Hardware and software

• What is hardware


  The physical components of a computer
• What is software


  Any program that can be run on a program
• How do you create a fully working system

  By combining hardware and software components
• What is system software

  programs/Software that is used to manage and maintain a computers basic functions

  • Allows the user to run application software on the computer
• What is application software

  Programs/software that perform specific tasks that would need doing even if the computer wasnt there

  • What the user would use computers for*
• What are the different types of system software (4)

  • Operating systems (OS)
  • Utility programs
  • Library programs
  • Translators
• What is an operating system

  A collection of programs designed to control the operations of the computer

  • Links hardware, applications and user while hiding the true complexity of the computer
• Why is an operating system needed

  Allows the user to use the computer with ease
• What are some of the functions of an operating system (3)

  • Processor scheduling (allocating processor access to different applications)
  • Handling errors
  • Ensuring the computer starts up and shuts down properly
• What are utility programs

  Programs that perform specific common tasks related to running the computer
• Why are utility programs needed

  Needed to complete the housekeeping tasks of a computer

  • computer can still run without utility programs
• What are some functions of utility programs (3)

  • Compressing files
  • backing up data
  • reorganising data on a hard drive to improve speed of access
• What are library programs

  libraries that contain useful functions that can be called and used by a program
• Why are library programs needed

  They are essential gor the applications they were built for
• What are translators


  Softwares that translate programming language instructions into machine code for the computer to understand
• Why are translators important

  Computers can only understand machine code not any other programming language
• What are the three types of translators

  Compilers, assemblers, translators
• What is a compiler

  A program that translates high-level languages to machine code by translating all of the code
• What is an assembler

  A program that translates a program written in assembly code into machine code
• What is an interpreter

  A program that translates high-level language into machine code by reading each statement and then immediately carrying it out
• What are the roles of an operating system (2)

  • To hide the complexities of a computer from its user
  • To manage the overall operation of the computer
• What tasks does the operating system handle (4)

  • Resource management
  • Memory management
  • Managing processor access
  • Managing I/O devices among competing processes
• What is resource management (in relation to the OS)

  How an OS manages hardware and software to optimise the performance of the software
• What is memory management (in relation to the OS)

  How the OS allocates RAM to optimise the performance of the computer
• How does an OS manage I/O devices when there are competing requests/processes

  • Creates a queue of demands waiting for the I/O device
  • Handles each request in sequence/based on priority
• How does the OS manage processor access

  By scheduling requests to access the processor