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The Functions of Operating Systems

The document discusses the role of operating systems (OS) in managing computer hardware and software resources, including booting, memory management, and data input/output. It explains how the OS acts as an interface between users, application programs, and hardware, while also handling security and file management. Additionally, it highlights the importance of multitasking and error handling within the OS framework.

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NataliaRzonsowska
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7 views3 pages

The Functions of Operating Systems

The document discusses the role of operating systems (OS) in managing computer hardware and software resources, including booting, memory management, and data input/output. It explains how the OS acts as an interface between users, application programs, and hardware, while also handling security and file management. Additionally, it highlights the importance of multitasking and error handling within the OS framework.

Uploaded by

NataliaRzonsowska
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2 Hardware and software

Operating systems
Before an operating system (OS) is loaded the computer has to boot up. Booting
up a computer is starting it up by loading the BIOS. BIOS is stored in ROM
and is the Basic Input/Output System for the computer which executes during
boot-up. It checks various devices are present. It then loads the OS.
An OS is system software that manages computer hardware and software
resources as well as interacting with device drivers. Some of the device drivers are
separate to the OS, but are often included by the provider of the OS. The OS acts
an interface between the user and the computer, as well as supplying important
utilities for managing the computer. A utility program is a type of system software
that assists users in controlling or maintaining the operation of a computer, its
devices or its software. The OS also acts as an interface between an application
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program and the computer hardware, so that an application program can

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communicate with the hardware. The part of the operating system that facilitates
this is called the kernel. To sum up, an operating system interacts with application
software, device drivers and hardware to manage a computer’s resources, such as
the processor, RAM, storage space, and peripherals.
For nearly all types of computer, the operating system program is large and
would occupy too much ROM, so most of it is stored on a hard disk. However,
the instructions for loading the operating system are stored in ROM and are
executed every time the computer is switched on.

2.2 System software


One of the major functions of an operating system is to manage the computer’s
memory. The OS allocates a particular part of RAM for each program, whether it
is an application, system software or a utility that is running. It needs to make sure
that instructions and data from one program do not spread into another program’s
memory allocation, otherwise data can get corrupted and the computer could crash.
Another of the main functions of an OS is to manage data input and output. To
do this, it needs to be able to respond to input devices in order to receive and
manage that data. It does this by communicating with the device driver so that
it can receive data from the input device. It also uses device drivers when it sends
data or instructions to the printer.
The OS manages the storing of files on, as well as the loading of them from,
backing storage. It knows the names of each file and exactly where they are stored
on the hard disk, tape, pen drive or SSD. It also keeps a record of any empty
spaces on the medium so that it knows where new files can be stored. Using a
disk drive as an example, it requests from the disk drive the position of the first
available free storage location on the disk. It then records on the disk the position
of the start of file and the end of file, as well as other details of the file.
Strictly speaking, multitasking and multi-programming systems are not the
same thing. However, the OS has the same responsibility in both, in that it must
allocate time to each task or program fairly, so that all tasks or programs get a
reasonable amount of time. Most computers these days are able to multitask,
so we will concentrate on those here. The OS loads the software in R AM for
each task and the computer gives each application a tiny amount of time before
moving to the next task. This process is repeated for however many tasks or
programs are running at the same time.
Another responsibility of the OS is to display error messages to the user should
an error occur which requires the user to intervene. A typical error might be
that a user, when they are trying to save their work, types in a symbol that is not
allowed in the file name, such as /. The OS will output a message saying that it
is an invalid file name and will not resume until the user takes action.
When a user logs in to a system, it is the OS that deals with this. Passwords are
no longer stored as plaintext, but are encrypted. A calculation is performed on
the password and the result is stored. When a password is entered by a user,
the calculation is performed again by the OS. If the result is the same as the
previous calculation result stored for that user, then the OS allows the user to
access the system. Even when a user has successfully logged in to a system, they
may still only have permission to access certain files. These are often referred to
as file permissions or access rights. Some of the files may be particularly sensitive
and only certain people will be allowed to look at them. In general, it is the
operating system’s responsibility to handle the security of the system.

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When a user wishes to shut down the computer, the OS has to safely close all

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software running on the computer. It then shuts itself down bit by bit before
finally sending a signal to the power management hardware to turn off the power.

Activity 2e
List the different functions of an operating system.

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