[ IT190: Foundations in Information Technology ]

Unit 6 Assignment

Instructions:

Download this document to your computer before filling it out. Each of the responses below should be appropriately filled in and the document saved again before submitting to the Unit 6 Dropbox. Be certain to answer each question completely.

Outcome addressed in this assignment

• Understand when to upgrade and when to replace an existing computer
• Explain what the CPU does and how to evaluate its performance
• Describe the difference between memory and storage and determine whether they meet your needs
• Demonstrate how to improve the reliability of your system

Course Outcomes

IT190-1: Demonstrate operating systems software functionality.

Instructions:

Do not forget, whenever you look up information, you need to cite your sources! Please copy and paste the full URL of any website you use in researching your answers to the following questions. If you use your book, please place the page number from your book in parentheses next to the answer.

Please note that the remaining Units are not Master Learning Units. Therefore, you will not have the opportunity to resubmit the remaining assignments. Please make sure that you put forth your best effort before making your submission as you will only have one chance to submit your remaining assignments.

Unit 6 assignment

1. What is the difference between operating software and application software?

An Operating System, or OS, is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer Operating System, a computer would be useless.

OPERATING SYSTEMS

As computers have progressed and developed so have the types of operating systems.

Below is a basic list of the different types of operating systems and a few examples of Operating Systems that fall into each of the categories. Many computer Operating Systems will fall into more than one of the below categories.

GUI - Short for Graphical User Interface, a GUI Operating System contains graphics and icons and is commonly navigated by using a computer mouse. See our GUI dictionary definition for a complete definition. Below are some examples of GUI Operating Systems.

System 7.x

Windows 98

Windows CE

Multi-user - A multi-user Operating System allows for multiple users to use the same computer at the same time and/or different times. See our multi-user dictionary definition for a complete definition for a complete definition. Below are some examples of multiuser Operating Systems.

Linux

UNIX

Windows 2000

Multiprocessing - An Operating System capable of supporting and utilizing more than one computer processor. Below are some examples of multiprocessing Operating Systems.

Linux

UNIX

Windows 2000

Multitasking - An Operating system that is capable of allowing multiple software processes to run at the same time. Below are some examples of multitasking Operating Systems.

UNIX

Windows 2000

Multithreading - Operating systems that allow different parts of a software program to run concurrently. Operating systems that would fall into this category are:

Linux

UNIX

Windows 2000

Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform. This should be contrasted with system software which is involved in integrating a computer’s various capabilities, but does not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user.

A simple, if imperfect, analogy in the world of hardware would be the relationship of an electric light - an application - to an electric power generation plant - the system. The power plant merely generates electricity, itself not really of any use until harnessed to an application like the electric light which performs a service that the user desires.

Typical examples of software application are word processors, spreadsheets and media players.

Multiple applications bundled together as a package are sometimes referred to as an application suite. Microsoft Office, which bundles together a word processor, a spreadsheet, and several other discrete applications, is a typical example. The separate applications in a suite usually have a user interface that has some commonality making it easier for the user to learn and use each application. And often they may have some capability to interact with each other in ways beneficial to the user. For example a spreadsheet might be able to be embedded in a word processor document even though it had been created in the separate word processor application.

In some types of embedded systems, the application software and the operating system software may be indistinguishable to the user, as in the case of software used to control a VCR, DVD player or Microwave oven.

List of software applications

Some examples of application software include:

accounting packages collaborative software compilers and interpreters

computer games cryptography database

Educational Software e-mail graphics program spreadsheet

text editor

web browser web server word processor

Reference: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060920201120AA7WKLX

a. List 3 different brands of operating system

HelenOS

HelenOS is an operating system based on a multi- server microkernel design. HelenOS development is community-driven. The developer community consists of a small core team, mainly staff and former and contemporary students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague, and a number of contributors around the world. In 2011, HelenOS participated in the Google Summer of Code as a mentoring organization.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HelenOS

Android

Android is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance—a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. The first publicly available smartphone running Android, the HTC Dream, was released on October 22, 2008.

The user interface of Android is based on direct manipulation, using touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects. Internal hardware—such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and proximity sensors—is used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented. Android allows users to customize their home screens with shortcuts to applications and widgets, which allow users to display live content, such as emails and weather information, directly on the home screen. Applications can further send notifications to the user to inform them of relevant information, such as new emails and text messages.

As of July 2013, Android has the largest number of applications (“apps”), available for download in Google Play store which has had over 1 million apps published, and over 50 billion downloads. A developer survey conducted in April–May 2013 found that Android is the most used platform among developers; it is used by 71% of the mobile developers population.

Android’s source code is released by Google under the Apache License 2.0, which allows everyone to freely modify and distribute Android under various names except by reusing the “Android” trademark; however, device manufacturers and wireless carriers have licensed the trademark from Google. Most Android devices ship with a combination of open source and proprietary software. Android is popular with technology companies which require a readymade, low-cost and customizable operating system for high-tech devices. Despite being primarily designed for phones and tablets, it also has been used in televisions, games consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics. Android’s open nature has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices which were officially released running other operating systems.

As of May 2012, Android became the most popular mobile OS, having the largest installed base, and is a market leader in most countries including the United States; there it has had the highest installed base of mobile phones for years. In the third quarter of 2013, Android’s share of the global smartphone shipment market—led by Samsung products—was 81.3%, the highest ever. In most markets Android-powered phones are the most popular comprising more than half of the overall smartphone sales, including the United States market starting with the September– November 2013 period. The operating system’s success has made it a target for patent litigation as part of the so-called “smartphone wars” between technology companies. As of September 2013 , one billion Android devices have been activated.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

General Comprehensive Operating System

General Comprehensive Operating System (GCOS) is a family of operating systems oriented toward mainframe computers.

The original version of GCOS was developed by General Electric from 1962; originally called GECOS (the General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor). The operating system is still used today in its most recent version (GCOS 8) on servers and mainframes produced by Honeywell and Groupe Bull, primarily through emulation, to provide continuity with legacy mainframe environments.

The GECOS-II operating system was developed by General Electric for the 36-bit GE-635 in

1962-1964. It bore a close resemblance architecturally to the IBM DOS/360. However, the GE635 architecture was very different from the IBM System/360 and GECOS was more ambitious than DOS/360. GECOS-II supported both time-sharing (TSS) and batch processing, with dynamic allocation of memory (IBM had fixed partitions, at that time), making it a true secondgeneration operating system.

After Honeywell acquired GE’s computer division, GECOS-III was renamed GCOS 3, and the hardware line was renamed to the H-6000 adding the EIS (enhanced instruction set, character oriented instead of word oriented). Later Honeywell Marketing created a “Series” 60, and renamed the H-6000 to the Level 66 (later on, DPS 8). Honeywell, along with its European affiliate CII-Honeywell Bull, launched a new 32-bit product line called Level 64 (which later became the DPS 7).

The name “GCOS” was extended to the operating systems for all Honeywell-marketed product lines. GCOS-64, a completely different 32-bit operating system for the Level 64 series, significantly inspired by a parallel development called “Multics”, was designed by Honeywell and Honeywell Bull developers in France and Boston. GCOS-62, the operating system for another 32-bit low-end line of machines, the Level 62 series, was designed in Italy. GCOS-61 was the operating system for a new version of a small system made in France (Model 58, later Level 61/58), and the operating system for a new 16-bit minicomputer line from Massachusetts ( Billerica), the Level 6, got the name GCOS 6.

Another renaming of the hardware product lines occurred in 1979, with the Level 6 becoming the DPS 6, the Level 62 becoming the DPS 4, the Level 64 becoming DPS 7, and Level 66 becoming DPS 8. Operating Systems retained the GCOS brand-name, with GCOS 6, GCOS 4, GCOS 7, and GCOS 8 being introduced. GCOS 8 was an extensive rewrite of GCOS 3, with changes made to support true virtual memory management and demand paging (these changes also required new hardware). GCOS 3 was supported in maintenance for several years after this announcement and renaming.

GCOS 3 (and later GCOS 7 and GCOS 8) featured a good Codasyl “relational” database called Integrated Data Store (IDS) that was the model for the more successful IDMS.

Several transaction processing monitors were designed for GCOS 3 and GCOS 8. An early attempt at TP for GCOS 3, the Transaction Processing Executive, assumed that, as in Unix, a new process should be started to handle each transaction, and enjoyed only very limited success. Another TP system, the Transaction Driven System (TDS), was soon developed for GCOS 3, using a single process (potentially with multiple threads) to service all transactions. TDS was essentially a Honeywell development. It was later replaced by the backwardcompatible Transaction Processing 8 (TP8) on GCOS 8, which profited from the overhaul in GCOS system architecture that came with GCOS 8 to make full use of virtual memory concepts. TP8 used multiple static processes in a way similar to UNIX daemons to handle incoming transactions in a multiplexed way. TDS and its TP8 successor were commercially successful, and TDS predated IBM CICS, which had a very similar architecture. A similar product also called TDS was developed for GCOS-7, but the internal architecture was completely different.

DPS 6 and DPS 4 (ex-Level 62) were superseded by Motorola 68000- and later on PowerPC minicomputers running Unix and the product lines were discontinued, though GCOS 6 ran in an emulator on top of AIX. The DPS 7 line, along with GCOS 7, continued to evolve into the DPS 7000 hardware base.

In the late 1980s Honeywell sold its computer business to a joint venture that initially included NEC and Bull, with Honeywell still holding a stake for a time. Over a couple of years, Bull took over the company. NEC supplied several generations of mainframe hardware at the high end, which would run both GCOS 8 and their own ACOS-4 Operating System. Bull used the nomenclature DPS-9000 for its entire GCOS 8-based mainframe line, which included models designed by both Bull and NEC.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bull’s desire was to center its development on a single hardware base, running commodity Intel chips but with Bull value-adds. This platform, called Novascale and based on Itanium 2 processors, runs both Windows and Linux natively.

However, Instruction Set Simulators for both the DPS 7000 and DPS 9000 allowed GCOS 7 and

GCOS 8 to run on this platform. GCOS 7 has also been ported to a lower-end Xeon-based platform, while Bull has publicly stated that GCOS 8 will continue to be developed for Itanium systems. Bull continues to invest development money in support of both GCOS 7 and GCOS 8, and still has customers in countries around the world.

A trace of GCOS influence remains today in modern UNIX systems. Some early Unix systems at Bell Labs used GCOS machines for print spooling and various other services. The field added to “/etc/passwd” to carry GCOS ID information was called the “GECOS field” and survives today as the “pw_gecos” member used for the user’s full name and other human-ID information.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Comprehensive_Operating_System

Unit 6 [IT190: Foundations in Information Technology]

1. List one example of each brand (i.e., Microsoft Windows XP – note, you may not use XP as an example).

Windows Phone 8.1

Windows 7 OS X Mavericks

1. List the hard disk space, RAM, and processor requirements of each example you listed above.

Windows Phone 8.1 minimum device requirements, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, Snapdragon 200, Snapdragon 400, or Snapdragon 800 multi-core processor, Minimum 512 MB RAM for WVGA phones; minimum 1 GB RAM for 720p / WXGA / 1080p , Minimum 4 GB flash memory.

Windows 7 Minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7,Component Operating system architecture 32-bit or 64-bit Processor 1 GHz IA-32 processor 1 GHz x86-64 processor, Memory ( RAM) 1 GB or 2 GB. Graphics card DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0, Free hard drive space 16 GB to 20 GB, Optical drive DVD-ROM drive (Only to install from DVDROM media).

OS X Mavericks is compatible with all Macs that are capable of running OS X Mountain Lion; as with Mountain Lion, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of available storage, and OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later are required.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems

1. Describe the basic functions of the operating system.

The operating system is designed to be a platform on the device that manages all the hardware functions as well as the installed application programs that function on top of the operating system.

1. In your own words define virtual memory and describe how it works.

Virtual memory is an old concept. Before computers had cache, they had virtual memory. For a long time, virtual memory only appeared on mainframes. Personal computers in the 1980s did not use virtual memory. In fact, many good ideas that were in common use in the UNIX operating systems didn’t appear until the mid 1990s in personal computer operating systems (pre-emptive multitasking and virtual memory). Later on, virtual memory was used as a means of memory protection. Every program uses a range of addressed called the address space.

A technique used by virtual memory operating systems to help ensure that the data you need is available as quickly as possible. The operating system copies a certain number of pages from your storage device to main memory. When a program needs a page that is not in main memory, the operating system copies the required page into memory and copies another page back to the disk. One says that the operating system pages the data. Each time a page is needed that is not currently in memory, a page fault occurs. An invalid page fault occurs when the address of the page being requested is invalid. In this case, the application is usually aborted.

Reference: http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/sum2003/cmsc311/Notes/Memory/virtual.html

1. Explain the differences between CD, DVD, and BD:

The CD (Compact Disc) is a disc that can store digital data. It is limited to 700 MB. There are two main types:

•CD-R you burn data, so that ultimately you cannot erase the CD.

•CD-RW you can erase the disc and rewrite data on it.

The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is another disc that has the same features as the CD but it requires appropriate players with Blu-ray drive and it can hold more data. A normal DVD can hold 4.7 GB, it has the possibility of being double-layered or double-sided rising capacity to 8.5 GB it may also be twice which provides about 17 GB but it is the maximum.

Blu-ray allows even greater capacity of 50 GB. It can store HD videos (High Definition Videos) that take up space.

Reference: http://thecustomizewindows.com/2011/03/difference-between-cd-dvd-andblu-ray-disks/

1. What is the storage capacity (range) of each medium. Remember to cite your sources!

CD= 700mb

DVD= 4.7GB dual layer 8.5GB

Blu-ray= up to 50 GB

Reference: http://thecustomizewindows.com/2011/03/difference-between-cd-dvd-and-blu-raydisks/

1. In your own words, explain the difference between the laser in a BD Drive and a DVD or CD drive. How does this affect the storage capacity of the disc?

Remember to cite your sources!

CD lasers with a wavelength of 780 nm were used, being within infrared range. For DVDs, the wavelength was reduced to 650 nm (red color), and the wavelength for Blu-ray Disc was reduced to 405 nm (violet color).

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_drive

5 . Final Project: In the past couple of units you learned about operating system software and hardware. Review the Final Project and consider the following:

a. Will you use the same operating system software for all computers in the company? What operating system software will you choose? (Remember to

include the edition and license)

I will Choose the Server OS as Windows Server 2012, and the OS for the workstation computers to be Windows NT workstation.

Unit 6 [IT190: Foundations in Information Technology]

1. Visit several sites and select a computer system that is appropriate for the employees in your company. If different groups have different requirements you may need to choose more than one system (for instance, if your graphics group will require different computers than your accountants). Copy and paste the specifications for your computer choice.
2. Is the included operating system appropriate for use on your company network? How do you know?

Challenge Level

Anyone up for a challenge? This course offers you the opportunity to go beyond the required course material. Two Challenge Levels are offered to supercharge your coursework: IT Whiz and IT Rock Star.

Challenge Levels are a great way for you to learn more about Information Technology, better improve your existing skills and abilities, and/or highlight how knowledgeable you are in the unit material. These levels do not count for additional points or guarantee a higher grade.

Challenge Levels offer you an opportunity to stand out, learn more, and gain confidence.

To start, follow the rubric and project instructions as normal. If you choose to try it, supplement your project with the challenge levels. Reach out to your instructor and do some research for resources. The “IT Whiz” level adds to the basic level, and the “IT Rock-Star” level adds more challenges to the “IT Whiz” level.

If you start a challenge level, but it becomes too difficult to handle, please stick with the basic project instructions, as found in the rubric to calculate your grade. Most importantly—have fun with it!

Your Challenge Levels for this week:

IT Whiz

Find a virtual machine on the internet (Oracle’s® Visual Box® is an example). Describe how it can be used to experiment with different OSs on your computer.

Type your response here

Type your response here

Unit 6 [IT190: Foundations in Information Technology]

IT Rock-Star

Find a virtual machine on the internet (Oracle’s® Visual Box® is an example). Describe how it can be used to experiment with different OSs on your computer.

Install your chosen virtual machine on your computer. Find a *Free* Linux OS that looks interesting and install it in your virtual machine. Include screen shots to demonstrate the process of installing the virtual machine and OS.

Requirements:

Review the grading rubric below before beginning this activity. Project 6 grading rubric =50 points

Project Requirements

Maximum points possible for satisfactory completion of task =

Points earned by student

1. Operating system vs. application software

0-10 points

1. Operating system functions

0-10 points

1. Virtual memory

0-10 points

1. Optical media

0-10 points

1. Final paper

0-10 points

Total (Sum of all points)

0-50

Directions for Submitting Your Assignment

Before you submit your assignment, you should save your work on your computer in a location and with a name that you will remember. Compose your assignment in Microsoft Word and save it in the following format: Username-Assignment- Unit#.doc (Example: TAllen- Assignment-Unit 6.doc). Submit your assignment by selecting the Unit 6: Assignment Dropbox by the end of Unit 6.

For instructions on how to submit your assignment to the Dropbox, click on the Academic Tools tab above in the class.