What is an operating system? What does it do?

The operating system is a computer program that manages computer hardware and software resources. It is a collection of programs that controls and manages computer software and hardware resources and organizes multiple users to share multiple resources in the most reasonable and effective way possible. The functions of the operating system: 1. Manage various resources in the system; 2. Provide users with a good interface. From the perspective of a computer user, the operating system embodies the various services it provides; from the perspective of a programmer, it mainly refers to the interface or interface for user login; from the perspective of a designer, it refers to various Connections between various modules and units.

#The operating environment of this article: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

What is an operating system?

The operating system (Operating System, referred to as OS) is a computer program that manages computer hardware and software resources. An operating system is a collection of programs that controls and manages computer software and hardware resources and organizes multiple users to share multiple resources in the most reasonable and effective way possible.

The operating system needs to handle basic matters such as managing and configuring memory, determining the priority of system resource supply and demand, controlling input and output devices, operating the network and managing the file system. The operating system also provides an operating interface for users to interact with the system.

In a computer, the operating system is the most basic and important basic system software.

• From the perspective of a computer user, the computer operating system embodies the various services it provides;

• From the perspective of a programmer Say, it mainly refers to the interface or interface for user login;

• From the perspective of a designer, it refers to the connection between various modules and units.

In fact, the key task in the design and improvement of a new operating system is the design of the architecture. After decades of development, the computer operating system has evolved from a simple control system at the beginning. The loop has developed into a more complex distributed operating system. Coupled with the increasingly diverse needs of computer users, the computer operating system has become one of the complex and huge computer software systems.

The functions of the operating system:

(1) Manage various resources in the system; (2) Provide users with a good interface.

The operating system mainly includes the following functions:

• ①Process management, its work is mainly process scheduling. In the case of tasks, the processor is exclusively occupied by one task for one user, and the work of process management is very simple. However, in the case of multi-programming or multi-user, when organizing multiple jobs or tasks, it is necessary to solve the problems of processor scheduling, allocation and recycling.

• ② Storage management is divided into several functions: storage allocation, storage sharing, storage protection, and storage expansion.

• ③Device management has the following functions: device allocation, device transmission control, and device independence.

• ④File management: file storage space management, directory management, file operation management, and file protection.

• ⑤Job management is responsible for processing any requirements submitted by users.

The operating system has the following 4 basic characteristics:

(1) Concurrency: Concurrency refers to two Two or more events or activities occur within the same time interval.

(2) Sharability: Sharability is another important feature of the operating system. It means that the resources in the operating system (including hardware resources and software resources) can be used by multiple concurrently executing processes, and It is not exclusive to one process.

(3) Virtuality: It is a management technology in the operating system. It maps a physical entity into several logical counterparts.

(4) Uncertainty: In multi-programming, there are direct or indirect connections between each program, and the advancement speed of the program is affected by its running environment. At this time, multiple runs of the same program and data may produce different results; the program's running time and running order are also uncertain; external input requests and the time when operational failures occur are also difficult to predict. These are all manifestations of uncertainty.

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