example someone running a huge Minecraft mod that takes up 5 GB, and having other large applications open at the same time (Unity 2 GB, IntelliJ 2 GB, along with the OS 2 GB), but they only have 8 GB of RAM. Some of the mod pack or other applications can go into virtual memory on the hard drive, even though it won't be as fast as the real RAM. (Above) The relative space taken in a (pretty empty) hard drive, with one of two blocks of 1.00 GB virtual memory selected (green color). Computers come with more and more RAM each year - in 2019, 16 GB should be standard - but each year applications require more and more memory, so virtual memory is as important and useful now as it ever was.
II. Hardware Interfaces & Peripherals
The OS plays a part in... Shown above is System Information you get from the Mac OS by clicking on the Apple, About this Mac, System Report). It shows various categories of hardware that can be connected. Selected in the picture is the hard drive connected to the motherboard of my laptop. An "SATA" hard drive such as this is one example of hardware needing interface control in my computer. Other categories of internal devices needing interface management in the list above include Audio, Bluetooth, and Camera. The OS helps with... Here, in the same System Information utility as used above, this time it's the USB category which is selected. You can see I have three peripheral devices connected via the USB bus: my wireless mouse Bluetooth ergonomic controller, my ergonomic keyboard, and the wireless optical mouse itself. All are peripherals in need of connection management by the OS. Two other obvious categories of peripherals my MacBook could use in this list are Printers and Thunderbolt. The OS helps control... III. User Level
The OS supplies the...
The Mac OS Utilities Folder
Matching ExerciseAs an exercise, try to match up the following functionality with the list above of operating system operations. (They should match up one-to-one.): >> Checking to see if a password entered is correct - ____________________ >> Allow a new printer to be able to be used (not outputting the print job itself, but allowing the computer to interact with the printer) - ____________________ >> Output sound to a speaker. - ____________________ >> Creating folders and sub folders for the user organize their files. - ____________________ >> Allow the user to customize the way they want to use their computer. - ____________________ >> Interface between specific software and hardware that is a core part of the computer. - _________________ >> Manage the order in which applications are actually able to be executed by the CPU. - __________________ >> When all of your RAM memory is taken up but you still want to load another application, making part of your hard drive seem to act like additional RAM memory. - ____________________ >> Take a movie you are no longer watching out of RAM memory when you load a big game. - _________________ >> Maintaining an internal directory of how to find files. - ____________________ >> Checking the health of your computer ____________________ A Final Point: The analogy of the human body having certain basic "operations", like circulation and sense of touch, but the ability knit, or compose a piece of music are specific "applications" of a human body. How does the operating system provides user interface?The application programs make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface (API). In addition, users can interact directly with the operating system through a user interface, such as a command-line interface (CLI) or a graphical UI (GUI).
How does the operating system provide user interaction with the computer?Users interact indirectly through a collection of system programs that make up the operating system interface. The interface could be: A GUI, with icons and windows, etc. A command-line interface for running processes and scripts, browsing files in directories, etc.
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