Monday, 4 March 2013

Multitasking Operating System

A multitasking operating system is any type of system that is capable of running more than one program at a time.

With older examples of the multitasking operating system, managing two or more tasks normally involved switching system resources back and forth between the two running processes.

While this approach did create a short time lag for the operator, this lag was usually no more than a few seconds, and still offered considerable more efficiency than the older single-task operating system.

Over time, popular incarnations of the multitasking operating system were developed that used a different approach to allocating resources for each active program. This created a situation where virtually no time lag occurred at all, assuming that the equipment driving the system had adequate resources.

The typical multiple operating system requires more resources than the simple operating systems that were common for desktop computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Today, most desktop, laptop, and netbook operating systems function with some type of multitasking operating system.

Even equipment such as automatic teller machines or ATMs still make use of some type of multitasking system, using a series of programs to check balances and execute the requests made by users.

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