Before understanding System Software, we have to understand what software is. Software is a computer program, which helps us to do any work. Software is a set of instructions.
Software is created with the help of programming. The person who does programming is called computer programmer. A computer programmer writes codes with the help of programming language and makes a software. These software are made to complete any task of the computer like – with the help of a calculator, we can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and many more calculations.
“Software is a Piece of Code”
Types of Software
There are two types of software.
- System software
- Application Software
- Today we will learn about system software.
What is System Software?
System software is software that manages and controls the hardware of your computer. Application software can run on the computer only because of the system software. An example of system software is your operating system, which is also called the manager of your computer.
System software works to manage your entire computer and gives you all the facilities, so that you can run your computer well.
System software acts as an interface between the computer hardware and the user. Because of the system software, a user is able to interact with the computer hardware. System software always runs in the background.
Types of System Software
Some types of system software are given below:
- Operating System
- Compiler
- assembler
- interpreter
- Device Driver
- Utility Software
1. Operating System
An operating system is a system software. The operating system is called the manager of the computer because it manages all the parts of the computer (CPU, RAM, ROM, keyboard, etc.) and makes co-ordination between them. Operating system is called the interface between a user and hardware because without the operating system the user cannot interact with the computer. We can run application software (ms office, games, paint, google chrome, etc) on top of the operating system itself.
2. Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that converts a program (code) written in a high-level programming language into machine code. Compiler converts the entire source code (code written from programming language) into machine code (executable code) then the computer can run this machine code. We also call this machine code as executable file.
3. Assembler
Assembler is a program. Which is a system software. Assembler converts our assembly language into machine code.
4. Interpreter
Interpreter is a program which is called a system software. Interpreter also works like Compiler to translate high level language into machine language or code, but Interpreter line by line converts any program (source code) into machine language and also It also executes the same machine code.
5. Device Drivers
Device Driver is a program. These are also system software, which tells the operating system of our computer how a hardware (mouse, pendrive, external hard disk, printer, etc.) will communicate with the computer. Device drivers help a computer interact with hardware. Like – we connected the computer to a printer then the driver of the printer gets installed in the computer, if that driver is not installed then we will not be able to use the printer.
6. Utility Software
Utility software is that system software, which is for the maintenance and diagnostic of our computer. Utility software is also known as service program.
There are many utility software in our computer which improve or repair our computer like – a disk cleanup deletes junk files from our hard disk.
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