Define the term operating system.

→ The program that, after being

initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all of the
other application programs in a computer. || Define a system program. →
System programs provide basic functioning to users so that they do not
need to write their own environment for program development (editors,
compilers) and program execution (shells). || Which scheduler controls
the degree of multiprogramming? → The Multiprogramming degree is
mostly controlled by the Long-Term Scheduler. || What is Turn-Around
Time? → The interval from the time of submission of a process to the time
of completion is the turnaround time. || What is meant by Deadlock? → A
deadlock is a situation in which two computer programs sharing the same
resource are effectively preventing each other from accessing the resource,
resulting in both programs ceasing to function. || What is demand paging?
→ The basic idea behind paging is that when a process is swapped in, the
pager only loads into memory those pages that it expects the process to
need (right away). || What do you mean by seeking Time in Disk
Scheduling? → Seek Time - It is the time taken by the disk arm to locate
the desired track. || Define Rollback?→ A rollback is the process of
returning a database to its previous state. Rollback should not be confused
with backups.Logical Address → Logical Address is generated by the
CPU while a program is running. The logical address is virtual address as it
does not exist physically, therefore, it is also known as Virtual Address. This
address is used as a reference to access the physical memory location by
CPU. || Physical Address → Physical Address identifies a physical
location of required data in a memory. The user never directly deals with
the physical address but can access it by its corresponding logical
address.What is meant by a multiprocessing system? → Multiprocessor
systems are also called parallel systems or tightly coupled systems. The
computer bus is shared by two or more processors. || What is the
process? → 1.A process is a program in execution. As the program
executes the process changes state. 2.The state of a process is defined by
its current activity. 3.Process execution is an alternating sequence of CPU
and I/O bursts, beginning and ending with a CPU burst. 4.Thus, each
process may be in one of the following states: New, Active, Waiting ||
List various operations on File. → Various operations which can be
implemented on a file are:- 1.Create 3.Read 5.Delete 2.Write
4.Re-position 6.Truncate. || Define Context Switch? → It is a process that
involves switching of the CPU from one process to another. In this,
execution of the process that is present in the running state is suspended
by the kernel and another process that is present in the ready state is
executed by the CPU. || What is a page frame? → A page frame is the
smallest fixed-length contiguous block of physical memory into which
memory pages are mapped by the operating system. || What is
compaction?→ Compaction refers to combining all the empty spaces
together and processes. Compaction helps to solve the problem of
fragmentation, but it requires a lot of CPU time. It moves all the occupied
areas of storage to one end and leaves one large free space for incoming
jobs. || What is starvation?→ Starvation: Another problem related to
deadlocks is indefinite blocking, or starvation, a situation in which
processes wait indefinitely within the semaphore. Indefinite blocking may
occur if we remove processes from the list associated with a semaphore in
LIFO order. || What is meant by Address Binding? → Programs are
stored on the secondary storage disks as binary executable files. When the
programs are to be executed they are brought into the main memory and
placed within a process. || Define Burst Time. → Burst time, also referred
to as “execution time”. It is the amount of CPU time the process requires to
complete its execution. It is the amount of processing time required by a
process to execute a specific task or unit of a job. || Explain Operating
System Structure. → The structure of the operating system consists of
four layers, those are Hardware, Operating system, System and Application
programs and Users. The hardware consists of the Central Processing Unit
(CPU), the main memory, I/O devices, secondary storage, etc. || What is a
medium term scheduler? → Medium term scheduler takes care of
swapped out processes. If the running process needs some I/O time for
completion then it needs to change its state from running to waiting.
Medium term scheduler is used for this purpose. Such processes are called
swapped out processes and this procedure is called Swapping. The
medium term scheduler is used for suspending and resuming the process.
||
Explain semaphores and their types in detail. → The first major
advance in dealing with the problems of concurrent processes came in
1965 with Dijkstra's solution. Dijkstra's proposal for mutual exclusion
among an arbitrary number of processes is called Semaphore. There are
two types of semaphores: 1.Counting Semaphores:- Counting semaphores
can take an integer value ranging between 0 and an arbitrarily large
number. The Initial value represents the number of units of the critical
resources that are available. This is also known as general semaphore.
2.Binary Semaphores:-The value of semaphore can range only between 0
and 1. Initially the value is set to 1 and if some process wants to use a
resource then the wait() function is called and the value of the semaphore
is changed from 0 to 1. || Explain multilevel Feedback queue Algorithm.
→ Multilevel feedback queue allows a process to move between queues.
The idea is to separate processes with different CPU - Burst
characteristics. If a process uses too much CPU time, it will be moved to a
lower priority queue. This leaves I/O bound and interactive processes in the
higher priority queues. Then it is moved to a higher priority queue. This
form of aging prevents starvation. || Shortest Seek Time First. → Shortest
Seek Time First (SSTF) selects the request with the minimum seek time
from the current head position. Shortest Seek Time First (SSTF) scheduling
is a form of Shortest Job First (SJF) scheduling; may cause starvation of
some requests. || Linked Allocation for File System. → Linked allocation
solves all the problems of contiguous allocation (Fig. 8.8). With chained
allocation, each file is a linked list of disk blocks; the blocks may be
scattered anywhere on the disk. Again, the file allocation table needs just a
single entry for each file, showing starting block and length of file. Although
static allocation is possible, it is more common simply to allocate blocks as
needed. There is no external fragmentation because only one block at a
time is needed. || Address binding in case of memory management. →
Programs are stored on the secondary storage disks as binary executable
files. When the programs are to be executed they are brought into the main
memory and placed within a process. The collection of processes on the
disk waiting to enter the main memory forms the Input Queue.The loader
will convert this re-locatable address to absolute address. Each binding is a
mapping from one address space to another. ||
Draw and explain the Contiguous Memory Allocation. → Contiguous
allocation is one of the most used methods for allocation. With this method
a single contiguous set of blocks is allocated to a file creation. Thus, this is
the static allocation method, using variable-size portions. The FAT needs
just one entry. For each file, showing the starting block and the length of the
file. Contiguous allocation is best for sequential file.Contiguous allocation
has some problems. || Define ‘Least Recently Used’ in memory
management. → LRU (Last Recently Used) If we use the recent past as
an approximation of the near future, then LRU replaces the page which has
not been used for the longest period of time. This is the least recently used
algorithm. LRU replacement associates with each page the time of its last
use. When a page is to be replaced, LRU chooses that page which has not
been used for the longest period or time. || List any four characteristics
of the operating system. → Some characteristics of an Operating System
are: 1.Multi-tasking: Multiple programs can run on it simultaneously.
2.Multi-processing: It can take advantage of multiple processors.
3.Multi-user: Multiple users can run programs on it simultaneously.
4.Security: It can reliably prevent application programs from directly
accessing hardware devices i.e. protected. It has built-in support for
graphics and Networks. || Define a safe state. → There are 3 states of the
system: safe, unsafe and deadlock.When a system can allocate the
resources to the process in such a way so that they still avoid deadlock
then the state is called a safe state. A system is in safe state only if there
exists a safe sequence. A sequence of process P1, P2, ...., P, is a safe
sequence for the current allocation state if for each P₁ the resources
request that P, can still make can be satisfied by currently available
resources pulls the resources held by all Pj with j < i. || List and explain
services provided by the operating system. → 1.User Interface: Almost
all operating systems have a User Interface (UI). 2.Program Execution: The
system must be able to load a program into memory and run the program.
3.I/O Operations: All the programs dealing with I/O operations relating to
specific devices are to be dealt with by the operating system. 4.File System
Implementation: The file system is of particular interest. Programs need to
read and write files. 5.Protection: In a multi-user environment, protection of
valuable resources plays an important role. ||
Explain Process Control Block (PCB) with a diagram. → 1.Each
process is represented in the operating system by a Process Control Block
(PCB) also called a Task Control Block. 2.The operating system groups all
information that it needs about a particular process into a data structure
called a PCB or Process Descriptor. 3.Diagram || Explain the ‘Dining
Philosopher’ Synchronization problem. → 1.The Dining Philosopher
problem is considered a classic synchronization problem. 2.One simple
solution is to represent each chopstick of a semaphore. 3.A philosopher
tries to grab the chopstick by executing a wait operation on that
semaphore. || What is Fragmentation? Explain types of it in detail. →
Fragmentation refers to the phenomenon where available space in storage
(such as memory or disk space) becomes divided into smaller chunks that
are not contiguous. There are two main types of fragmentation: 1. Internal
Fragmentation: The phenomenon, in which there is wasted space internal
to a partition due to the fact that the block of data loaded is smaller than the
partition, is referred to as Internal Fragmentation. For Example: If there is a
block of 50 Kb and if the process requests 40 Kb and if the block is
allocated to the process then there will be 10 Kb of memory left. 2.External
Fragmentation: External Fragmentation exists when there is enough
memory space to satisfy the request, but its not contiguous i.e storage is
fragmented into a large number of small holes. External Fragmentation
may be either minor or a major problem. || Describe I/O Hardware with its
type of I/O devices. → Computers operate a great many kinds of devices.
Most fit into the general categories of storage devices such as disks, tapes
etc. transmission devices such as network cards, modems etc. and
human-interface devices such as screen, keyboard, mouse and so on.
Devices communicate with the computer via signals sent over wires or
through the air. Devices connect with the computer through ports, e.g. a
serial or parallel port. Types of I/O devices are printers, hard disks,
keyboards and mice. || What do you mean by Seek Time in Disk
Scheduling? → Seek time is the time required to move the disk arm to the
required track. The seek time consists of two key components - the initial
startup time and the time taken to traverse the tracks that have to be
crossed once the access is up to speed. ||
Explain Indexed Allocation in detail. → Linked allocation solves the
external fragmentation and size declaration problem and contiguous
allocation.Indexed allocation solves this problem by bringing all the pointers
together into one location: the index block. In this case, the FAT contains a
separate one-level index for each file; the index has one entry for each
portion allocated to the file. File indexes are not physically stored as part of
the FAT, but it is kept in a separate block and entry for the file in the FAT
points to that block.Allocation may be on the basis of either fixed-sized
blocks or variable-size partitions. || Explain different methods for
recovery from deadlock? → a.Process Termination - 1.Abort all
deadlocked processes: This method clearly will break the deadlock cycle,
but at a great expense, these processes may have computed for a long
time, and the result of these partial computations must be discarded and
probably recomputed later. b.Resource Preemption - 1.Selecting a victim:
Deciding which resources to preempt from which processes involves many
of the same decision criteria outlined above. 2.Rollback: Ideally one would
like to roll back a preempted process to a safe state prior to the point at
which that resource was originally allocated to the process. || List any two
types of Multiprocessor. → There are two types of multiprocessing
systems : 1.Asymmetric Multiprocessing:- It is a multiprocessor Computer
system where not all of multiple interconnected central processing units
(CPUs) are treated equally. For example: AMP can be used in assigning
specific tasks to the CPV based on the priority & the importance of task
Completion. 2.Symmetric Multiprocessing :- It involves multiprocessor
computer hardware & software architecture where two or more identical
processors are connected to a Single, shared memory , & have full access
to all input & output devices. || Explain advantages and disadvantages of
linked allocation methods. → Advantage :- 1.Any free blocks can be
added to a chain. 2.There is no external fragmentation. 3.Best suited for
sequential files that are to be processed sequentially. Disadvantages :-
1.There is no accommodation of the principle of locality that series of
accesses to different parts of the disk are required. 2.Space is required for
the pointers. 1.5% of disk is used for the pointers and not for information.
3.This method cannot support direct access. ||
What is Interrupts? → The motivation for incorporating interrupt into the
computer hardware is to eliminate the need for the device driver to
constantly poll the controller status register. In the scenario using interrupts,
the device management functionality is partitioned into four different parts:
1.The device driver that initiates the I/O operation. 2.Device status table.
3.Interrupt handler. 4.Device handler. || Explain various types of system
programs. → 1.File Manipulation: These programs create, delete, copy,
rename, print, dump, list and generally manipulate files and directories.
2.Status Information: Some programs simply ask the operating system for
the date, time, and amount of available memory or disk space, number of
users or similar status information. 3.File Modification: Several text editors
may be available to create and modify the contents of files stored on a disk
or a tape. 4.Programming Language Support: Compilers, assemblers and
interpreters for common programming languages. || List and explain
advantages of the Multiprocessor system. → Advantages of
Multiprocessor System: 1.Increased throughput: As the number of
processors increases, the result or output is faster. The time required is
less to compute the task. 2.Economy of scale: The cost of a multiprocessor
system is less than that of multiple single-processor systems, because
peripheral devices, memory, and bus are shared. 3.Increased reliability: In
a multiprocessor system, if any of the processors fails, the work of that
processor is shared by the remaining processor and the system will not
halt. || List and explain system calls related to Process and Job
control. → Process is nothing but a program in execution. A running
program needs to be able to halt its execution either normally or
abnormally. A process or job executing one program may want to load and
execute another program. System calls related to Process Control are: (i)
End, Abort. (ii) Load,Execute. (iii) Create process. Terminate process. (iv)
Ready process, Dispatch process. (v) Suspend process. Resume process.
(vi) Get process attributes. Set process attributes. (vii) Wait for Time. (viii)
Wait event, Signal event. (ix) Change the priority of a process. || Define
Belady’s Anomaly → Belady’s anomaly is the phenomenon in which
increasing the number of page frames results in an increase in the number
of page faults for certain memory access patterns. This phenomenon is
commonly experienced when using the first-in first-out (FIFO) page
replacement algorithm.The FIFO page replacement algorithm is easy to
understand and program. Its performance is not always good. || What is
meant by Free Space Management? Define Bit vector and Grouping.
→ The system maintains a free space list by keeping track of the free disk
space. The free space list contains all the records of the free space disk
block. Bit Vector :- This technique is used to implement free space
management. When the block is free its bit is set to 1 and when the block is
allocated the bit is set to 0. Grouping :- This is also the technique of free
space management. In this, there is a modification of the free-list approach
which stores the address of the n free blocks. || Explain Resource
Allocation Graph in detail. → Deadlock can be described more precisely
in terms of a directed graph called a system Resource Allocation Graph. In
the Resource Allocation Graph, processes are represented by a circle and
resources are represented by boxes. Resource boxes have some number
of dots inside indicating the available number of that resource that is the
number of instances. || What is the difference between Preemptive and
Non-Preemptive Scheduling. → Preemptive Scheduling :- 1.The CPU
is allocated to the processes for a limited time. 2.The executing process in
preemptive scheduling is interrupted in the middle of execution when a
higher priority one comes whereas the executing process. 3.There is the
overhead of switching the process from the ready state to the running state,
vise-versa, and maintaining the ready queue. Non-preemptive scheduling
:- 1.Non-preemptive scheduling, the CPU is allocated to the process till it
terminates or switches to the waiting state. 2.Non-preemptive scheduling is
not interrupted in the middle of execution and waits till its execution.
3.Non-preemptive scheduling there is no overhead of switching the process
from running state to ready state. || Write a short note on solutions for
critical section problems. → Consider a system consisting of n processes
(Po, P1 Pn-1). Each process has a segment of code, called a Critical
Section, in which the process may be changing common variables,
updating a table, writing a file and so on.There are three sections which
can be categorized as Entry Section, Critical Section, and Exit Section. The
process has to make request in first section that is entry section.Thus, is
often referred to as mutual exclusion ||
What are the characteristics and necessary conditions for a
deadlock? → In a deadlock, processes never finish executing and system
resources are tied up, preventing other jobs from starting. Before we
discuss the various methods for dealing with the deadlock problems, we
shall describe features that characterize deadlocks. Necessary Conditions
for deadlock are :- 1.Mutual Exclusion: At least one resource is held in a
non-sharable mode; that is only one process at a time can use the
resource. 2.Hold and Wait: A process must be holding at least one
resource and waiting to acquire additional resources that are currently
being held by other processes. 3.No preemption: The process which once
scheduled will be executed till the completion. 4.Circular Wait: All the
processes must be waiting for the resources in a cyclic manner so that the
last process is waiting for the resource which is being held by the first
process. || Explain File System Access Methods. → File System Access
Methods are :- a.Sequential Access method:- 1.One of the simplest file
access methods. 2.Most of the OS uses a sequential access method to
access the file. 3.In this method, the OS reads the file word by word and we
have a pointer that points to the file's base address. b.Direct Access :-
1.For direct access, the file is viewed as a number of sequential blocks of
records. 2.A block is generally a fixed length quantity, defined by an
operating system. c.Index Sequential Access Method (ISAM):- 1.It is a
different method of accessing files which is built on top of the sequential
access method. 2.These methods construct an index for the file. 3.It
controls the pointer by using an index. || Explain Paging in case of
memory management. → 1.Paging is a non-contiguous memory
allocation technique that permits the physical address space of a process
to be non-contiguous. 2.Support for paging is handled by hardware. 3.It is
used to avoid external fragmentation. 4.Paging avoids the considerable
problem of fitting the varying sized memory chunks onto the backing store.
|| What is scheduling? Compare short term scheduler with long term
scheduler. → Scheduling is the process by which the operating system
decides which ready-to-run process should be allocated to the CPU next.
The Goal is to optimize resource usage, fourness and system
responsiveness. Long-term Schedulers and short-term schedulers are the
two main types of schedulers.
Long Term Schedulers :- 1.It is an operating system scheduler that
chooses processes from the job queue and loads them to execution in the
main memory. 2.It is also referred to as the Job Scheduler. 3.It is slower 4.It
controls the multiprogramming degree. Short Term Schedulers :- 1.It is an
operating System scheduler that chooses the process from the several
processes that the processor runs. 2.It is also referred to as a CPU
scheduler. 3.It is faster. 4.It provides less control over the
multiprogramming degree. || Draw and explain Round Robin Scheduling
with the help of an example. → Round Robin is a preemptive scheduling
algorithm designed for fairness and to prevent any process from waiting
indefinitely. It works as follows:- 1.Ready Queue - Processes waiting to use
the CPU are placed in a Circular queue. 2.Time Quantum - A fixed time
slice (quantum) is defined, representing the maximum time a process can
run before it's preempted. 3.Execution - The CPU is allocated to the
process at the front of the queue. The process runs for the time quantum or
until it completes, whichever happens first. 4.Preemption - If the process
does not complete within the time quantum, it is preempted (interrupted)
and. placed at the back of the ready queue. 5.Context Switch - The CPU
switches to the next process in the queue, and the cycle repeats. || List
various properties of the file. → 1.Name: Every file carries a name by
which the file is recognized in the file system.One directory cannot have
two files with the same name. 2.Identifier: Along with the name, Each File
has its own extension which identifies the type of the file. 3.Type: In a File
System, the Files are classified in different types such as video files, audio
files, text files, executable files, etc. 4.Location: In the File System, there
are several locations on which the files can be stored. Each file carries its
location as its attribute. 5.Size: The Size of the File is one of its most
important attributes. 6.Protection: The Admin of the computer may want the
different protections for the different files. ||