System Software

Lecture 6
CS 101 Introduction to Computing
BS-Maths
Spring 2019
Functions of Operating System

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Types of OS
 Real Time Operating System
 Single User Single Task OS
 Single User Multiple Task
 Multiuser OS

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Common Operating Systems
 Windows
 Unix
 Linux
 Mac OS
 For mobile phones
 DOS
 Complete list of operating systems
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems
 Comparison of Operating systems
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_operating_systems

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 WINDOWS .........

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Windows
 Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating
systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft.
 Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named
Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in
response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces
(GUIs).
 As of October 2009, Windows had approximately 91% of the
market share of the client operating systems for usage on the
Internet.
 The most recent client version of Windows is Windows 10;
the most recent server version is Windows Server 2008 R2;
the most recent mobile OS version is Windows Phone 10.

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Unix
 Developed in 1969 by AT&T at Bell Labs
 Unix operating systems are widely used in both servers,
workstations, and mobile devices.
 The Unix environment and the client–server program
model were essential elements in the development of the
Internet and the reshaping of computing as centred in
networks rather than in individual computers.
 Both Unix and the C programming language were
developed by AT&T and distributed to government and
academic institutions, which led to both being ported to a
wider variety of machine families than any other
operating system.
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Linux

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Linux
 Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer
hardware, ranging from mobile phones, tablet computers
and video game consoles, to mainframes and
supercomputers.
 Linux is the leading server OS, accounting for more than
50% of installations.
 Desktop use of Linux has increased in recent years, partly
owing to the popular Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE
distributions and the emergence of netbooks and
smartphones running an embedded Linux.

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Mac OS

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Mac OS
 Mac OS is the trademark-protected name for a series of
graphical user interface-based operating systems
developed by Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.)
for their Macintosh line of computer systems.
 The Macintosh user experience is credited with
popularizing the graphical user interface.
 The original form of what Apple would later name the
"Mac OS" was the integral and unnamed system software
first introduced in 1984 with the original Macintosh,
usually referred to simply as the System software.

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OS for Mobile Phones
 A mobile operating system, also known as a mobile
OS, a mobile platform, or a handheld operating system, is
the operating system that controls a mobile device—
similar in principle to an operating system such as
Windows, Mac OS, or Linux that controls a desktop
computer or laptop.
 However, they are currently somewhat simpler, and deal
more with the wireless versions of broadband and local
connectivity, mobile multimedia formats, and different
input methods.

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DOS
 DOS, short for "Disk Operating System” is a shorthand
term for several closely related operating systems that
dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981
and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially
DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and
Millennium Edition.

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Device Drivers
 In computing, a device driver or software driver is a
computer program allowing higher-level computer
programs to interact with a hardware device.
 A driver typically communicates with the device through
the computer bus or communications subsystem to
which the hardware connects.
 When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver,
the driver issues commands to the device.
 Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver
may invoke routines in the original calling program.
 Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-
specific.
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Device Drivers
 They usually provide the interrupt handling required for
any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware
interface.
 A device driver simplifies programming by acting as a
translator between a hardware device and the
applications or operating systems that use it.
 Programmers can write the higher-level application code
independently of whatever specific hardware device it will
ultimately control, because code and device can interface
in a standard way, regardless of the software
superstructure or of underlying hardware.

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Utility Programs
 Utility software is a kind of system software designed
to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the
computer.
 Utility software should be contrasted with application
software, which allows users to do things like creating
text documents, playing games, listening to music or
surfing the web.
 Rather than providing these kinds of user-oriented or
output-oriented functionality, utility software usually
focuses on how the computer infrastructure (including the
computer hardware, operating system, application
software and data storage) operates.
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Utility programs
 Due to this focus, utilities are often rather technical and
targeted at people with an advanced level of computer
knowledge.
 Most utilities are highly specialized and designed to
perform only a single task or a small range of tasks.
 However, there are also some utility suites that combine
several features in one piece of software.
 Most major operating systems come with several pre-
installed utilities.

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Compilers
 Software for creating software
 Designed for programming new software
 Gives a language for humans to give commands to
computers
 E.g. Pascal, C/C++, C#,VC++, Java etc [also known as high
level languages]
 Translating high level languages into machine code for
execution.

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Compilers
 A compiler is a computer program (or set of programs)
that transforms source code written in a programming
language (the source language) into another computer
language (the target language, often having a binary form
known as object code).
 The most common reason for wanting to transform
source code is to create an executable program.

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Compiler
 The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that
translate source code from a high-level programming
language to a lower level language (e.g., assembly language
or machine code).
 If the compiled program can only run on a computer
whose CPU or operating system is different from the one
on which the compiler runs the compiler is known as a
cross-compiler.

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Further reading
 http://computer.howstuffworks.com/operating-
system.htm/printable

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 Q&A
‘A prudent question is one-half of wisdom’ (Francis Bacon)