INTRODUCTIO

N
TYPES
HARDWARE
represents
:
OF SOFTWARE
the physical and tangible components of the
computer.
CHAPTER 3

SOTFWARE: represents the set of programs that govern the operation of a

computer system and make the hardware run.

Identify the odd man out:

CPU, hard disk, floppy disk , DVD , operating system , plotter, CRT monitor
 SYSTEM
SOFTWARE
System software refers to the programs that control internal computer
operations(reading data from input, transmitting processed data to the
output….) and make the best us of hardware. The system software is
further categorized into the following categories
• Operating system
• Language processors
• Device drivers
• Utilities
 5

What is common in
this picture
 OPERATING SYSYEM

AN operating system is a program which acts as an

interface between a user and the hardware
resources.
It controls and coordinates the use of hardware
among various programs for various users.
 LANGUAGE
PROCESSOR(TRANSLATORS)

Programmers prefer to write their programs in HLL.

However the computer does not understand any
language other than its own machine language.
Hence translator programs are needed to convert HLL
programs to machine codes. The types of language
processors are
❑ Compiler
❑ Interpreter
❑ Assembler
 DEVICE DRIVERS

A device driver is a computer program that

operates or controls a particular type
of device that is attached to a computer.

Drivers are hardware dependent and

operating -system -specific.

Example:
❑ Display driver
❑ USB driver
❑ Printer driver