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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?
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.