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Topic 3 of 6 · Form 5

System software, security, privacy and ethics

Memory management (paging, segmentation, virtual memory, thrashing), file management, security, hardware management, process management (states, scheduling algorithms: round robin, shortest job first, first come first served, shortest remaining time), utility software and program libraries (DLLs).

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  1. PDFSystem software, security, privacy and ethics – Computer Science notes (Cambridge A Level)47.4 KB

Operating systems

Memory management (paging, segmentation, virtual memory, thrashing), file management, security, hardware management, process management (states, scheduling algorithms: round robin, shortest job first, first come first served, shortest remaining time), utility software and program libraries (DLLs).

Language translators

Assemblers, compilers and interpreters; IDE features (prettyprint, context-sensitive prompts, dynamic syntax checks, breakpoints, single stepping, report windows); stages of compilation (lexical analysis, syntax analysis, code generation, optimisation); reverse Polish notation.

Worked example: Convert (a + b) × (c − d) to reverse Polish notation.

a b + c d − ×

Security and data integrity

Threats (malware, hacking, phishing, pharming), firewalls, anti-malware, encryption, authentication, access rights; validation and verification (parity, checksums, double entry).

Encryption

Symmetric and asymmetric keys; digital signatures and certificates; SSL/TLS; quantum cryptography (introduction).

Ethics and ownership

Professional codes of conduct (e.g. BCS, IEEE); copyright and software licensing (free software, open source, shareware, commercial); artificial intelligence and its social, economic and environmental impacts.

Exam tip: For scheduling questions, show a timeline or table of which process runs when.

Check yourself

  1. What is thrashing?
  2. Name the four stages of compilation.
  3. How is a digital signature verified?
Show answers
  1. Excessive swapping between RAM and disk, which slows the system dramatically.
  2. Lexical analysis, syntax analysis, code generation, optimisation.
  3. Decrypt the signature with the sender's public key and compare the result with a hash of the received message.
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