IGCSE Computer Science - 2210 - Chapter 4
IGCSE Computer Science - 2210 - Chapter 4
IGCSE Computer Science - 2210 - Chapter 4
SCIENCE
Theory of Computer Science – Operating Systems and
Computer Architecture
Outlines
■ Operating Systems
– OS Functions
– Command Line Interface (CLI)
– Graphical User Interface (GUI)
■ Interrupts
– Interrupt Request Handler
– IRQ
– Buffer
■ Computer Architecture
– Vonn Neumann Architecture
– Detailed Look
– Buses
– Memory
– Processor
– Fetch-execution Cycle
Operating Systems
DOS Unix
Operating Systems – Graphical User
Interface
■ Windows
■ OSX
■ iOS
■ Ubuntu Linux
■ Redhat Linux
■ Android
■ Chrome OS
Interrupts
■ An interrupt is a signal from any device attached to the computer to the processor.
■ Interrupts are managed by a component of processor called Interrupt controller.
■ In case of an interrupt, the processor turns its attention towards the device which
generated the interrupt, and starts listening. For example:
– Your printer was printing fine, until a paper jammed.
– You plugged in your headphones and the audio port interrupted processor.
– An interrupt is generated on a mouse click, key press, screen touch, etc.
■ Interrupts allow us to execute multiple tasks at once. If processor is busy in another
task, it saves the state of that task and attends the interrupt. After the request is
fulfilled, it resumes doing what it was doing before.
Interrupt Life Cycle
Interrupt Request Queue (IRQ)