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For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, [1] [2] although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it.
In practice, CPUs in personal computers are usually also connected, through the motherboard, to a main memory bank, hard drive or other permanent storage, and peripherals, such as a keyboard and mouse. Graphics processing units (GPUs) are present in many computers and designed to efficiently perform computer graphics operations, including ...
A microprocessor is a computer processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU).
A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is an abstraction layer, implemented in software, between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer. . Its function is to hide differences in hardware from most of the operating system kernel, so that most of the kernel-mode code does not need to be changed to run on systems with different hardwa
Any transfer of information to or from the CPU/memory combo, for example by reading data from a disk drive, is considered I/O. [1] The CPU and its supporting circuitry may provide memory-mapped I/O that is used in low-level computer programming, such as in the implementation of device drivers, or may provide access to I/O channels.
Another example of software that shows the health of the drive and its smart attributes. This Intel 120GB SSD also appears to be in perfect condition. [2] Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T. or SMART) is a monitoring system included in computer hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). [3]
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Several processes may be associated with the same program; for example, opening up several instances of the same program often results in more than one process being executed. Multitasking is a method to allow multiple processes to share processors (CPUs) and other system resources. Each CPU (core) executes a single process at a time.