Role of the Operating System Key Terminology

interrupt handler

a function in the operating system or a device driver, whose execution is triggered by the reception of an interrupt

scheduling

the method by which work is assigned to resources that complete the work

multi-tasking

allowing a user to perform more than one computer task at a time

virtual memory

a feature of an operating system that allows a computer to compensate for shortages of physical memory by temporarily transferring pages of data from random access memory to disk memory

paging / swapping

a technique used by the operating systems to manage virtual memory by dividing it into fixed-size pages. When a program accesses a page that is not currently in physical memory, the operating system retrieves it from disk storage and places it in memory

pagefile / swap-file

temporary storage space on the hard disk

interrupt

a signal to the processor emitted by hardware or software indicating an event that needs immediate attention

polling

the process where the computer or controlling device waits for an external device to check for its readiness or state, often with low-level hardware

drive letter

a single alphabetic character A through Z that has been assigned to a physical drive or drive partition in the computer

Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

a software layer that abstracts the complexities of hardware and operating systems from Java applications