Computer Science Operating System Definations

NAME:

1. What are the 2 basic functions of an operating system (as presented in class)? – 4 points

2. Describe kernel mode. Give an example of something that runs in kernel mode. – 4 points

3. Describe how operating systems differ from user programs/applications. – 4 points

4. By the early 1960s, computing manufacturers had 2 distinct, incompatible, product lines. One was for commercial applications (banks and insurance companies), what was the other one? – 4 points

5. What is Multics? – 3 points

6. What is a process? – 2 points

7. Traditionally, in what mode have most (not all) device drivers ran in? – 2 points

8. What is a system call? Provide a general description and give 3 examples of system calls. – 4 points

9. What is BIOS? Give a brief description and specify what it stands for. – 4 points

10. Name 3 operating system categories discussed in the “Operating System Zoo” slide. – 3 points.

11. In the context of operating systems, what is a pipe? – 4 points

12. What is the “waitpid” system call used for in UNIX? – 3 points

13. Give a specific example of an operating system with a monolithic kernel. – 2 points

14. What was the purpose of developing POSIX?- 4 points

15. What are the 3 segments that a process is divided into in UNIX? – 3 points

16. What command is used in UNIX to display a list of the files and directories within the current directory? – 2 points

17. Explain how you would manually end a process in UNIX/Linux (be specific specify the command and parameter(s)). – 2 points

18. Specify the 3 process states presented in class and describe each one. – 6 points

19. Specify at least 4 things contained in a process table. – 4 points

20. Suppose there are 4 processes and each process is 10% likely to be waiting for I/O. What is the probability that all 4 processes are waiting for I/O at the same time? – 4 points

21. In reference to the previous question with 4 processes, that each spend 10% of their time waiting for I/O, what is the CPU utilization (exact answer)? – 4 points

22. What is a thread? – 2 points

23. Why are threads useful? Provide at least 3 reasons. – 6 points

24. In terms of processes/threads, what is a socket? – 2 points

25. Describe 2 drawbacks of threads. – 4 points

26. What is a critical region? – 2 points

27. There were 4 conditions to provide mutual exclusion that were presented in class. Specify 2 of them. – 2 points

28. Describe in your words what “race condition” means. – 4 points

29. What is a semaphore (give a detailed description including the 2 operations on semaphores). – 4 points

30. What is a mutex? – 2 points

Extra Credit – 5 points

E1. (bonus 2.5 points) There were 4 situations presented in class of “when to schedule”. Describe 2 of them.

E2. (bonus 2.5 points) Define what is meant by preemptive and non-preemptive algorithm scheduling algorithm.

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