OPERATING SYSTEMS IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

1) What are the three main purposes of an operating

system?
2) We have stressed the need for an operating system to
make efficient use of the computing hardware. When is
it appropriate for the operating system to forsake this
principle and to “waste” resources? Why is such a
system not really wasteful?
3) What is the main difficulty that a programmer must
overcome in writing an operating system for a real-time
environment?
4) How does the distinction between kernel mode and user
mode function as a rudimentary form of protection
(security) system?
5) Some early computers protected the operating system
by placing it in a memory partition that could not be
modified by either the user job or the operating system
itself. Describe two difficulties that you think could arise
with such a scheme.
6) Timers could be used to compute the current time.
Provide a short description of how this could be
accomplished.
7) The issue of resource utilization shows up in different
forms in different types of operating systems. List what
resources must be managed carefully in the following
settings:
a. Mainframe or minicomputer systems
b. Workstations connected to servers
c. Mobile computers
8) What is the purpose of interrupts? How does an
interrupt differ from a trap? Can traps be generated
intentionally by a user program? If so, for what purpose?
9) Describe a mechanism for enforcing memory protection
in order to prevent a program from modifying the memory
associated with other programs.
10) Direct memory access is used for high-speed I/O
devices in order to avoid increasing the CPU’s execution
load.
a. How does the CPU interface with the device to
coordinate the transfer?
b. How does the CPU know when the memory operations
are complete?
c. The CPU is allowed to execute other programs while the
DMA controller is transferring data. Does this process
interfere with the execution of the user programs? If so,
describe what forms of interference are caused.
11) What is the purpose of system calls?
12) What system calls have to be executed by a command
interpreter or shell in order to start a new process?
13) What is the main advantage of the layered approach to
system design? What are the disadvantages of the layered
approach?
14) Why do some systems store the operating system in
firmware, while others store it on disk?
15) How could a system be designed to allow a choice of
operating systems from which to boot? What would the
bootstrap program need to do?
16) Describe three general methods for passing
parameters to the operating system
17) What are the two models of interprocess
communication? What are the strengths and weaknesses
of the two approaches?
18) What is the main advantage of the microkernel
approach to system design? How do user programs and
system services interact in a microkernel architecture?
What are the disadvantages of using the microkernel
approach?
19) Describe the differences among short-term, medium-
term, and long term scheduling.
20) Describe the actions taken by a kernel to context-
switch between processes.
21) A CPU-scheduling algorithm determines an order for
the execution of its scheduled processes. Given n
processes to be scheduled on one processor, how many
different schedules are possible? Give a formula in terms
of n.
22) Explain the difference between preemptive and
nonpreemptive scheduling.
23) Suppose that the following processes arrive for
execution at the times indicated. Each process will run for
the amount of time listed. In answering the questions, use
nonpreemptive scheduling, and base all decisions on the
information you have at the time the decision must be
made.
Process Arrival Time Burst Time
P1 0.0 8
P2 0.4 4
P3 1.0 1
a. What is the average turnaround time for these
processes with the FCFS scheduling algorithm?
b. What is the average turnaround time for these
processes with the SJF scheduling algorithm?
 c. The SJF algorithm is supposed to improve performance,
but notice that we chose to run process P1 at time 0
because we did not know that two shorter processes
would arrive soon. Compute what the average turnaround
time will be if the CPU is left idle for the first 1 unit and
then SJF scheduling is used. Remember that processes P1
and P2 are waiting during this idle time, so their waiting
time may increase. This algorithm could be called future-
knowledge scheduling.
24) Discuss how the following pairs of scheduling criteria
conflict in certain settings.
a. CPU utilization and response time
b. Average turnaround time and maximum waiting time
c. I/O device utilization and CPU utilization
25) Consider the following set of processes, with the length
of the CPU burst given in milliseconds

The processes are assumed to have arrived in the order P1,

P2, P3, P4, P5, all at time 0.
 a. Draw four Gantt charts that illustrate the execution of
these processes using the following scheduling algorithms:
FCFS, SJF, nonpreemptive priority (a larger priority number
implies a higher priority), and RR (quantum = 2).
b. What is the turnaround time of each process for each of
the scheduling algorithms in part a?
c. What is the waiting time of each process for each of
these schedul ing algorithms?
d. Which of the algorithms results in the minimum average
waiting time (over all processes)?
26) The following processes are being scheduled using a
preemptive, round robin scheduling algorithm. Each
process is assigned a numerical priority, with a higher
number indicating a higher relative priority. In addition to
the processes listed below, the system also has an idle
Exercises 309 task (which consumes no CPU resources and
is identified as Pidle). This task has priority 0 and is
scheduled whenever the system has no other available
processes to run. The length of a time quantum is 10 units.
If a process is preempted by a higher-priority process, the
preempted process is placed at the end of the queue.
a. Show the scheduling order of the processes using a
Gantt chart.
b. What is the turnaround time for each process?
c. What is the waiting time for each process?
d. What is the CPU utilization rate?

27) Which of the following scheduling algorithms could

result in starvation?
a. First-come, first-served
b. Shortest job first
c. Round robin
d. Priority