Лекция: SOFTWARE

[1] As you have already known, all the electronic and mechanical units composing the computer system refer to the physical components of a data processing system called hardware.But the computer to complete a job requires more than just the equipment. It requires software – i.e. the set of computer programs that make possible the effective operation of the computer system. Software falls into two basic categories: system software and application software.

[2] System software controls the operation of the whole computer system rather than solve specific problems as application programs do.

The principal system software is known as the operating system (OS). The operating system has three major functions: it coordinates and manipulates computer hardware, such as computer memory, printers, disks, keyboard, mouse, and monitor; it organizes files on a variety of storage media, such as floppy disk, hard drive, compact disc, digital videodisc, and tape; and it manages hardware errors and the loss of data. Computers that use disk memory-storage systems are said to have disk operating systems (DOS). Popular operating systems for PCs are MS-DOS and Windows, developed by the Microsoft Corporation as well as Apple Computer's Mac OS. Workstations, servers, and some mainframe computers often use the UNIX OS originally designed by Bell Laboratories in the late 1960s. A version of UNIX called Linux gained popularity in the late 1990s for PCs.

The OS consists of a set of programs. When a computer is first turned on, one of the OS programs is booted into the computer's main memory. This software contains information about memory capacity, the model of the processor, the disk drives, etc. Once the system software is loaded, the applications software can be installed or run. Advanced operating systems support multiprocessing to enable several programs to run simultaneously.

Drivers are OS programs that manage data from different I/O devices such as CD-ROM players, disk drives, keyboards, mice, modems, monitors and printers. Users need to install a specific driver to activate a peripheral device. By installing the driver, you teach your motherboard to understand the newly attached part. As a rule, peripheral devices come complete with2 its own driver software.

The file system is a part of an OS providing the control of directories and files on the disks. It enables you to give names to files and group files into directories or folders. It keeps track of each file's location as well.

Modern operating systems provide a graphical user interface. (See Figure 1) A GUI is a display format that allows the user to select commands, open files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a device called a mouse. This type of format has certain advantages over interfaces in which the user types text- or character-based commands on a keyboard. A GUI with its windows, pull-down menus, dialog boxes, and other controlling mechanisms has made computer operation not only easier to learn but more pleasant and natural. The GUI is now the standard computer interface.

Figure 1