Operating Systems Questions

Q:

What is a binary semaphore? What is its use?

Answer

A binary semaphore is one, which takes only 0 and 1 as values. They are used to implement mutual exclusion and synchronize concurrent processes.

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Q:

The main interface in Windows and OS X is __________ interface.

A) Command-line B) Embedded
C) Neural D) Graphical
 
Answer & Explanation Answer: D) Graphical

Explanation:
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Q:

The program that is responsible for loading the operating system into RAM is the _______.

A) BIOS B) Bootstrap Program
C) Drive- Driver D) Supervisor Program
 
Answer & Explanation Answer: B) Bootstrap Program

Explanation:

The program that is responsible for loading the operating system into RAM is the bootstrap Loader program.

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Q:

What are demand-paging and pre-paging?

Answer

With demand paging, a page is brought into memory only when a location on that page is actually referenced during execution. With pre-paging, pages other than the one demanded by a page fault are brought in. The selection of such pages is done based on common access patterns, especially for secondary memory devices.

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Q:

What are the disadvantages of context switching?

Answer

Time taken for switching from one process to other is pure over head. Because the system does no useful work while switching. So one of the solutions is to go for threading when ever possible.

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Q:

Which of the following is Not an Operating System?

A) UNIX B) Windows NT
C) C++ D) DOS
 
Answer & Explanation Answer: C) C++

Explanation:

C++ is not an Operating System.

 

An Operating System is a collection of system programs that manages all the other programs application programs in a computer as well as the allocation and use of hardware resources such as the CPU, Memory and the Hard Disk Drive.

It acts as an interface between the hardware and the user level program.

It controls and facilitates the overall operation of a computer. 

 

Here

UNIX : UNIX is a popular multi-user, multitasking operating system (OS) developed at Bell Labs.

 

Windows NT : Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993.

 

DOS : DOS is Disk Operating System. The term DOS can refer to any operating system.

 

C++ : C++ is a programming language and computing platform.

 

Hence, C++ is not an Operating System.

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Q:

A UNIX user named Bob wants to replace his chess program with a new one, but he is not sure where the old one is installed. Bob is currently able to run a Java chess program starting from his home directory /home/bob using the command: java -classpath /test:/home/bob/downloads/*.jar games.Chess Bob's CLASSPATH is set (at login time) to: /usr/lib:/home/bob/classes:/opt/java/lib:/opt/java/lib/*.jar What is a possible location for the Chess.class file?

 

A) /test/Chess.class B) /home/bob/Chess.class
C) /test/games/Chess.class D) /user/lib/games/Chess.class
 
Answer & Explanation Answer: D) /user/lib/games/Chess.class

Explanation:

/user/lib/games/Chess.class could be the possible location of the file

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Q:

Explain the popular multiprocessor thread-scheduling strategies.

Answer

  1. Load Sharing: Processes are not assigned to a particular processor. A global queue of threads is maintained. Each processor, when idle, selects a thread from this queue. Note that load balancing refers to a scheme where work is allocated to processors on a more permanent basis.

  2. Gang Scheduling: A set of related threads is scheduled to run on a set of processors at the same time, on a 1-to-1 basis. Closely related threads / processes may be scheduled this way to reduce synchronization blocking, and minimize process switching. Group scheduling predated this strategy.

  3. Dedicated processor assignment: Provides implicit scheduling defined by assignment of threads to processors. For the duration of program execution, each program is allocated a set of processors equal in number to the number of threads in the program. Processors are chosen from the available pool.

  4. Dynamic scheduling: The number of thread in a program can be altered during the course of execution.

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