Midterm Flash Cards

Front 1

T or F?

The processor controls the operation of the computer and performs its data processing functions.

Back 1

True

Front 2

T or F?

It is not possible for a communications interrupt to occur while a printer interrupt is being processed.

Back 2

False

Front 3

T or F?

Cache Memory is invisible to the OS.

Back 3

True

Front 4

T or F?

The fetched instruction is loaded into the Program Counter.

Back 4

False

Front 5

T or F?

The interrupt can occur at any time and therefore at any point in the execution of a user program.

Back 5

True

Front 6

T or F?

Over the years memory access speed has consistently increased more rapidly than processor speed.

Back 6

False

Front 7

T or F?

An SMP can be defined as a stand-alone computer system with two or more similar processors of comparable capability.

Back 7

True

Front 8

T or F?

The operating system acts as an interface between the computer hardware and the human user.

Back 8

True

Front 9

The four main structural elements of a computer system are:

Back 9

A) Processor, Main Memory, I/O Modules and System Bus

Front 10

The ___________ routine determines the nature of the interrupt and performs whatever actions are needed.

Back 10

A) interrupt handler

Front 11

The _________ chooses which block to replace when a new block is to be loaded into the cache and the cache already has all slots filled with other blocks.

Back 11

D) Replacement Algo

Front 12

In a uniprocessor system, multiprogramming increases processor efficiency by:

Back 12

A) Taking advantage of time wasted by long wait interrupt handling

Front 13

The __________ is a device for staging the movement of data between main memory and processor registers to improve performance and is not usually visible to the programmer or processor.

Back 13

Cache

Front 14

The concept of multiple programs taking turns in execution is known as __________.

Back 14

Multiprogramming

Front 15

T or F?

The OS masks the details of the hardware from the programmer and provides the programmer with a convenient interface for using the system.

Back 15

True

Front 16

T or F?

The OS frequently relinquishes control and must depend on the processor to allow it to regain control.

Back 16

True

Front 17

T or F?

Uniprogramming typically provides better utilization of system resources than multiprogramming.

Back 17

False

Front 18

T or F?

A monolithic kernel is implemented as a single process with all elements sharing the same address space.

Back 18

True

Front 19

Operating systems must evolve over time because:

Back 19

A) new hardware is designed and implemented in the computer system

Front 20

The technique where a system clock generates interrupts, and at each clock interrupt the OS regains control and assigns the processor to another user, is __________ .

Back 20

Time Slicing

Front 21

__________ is where the OS must prevent independent processes from interfering with each other's memory, both data and instructions.

Back 21

Process Isolation

Front 22

The portion of the monitor that is always in main memory and available for execution is referred to as the _________ .

Back 22

Resident Monitor

Front 23

__________ is a technique in which a process, executing an application, is divided into threads that can run concurrently.

Back 23

Multithreading

Front 24

T or F?

A design change in the structure or semantics of the process control block could affect a number of modules in the OS.

Back 24

True

Front 25

T or F?

The process control block is the key tool that enables the OS to support multiple processes and to provide for multiprocessing.

Back 25

True

Front 26

T or F?

It is not the responsibility of the operating system to control the execution of processes.

Back 26

False

Front 27

T or F?

The OS may create a process on behalf of an application.

Back 27

True

Front 28

T or F?

A process that is not in main memory is immediately available for execution, regardless of whether or not it is awaiting an event.

Back 28

False

Front 29

T or F?

A process switch may occur any time that the OS has gained control from the currently running process.

Back 29

True

Front 30

When one process spawns another, the spawned process is referred to as the __________ .

Back 30

Child Process

Front 31

When a process is in the _________ state it is in secondary memory but is available for execution as soon as it is loaded into main memory.

Back 31

Ready/Suspend

Front 32

__________ involves moving part or all of a process from main memory to disk.

Back 32

Swapping

Front 33

The collection of program, data, stack, and attributes is referred to as the _________ .

Back 33

Process Image

Front 34

The portion of the operating system that selects the next process to run is called the _________ .

Back 34

Dispatcher

Front 35

Two essential elements of a process are __________ and a set of data associated with that code.

Back 35

Program Code

Front 36

A significant point about the __________ is that it contains sufficient information so that it is possible to interrupt a running process and later resume execution as if the interruption had not occurred

Back 36

Process Control Block

Front 37

A process in the _________ state is in main memory and available for execution.

Back 37

Ready

Front 38

When a process is not running, the processor status information is stored in the _________ context area.

Back 38

Register

Front 39

T or F?

In a multithreaded environment there are separate stacks for each thread, as well as a separate control block for each thread.

Back 39

True

Front 40

T or F?

It takes less time to terminate a process than a thread.

Back 40

False

Front 41

T or F?

Termination of a process does not terminate all threads within that process.

Back 41

False

Front 42

T or F?

if a process is swapped out, all of its threads are necessarily swapped out because they all share the address space of the process.

Back 42

True

Front 43

T or F?

Any alteration of a resource by one thread affects the environment of the other threads in the same process.

Back 43

True

Front 44

The traditional approach of a single thread of execution per process, in which the concept of a thread is not recognized, is referred to as a __________ .

Back 44

Single-threaded approach

Front 45

The principal disadvantage of the _________ approach is that the transfer of control from one thread to another within the same process requires a mode switch to the kernel.

Back 45

KLT

Front 46

A ________ is a user-created unit of execution within a process.

Back 46

ULT

Front 47

A thread enters the _________ state, after waiting, if it is ready to run but the resources are not available.

Back 47

Transition

Front 48

__________ refers to the ability of an OS to support multiple, concurrent paths of execution within a single process.

Back 48

multithreading

Front 49

There are four basic thread operations associated with a change in thread state: Block, Unblock, Finish, and _________ .

Back 49

Spawn

Front 50

It is necessary to __________ the activities of various threads so they do not interfere with each other or corrupt data structures.

Back 50

synchronize

Front 51

The basic form of communication between processes or threads in a microkernel operating system is/are _________ .

Back 51

Messages

Front 52

T or F?

As an extension of the principles of modular design and structured programming, some applications can be effectively programmed as a set of concurrent processes.

Back 52

True

Front 53

T or F

Race condition is a situation in which two or more processes continuously change their states in response to changes in the other process(es) without doing any useful work.

Back 53

False

Front 54

T or F?

Concurrent processes do not come into conflict with each other when they are competing for the use of the same resource.

Back 54

False

Front 55

T or F?

Two or more processes can cooperate by means of simple signals, such that a process can be forced to stop at a specified place until it has received a specific signal.

Back 55

True

Front 56

T or F?

It is possible for one process to lock the mutex and for another process to unlock it.

Back 56

False

Front 57

A situation in which a runnable process is overlooked indefinitely by the scheduler, although it is able to proceed, is _________ .

A) mutual exclusion B) deadlockC) starvation D) livelock

Back 57

C. Starvation

Front 58

The requirement that when one process is in a critical section that accesses shared resources, no other process may be in a critical section that accesses any of those shared resources is ________ .

A) critical section B) livelock C) mutual exclusion D) atomic operation

Back 58

C. Mutual Exclusion

Front 59

________ is when the sequence of instruction is guaranteed to execute as a group, or not execute at all, having no visible effect on system state.

A) Critical section B) Mutual exclusion C) Atomic operation D) Starvation

Back 59

C. Atomic Operation

Front 60

The term _______ refers to a technique in which a process can do nothing until it gets permission to enter its critical section but continues to execute an instruction or set of instructions that tests the appropriate variable to gain entrance.

Back 60

Spin waiting

Front 61

The ________ is a programming language construct that provides equivalent functionality to that of semaphores and is easier to control. A) atomic operation B) coroutine C) critical section D) monitor

Back 61

D. Monitor

Front 62

In the case of competing processes three control problems must be faced: mutual exclusion, deadlock, and ________ .

Back 62

Starvation

Front 63

A _______ is a semaphore that takes on only the values of 0 and 1

Back 63

Binary Semaphore

Front 64

In the case of _______ , messages are not sent directly from sender to receiver but rather are sent to a shared data structure consisting of queues that can temporarily hold messages.

Back 64

Indirect addressing

Front 65

T or F?

All deadlocks involve conflicting needs for resources by two or more processes.

Back 65

True

Front 66

T or F?

Interrupts, signals, messages, and information in I/O buffers are all examples of reusable resources.

Back 66

False

Front 67

T or F?

A useful tool in characterizing the allocation of resources to processes is the resource allocation graph.

Back 67

True

Front 68

T or F?

For deadlock to occur, there must not only be a fatal region, but also a sequence of resource requests that has led into the fatal region.

Back 68

True

Front 69

T or F?

Deadlock avoidance requires knowledge of future process resource requests.

Back 69

True

Front 70

With _________ only one process may use a resource at a time and no process may access a resource unit that has been allocated to another process.

Back 70

Mutual Exclusion

Front 71

A closed chain of processes exists, such that each process holds at least one resource needed by the next process in the chain is the condition of __________ .

Back 71

Circular wait

Front 72

The __________ condition can be prevented by defining a linear ordering of resource types.

Back 72

Circular Wait

Front 73

A _________ resource is one that can be created and destroyed.

Back 73

Consumable

Front 74

The strategy of resource allocation denial is referred to as the ___________ .

Back 74

Banker's algorithm

Front 75

T or F?

The use of unequal size partitions provides a degree of flexibility to fixed partitioning

Back 75

True

Front 76

T or F?

Programs in other processes should not be able to reference memory locations in a process for reading or writing purposes without permission

Back 76

True

Front 77

T or F?

Secondary memory provides fast access at relatively high cost.

Back 77

False

Front 78

T or F?

A hardware mechanism is needed for translating relative addresses to physical main memory addresses at the time of execution of the instruction that contains the reference.

Back 78

True

Front 79

T or F?

The principal operation of memory management is to bring processes into main memory for execution by the processor.

Back 79

True

Front 80

Main memory divided into a number of static partitions at system generation time is _______ .

Back 80

Fixed partitioning

Front 81

With __________ a process is loaded by loading all of its segments into dynamic partitions that need not be contiguous.

Back 81

Simple Segmentation

Front 82

The chunks of a process are known as __________ .

Back 82

Pages

Front 83

Available chunks of memory are known as ___________ .

Back 83

Frames

Front 84

The concept of Memory Management satisfies certain system requirements including:

Back 84

all of the above (Relocation, Protection and Physical Organization)

Front 85

A __________ is a variable length block of data that resides in secondary memory.

Back 85

Segment

Front 86

A fixed length block of data that resides in secondary memory is a __________ .

Back 86

Page

Front 87

When 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 __________.

Back 87

Internal Fragmentation

Front 88

A __________ is a reference to a memory location independent of the current assignment of data to memory.

Back 88

Logical Address

Front 89

The basic tools of memory management are paging and __________ .

Back 89

Segmentation

Front 90

T or F?

The addresses a program may use to reference memory are distinguished from the addresses the memory system uses to identify physical storage sites.

Back 90

True

Front 91

T or F?

Most of the memory management issues confronting the operating system designer are in the area of paging when segmentation is combined with paging.

Back 91

True

Front 92

T or F?

Virtual memory allows for very effective multiprogramming and relieves the user of the unnecessarily tight constraints of main memory.

Back 92

True

Front 93

T or F?

The principle of locality states that program and data references within a process do not tend to cluster.

Back 93

False

Front 94

The address of a storage location in main memory is the __________ .

Back 94

Real Address

Front 95

A _________ is issued if a desired page is not in main memory.

Back 95

Page Fault

Front 96

The _________ determines when a page should be brought into main memory.

Back 96

Fetch Policy

Front 97

The address assigned to a location in virtual memory to allow that location to be accessed as though it were part of main memory is the __________ .

Back 97

Virtual Address

Front 98

The size of virtual storage is limited by the addressing scheme of the computer system and by the amount of __________ available.

Back 98

Secondary Memory

Front 99

When the system spends most of its time swapping pieces rather than executing instructions it leads to a condition known as _________ .

Back 99

Thrashing

Front 100

To overcome the problem of doubling the memory access time, most virtual memory schemes make use of a special high-speed cache for page table entries called a __________ .

Back 100

translation lookaside buffer (TLB)