System Software

System software comprises programs designed to coordinate the operations of the computer system_ It manages the hardware, software and data resources of the computer system_ It includes three types of programs: system management programs, system support programs and system development programs.

1. System Management Programs

These programs manage the hardware, software and data resources of the computer system. It includes operating system, database management system (DBMS) and telecommunication monitors. Operating system is an integrated system of complex programs that manages the resources of the computer and provides a user-interface that is easy to manage. DBMS is a set

of programs that controls creation, maintenance and use of database. It allows different applications to share data and programs concurrently. It also secures data in the database from misuses. DB2, Oracle, MS SQL Server etc are some of the examples of database management systems.

2. System Support Programs

These are programs that support efficient operation of a computer. They provide a variety of support services to users and management of computer system. These support services include utility programs, security monitors and performance monitors. Utility programs consist of programs that are very frequently requested by many application programs like programs for transferring data from one medium to another, formatting disk, backing up and sorting of files.

3. System Development Programs

These programs help users and system developers in designing and building systems .. They help in developing programs and procedures and prepare programs for computer processing. These include language translators, programming tools and Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE)  packages. Language translator is a piece of system software that translates application programs written in a high level language such as C, C++ and FORTRAN into machine language. The language translators may be assemblers, compilers or interpreters. It has made programming easier, more enjoyable, and portable across computers.