OPERATING SYSTEM

Computer is a tool to get things done. In many fields such as education, business, and government, the role of computers can be said to be dominant. As a medium for writing, calculators, design, video processing, audio and various other activities, the computer helps humans to accelerate and automate work. We can conclude that in many cases, human activities such as administration, calculation, and presentations more easily done thanks to the help of computers.
To be able to run a variety of applications in accordance with human needs, requires a computer software called the operating system or operating system. This operating system that controls the overall computer and allows applications running on the computer. This operating system also is the translator between human language and machine language.

As we discussed earlier, in the computer system are operating system software and application software. Operating system can be described as the highway through which various types of vehicles, while the application program can be described as the various types of vehicles passing on the highway. Any computer system, whether small or large have the operating system. In fact, handheld computers and smart cellular phones (smartphones) also have a operating system.

Operating system has a huge benefit. On the computer, the operating system responsible for handling the computer system as a whole, as well as all devices connected to the computer. How does the operating system is loaded into computer memory? When the computer is switched on, a program called the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) will be executed. This small program to synchronize the connection between the processor and the keyboard and other equipment so that when the operating system is loaded into memory, all the computers are ready. After that, the operating system starts to function as a controller hardware on the computer.

As the first software that is placed in computer memory, operating system memunyai several major tasks, namely:

● recognize the existing hardware in the computer system
● set the memory usage
● task scheduling or task scheduling
● provide the interface between computer and user.In addition, the operating system also do all the important tasks in the computer, and ensure the applications in it can run properly. In short, the operating system is the liaison between the layers of hardware (hardware) and software layers (software) computer. Operating systems have some important part as follows:

● boot mechanism
● kernel
● command interpreter or shell
● libraries.

Boot mechanism is the process of putting the kernel into the computer memory. This process occurs when we first turn on the computer. The kernel is the core of the operating system. The main functions of the kernel is to serve a variety of application programs in order to access the computer hardware. Shell is a medium that reads input from the user.There are hundreds of types of operating systems and some of them are:

● Linux
● Macintosh
● Solaris
● Unix
● FreeBSD
● AIX
● VM, MVS, CICS (operating system developed by IBM for mainframe computers)
● VMS, OpenVMS (operating system on DEC computers).
● Microsoft DOS and Windows
● AmigaOS

Judging from its ability to handle a process, the operating system that is divided into two stand-alone operating systems and multiuser operating system. Stand-alone operating system is the operating system can only handle one user (the user) only, although one user was able to run multiple applications at once. Multiuser operating system operating system is capable of handling multiple processes of many users at once.

Sources Onno W. Purbo

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