Found 691 Articles for Computer Science

A microkernel is the minimum software that is required to correctly implement an operating system. This includes memory, process scheduling mechanisms and basic inter-process communication.A diagram that demonstrates the architecture of a microkernel is as follows −In the above diagram, the microkernel contains basic requirements such as memory, process scheduling mechanisms and basic interprocess communication. The only software executing at the privileged level i.e. kernel mode is the microkernel. The other functions of the operating system are removed from the kernel mode and run in the user mode. These functions may be device drivers, file servers, application interprocess communication etc.The ... Read More

Operating Systems have become quite complex and multifaceted with the advancement of time. However, that also means it is getting more and more difficult to design operating systems that satisfy all the specifications required these days. There are no complete solutions possible for design problems, but some approaches are more successful than others.Design Requirements in Operating SystemThe design requirements are quite hard to specify in an operating system. They are basically divided into two parts: User design requirements and System design requirements. Details about these are given as follows −User Design RequirementsThe operating system should be convenient, easy to use, ... Read More

A command line interpreter allows the user to interact with a program using commands in the form of text lines. It was frequently used till the 1970’s. However, in modern times many command line interpreters are replaced by graphical user interfaces and menu-driven interfaces.Usage of Command Line InterpretersCommand line interpreters are more useful than graphical user interfaces in some cases. Details about these cases are given as follows:Command line interpreters have a large range of commands and queries available for different operations. Also, it is much faster to type than to click as is done using graphical user interfaces.There are ... Read More

A debugger program is one that allows the user to view another program line by line. This allows the user to identify incorrect code and find out how a program flows. The debugger lets the user see how their program is viewed by the computer.A debugger is very useful to find semantic errors in the program. So, it is necessary as it helps the programmer visualize program flow. A debugger may take practise to use, but it is well worth it as it reduces the time taken to perfect a program.Features of a Debugger ProgramDebugger programs offer basic features such ... Read More

There are mainly two categories of programs i.e. application programs and system programs. A diagram that demonstrates their place in the logical computer hierarchy is as follows −Application ProgramsThese programs perform a particular function directly for the users. Some of the common application programs include Email, web browsers, gaming software, word processors, graphics software, media player etc.All of these programs provide an application to the end users, so they are known as application programs. For example: a web browser is used to find information while a gaming software is used to play games.The requests for service and application communication systems ... Read More

An operating system is a construct that allows the user application programs to interact with the system hardware. Operating system by itself does not provide any function but it provides an atmosphere in which different applications and programs can do useful work.There are many problems that can occur while designing and implementing an operating system. These are covered in operating system design and implementation.Operating System Design GoalsIt is quite complicated to define all the goals and specifications of the operating system while designing it.The design changes depending on the type of the operating system i.e if it is batch system, ... Read More

Clustered systems are similar to parallel systems as they both have multiple CPUs. However a major difference is that clustered systems are created by two or more individual computer systems merged together. Basically, they have independent computer systems with a common storage and the systems work together.Clustered System StructureThe structure of a clustered system is given as follows −Some details about the above structure are −The clustered system contains tightly couples individual nodes. However, the degree of coupling in the system may vary. Some jobs may require constant communication between the nodes while there are also jobs that may only ... Read More

Computer Storage contains many computer components that are used to store data. It is traditionally divided into primary storage, secondary storage and tertiary storage. Details about these storage types and devices used in them are as follows −Primary StoragePrimary storage is also known as the main memory and is the memory directly accessible by the CPU. Some primary storage devices are −ROMROM is read only memory. This memory cannot be changed, it can only be read as required. Since ROM is unchangeable memory, it is used by data and programs that are frequently required and seldom changed, like the system ... Read More

Clustered systems are similar to parallel systems as they both have multiple CPUs. However a major difference is that clustered systems are created by two or more individual computer systems merged together. Basically, they have independent computer systems with a common storage and the systems work together.A diagram to better illustrate this is −The clustered systems are a combination of hardware clusters and software clusters. The hardware clusters help in sharing of high performance disks between the systems. The software clusters makes all the systems work together .Each node in the clustered systems contains the cluster software. This software monitors ... Read More

An operating system is a construct that allows the user application programs to interact with the system hardware. Operating system by itself does not provide any function but it provides an atmosphere in which different applications and programs can do useful work.The major operations of the operating system are process management, memory management, device management and file management. These are given in detail as follows:Process ManagementThe operating system is responsible for managing the processes i.e assigning the processor to a process at a time. This is known as process scheduling. The different algorithms used for process scheduling are FCFS (first ... Read More