Chapter 3, Problem 1CRP

List four activities of a typical operating system.

Program Plan Intro

Operating system:

• Generally, an operating system is one of the types of system software which manages and controls the overall operations and activity within the computer system. It plays intermediately role between user and the computer hardware and also provides a platform for application programs.
• The main objective of operating system is to build up a platform where user can interactively get connected with the system functions and components.

Explanation of Solution

Activities of typical operating systems:

The activities of typical operating systems are:

• User interface management:
  • The operating system enables the user to interact with the computer efficiently by using user interface component. This component plays significant role between users and the internal part of operating system, called kernel.
• File management:
  • The component keeps record and track of status, locations and usage of all resources. The basic work of these components is to control and ensure the effective management of files or data.
• Device management:
  • In this case, the operating system first interacts with all drivers and then as per requirement makes a decision like which process and step device requires first.
• Memory management:
  • In this category, the operating system manages the main memory or primary memory and it make sure that a program which is about to be executed must be in the main memory.
  • It tracks each and every activity of main memory such as which part is being used or not and as per requirement moves processes back and forth between main memory and the disk drives and the last but not least, it decides which process requires memory when and how much.