Tom Linton

Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

Software Technologies
In the assignment file / document below, I will be continuing my magazine
article. For this part of the article I am required to cover the software
technologies that are used when running the modern gaming systems at
this current point in time. Using knowledge that I have acquired in my
pervious lectures and also knowledge from my own research.

Platform Dependency:
Independent:
Independent platforms mean that the application is able to run in different
operating environments and is not confined just to one. Applications that
are run in the program JAVA is a primary example.
Dependent:
Dependent platforms typically refer to an application that has to be run
under only one operating system and it also means that it runs in only on
series of computers (one operating environment). For example Microsoft
Windows running on x86 hardware. It means the same as hardware
dependent and refers to certain / specific applications that run in only one
hardware series with the operating system therefore not being relevant.

Operating systems:
Windows:
Microsoft windows or more commonly known as just windows is a family of
operating systems for computers around the world. Windows as an
operating system currently dominates the computer world estimating that
it is on 90% of all computers. The remaining 10% are using Apple Inc.s
operating system which is Mac OS or Mac OS X. Like Apple Inc.s operating
system windows provides the user with a graphical user interface (GUI).
Which is basically a menu interface that is able to make getting around
the computers storage of data / information easier and with less hassle.
Microsoft Windows operating system first started out with being called
Windows 1.0 and created by Bill Gates who was one of the founders of
the Microsoft Corporation and was the CEO before he stepped down in
2012. After the creation of Windows 1.0 then came 2.0 and 2.11 from
1987 to 1990. After that in 1990 until 1994 Windows 3.0 was used then
came one of the most well-known windows operating systems of all time
which was Windows 95. Windows 95 sold a staggering 7 million copies
in the first 5 weeks of its release. Once window 95 had come and gone
then came Windows 98 and Windows 2000. When the year 2001 came
around then we saw the release of Windows XP which really start to step
up the game when it came to GUI. From 2006 to 2013 we then saw
Windows Vista, Windows 7 which most people still use today and the

Tom Linton
Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

latest version of windows which is Widows 8 and Windows 8.1. However

Windows 8.1 is mainly used on portable devices such as tablets, laptops
and phones. Therefore meaning that Windows as an operating system
provides users with a virtual memory management, multitasking and
support system for many devices at the same time.
Mac OS:
Mac OS the Operating system was developed for Apple Inc.s Macintosh
and also for the apple computer products. The operating system was first
introduced in 1984 on the original Macintosh computers and was referred
to as just being called System. The Mac OS operating system started out
with System 6 and System 7 which from there apple later rebranded the
version names to Mac OS version. Since the change of names for the
versions of the operating system Apple have decided to name the
versions after big wild cat predators. I think that they might have chosen
to go for the theme of naming their OS versions after wild cats because
they show a sort of dominance in the animal kingdom so Apple may have
thought that their operating system would be the most dominant when
released. The Mac OS X (Mountain Lion) update which was (v10.8) is the
most recent version as of now following earlier updates such as Cheetah
(v10.0), Puma (v10.1), Jaguar (v10.2), Panther (v10.3), Tiger (v10.4),
Leopard (v10.5), Snow Leopard (v10.6) and Lion (v10.7). However the
earlier versions of the Mac operating system coming out in 1984 it was
however only compatible with the Motorola 68000 computer chip which
was manufactured and introduced in the year 1979. And was created by
Steve Jobs who was the founder of Apple Inc. and was the CEO before
passing away in 2011.
Linux:
Linux operating system is an open source operating system that is free
under software development and distribution and is able to run on a
number of hardware platforms. Created by a man named Linus Torvalds
and first being released on the 5th of October in 1991 the operating
system known as Linux has become well known and is used throughout
the world on computers although it might not be as popular as Microsoft
Windows or Apple Inc.s Mac OS. Linux was developed as being a free
operating system that anyone is able to use and came with an underlying
source code for the program that was able to be used, modified or
distributed commercially or non-commercially by anyone who had a GNU
General Public Licence. Popular distributors of the free and open source
software included Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora and much more.
Therefore Linux decided to include the Linux kernel which was able to
support utilities, libraries and usually a large amount of application
software that was able to fulfil the distributions intention use.

Tom Linton
Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

UNIX:
UNIX operating system is part of a family of multitasking, multiuser
operating systems that come from the original AT&T UNIX that was
developed in the 1970s at a place called Bell Labs. The use of UNIX was
initially intended for the Bell system which was a system of companies /
businesses that were led by the Bell Telephone Company and also AT&T
who provided telephone services to the United States of America and
Canada from 1877 to 1984. This therefore led to a variety of academic
and commercial variants of UNIX operating system from vendors like the
University of California, Microsoft and IBM. However in the 1990s AT&T
finally sold the rights to UNIX to a company/ business called Novell who
are a multinational software and services company headquartered in
Utah. Since then UNIX has been able to expand and branch out leading to
create Apple Inc.s Mac OS X with the largest install base of 2014.

Drivers:
Sound cards:
A sound card allows the user to be able to manipulate and output sounds
that come from their computer. They are necessary for all CD-ROMs that
are in a computer and enable the computer to output sound through
speakers connected to the motherboard. Nearly all sound cards support
MIDI also known as Musical Instrument Digital Interface which is a method
adopted by the music industry for controlling devices. This includes a
single notes pitch, length and volume. Sound cards are also able to
translate data / information into analog sounds.
Graphical drivers:
Graphical drivers are programs and pieces of software that let the user
control how their graphics components in their computer work alongside
the rest of your computer.

Application Software:
C++:
C++ is a high level advanced programming language that was developed
by Bjarne Stroustrup at the company / business Bell Labs which I have
already mentioned earlier. As a code writing language C++ is one of the
most popular for graphical applications, such as ones that run in Windows
or Macintosh environments.

Tom Linton
Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

Action Script:
Action Script is a scripting language that is used ion Macromedia Flash.
This piece of software is similar to JavaScript in the sense of enabling
authors to be able to design interactive sites.
Xcode:
Xcode is an Integrated Development Environment or more commonly
known as a IDE which contains a bunch of software development tools
that were made by Apple Inc. for developing software for Mac OS X and
iOS. It was first released in 2003 and the latest version is 6.1 which is
available via the Mac App Store. Users that become registered are able to
download preview releases and previous versions of the app through the
Apple developer website.

Graphical APIs:
OpenGL:
Open GL also known as the Open Graphics Library is basically a multi plat
forming interface (API). Therefore meaning that it is able to render 2
Dimensional and 3 Dimensional graphs. It is normally used to interact with
GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) to be able to achieve rendering that is
hardware accelerated. OpenGL is also considered to be a 3-D graphics
language for the development of computer games.
Direct X:
Direct X is a set of APIs that was developed by Microsoft which lets
programmers write code programs that are able to access hardware
features of any computer without knowing about what hardware is exactly
installed on the machine where the programs or piece of software
eventually runs. It is able to achieve this by creating a layer that is able to
translate hardware commands into certain / specific command for
particular pieces of hardware. This piece of software is mainly used for the
development and creation of computer games. Microsoft though that it
was a suitable idea to name the Xbox after the program since most of the
games were developed through this program / piece of software.

Sound APIs:
Open-AL:
Open-AL is essentially a cross platform audio application programming
interface (API). It was designed for the purpose of efficient rendering of
multichannel 3 Dimensional positional audio. It is basically an
environmental 3D audio library that is able to provide an open

Tom Linton
Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

replacement for 3D audio systems. Open-AL is also able to add realism to

a game by simulating attenuation (degradation of sound over a distance),
the Doppler Effect (change in frequency as a result of motion) and also
material densities.
JAVA Sound API:
JAVA Sound application programming interface that is able to be used for
controlling audio playback, audio capture, MIDI synthesis and MIDI
sequencing. It therefore includes source code and is designed to work with
the JAVA 2 platform standard edition.

Television:
Conditional Access:
Conditional access or also known as CA is an encryption / decryption
security method that lets the broadcaster control the subscribers access
to digital and interactive television services. This is then able to insure
that the person watching is able to be identified by saying that it is really
them. It is also able to offer security for transactions that are done /
carried out. Smart cards or a private PIN number are most often used to
be able to access the services and also premium services that are offered.
This system however is made up of 3 main parts (1) signal scrambling, (2)
encryption of electronic keys which the viewer is required to have and (3)
Subscriber Management System. The SMS is to ensure that those who
have bought the scrambled program are now able to receive it and watch.

Bibliography:
Windows:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/history#T1=era0
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/Microsoft_Windows.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows

Mac:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/Mac_OS.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS

Linux:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/L/Linux.html

Tom Linton
Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

UNIX:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System

OpenGL:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/OpenGL.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL

Direct X:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DirectX.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

JAVA:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index-139508.html

Open-AL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAL

Action Script:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/ActionScript.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/J/JavaScript.html

C++:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/C_plus_plus.html

Xcode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode

Tom Linton
Unit 20 Assignment 3
Student No. 2068571

Sound Cards:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/sound_card.html

Graphical Drivers:
http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/36251

Platform Dependency:
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/49364/platform-dependent

Conditional Access:
http://www.itvdictionary.com/conditional_access.html