5576942
Description
Flashcards by Emma Burke, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Emma Burke
over 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| What is software? | Programs that we run on our computers. |
| What are dedicated systems? | Dedicated systems have software installed on a chip of some sort. Such as a washing machine which only controls the functions of a washing machine. |
| Laptops, tablets, computers and phones are all what? | Multi-purpose as they run different programs according to the wishes of the user. |
| 4 secondary storage mediums | A hard disk A memory stick An SD card An optical disk (CD or DVD) |
| Where are the programs loaded? | RAM |
| What does system software do? | It controls the hardware. |
| What does application software do? | It handles the real-world jobs that users want to do. |
| What does utility software do? | It has limited functionality and is used to maintain computer systems. |
| How is software usually produced? | Using a programming language. |
| How is some software produced? | By an automatic software generator. |
| Without system software, what would application programmers have to do? | Take into account the precise movement of data between locations. |
| System software looks after movement of data so that the programmers can? | Tackle algorithms to solve real-world problems that the user has. |
| What does system software act as? | An intermediary between the application and the hardware. |
| What does system software do? | It hides the complexities of the hardware from the user and the application programmer. It allows the user to operate the computer without having to write programs. |
| What is the main part of system software? | The operating system. |
| What is the operating system? | It is a set of programs that controls the hardware and lets user and applications work with the computer. |
| What is a kernel? | A kernel is the part of the operating system that actually makes the hardware do things. |
| What must an operating system do? | Provide a way for a user to control and interact with the computer. |
| What is the user interface? | It is a boundary between the human user and the machine. |
| What does the user interface do? | Lets the user give commands. Ask questions. Displays a response. |
| New ways of what are being developed? | Of operating systems doing things differently. |
| What is the command-line interface? | It is an interface which requires the user to write commands. |
| How does the computer understand these commands?. | It is translated by a command interpreter into signals that the computer can understand. |
| What is the command 'ls' and what does it do? | List - Shows files in the current directory. Data files, executables and directories are colour coded in some systems. |
| What is the command 'cal' and what does it do? | Calendar - shows the days of the current month (the command can be modified to show any month or any year). |
| What is the command 'w' and what does it do? | Who - Shows who is logged in and what they are doing. |
| What is the command 'pwd' and what does it do? | Present working directory - shows the full location of your current directory. |
| With commands, what can you do? | Completely control a computer system. |
| What are shell scripts? | Shell scripts are commands grouped together to carry out maintenance jobs automatically. |
| What is a shell needed for? | So that a user can communicate with the kernel. |
| What is a GUI? | Graphical User Interface |
| What does GUI use? | Images (known as icons) which represents resources, files, programs and actions. |
| How does a user make something happen when using a GUI? | By clicking on areas of the screen or touches them or pinches them. |
| Why are GUIs a useful way to interact with a computer? | They are intuitive. No special training is required. Keyboard use is limited - useful where there is a small or virtual keyboard. No commands need to be learned. |
| Where does this interface sit? | On top of the operating system kernel. |
| What does the GUI allow easy access to? | Selecting software. Selecting files. Sending messages. Controlling sound volume. Connecting to WiFi. Deleting files. Moving files. Checking battery state. Updating software. Installing new software. |
| Why is speech input difficult to get right? | Accent. Speed of talking. Dialect used. Clarity of diction. |
| What is speech input useful for? | Selecting options on telephone menus. Giving commands to a computer. Dictating text. |
| Why do subtitles on television programs sometimes have errors? | They use speech recognition software and the difficulty causes mistakes. |
| What do operating systems have to make sure of? | Memory is used efficiently. Important data is not written during the running of a program. |
| What is memory divided into? | Pages. |
| What is a program called when it is being executed? | A process. |
| When a job needs to be done, what does the operating system do? | Load the process on a vacant page and keeps track of it so it isn't overwritten by other processes. |
| What is virtual memory? | A technique which involves swapping jobs in and out of memory. |
| What does virtual memory use? | It uses secondary storage to hold parts of the program which is not curredntly needed. |
| Why is virtual memory used? | There is not enough space in meory to hold all the jobs, so it is split into modules although it is slower than main memory/ |
| How are modules used? | They are stored separately on secondary storage. When a module is needed, it is loaded into memory (swapped in) and run as a process. When a different module is needed, it can overwrite an unused module. |
| What must an operating system do? | Keep track f which pages are vacant and which processes are currently swapped in or out. |
| What is a file? | A file is named store of data on a secondary storage medium. |
| What can files be? | Data files - word processed document or a dtabase program files - operating system components or applications Configuration data - parts of the Windows registry |
| What happens when you save a file? | The operating system looks up where there is free space on the medium. It writes the data and makes a record of where it is located. Next time you need it, the operation system looks up its location, finds it and retireves it. |
| What is secondary storage is divided into? | Segments. |
| What are file usually split into to? | Blocks across many segments. |
| Each block contains what information? | Information on the location of the next block, so the operating system can follow pointers to recover the whole file. |
| What is defragmentation? | A process that is used to tidy up the disk or other medium so that parts of a file can be moved to be stored next to each other. |
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