UNIT 1-

COMPUTER
FUNDAMENTALS
S O F T WA R E C O N C E P T S
 FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF
COMPUTER

Hardware Software Computer

• Hardware- physical and tangible components of computer.

• Software- a set of programs or instructions that govern the operation of
computer system and make the hardware run.
 Software

System Utility Application

Software Software software

Operating Language General

System Processor Purpose

Customized
Assembler
Software

Interpreter

compiler
SYSTEM SOFTWARE
• The software that controls the internal operations (i.e, reading data from input
devices, transmitting processed information to the output devices, checking
system components, converting data/instructions to computer understandable
form etc.)
– In short, it’s the software that control hardware and help application software run
properly.
OPERATING
SYSTEM
OPERATING SYSTEM
• The most important software.

• It manages all h/w and s/w, i/p, o/p and processing activities within the
computer system, the flow of information to and from from the processor, set
priorities for handling different tasks, and so on.
– Without OS a computer cannot do anything useful

• It acts as the interface between user and computer hardware.

• The primary goal of OS is to make the computer system convenient to use

and secondary goal is to use computer hardware in an efficient manner.
FUNCTIONS OF OS

• Processor management
• Device management
• Memory management
• File management
PROCESSOR MANAGEMENT
• Managing CPU time to different processes, also called scheduling.
– Priority scheduling

• Each task is given CPU time according to the priority assigned to that
task. The pgm with higher priority will be given CPU time before lower
priority one.

• The major drawback is that even a small job has to wait for long time
when a long duration job with higher priority is being executed.
PROCESSOR MANAGEMENT
– Round Robin Scheduling
• Also known as Time Sharing Scheduling.

• Each task is given a fixed amount of time to execute.

– No program will get a second opportunity to execute unless all other programs
have had at least one opportunity.

• This scheduling technique improves the response time and provides an

interactive environment.
DEVICE MANAGEMENT
• CPU communicates with h/w and attached devices and maintains a
balance between them and the CPU.
– It is because the CPU processing speed is much higher than that of I/O
devices.

• To optimize the CPU time, OS employs two techniques:

– Buffering

– Spooling (Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On Line)

DEVICE MANAGEMENT
• Buffering
– In this technique temporary storage of I/p and O/p data is done in I/p buffer and
O/p Buffer.

– Overlapped Processing- while the OS reloads one buffer, the executing pgm does
not stop as it is able to retrieve/ fill data from/in another buffer.

• Spooling
– Used for processing different tasks on the same I/O devices.

– E.g. sharing printer on a network.

MEMORY MANAGEMENT
• When a pgm needs to be executed it is loaded onto main memory till the
execution is complete. Thereafter that memory is freed and is available for
other pgms.

• Techniques used by OS:-

– Partitioning

– Virtual Memory
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
• Partitioning
– The total memory is divided into various partitions of same size or different sizes.
The partition can be fixed or variable.

• Virtual memory
– by this technique the user is able to load programs which are larger than the
main memory of computer.
– The OS divides the main memory into equal sizes called pages.

– The part of pgm that resides in main memory is called active set. The rest is in the
secondary storage device in the form of tracks/sectors or blocks.

– With the help of Page Map table (PMT), the OS keeps track which page of main
memory is storing which block of secondary storage.
FILE MANAGEMENT
• Any data on a computer is stored in the form of files and OS keeps
information about all of them using File Allocation Table (FAT).
– FAT stores general information like filename, type, size , starting address and
access mode

• It helps to create, edit , copy, allocate memory to the files and also update the
FAT.
 T YPES OF
OPERATING
SYSTEM
 Types of OS

Multiprocessing Timesharing
Single User Multiuser OS Real time OS Distributed OS Interactive OS
OS OS

Single Task OS

Multitasking OS
SINGLE USER
• This OS is a single user OS, ie, only one user can be supported by it at any
point of time.

• The two subcategories are:

– Single task OS:- This simple OS is designed to mange one task at a time.

• Eg: MS-DOS, OS for mobiles

– Multitasking OS:- This OS supports one user but can deal with multiple
applications running at a time, ie, it can run simultaneously a word document, a
video, Listening to music etc.

• Eg: Windows Vista, Windows 7/8, Linux, MacOS Sierra

MULTIUSER (MULTIPROGRAM) OS
• This is used in mini computer or mainframes that allow same data and
applications to be accessed by multiple users at the same time.
– I.e., more than one user program are loaded and active in main memory at the
same time.

• Eg: UNIX, LINUX, IBM AS400 etc

MULTIPROCESSING OS

• This OS have two or more processors for a single running process.

• Processing takes place in parallel . So also called parallel processing.

• Since execution takes place in parallel, they are used for high speed execution,
and to increase the power of computer.
– Eg: UNIX, LINUX, Windows NT
TIME SHARING OS
• It allows execution of more than one tasks or processes concurrently.

• For this, the processor time is divided amongst different tasks. This division of
time is also called time sharing.

• The processor switches between various processes.

– Round robin scheduling algorithm.

• Virtual memory techniques are also used.

– Eg: BSD UNIX, NOS/VE etc
REAL TIME OS
• It is a multitasking OS designed for real time applications like robotics.

• In this OS, the tasks have fixed deadlines and the tasks have to be completed
within their deadlines.
– If it is not done , the situation is called deadline overrun.

– Lesser the deadline overrun, the better is the system efficiency.

• Eg: RTLinux, LynxOS etc.
DISTRIBUTED OS
• On a n/w, data is stored and processed on multiple locations.

• This OS is used on n/ws, as it allows shared data/files to be accessed from any

machine on n/w .

• It has a decentralized architecture.

– Eg: unix, linux, DCE, X/Open.
INTERACTIVE OS
• This OS provides a GUI through which the user can easily navigate and
interact.

• The computer responds immediately after an instruction has been entered, and
the user can enter new instruction.
C O M M O N LY U S E D
O P E R AT I N G
SYSTEM
COMMONLY USED OPERATING SYSTEM
• Windows
– Microsoft launched Windows 1.0 OS in 1985

– Latest ?

• Linux
– A free and open software; freely available for use and the underlying source code
is also available, so anybody can use it, modify it and redistribute it

– The defining component of this OS is Linux Kernel.

• Written by a Finnish university student Linus Torvalds.
COMMONLY USED OPERATING SYSTEM
• BOSS ( Bharat Operating System Solutions)
– An Indian distribution of GNU/Linux.

– It consists of Linux OS Kernel, office application suite BharateeyaOO, Internet

access software, file sharing/converter, and multimedia applications.

– It can support Indian languages.

• Unix
– It is a multitasking, multiuser operating system, developed in 1969 in Bell Labs

– It was the first operating system developed in HLL, C.

COMMONLY USED OPERATING SYSTEM
• Solaris
– It is a free Unix based OS introduced by Sun Microsystems in1992.

– Now known as Oracle Solaris.

• Mobile OS
– Android
• It is a Linux derived Mobile OS released on 5th November 2007.

• It is Google’s open and free software that includes an OS, middleware and some key
applications for use on mobile phones.

• Latest-?
COMMONLY USED OPERATING SYSTEM
• Mobile OS
– Symbian

• This Mobile OS by Nokia designed for advanced or data enabled smartphones.

• Symbian applications are easy to shut down as compared to Android applications.

– Apple iOS

– Windows Phone
 UTILIT Y
SOFT WARE
UTILITY SOFTWARE
• Help smooth functioning of the computer.

• It helps to back up data, recover accidentally lost data, remove outdated data
etc

• Using utility s/w, the computer becomes more reliable and even its processing
speed increases.

• Eg: Antivirus, File management, Compression tools Disk Management tools &
Device Drivers.
 Boot
Sector
Virus

File
worm
virus
Virus

Trojan Macro
virus virus
FILE MANAGEMENT TOOLS
• This utility helps the user in storing, indexing, searching, and sorting files and
folders on the system.

• Commonly used tool in Windows OS is Windows Explorer.

– Eg: google desktop.
COMPRESSION UTILITY
• This utility pgm facilitates compression of large files.

• It helps reduce storage area and file transmission on the network

becomes easier.

• The compressed files cannot be used directly, they need to be

exploded back to their original form before they can be worked
upon.
– Eg: WinRAR, 7-zip,etc.
DISK MANAGEMENT TOOLS
• These tools are used for efficiently managing data on disks so as to
increase the performance.
– Disk Cleanup Tool: allows you to free the computer from temporary
and unnecessary files.
– Disk Defragmenter: attempts to minimise the fragmentation on the
disk. A disk defragmenter scans the disk for fragmented files and
brings all the fragments together.
– Backup Utility- is used to create the copy of complete partial data
stored in a disk or CD on any other disks (called Back-up). We can
restore back up data when needed.
DEVICE DRIVERS
• They are programs or files that contain a set of instructions for the
OS detailing hoe to operate or drive a certain hardware device.
– Each device on our system has its own specific driver.
APPLICATION
SOFT WARE
 Application
Software

Customized
General Purpose
software

Inventory
Word Processor management &
Purchasing System

School
Presentation tools Management
System

Spreadsheet
Payroll System
packages

Database
Hotel
Management
Management
system
OPEN SOURCE
CONCEPTS
 Shareware

Proprietary Freeware
Open
source
concept

Free Open
software source