System software is any computer software that provides the infrastructure over which programs can operate, i.e. it manages and controls computer hardware so that application software can perform. Operating systems, such as GNU, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, are prominent examples of system software.
System software is software that basically makes the computer work. Besides operating systems, other examples are anti-virus software, communication software and printer drivers. Without the system software the computer doesn't work. In contrast to system software, software that allows you to do things like create text documents, play games, listen to music, or surf the web is called application software.
In general application software are programs that enable the end-user to perform specific, productive tasks, such as word processing or image manipulation. System software performs tasks like transferring data from memory to disk, or rendering text onto a display device.
Types of system software
System Software can be classified as operating system, device drivers and utility software. An operating system creates an interface between user and the system hardware, while other system software will refine or allow greater interaction with the machine's hardware.
System software helps run the computer hardware and computer system. It includes operating systems, device drivers, diagnostic tools, servers, windowing systems, utilities, language translator, data communication programs, data management programs and more. The purpose of systems software is to insulate the applications programmer as much as possible from the details of the particular computer complex being used, especially memory and other hardware features, and such accessory devices as communications, printers, readers, displays, keyboards, etc.
Specific kinds of system software include:
- Loading programs
- Operating systems (and their components, many of which are classified as system software)
- Device drivers
- Linkers
- Utility software
- Desktop environment / Graphical user interface
- Shell
- BIOS
- Hyper visors
- Boot loaders
If system software is stored on non-volatile memory such as integrated circuits, it is usually termed firmware.
One characteristic in which most system software differ from application software is machine dependency
» e.g. assembler translate mnemonic instructions into machine code
» e.g. compilers must generate machine language code
» e.g. operating systems are directly concerned with the management of nearly all of the resources of a computing system
There are some aspects of system software that do not directly depend upon the type of computing system
» e.g. general design and logic of an assembler
» e.g. code optimization techniques
Eg:
The von Neumann architecture is a design model for a stored-program digital computer that uses a processing unit and a single separate storage structure to hold both instructions and data. It is named after the mathematician and early computer scientist John von Neumann. Such computers implement a universal Turing machine and have a sequential architecture.
A stored-program digital computer is one that keeps its programmed instructions, as well as its data, in read-write, random access memory (RAM). Stored-program computers were an advancement over the program-controlled computers of the 1940s, such as the Colossus and the ENIAC, which were programmed by setting switches and inserting patch leads to route data and to control signals between various functional units. In the vast majority of modern computers, the same memory is used for both data and program instructions.
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