Hiding complexity

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Revision as of 16:33, 16 March 2020 by Mr. MacKenty (talk | contribs)
Resource Management[1]

The most fundamental of all system software is the operating system. It has three main tasks to perform.[2]

  1. The operating system must shield the details of the hardware from the application programs, and thus from the user.
  2. The operating system has to substitute a set of abstract services to the application programs, to replace the physical hardware services. When applications use these abstract services, the operations must be translated into real hardware operations.
  3. Finally, the resources in a computer (CPU, memory, disk space) are limited. The operating system must act as a resource manager, optimising the use of the resources, and protecting them against misuse and abuse. When a system provides multiuser or multitasking capabilities, resources must be allocated fairly and equitably amongst a number of competing requests.


Standards[edit]

These standards are used from the IB Computer Science Subject Guide[3]

  • Outline how an operating system hides the complexity of the hardware from users and applications.


References[edit]

  1. http://www.flaticon.com/
  2. https://minnie.tuhs.org/CompArch/Lectures/week07.html
  3. IB Diploma Programme Computer science guide (first examinations 2014). Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom: International Baccalaureate Organization. January 2012.