1.

Operating Systems

• Operating System can be defined as an

intermediary/interface between the computer
hardware and an user.
• Ex. Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, Android, Solaris

• Computer software is typically classified into two

major types of programs: system software and
application software.

Computer System Components

1. Hardware – provides basic computing resources (CPU, Memory, I/O devices,

Communication).
2. Operating System – controls and coordinates use of the hardware among
various application programs for various users.
3. System & Application Programs – ways in which the system resources are
used to solve computing problems of the users (Word processors, Compilers,
Web browsers, Database systems, Video games).
4. Users – (People, Machines, other computers).

Most computers have two modes of operation :- kernel mode and user mode.

➢ The operating system, the most fundamental piece of software, runs in kernel
mode (also called supervisor mode).
➢ In this mode it has complete access to all the hardware and can execute any
instruction the machine is capable of executing.
➢ The rest of the software runs in user mode, in which only a subset of the
machine instructions is available.