Abstract
This chapter focuses on DOS-based software structure, Windows environment, as well as UNIX and Linux operating system. A DOS-based PC has four general layers of software. The first layer is the hardware level where the software directly accesses the hardware. The second layer is the basic input-output system or BIOS. The BIOS acts as an interface between higher level software and the actual hardware. The third layer is the disk operating system or DOS. DOS keeps the information and retrieves the requested data by appropriate calls to BIOS functions. The final layer of PC software is the application program. This is the software that performs the useful functions, such as mathematical calculations, word processing, data acquisition, and graphical display. Microsoft's Windows is now the most popular operating system for newer PCs. It is an operating system that supports large applications and makes full use of a system's physical memory. Microsoft Windows actually encompasses several different operating systems. There is another operating system known as UNIX, which is a multitasking, multiuser operating system developed for minicomputers by AT&T Bell Laboratories. Linux, like UNIX, is a multitasking, multiuser operating system with full security features as in Microsoft Windows NT.
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