The main purpose of a computer is to run a predefined sequence of instructions, known as a program. A program under execution is often referred to as a process. Now, most special purpose computers are meant to run a single process, but in a sophisticated system such a general purpose computer, are intended to run many processes simulteneously. Any kind of process requires hardware resources such are Memory, Processor time, Storage space, etc.
In a General Purpose Computer running many processes simulteneously, we need a middle layer to manage the distribution of the hardware resources of the computer efficiently and fairly among all the various processes running on the computer. This middle layer is referred to as the kernel. Basically the kernel virtualizes the common hardware resources of the computer to provide each process with its own virtual resources. This makes the process seem as it is the sole process running on the machine. The kernel is also responsible for preventing and mitigating conflicts between different processes.
This schematically represented below:
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