Flashcards
SOFTWARE
Cards in this deck (9)
- 1OPERATING SYSTEMS Software that manages a computer’s hardware and provides a user interface.
- 2FUNCTIONS OF AN OPERATING SYSTEMS provides a user interface Manages hardware: Manages how programs use main memory Allows multitasking
- 3MEMORY MANAGMENT To run a program, the computer must copy the program from storage into main memory – Why? Data used by the program is copied into main memory The operating system keeps a record of where each program and its data are located It must not overwrite existing programs.
- 4MULTI-TASKING You may use your computer to do several tasks at the same time with different software: homework, playing music, messaging friends... There are many background programs running on the computer as well They are taking it in turns to get processor time to execute instructions The OS must manage how the programs share the processor.
- 5PERIPHERAL MANAGEMENT Peripherals are all the devices outside of the CPU Includes input and output devices, secondary storage The access speed of these is relatively slow Locate the appropriate drivers to allow the computer operate the connected peripherals. The operating system must manage in storage device management: Copying files from disk to main memory Copying data files back to secondary storage
- 6FILE MANAGEMENT The hard disk in a computer is a storage peripheral The operating system: manages where on the disk files are written keeps track of where they are so they can be retrieved makes sure no file overwrites another file
- 7SECURITY The operating system organises user logins and passwords May include password protection on individual files Controls access rights Read Only Read & Write
- 8INTERRUPTS are signals sent to the CPU by external devices to indicate an event that needs immediate attention They tell the CPU to suspend its current activities and execute appropriate instructions Hardware interrupts are generated by hardware devices – for example, printer out of paper Software interrupts are generated by programs, e.g. a divide-by-zero error will cause a calculation to be abandoned and an error message displayed
- 9—
Information
- Description
- GCSE Computer Science Flashcards on SOFTWARE, created by 12.barber on 06/11/2015.
- Created by
- 12.barber
- Views
- 0
- Rating