1.5.2

Operating Systems

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Operating Systems

An operating system is an essential piece of software that is loaded when a computer boots up.

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Purpose of the OS

  • An operating system (OS) is a piece of system software which controls the hardware within a computer.
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API

  • Operating systems provide an application programming interface (API).
  • This is a set of code libraries that software developers can use to write applications for that operating system.
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Managers

  • The operating system is responsible for many pieces of hardware, each of which is controlled by a dedicated 'manager':
    • The user interface (UI) manager provides the user interface which allows users to control the computer.
    • The device manager allocates resources to external hardware devices and allows them to be used by applications.
    • The memory manager controls the allocation of memory between applications.
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More managers

  • The user manager authenticates and separates users of the computer.
  • The process manager controls the allocation of central processing unit (CPU) cycles to multiple running applications.
  • The file manager controls the opening, reading and writing of files in secondary storage.

Jump to other topics

1Computer Systems

1.1Systems Architecture

1.2Memory & Storage

1.3Computer Networks, Connections & Protocols

1.4Network Security

1.5Systems Software

1.6Ethical, Legal, Cultural & Environmental Concern

2Computational Thinking, Algorithms and Programming

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