系统软件新洞察

New Insights into System Software

系统软件是计算学科的基本概念之一,从系统软件的本质特征、时代特点和发展趋势这3个方面给出了关于系统软件的新洞察.洞察1认为,通用图灵机和存储程序思想是系统软件的理论源头和技术源头,其本质特征是"操纵计算系统执行",编码加载和执行管控是两种主要的操纵方式.洞察2认为,系统软件在互联网时代的时代特点是持续在线提供基础服务,为"软件即服务"的新型应用模式奠定了基础.洞察3认为,系统软件的发展趋势是持续在线演化,在计算系统创新、信息物理融合和智能技术的推动下,将成为未来软件生态的核心.

This paper presents several new insights into system software,which is one of the basic concepts in computing discipline,from three perspectives of essential features,characteristics of the times,and the future development trend.The first insight is that system software stems theoretically and technically from universal Turing machine and the idea of stored-program,with an essential feature of“manipulating the execution of a computing system”.There are two typical manipulation modes:encoding and then loading,executing and controlling.The second insight is that software system is a kind of software,in the Internet age,providing substantial online services continuously,which lay the foundation for the newly emerged“software-as-a-service”paradigm.The final insight is about its development trend:system software will evolve online continuously.Driven by innovations of computing systems,integration of cyber and physical spaces,and intelligence technologies,system software will become the core of future software ecology.