Topmark Section 3 - (page 3 of 3) - Functions of the Operating System
Interactive processing   Operating System Function slideshow

Without an operating system the computer could do only one thing at a time.

With batch processing all data is entered before any of it is processed. All processing has to be complete before any results can be out-putted. It is a series of separate steps.

With an operating system like Windows, which manages the computer hardware, software and memory, the user appears to do all three operations at once. Windows divides the available memory into time slices and shares it among all the operations the user performs.

This improves thoughput as the CPU can work faster than a user and the time slices take this into account. It is interactive processing.

 

 

This page was last revised 25 July 2001