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I have seen Operating Systems described as "the software that controls the hardware". I don't understand what it really is however.

For example, if we are writing code for a calculator, if we write the code to implement the interface between the LCD and KEYPAD, that code is not considered an operating system is it?

what really does "Operating System" mean?

Clifford
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jack
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    Please reformat your question with readable paragraphs ! – Giann Jun 27 '11 at 13:11
  • and why did my reputation go down shouldn't i ask you questions on how to make things easier – jack Jun 27 '11 at 13:19
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    @jack: Probably, because of the formating. – Juraj Blaho Jun 27 '11 at 13:30
  • @Jack: You asked two unrelated questions in one post, making giving answers confusing. You posted the title in ALL CAPS - shouting will get you noticed, but not in a good way. You should write in sentences and paragraphs; this is not poetry! – Clifford Jun 27 '11 at 19:49
  • Give the guy a break, no need to be this harsh. There are a number of asked and answered questions on stack overflow about how to get started with embedded arm programming, I can link you to some of my sample programs if need be. Dont worry about the term operating system, the terms get fuzzy at this low of a level. Operating system, embedded programming, rtos, etc. Have you chosen your arm microcontroller yet? – old_timer Jun 27 '11 at 20:51
  • I dont know if you have enough points to edit your question. You should probably first look through the tags that you have selected or that have been selected for you (arm + embedded + microcontroller) and see if there is a how to start programming arm that might get you started. You can also go to the electrical engineering site where there are people asking the same question. – old_timer Jun 27 '11 at 20:54
  • the toolchain you want to start with is from code sourcery, the lite version is a free download. It is basically the gnu toolchain, naturally you want the arm version. – old_timer Jun 27 '11 at 20:55
  • sorry guys i wanted to make things clear for you to read so that you would catch my point sorry if it really looks like poetry really sorry guys – jack Jun 28 '11 at 04:32
  • @dwelch: I agree (and never voted to close or voted down), all of the formatting issues could have been dealt with with a helpful edit. But that would have been a lot of work for someone in this case. There were still two unrelated questions in there however; now there's one, but the title currently still implies two. Another issue is perhaps with questions starting "People say..."; which people? Cite a reference, not hearsay. If you find a good reference, the chances are you'll have also found the answer to the question. Voting to re-open; join me! – Clifford Jun 28 '11 at 18:36
  • Drastic re-edit to hopefully redeem this valid question. Feel free to roll back @Jack if you feel I have gone too far. – Clifford Jun 28 '11 at 18:45
  • Clifford thanks but you know i did not get the answer to my question yet – jack Jun 29 '11 at 04:24
  • @Jack: Well you'll have to hope that it gets reopned, or ask another question - perhaps more carefully and precisely. I am not going to answer in a comment. If Edd's answer is not what you need, then perhaps you should not have "accepted" it. None of the users who voted to close your question appear to be embedded-systems developers judging from their Stackoverflow profiles - they were wrong to do so in my opinion, having no apparent extertise in the subject matter. – Clifford Jun 30 '11 at 22:08

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Jack, the wikipedia page on operating systems gives a pretty good overview to start with. To put it pretty simply, when you want to run multiple pieces of software on a single piece of hardware (in your case, the ARM chip) then something needs to control the access to the hardware. The operating system will schedule tasks and allocate hardware to allow the multiple different bits of software to co-exist peacfully. Without this control, there is no way to run multiple pieces of software at once. Your calculator example would not require an operating system, as it is a single piece of code to do a single job.

For compilers for the ARM devices, I would suggest looking at either GCC (which I believe can cross compile to ARM) or getting a development kit, which will likely come with a suite of tools to allow you to develop on it.

I'm afraid I can't help you on which version of ARM chips to choose though, as my experience with them is a little limited. If price of the hardware is an issue though, I believe the ARM 7 hardware will be cheaper, but it is always worth comparing.

Hope this helps.

Ed.
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