What is a system program?


In an operating system a user is able to use different types of system programs and the system program is responsible for all the application software performance of the computer.

The system programs are responsible for the development and execution of a program and they can be used by the help of system calls because system calls define different types of system programs for different tasks.

  • File management − These programs create, delete, copy, rename, print, exit and generally manipulate the files and directory.

  • Status information − It is the information regarding input, output process, storage and the CPU utilization time how the process will be calculated in how much memory required to perform a task is known by status information.

  • Programming language supports − compiler, assembler, interrupt are programming language support used in the operating system for a particular purpose in the computer.

  • Programming Loading and execution − The needs to enter the program and after the loading of a program it needs to execute the output of the programs and this task is also performed by system calls by the help of system programs.

  • Communication − These services are provided by the user because by using this number of devices communicates with each other by the help of device or wireless and communication is necessary for the operating system.

  • Background services − There are different types of services available on the operating system for communication and background service is used to change the background of your window and it also works for scanning and detecting viruses in the computer.

Purpose of using system program

System programs communicate and coordinate the activities and functions of hardware and software of a system and also controls the operations of the hardware. An operating system is one of the examples of system software. Operating system controls the computer hardware and acts like an interface between the application software’s.

Types of System programs

The types of system programs are as follows −

Utility program

It manages, maintains and controls various computer resources. Utility programs are comparatively technical and are targeted for the users with solid technical knowledge.

Few examples of utility programs are: antivirus software, backup software and disk tools.

Device drivers

It controls the particular device connected to a computer system. Device drivers basically act as a translator between the operating system and device connected to the system.

Example − printer driver, scanner driver, storage device driver etc.

Directory reporting tools

These tools are required in an operation system to have some software to facilitate the navigation through the computer system.

Example − dir, ls, Windows Explorer etc.

Updated on: 29-Nov-2021

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