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The Management Programs Of A Computer

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Introduction
Operating systems, (“OS”) are the management programs of a computer. First it is booted into the computer by a boot program, and then it manages all other programs on the computer. These other programs are called applications, and they utilize an operating system by making requests for process service power through an API, or application program interface. Users then interact directly with an operating system through a graphical user interface or command language.

History The earliest computers lacked any form of operating system because they were simple mainframes. The machines were primitive and programs were often entered into the system one bit at a time, through many mechanical switches and plug boards. There were no operating systems during the first phase of computer history--from 1940-1955. By the 1950s, punch cards were introduced and made it so switches were not as necessary any more. The IBM 701, from General Motors Research Laboratories, was the first system that implemented an operating system. The systems generally ran one job at a time, which was indicated by whatever was on the punch card. This is called single-stream batch processing. Computers were just exotic experimental equipment, and mainly tested theory. The use plugboards would direct the computer. Without operating systems, there is no overlap between computation, I/O, think time, and response time. The specific goal was to handle tables of numbers. Libraries

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