Software used to control the computer and its peripheral equipment.

Software used to control the computer and its peripheral equipment.

• A. Application Software
• B. Operating System (OS)
• C. Firmware
• D. BIOS

Answer: (B)

An operating system coordinates both the computer and its peripheral devices. It provides the software layer that manages hardware resources—CPU time, memory, and I/O devices—through device drivers and system services. When you interact with keyboards, printers, disks, or network cards, the OS handles the requests, schedules tasks, translates those requests into device commands, and manages interrupts so devices can communicate smoothly. This central role lets applications run without needing to manage hardware specifics themselves. Firmware lives inside hardware and controls only that device’s internal functions; BIOS is a firmware program that runs at startup to initialize hardware and load the OS, not the ongoing manager of all system resources. Application software runs atop the OS and uses its services rather than directly controlling hardware.

An operating system coordinates both the computer and its peripheral devices. It provides the software layer that manages hardware resources—CPU time, memory, and I/O devices—through device drivers and system services. When you interact with keyboards, printers, disks, or network cards, the OS handles the requests, schedules tasks, translates those requests into device commands, and manages interrupts so devices can communicate smoothly. This central role lets applications run without needing to manage hardware specifics themselves.

Firmware lives inside hardware and controls only that device’s internal functions; BIOS is a firmware program that runs at startup to initialize hardware and load the OS, not the ongoing manager of all system resources. Application software runs atop the OS and uses its services rather than directly controlling hardware.