OPERATING SYSTEMS

Question Bank
Program Outcomes (POs)
Engineering Knowledge: Apply the Knowledge of mathematics, science,
PO1 engineering fundamentals, and an engineering specialization to the solution of
complex engineering problems.
Problem analysis: Identify, formulate, review research literature, and analyze
PO2 complex engineering problems reaching substantiated conclusions using first
principles of mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering sciences.
Design/development of solutions: Design solutions for complex engineering
problems and design system components or processes that meet the specified
PO3
needs with appropriate consideration for the public health and safety, and the
cultural, societal, and environmental considerations
Conduct investigations of complex problems: Use research-based Knowledge
PO4 and research methods including design of experiments, analysis and interpretation
of data, and synthesis of the information to provide valid conclusions.
Modern tool usage: Create, select, and apply appropriate techniques, resources,
PO5 and modern engineering and IT tools including prediction and modeling to
complex engineering activities with an understanding of the limitations.
The engineer and society: Apply reasoning informed by the contextual
PO6 Knowledge to assess societal, health, safety, legal and cultural issues and the
consequent responsibilities relevant to the professional engineering practice.
Environment and sustainability: Understand the impact of the professional
PO7 engineering solutions in societal and environmental contexts, and demonstrate the
Knowledge of, and need for sustainable development.
Ethics: Apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and
PO8 responsibilities and norms of the engineering practice.
Individual and team work: Function effectively as an individual, and as a
PO9
member or leader in diverse teams, and in multidisciplinary settings.

Communication: Communicate effectively on complex engineering activities

with the engineering community and with society at large, such as, being able to
PO10
comprehend and write effective reports and design documentation, make effective
presentations, and give and receive clear instructions.
Project management and finance: Demonstrate Knowledge and understanding
of the engineering and management principles and apply these to one’s own work,
PO11
as a member and leader in a team, to manage projects and in multidisciplinary
environments.
Life-long learning: Recognize the need for, and have the preparation and ability
PO12 to engage in independent and life-long learning in the broadest context of
technological change.
 CS8493 OPERATING SYSTEMS
LTPC 3003

OBJECTIVES:

• To understand the basic concepts and functions of operating systems.

• To understand Processes and Threads
• To analyze Scheduling algorithms.
• To understand the concept of Deadlocks.
• To analyze various memory management schemes.
• To understand I/O management and File systems.
• To be familiar with the basics of Linux system and Mobile OS like iOS and Android.

UNIT I OPERATING SYSTEM OVERVIEW 7

Computer System Overview-Basic Elements, Instruction Execution, Interrupts, Memory
Hierarchy, Cache Memory, Direct Memory Access, Multiprocessor and Multicore Organization.
Operating system overview-objectives and functions, Evolution of Operating System.- Computer
System Organization Operating System Structure and Operations- System Calls, System
Programs, OS Generation and System Boot.

UNIT II PROCESS MANAGEMENT 11

Processes – Process Concept, Process Scheduling, Operations on Processes, Inter-process
Communication; CPU Scheduling – Scheduling criteria, Scheduling algorithms, Multiple-
processor scheduling, Real time scheduling; Threads- Overview, Multithreading models,
Threading issues; Process Synchronization – The critical-section problem, Synchronization
hardware, Mutex locks, Semaphores, Classic problems of synchronization, Critical regions,
Monitors; Deadlock – System model, Deadlock characterization, Methods for handling
deadlocks, Deadlock prevention, Deadlock avoidance, Deadlock detection, Recovery from
deadlock.

UNIT III STORAGE MANAGEMENT 9

Main Memory – Background, Swapping, Contiguous Memory Allocation, Paging, Segmentation,
Segmentation with paging, 32 and 64 bit architecture Examples; Virtual Memory – Background,
Demand Paging, Page Replacement, Allocation, Thrashing; Allocating Kernel Memory, OS
Examples.

UNIT IV FILE SYSTEMS AND I/O SYSTEMS 9

Mass Storage system – Overview of Mass Storage Structure, Disk Structure, Disk Scheduling
and Management, swap space management; File-System Interface – File concept, Access
methods, Directory Structure, Directory organization, File system mounting, File Sharing and
Protection; File System Implementation- File System Structure, Directory implementation,
Allocation Methods, Free Space Management, Efficiency and Performance, Recovery; I/O
Systems – I/O Hardware, Application I/O interface, Kernel I/O subsystem, Streams,
Performance.

UNIT V CASE STUDY 9

Linux System – Design Principles, Kernel Modules, Process Management, Scheduling, Memory
Management, Input-Output Management, File System, Inter-process Communication; Mobile
OS – iOS and Android – Architecture and SDK Framework, Media Layer, Services Layer, Core
OS Layer, File System.

TOTAL : 45 PERIODS

TEXT BOOK :

1. Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, ―Operating System
Concepts‖, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012.

Course Outcomes (COs)

C212.1 Analyze various scheduling algorithms.

C212.2 Understand deadlock, prevention and avoidance algorithms.

C212.3 Compare and contrast various memory management schemes.

C212.4 Understand the functionality of file systems.

Perform administrative tasks on Linux Servers. Compare iOS and Android

C212.5
Operating Systems.

BLOOM TAXANOMY LEVELS

BTL1: Remembering., BTL2: Evaluating., BTL3: Analyzing., BTL4: Applying., BTL5: Understanding.,
BTL6: Creating
 INDEX
UNIT NO TEXT/ REFERENCE BOOK PAGE
NO
UNIT -I Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
―Operating System Concepts‖, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons 4-98
Inc., 2012.
UNIT -II Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
―Operating System Concepts‖, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons 103-422
Inc., 2012.
UNIT -III Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
―Operating System Concepts‖, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons 455-572
Inc., 2012.
UNIT -IV Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
―Operating System Concepts‖, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons 575-688
Inc., 2012.
UNIT -V Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
―Operating System Concepts‖, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons 695-795
Inc., 2012.
 UNIT I
OPERATING SYSTEMS OVERVIEW
Computer System Overview-Basic Elements, Instruction Execution, Interrupts, Memory
Hierarchy, Cache Memory, Direct Memory Access, Multiprocessor and Multicore Organization.
Operating system overview-objectives and functions, Evolution of Operating System.- Computer
System Organization-Operating System Structure and Operations- System Calls,
System Programs, OS Generation and System Boot.
PART A
Blooms
S.
Question CO Taxanomy
No.
Level
1 What are the objectives of operating system?
(AU: April/May 2010) (AU: May/June 2012)
(April/May 2017)
Ans: An operating system is a program that manages
C212.1 BTL-1
the computer hardware. it act as an intermediate
between a users of a computer and the computer
hardware. It controls and coordinates the use of the
hardware among the various application programs
for the various users.

2 What are the advantages of peer-to-peer systems

over client-server systems? (May/June 2016)
Ans:
• The main advantage of peer to peer network
is that it is easier to set up
• In peer-to-peer networks all nodes are act as
server as well as client therefore no need of
dedicated server. C212.1 BTL-1
• The peer to peer network is less expensive.
• Peer to peer network is easier to set up and
use this means that you can spend less time in
the configuration and implementation of peer
to peer network.
• It is not require for the peer to peer network
to use the dedicated server computer. Any
computer on the network can function as both
a network server and a user workstation
3 What is the purpose of system programs/system
calls?(May/June 2016) (Apr/May 2018)
C212.1 BTL-1
Ans: System programs can be thought of as bundles
of useful system calls. They provide basic
functionality to users so that users do not need to
 write their own programs to solve common
problems.
4 How does an interrupt differ from a
trap?(Nov/Dec 2016)(Apr/May 2018)
Ans: An interrupt is a hardware-generated signal that
changes the flow within the system. A trap is a
software-generated interrupt. C212.1 BTL-1

An interrupt can be used to signal the completion of

I/O so that the CPU doesn't have to spend cycles
polling the device. A trap can be used to catch
arithmetic errors or to call system routines

5 What are disadvantages of multi-processor

systems?(Nov/Dec 2016)
Ans:
C212.1 BTL-1
• Complex Operating System is required
• Large main memory required
• Very expensive

6 Defend timesharing differ from

multiprogramming? If so, how?(April/May 2015)
Ans: Main difference between multiprogramming
and time sharing is that multiprogramming is the
C212.1 BTL-5
effective utilization of CPU time, by allowing several
programs to use the CPU at the same time but time
sharing is the sharing of a computing facility by
several users that want to use the same facility at the
same time.

7 Why API’s need to be used rather than system

call? (April/May2015)
Ans: There are four basic reasons:
1) System calls differ from platform to platform. By
using a stable API, it is easier to migrate your
software to different platforms.
C212.1 BTL-1
2) The operating system may provide newer
versions of a system call with enhanced features. The
API implementation will typically also be upgraded
to provide this support, so if you call the API, you'll
get it.
3) The API usually provides more useful
functionality than the system call directly. If you
 make the system call directly, you'll typically have to
replicate the pre-call and post-call code that's already
implemented by the API. (For example the 'fork' API
includes tons of code beyond just making the 'fork'
system call. So does 'select'.)
4) The API can support multiple versions of the
operating system and detect which version it needs to
use at run time. If you call the system directly, you
either need to replicate this code or you can only
support limited versions.

8 Compare and contrast DMA and cache

memory.(Nov/Dec 2015)
Ans: DMA(Direct Memory Access): Direct
memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer
systems that allows certain hardware subsystems to
access main memory (Random-access memory),
independent of the central processing unit (CPU). C212.1 BTL-2
Cache Memory: A cache is a smaller, faster
memory, closer to a processor core, which stores
copies of the data from frequently used main memory
locations.
So, both DMA and cache are used for increasing the
speed of memory access.

9 Distinguish between batch systems and time

sharing systems.(Nov/Dec 2015)
Ans:

Batch System Time sharing system

The tasks are given

Jobs or work is keep in specific time and C212.1 BTL-4
order and jobs are run operating system
one after the other switches between
different tasks.

user interaction is
there won’t be any user
involved in the
interactions
processing

10 Compare tightly coupled systems and loosely

coupled systems? C212.1 BTL-2
Ans:
 Loosely coupled systems:-
Each processor has its own local memory. Each
processor can communicate with other all through
communication lines

Tightly coupled systems:-

Common memory is shared by many processors No
need of any special communication lines.

11 What is real time system?

Ans: A real time system has well defined, fixed time
constraints. Processing must be done within the C212.1 BTL-1
defined constraints, or the system will fail. It is often
used as a control device in a dedicated application.

12 What are privileged instructions?

Ans: Some of the machine instructions that may
cause harm to a system are designated as privileged C212.1 BTL-1
instructions. The hardware allows the privileged
instructions to be executed only in monitor mode.

13 What do you mean by system calls?

Ans: System calls provide the interface between a
process and the operating system. When a system call C212.1 BTL-1
is executed, it is treated as by the hardware as
software interrupt.

14 Define: process
Ans: A process is a program in execution. It is an
C212.1 BTL-1
active entity and it includes the process stack,
containing temporary data and the data section
contains global variables.

15 What is process control block?

Ans: Each process is represented in the OS by a C212.1 BTL-1
process control block. It contain many pieces of
information associated with a specific process.

16 What is scheduler?
Ans: A process migrates between the various
scheduling queues through out its life time. The OS C212.1 BTL-1
must select processes from these queues in some
fashion. This selection process is carried out by a
scheduler.
17 What are the use of job queues, ready queues and
device queues?
Ans: As a process enters a system they are put in to
a job queue. This queues consist of all jobs in the
C212.1 BTL-1
system. The processes that are residing in main
memory and are ready and waiting to execute are
kept on a list called ready queue. The list of processes
waiting for particular I/O devices kept in the device
queue.

18 What is meant by context switch?

Ans: Switching the CPU to another process requires
C212.1 BTL-1
saving the state of the old process and loading the
saved state for the new process. This task is known
as context switch.

19 Discuss the difference between symmetric and

asymmetric multiprocessing
Ans:
Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), in which each
processor runs an identical copy of the operating C212.1 BTL-6
system and these copies, communicate with one
another as needed. Asymmetric multiprocessing, in
which each processor is assigned a specific task. The
master processor controls the system; the other
processor looks the master.

20 What is the main advantage of

multiprogramming?
Ans: Multiprogramming makes efficient use of the
C212.1 BTL-1
CPU by overlapping the demands for the CPU and its
I/O devices from various users. It attempts to
increase CPU utilization by always having
something for the CPU to execute.

21 Discuss the main advantages of layered approach

to system design?
Ans: As in all cases of modular design, designing an
operating system in a modular way has several
advantages. The system is easier to debug and modify
C212.1 BTL-6
because changes affect only limited sections of the
system rather than touching all sections of the
operating system. Information is kept only where it is
needed and is accessible only within a defined and
restricted area, so any bugs affecting that data must
be limited to a specific module or layer.
22 List the advantage of multiprocessor system?
Ans:
C212.1 BTL-4
• Increased throughput.
• Economy of scale.
• Increased reliability.
23 Define inter process communication.
Ans: Inter process communication provides a
mechanism to allow the co-operating process to C212.1 BTL-1
communicate with each other and synchronies their
actions without sharing the same address space. It is
provided a message passing system.

24 Identify the difference between mainframe and

desktop operating system.
Ans: The design goals of operating systems for those
machines are quite different. PCs are inexpensive, so
wasted resources like CPU cycles are C212.1 BTL-3
inconsequential. Resources are wasted to improve
usability and increase software user interface
functionality. Mainframes are the opposite, so
resource use is maximized, at the expensive of ease
of use.

25 What is bootstrap program?

C212.1 BTL-1
Ans: A bootstrap is the program that initializes the
operating system (OS) during startup.

26 Illustrate the different interrupt clauses.

Ans:
C212.1 BTL-2
• Hardware interrupts
• Software interrupts

27 Identify what virtual machine is and what are the

advantages virtual machines.
Ans: Virtual Machine is a completely separate
individual operating system installation on your
usual operating system. It is implemented by
C212.1 BTL-3
software emulation and hardware virtualization.
Advantages:

• Multiple OS environments can exist

simultaneously on the same machine,
isolated from each other;
 • Virtual machine can offer an instruction set
architecture that differs from real computer's;
• Easy maintenance, application provisioning,
availability and convenient recovery.

28 Distinguish between hard real time systems and

soft real time systems.
Ans:
A Hard Real-Time System guarantees that critical C212.1 BTL-4
tasks complete on time.
A Soft Real Time System where a critical real-time
task gets priority over other tasks and retains that
priority until it completes.

29
Summarize the functions of DMA.
Ans: Direct memory access (DMA) is a method that
allows an input/output (I/O) device to send or receive
C212.1 BTL-2
data directly to or from the main memory, bypassing
the CPU to speed up memory operations. The process
is managed by a chip known as a DMA controller
(DMAC).

30 Illustrate the use of fork and exec system calls.

Ans: fork() is the name of the system call that the
parent process uses to "divide" itself ("fork") into two
identical processes. After calling fork(), the
Creatingd child process is an exact copy of the parent C212.1 BTL-2
except for the return value.
When the child process calls exec(), all data in the
original program is lost, and it is replaced with a
running copy of the new program. This is known as
overlaying.

31 Define: Clustered systems.

Ans: A computer cluster is a set of loosely or tightly
C212.1 BTL-1
connected computers that work together so that, in
many respects, they can be viewed as a single system.

32 Some computer systems do not provide a

privileged mode of operation in hardware. Is it C212.1 BTL-4
possible to construct a secure operating system for
these computer systems? (Nov/Dec 2018)
 Ans: An operating system for a machine of this type
would need to remain
in control (or monitor mode) at all times. This could
be accomplished by two
methods:
a. Software interpretation of all user programs (like
some BASIC, Java, and
LISP systems, for example). The software
interpreter would provide, in
software, what the hardware does not provide.

b. Require meant that all programs be written in

high‐level languages so that

all object code is compiler‐produced. The compiler

would generate (either in‐
ine or by function calls) the protection checks that
the hardware is missing.

33 Can traps be generated intentionally by a user

program? If so, for what purpose? (Nov/Dec 2018)
Ans: A trap is a software‐generated interrupt. An
interrupt can be used to signal C212.1 BTL-1
the completion of an I/O to obviate the need for
device polling. A trap can be used to call operating
system routines or to catch arithmetic errors.

34 What are the three main purposes of an

operating system?

Ans:The three main puropses are:

• To provide an environment for a computer user to

execute programs on computer hardware in a
convenient and efficient manner. C212.1 BTL-1

• To allocate the separate resources of the computer

as needed to solve the problem given. The allocation
process should be as fair and efficient as possible.

• As a control program it serves two major

functions: (1) supervision of the execution of user
 programs to prevent errors and improper use of the
computer, and (2) management of the operation and
control of I/O devices.

35 What is the purpose of system calls?

Ans:System calls allow user-level processes to

C212.1 BTL-1
request services of the operating system.

36 What are the five major activities of an operating

system with regard to process management?

Ans:The five major activities are:

a. The creation and deletion of both user and system

processes

b. The suspension and resumption of processes

C212.1 BTL-1
c. The provision of mechanisms for process
synchronization

d. The provision of mechanisms for process

communication

e. The provision of mechanisms for deadlock

handling

37 What are the three major activities of an

operating system with regard to memory
management?

Ans:The three major activities are:

a. Keep track of which parts of memory are C212.1 BTL-1

currently being used and by whom.

b. Decide which processes are to be loaded into

memory when memory space becomes available.

c. Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed.

38 What are the three major activities of an

operating system with regard to secondary-
storage management? C212.1 BTL-1

Ans:The three major activities are:

 • Free-space management.

• Storage allocation.

• Disk scheduling

39 What is an Operating system?

Ans:An operating system is a program that manages

the computer hardware. It also provides a basis for
application programs and act as an intermediary C212.1 BTL-1
between a user of a computer and the computer
hardware. It controls and coordinates the use of the
hardware among the variousapplication programs for
the various users.

40 List the services provided by an Operating

System?

Ans:Program execution

I/O Operation C212.1 BTL-1

File-System manipulation

Communications

Error detection

41 What is the Kernel?

Ans:A more common definition is that the OS is the

one program running at all times on the computer, C212.1 BTL-1
usually called the kernel, with all else being
application programs.

42 What is meant by Mainframe Systems?

Ans:Mainframe systems are the first computers

developed to tackle many commercial and scientific C212.1 BTL-1
applications. These systems are developed from the
batch systems and then multiprogramming system
and finally time sharing systems.

43 What is Multiprocessor System?

Ans:Multiprocessor systems have systems more C212.1 BTL-1

than one processor for communication, sharing the
computer bus, the memory, clock & peripheral
 devices.

44 What are the advantages of multiprocessors?

Ans:Increased throughput
C212.1 BTL-1
Economy of scale

Increased reliability

45 What is the use of Fork and Exec System Calls?

Ans:Fork is a System calls by which a new process

is created. Exec is also a System call, which is used C212.1 BTL-1
after a fork by one of the two processes to replace the
process memory space with a new program.

46 What are the five major categories of System

Calls?

Ans:

Process Control
C212.1 BTL-1
File-management

Device-management

Information maintenance

Communications

47 What are the modes of operation in Hardware

Protection?

Ans: C212.1 BTL-1

User Mode

Monitor Mode

48 What is meant by Batch Systems?

Ans:Operators batched together jobs with similar

needs and ran through the computer as a group .The C212.1 BTL-1
operators would sort programs into batches with
similar requirements and as system become
available, it would run each batch.

49 List the privileged instruction. C212.1 BTL-1

 Ans:

a. Set value of timer.

b. Clear memory.
c. Turn off interrupts.
d. Modify entries in device-status tab
e. Access I/O device.
50 What are the Components of a Computer
System?

Ans:

Application Program C212.1 BTL-1

System Program

Operating System

Computer Hardware

PART B & C

1 Explain different operating system structures with

neat sketch. (Nov/Dec 2015) (Apr/May 2017)
(Apr/May 2018)
C212.1 BTL-5
Refer page no 55 – 61 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

2 Explain the various types of system calls with

examples. (May/June 2015) (Nov/Dec 2015)
(Apr/May 2017) (Nov/Dec 2018)
Refer page no 62 – 73 from text book “Abraham C212.1 BTL-5
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

3 What are the basic functions of OS and DMA

(Nov/Dec 2015) (Apr/May2017)
Refer page no 464 – 466 from text book “Abraham C212.1 BTL-1
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

4 Explain the concept of multiprocessor and

Multicore organization. (Apr/May 2017) C212.1 BTL-5
Refer page no 14 – 16 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
 “Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.
5 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using
the same system call interface for both files and
devices. (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.1 BTL-1
Refer page no 64 – 71 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

6 Describe the difference between symmetric and

asymmetric multiprocessing. Discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of multiprocessor systems.
(May/June 2016) (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.1 BTL-6
Refer page no 12 – 18 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

7 Discuss in detail about Distributed systems.

(May/June 2016)

Refer page no 37 – 38 from text book “Abraham

C212.1 BTL-6
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

8 Demonstrate the three methods for passing

parameters to the OS with examples. (May/June
2016)
Refer page no 120 – 128 from text book “Abraham C212.1 BTL-2
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

9 Explain how protection is provided for the hardware

resources by the operating system. (Nov/Dec 2016)
Refer page no 30 –31 from text book “Abraham C212.1 BTL-5
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

10 List the various services provided by operating C212.1 BTL-1

systems. (Nov/Dec 2016)
 (Apr/May 2018)
Refer page no 53-56 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

11 Discuss the DMA driven data transfer technique.

(May/June 2015)
Refer page no 12, 583-585 from text book “Abraham C212.1 BTL-6
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

12 Discuss about the evolution of virtual machines. Also

explain how virtualization could be implemented in
operating systems. (May/June 2015)
BTL-5 &
Refer page no 40 – 41 from text book “Abraham C212.1
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, BTL-6
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

13 With neat sketch, discuss about computer system

overview. (Nov/Dec 2015)
Refer page no 27 – 34 from text book “Abraham C212.1 BTL-6
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

14 Give reasons why caches are useful. What problems

do they solve and cause? If a catch can be made as
large as the device for which it is catching why not C212.1 BTL-6
make it that large and eliminate the device?
(Apr/May 2018)
15 Discuss the functionality of system boot with C212.1 BTL-5
respect to an operating system. (Nov/Dec 2018)

16 Discuss the essential properties of the following

types of systems, (Nov/Dec 2018)
C212.1 BTL-5
i) Time sharing systems ii) Multi-processor systems
iii) Distributed systems
 UNIT II
PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Processes-Process Concept, Process Scheduling, Operations on Processes, Interprocess

Communication; Threads- Overview, Multicore Programming, Multithreading Models;
Windows 7 – Thread and SMP Management. Process Synchronization – Critical Section
Problem, Mutex Locks, Semophores, Monitors; CPU Scheduling and Deadlocks.
PART – A
S. Blooms
No Question CO Taxanomy
. Level
1 Compare and contrast Single-threaded and multi-
threaded process. (Apr/May 2017)
Ans:Single-threading is the processing of one
command/ process at a time. Whereas multi threading
is a widespread programming and execution model C212.2 BTL-2
that allows multiple threads to exist within the context
of one process. These threads share the process's
resources, but are able to execute independently.

2 Priority inversion is a condition that occurs in real

time systems – Analyzing on this statement.
(Apr/May 2017)
Ans: Priority inversion is a problem that occurs in
concurrent processes when low-priority threads hold
shared resources required by some high-priority C212.2 BTL-4
threads, causing the high priority-threads to block
indefinitely. This problem is enlarged when the
concurrent processes are in a real time system where
high- priority threads must be served on time.
Priority inversion occurs when task interdependency
exists among tasks with different priorities.

3 Distinguish between CPU bounded, I/O bounded

processes. (Nov/Dec 2016)
Ans:
C212.2 BTL-4
CPU bound process, spends majority of its
time simply using the CPU (doing calculations).
I/O bound process, spends majority of its
time in input/output related operations.
4 What resources are required to Creating threads?
(Nov/Dec 2016)
Ans: When a thread is Creatingd the threads does not
require any new resources to execute. The thread C212.2 BTL-1
shares the resources of the process to which it belongs
to and it requires a small data structure to hold a
register set, stack, and priority.

5 Under what circumstances user level threads are

better than the kernel level threads? (May/June
2016) (Nov/Dec 2015)
Ans: User-Level threads are managed entirely by the
run-time system (user-level library).The kernel
knows nothing about user-level threads and manages
them as if they were single-threaded processes. User-
Level threads are small and fast, each thread is C212.2 BTL-1
represented by a PC, register, stack, and small thread
control block. Creating a new thread, switching
between threads, and synchronizing threads are done
via procedure call. i.e. no kernel involvement. User-
Level threads are hundred times faster than Kernel-
Level threads.
User level threads are simple to represent, simple to
manage and fast and efficient.

6 What is the meaning of the term busy waiting?

(May/June 2016)(Nov/Dec2018)
Ans: Busy-waiting, busy-looping or spinning is a C212.2 BTL-1
technique in which a process repeatedly checks to see
if a condition is true.

7 List out the data fields associated with process

control blocks. .(April/May 2015)
Ans: Process ID, pointers, process state, priority, C212.2 BTL-1
program counter, CPU registers, I/O information,
Memory management information, Accounting
information, etc.

8 Define the term ‘Dispatch Latency”. (April/May

2015)
C212.2 BTL-1
Ans: The term dispatch latency describes the amount
of time it takes for a system to respond to a request
for a process to begin operation.

9 What is the concept behind strong semaphore C212.2 BTL-1

and spinlock? (Nov/Dec 2015)
 Ans: Strong semaphores specify the order in which
processes are removed from the queue (FIFO order),
which guarantees avoiding starvation.
Spinlock is a lock which causes a thread trying to
acquire it to simply wait in a loop ("spin") while
repeatedly checking if the lock is available.

10 What is a thread?
Ans: A thread otherwise called a lightweight process
(LWP) is a basic unit of CPU utilization, it comprises
of a thread id, a program counter, a register set and a C212.2 BTL-1
stack. It shares with other threads belonging to the
same process its code section, data section, and
operating system resources such as open files and
signals.

11 What are the benefits of multithreaded

programming?
Ans: The benefits of multithreaded programming
can be broken down into four major categories: C212.2 BTL-1
• Responsiveness
• Resource sharing
• Economy
• Utilization of multiprocessor architectures

12 Compare user threads and kernel threads.

Ans:
User threads:-
User threads are supported above the kernel and are
implemented by a thread library at the user level.
Thread creation & scheduling are done in the user
space, without kernel intervention. Therefore they are
fast to Creating and manage blocking system call will
C212.2
cause the entire process to block
Kernel threads:-
Kernel threads are supported directly by the operating
system .Thread creation, scheduling and management
are done by the operating system. Therefore they are
slower to Creating & manage compared to user
threads. If the thread performs a blocking system call,
the kernel can schedule another thread in the
application for execution

13 What is the use of fork and exec system calls? C212.2 BTL-1
 Ans: Fork is a system call by which a new process is
Creatingd. Exec is also a system call, which is used
after a fork by one of the two processes to place the
process memory space with a new program.
14 Distinguish between user-level threads and
kernel-level threads? Under what circumstances is
one type better than the other?
Ans:
• User-level threads are unknown by the kernel,
whereas the kernel is aware of kernel threads. C212.2 BTL-4
• User threads are scheduled by the thread
library and the kernel schedules kernel
threads.
• Kernel threads need not be associated with a
process whereas every user thread belongs to
a process.

15 Define thread cancellation and target thread.

Ans:The thread cancellation is the task of terminating
a thread before it has completed. A thread that is to
be cancelled is often referred to as the target thread. C212.2 BTL-1
For example, if multiple threads are concurrently
searching through a database and one thread returns
the result, the remaining threads might be cancelled.

16 What are the different ways in which a thread

can be cancelled?
Ans:Cancellation of a target thread may occur in
two different scenarios:
Asynchronous cancellation: One thread
immediately terminates the target thread is called C212.2 BTL-1
asynchronous cancellation.
Deferred cancellation: The target thread can
periodically check if it should terminate, allowing the
target thread an opportunity to terminate itself in an
orderly fashion.

17 Define CPU Scheduling.

Ans: CPU scheduling is the process of switching the
CPU among various processes. CPU scheduling is the C212.2 BTL-1
basis of multiprogrammed operating systems. By
switching the CPU among processes, the operating
system can make the computer more productive.
18 Distinguish between preemptive and non-
preemptive Scheduling.
Ans: Under nonpreemptive scheduling once the CPU
has been allocated to a process, the process keeps the
C212.2 BTL-4
CPU until it releases the CPU either by terminating
or switching to the waiting state. Preemptive
scheduling can preempt a process which is utilizing
the CPU in between its execution and give the CPU
to another process.

19 List the functions of Dispatcher Module.

Ans: The dispatcher is the module that gives control
of the CPU to the process selected by the short- term
scheduler. This function involves: C212.2 BTL-1

• Switching context
• Switching to user mode
• Jumping to the proper location in the user
program to restart that program.
20 What are the various scheduling criteria for CPU
scheduling?
Ans: The various scheduling criteria are,
C212.2 BTL-1
• CPU utilization
• Throughput
• Turnaround time
• Waiting time
• Response time
21 What are the requirements that a solution to the
critical section problem must satisfy?
Ans: The three requirements are C212.2 BTL-1

• Mutual exclusion
• Progress
• Bounded waiting
22 Define: Critical section problem.
Ans: Consider a system consists of 'n' processes.
Each process has segment of code called a critical
section, in which the process may be changing C212.2 BTL-1
common variables, updating a table, writing a file.
When one process is executing in its critical section,
no other process can allowed executing in its critical
section.

23 How will you calculate turn-around time?

C212.2 BTL-1
Ans: Turnaround time is the interval from the time
of submission to the time of completion of a process.
 It is the sum of the periods spent waiting to get into
memory, waiting in the ready queue, executing on the
CPU, and doing I/O.
24 Name two hardware instructions and their
definitions which can be used for implementing
mutual exclusion.
Ans:
• TestAndSet

boolean TestAndSet (boolean &target)

boolean rv = target;

target = true;

return rv;
C212.2 BTL-1
}

• Swap

void Swap (boolean &a, boolean &b)

boolean temp = a;

a = b;

b = temp;

}
25 What is a semaphore?
Ans: A semaphore 'S' is a synchronization tool which
is an integer value that, apart from initialization, is
accessed only through two standard atomic C212.2 BTL-1
operations; wait and signal .Semaphores can be used
to deal with the n-process critical section problem. It
can be also used to solve various Synchronization
problems.

26 Define Deadlock.
Ans: A process requests resources; if the resources
are not available at that time, the process enters a wait
C212.2 BTL-1
state. Waiting processes may never again change
state, because the resources they have requested are
held by other waiting processes. This situation is
called a deadlock.

27 List two programming examples of

multithreading giving improved performance
over a single-threaded solution.
Ans:
• A Web server that services each request in a
separate thread. C212.2 BTL-4
• A parallelized application such as matrix
multiplication where different parts of the
matrix may be worked on in parallel.
• An interactive GUI program such as a
debugger where a thread is used to monitor
user input, another thread represents the
running application, and a third thread
monitors performance.
28 What are the conditions under which a deadlock
situation may arise?
Ans: A deadlock situation can arise if the following
four conditions hold simultaneously in a system:
• Mutual exclusion C212.2 BTL-1

• Hold and wait

• No pre-emption
• Circular wait

29 What are the methods for handling deadlocks? C212.2 BTL-1

Ans: The deadlock problem can be dealt with in one
 of the three ways:
a. Use a protocol to prevent or avoid deadlocks,
ensuring that the system will never enter a deadlock
state.
b. Allow the system to enter the deadlock state,
detect it and then recover.
c. Ignore the problem all together, and pretend that
deadlocks never occur in the system.

30 What is resource-allocation graph?

Ans: Deadlocks can be described more precisely in
terms of a directed graph called a system resource
allocation graph. This graph consists of a set of
C212.2 BTL-1
vertices V and a set of edges E. The set of vertices V
is partitioned into two different types of nodes; P the
set consisting of all active processes in the system and
R the set consisting of all resource types in the
system.

31 Define busy waiting and Spinlock.

Ans: When a process is in its critical section, any
other process that tries to enter its critical section must
C212.2 BTL-1
loop continuously in the entry code. This is called as
busy waiting and this type of semaphore is also called
a spinlock, because the process keeps on waiting for
the lock.

32 What are the benefits of synchronous and

asynchronous communication? (Apr/May 2018)
Ans:A benefit of synchronous communication is that
it allows a rendezvous between the sender and C212.2 BTL-1
receiver.
An asynchronous operation is non-blocking and only
initiates the operation.

33 Can a multithreaded solution using multiple user-

level threads achieve better performance on a
multiprocessor system than on a single- processor
system?(Nov/Dec 2018)
C212.2 BTL-4
Ans: A multithreaded system comprising of multiple
user-level threads cannot make use of the different
processors in a multiprocessor system
simultaneously.

34 Define process? C212.2 BTL-1

 Ans: A process is more than a program code, which
is sometime known as the text section. It also includes
the current activity, as represented by the value of the
program counter and the processor’s registers.

35 Describe the actions taken by a kernel to context-

switch between kernel level threads.

Ans: Context switching between kernel threads

typically requires saving the value of the CPU C212.2 BTL-5
registers from the thread being switched out and
restoring the CPU registers of the new thread being
scheduled

36 What is meant by the state of the process?

Ans: The state of the process is defined in part by the

current activity of that process. Each process may be
in one of the following states.

New: The process is being created.

Running: Instruction are being executed C212.2 BTL-1

Waiting: The process is waiting for some event to

occur.

Ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a

processor

Terminated: The process has finished execution

37 Define process control block contain?

Ans: Each process is represented in the operating

system by a process control block (PCB) – also called C212.2 BTL-1
as task control block. The PCB simply serves as the
repository for any information that may vary from
process to process.

38 What are the 3 different types of scheduling

queues?

Ans: Job Queue: As process enters the system they C212.2 BTL-1
are put into job queue.

Ready Queue: The processes that are residing in the

main memory and are ready and waiting to execute
 are kept in the queue.

Device Queue: The list of processes waiting for

particular I/O device is called a device queue.

39 Define schedulers?

Ans: A process migrates between the various

scheduling throughout its lifetime. The operating
system must select, for scheduling purposes, C212.2 BTL-1
processes from these queues in some fashion. The
selection process is carried out by the appropriate
scheduler.

40 What are the types of scheduler?

Ans: Long term scheduler or job scheduler selects

processes from the pool and load them into the C212.2 BTL-1
memory for execution. Short term scheduler or CPU
scheduler, select among the processes that are ready
to execute and allocates the CPU to one of them.

41 Define critical section?

Ans: If a system consist on n processes {P0,

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 , C212.2 BTL-1
writing a file. The important feature of this system is
that, when one process is in its critical section, no
other process is to be allowed to execute in its critical
section.

Define Starvation in deadlock?

42
Ans: A problem related to deadlock is indefinite
blocking or starvation, a situation where processes
wait indefinitely within a semaphore. Indefinite C212.2 BTL-1
blocking may occur if we add and remove processes
from the list associated with a semaphore in LIFO
order.

43 Name some classic problem of synchronization?

Ans: The Bounded – Buffer Problem C212.2 BTL-1

The Reader – Writer Problem

 The Dining –Philosophers Problem

44 What is the sequence of operation by which a

process utilizes a resource?

Ans: Under the normal mode of operation, a process

may utilize a resource in only the following sequence:

Request: If the request cannot be granted

C212.2 BTL-1
immediately, then the requesting process must wait
until it can acquire the response.

Use: The process can operate on the resource.

Release: The process releases the resource

45 Give the condition necessary for a deadlock

situation to arise?

Ans: A deadlock situation can arise if the following

4 condition hold simultaneously in a system.

Mutual Exclusion C212.2 BTL-1

Hold and Wait

No preemption

Circular Wait

46 Define ‘Safe State”?

Ans: A state is safe if the system allocates resources C212.2 BTL-1

to each process in some order and still avoid
deadlock.

47 Define race condition.

Ans: When several process access and manipulate

same data concurrently, then the outcome of the
execution depends on particular order in which the C212.2 BTL-1
access takes place is called race condition. To avoid
race condition, only one process at a time can
manipulate the shared variable.

48 Define entry section and exit section.

C212.2 BTL-1
Ans: The critical section problem is to design a
protocol that the processes can use to cooperate.
 Each process must request permission to enter its
critical section. The section of the code implementing
this request is the entry section. The critical section is
followed by an exit section. The remaining code is the
remainder section.

49 Define busy waiting and spinlock.

Ans: When a process is in its critical section, any

other process that tries to enter its critical section must
loop continuously in the entry code. This is called as C212.2 BTL-1
busy waiting and this type of semaphore is also called
a spinlock, because the process while waiting for the
lock.

50 Explain the difference between preemptive and

nonpreemptive scheduling.

Ans: Preemptive scheduling allows a process to be

interrupted in the midst of its execution, taking the
C212.2 BTL-5
CPU away and allocating it to another process.

Non preemptive scheduling ensures that a process

relinquishes control of the CPU only when it finishes
with its current CPU burst.

PART B&C
1 Suppose that the following processes arrive for
execution at the times indicated. Each process will
run the listed amount of time. In answering the
questions, use non-preemptive scheduling and
base all decisions on the information you have at
the time the decision must be made. (Nov/Dec
2018)
Process Arrival Time Burst Time
P1 0.0 8
C212.2 BTL-1
P2 0.4 4
P3 1.0 1

a. Find the average turnaround time for these

processes with the FCFS scheduling algorithm?

b. Find 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. Find
what is the average turnaround time will be if the
CPU is left idle for the first 1 unit and then SJF
scheduling is used.
Remembering that processes P1 and P2 are
waiting during this idle time, so their waiting time
may increase. This algorithm could
be known as future-knowledge
scheduling. (Apr/May2017) (Apr/May2018)
--Refer class work

2 State critical section problem? Discuss three

solutions to solve the critical section problem.
(Apr/May 2017)
C212.2 BTL-6
Refer page no 256-259 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

Illustrate an example situation in which ordinary

3 pipes are more suitable than named pipes and an
example situation in which named pipes are more
suitable than ordinary pipes. (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.2 BTL-2
Refer page no 140 – 145 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

4 Explain: why interrupts are not appropriate for

implementing synchronization primitives in
multiprocessor systems. (Nov/Dec 2016)
(Nov/Dec 2018)
C212.2 BTL-5
Refer page no 269-272 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

5 Elaborate the actions taken by the kernel to

context-switch between processes. (Nov/Dec C212.2 BTL-6
2016)
 Refer page no 112 -113 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.
6 Consider the following resource-allocation policy.
Requests and releases for resources are allowed at
any time. If a request for resources cannot be
satisfied because the resources are not available,
then we check any processes that are blocked,
waiting for resources. If they have the desired
resources, then these resources are taken away
from them and are given to the requesting process.
The vector of resources for which the waiting
process is waiting is increased to include the
resources that were taken away.

For example, consider a system with three resource

types and the vector

Available initialized to (4,2,2). If process P0 asks

for (2,2,1), it gets them. If P1 asks for (1,0,1), it
gets them. Then, if P0 asks for (0,0,1), it is blocked
(resource not available). If P2 now asks for (2,0,0),
it gets the available one (1,0,0) and one that was C212.2 BTL-6
allocated to P0 (since P0 is blocked).

P0‘s Allocation vector goes down to (1,2,1), and its

Need vector goes up to (1,0,1).

a. Predict whether deadlock occurs? If so, give an

example. If not, which necessary condition cannot
occur?

b. Predict whether indefinite blocking occurs?

(Nov/Dec 2015)
Refer page no 326-333 from text book “Abraham
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

-- Also Refer Class Work

 7 Explain dining philosopher’s problem. (Apr/May
2017) (Nov/Dec 2018)
Refer page no 272 – 273 from text book “Abraham C212.2 BTL-5
Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne,
“Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

8 Distinguish among short-term, medium-term and

long-term scheduling with suitable example. (Apr C212.2 BTL-4
/May 2018)

9 Explain the differences in the degree to which the

following scheduling algorithms deiscriminate in C212.2 BTL-5
favour of short processes: RR, Multilevel
Feedback Queues (Apr/May 2018)

10 Discuss how the following pairs of scheduling

criteria conflict in certain settings.
i) CPU utilization and response time ii) Average C212.2 BTL-5
turn around time and maximum waiting time
iii)I/O device utilization and CPU utilization.
(Nov/Dec 2018)

11 Write about the various CPU scheduling C212.2 BTL-5

algorithms.
12 Write about critical regions and monitors. C212.2 BTL-5

13 Consider the following page reference string 7, 0,

1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1, 7, 0, 1 How
many page faults would occur for the following C212.2 BTL-1
replacement algorithms, assuming three frames
that all frames are initially empty?

14 How can deadlock be detected? Explain. C212.2

15 Write notes about multiple-processor scheduling C212.2 BTL-5

and real-time scheduling.

UNIT III
STORAGE MANAGEMENT

Main Memory-Contiguous Memory Allocation, Segmentation, Paging, 32 and 64 bit

architecture Examples; Virtual Memory- Demand Paging, Page Replacement, Allocation,
Thrashing; Allocating Kernel Memory, OS Examples.

PART A
S. Question CO Blooms
No. Taxano
my
Level
1 What is the difference between user-level instructions and
privileged instructions? (April/May 2017)
Ans: A non-privileged (i.e. user-level) instruction is an
C212.3 BTL-1
instruction that any application or user can execute. A privileged
instruction, on the other hand, is an instruction that can only be
executed in kernel mode. Instructions are divided in this manner
because privileged instructions could harm the kernel.

2 Define: Belady’s anomaly? (April/May 2017)

Ans: In computer storage, Bélády's anomaly is the phenomenon
in which increasing the number of page frames results in an
C212.3 BTL-1
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.

3 What is the purpose of paging the page table? (Nov/Dec 2016)

Ans: In certain situations the page tables could become large

enough that by paging the page tables, one could simplify the C212.3 BTL-1
memory allocation problem (by ensuring that everything is
allocated as fixed-size pages as opposed to variable-sized chunks)
and also enable the swapping of portions of page table that are
not currently used.

4 Why page sizes are always power of 2? (Nov/Dec 2016)

Ans: Recall that paging is implemented by breaking up an
address into a page and offset number. It is most efficient to break
the address into X page bits and Y offset bits, rather than perform C212.3 BTL-1
arithmetic on the address to calculate the page number and offset.
Because each bit position represents a power of 2, splitting an
address between bits results in a page size that is a power of 2.

5 List two differences between logical and physical addresses.

(May/June 2016)
Ans: C212.3 BTL-4

Logical Physical
 1. An address seen by
memory unit that is, the one
loaded into the memory
address register of the
1. An address generated by memory is referred to as
CPU is referred to us a logical physical address.
address.

2. The set of all logical 2. The set of all physical

address generated by a address corresponding to
program is a logical address these logical addresses is a
space. physical address.

3. For user view. 3. For system view.

4. The user program deals

with logical address or these 4. These are generated by
are generated by user memory management unit
(program). (MMU).

6 Define demand paging in memory management. (Nov/Dec

2015)
C212.3 BTL-1
Ans: In virtual memory systems, demand paging is a type of
swapping in which pages of data are not copied from disk to RAM
until they are needed.

7 What are the steps required to handle a page fault in

demand paging? (Nov/Dec 2015)
Ans: Steps in handling page fault:

1. Operating system looks at another table to

decide: C212.3 BTL-1
• Invalid reference - abort
• Just not in memory
2. Find free frame
3. Swap page into frame via scheduled disk
operation
4. Reset tables to indicate page now in memory Set
validation bit = v
5. Restart the instruction that caused the page fault
C212.3 BTL-1
Tell the significance of LDT and GDT in segmentation.
8
 (May/June 2015)
Ans: The LDT is supposed to contain memory segments which
are private to a specific program, while the GDT is supposed to
contain global segments.

In order to reference a segment, a program must use its index

inside the GDT or the LDT. Such an index is called a segment
selector or selector in short.

9 What do you meant by thrashing? (May/June 2015)

(May/June 2016)
Ans: A process that is spending more time in paging than
C212.3 BTL-1
executing is said to be thrashing. In other words it means that the
process doesn't have enough frames to hold all the pages for its
execution, it will do swapping pages in and out very frequently to
keep executing.

10 Explain dynamic loading.

Ans: To obtain better memory-space utilization dynamic loading
is used. With dynamic loading, a routine is not loaded until it is
called. All routines are kept on disk in a relocatable load format.
The main program is loaded into memory and executed. If the C212.3 BTL-2
routine needs another routine, the calling routine checks whether
the routine has been loaded. If not, the relocatable linking loader
is called to load the desired program into memory.

11 Explain dynamic Linking.

Ans: Dynamic linking is similar to dynamic loading, rather that
loading being postponed until execution time, linking is
postponed. This feature is usually used with system libraries,
such as language subroutine libraries. A stub is included in the C212.3 BTL-2
image for each library-routine reference. The stub is a small piece
of code that indicates how to locate the appropriate memory-
resident library routine, or how to load the library if the routine is
not already present.

12 Define Overlays.
Ans: To enable a process to be larger than the amount of memory
allocated to it, overlays are used. The idea of overlays is to keep
in memory only those instructions and data that are needed at a C212.3 BTL-1
given time.
When other instructions are needed, they are loaded into space
occupied previously by instructions that are no longer needed.
13 Define swapping.
Ans: A process needs to be in memory to be executed. However
C212.3 BTL-1
a process can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a backing
store and then brought back into memory for continued
execution. This process is called swapping.

14 What is Demand Paging?

Ans: Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand
paging. In demand paging, the pager brings only those necessary
C212.3 BTL-1
pages into memory instead of swapping in a whole process. Thus
it avoids reading into memory pages that will not be used anyway,
decreasing the swap time and the amount of physical memory
needed.

15 What is pure demand paging?

Ans: When starting execution of a process with no pages in
memory, the operating system sets the instruction pointer to the
first instruction of the process, which is on a non-memory
C212.3 BTL-1
resident page, the process immediately faults for the page. After
this page is brought into memory, the process continues to
execute, faulting as necessary until every page that it needs is in
memory. At that point, it can execute with no more faults. This
schema is pure demand paging.

16 Outline about virtual memory.

Ans: Virtual memory is a technique that allows the execution of
processes that may not be completely in memory. It is the C212.3 BTL-2
separation of user logical memory from physical memory. This
separation provides an extremely large virtual memory, when
only a smaller physical memory is available.

17 Define lazy swapper.

Ans: Rather than swapping the entire process into main memory, C212.3 BTL-1
a lazy swapper is used. A lazy swapper never swaps a page into
memory unless that page will be needed.

18 What are the common strategies to select a free hole from a

set of available holes?
Ans: The most common strategies are,
C212.3 BTL-1
• First fit
• Worst fit
• Best fit

19 Define effective access time. C212.3 BTL-1

 Ans: Let p be the probability of a page fault . The value of p is
expected to be close to 0; that is, there will be only a few page
faults. The effective access time is Effective access time = (1-p)
* ma + p * page fault time. Where ma : memory-access time.
20 What is the basic approach for page replacement?
Ans: If no frame is free is available, find one that is not currently
being used and free it. A frame can be freed by writing its contents
to swap space, and changing the page table to indicate that the C212.3 BTL-1
page is no longer in memory.
Now the freed frame can be used to hold the page for which the
process faulted.

21 Distinguish between page and segment.

Ans: Paging is used to get a large linear address space without
C212.3 BTL-4
having to buy more physical memory. Segmentation allows
programs and data to be broken up into logically independent
address spaces and to aid sharing and protection.
22 How the problem of external fragmentation can be solved.
Ans: Solution to external fragmentation :
1) Compaction : shuffling the fragmented memory into one C212.3 BTL-1
contiguous location.
2) Virtual memory addressing by using paging and
segmentation.
23 Formulate how long a paged memory reference takes if
memory reference takes 200 nanoseconds .Assume a paging
system with page table stored in memory. C212.3 BTL-6
Ans: 400 nanoseconds. 200 ns to access the page table plus 200
ns to access the word in memory.

24 Evaluating the maximum number of pages needed If a

system supports 16 bit address line and 1K page size.
Ans:
A 16 bit address can address 2^16 bytes in a byte addressable C212.3 BTL-5
machine. Since the size of a page 1K bytes (2^10),
the number of addressable pages is 2^16 / >2^10 = 2^6 = 64
pages.

25 How does the system discover thrashing? (Nov/Dec 2018)

Ans: In a virtual memory system, thrashing is a situation when
there is excessive swapping of pages between memory and the C212.3 BTL-4
hard disk, causing the application to respond more slowly. The
operating system often warns users of low virtual memory when
thrashing is occurring.
26 What you mean by compaction? In which situation is it
applied.
Ans: Compaction is a process in which the free space is collected
in a large memory chunk to make some space available for C212.3 BTL-1
processes. In memory management, swapping Creatings multiple
fragments in the memory because of the processes moving in and
out. Compaction refers to combining all the empty spaces
together and processes.

27 Outline about TLB.

Ans: A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) is a memory cache
that is used to reduce the time taken to access a user memory
C212.3 BTL-2
location. It is a part of the chip's memory-management unit
(MMU). The TLB stores the recent translations of virtual memory
to physical memory and can be called an address- translation
cache.

28 List the need of inverted page table.

Ans:
C212.3 BTL-4
• There will be only one page table in memory i.e One
entry for each real page of memory.
• Decreases the memory needed to store each page table.
29 Define Address binding.
Ans: Address binding is the process of mapping the program's
logical or virtual addresses to corresponding physical or main C212.3 BTL-1
memory addresses. In other words, a given logical address is
mapped by the MMU (Memory Management Unit) to a physical
address.

30 List the steps needed to handle page fault.

Ans:
1. The memory address requested is first checked, to
make sure it was a valid memory request.
2. If the reference was invalid, the process is terminated.
Otherwise, the page must be paged in.
3. A free frame is located, possibly from a free-frame list.
4. A disk operation is scheduled to bring in the necessary C212.3 BTL-1
page from disk.
( This will usually block the process on an I/O wait,
allowing some other process to use the CPU in the
meantime. )
5. When the I/O operation is complete, the process’s page
table is updated with the new frame number, and the
invalid bit is changed to indicate that this is now a
valid page reference.
 6. The instruction that caused the page fault must now be
restarted from the beginning, ( as soon as this process
gets another turn on the CPU. )
31 Define External Fragmentation. (Apr/May 2018)
C212.3 BTL-1
Ans: It is a situation, when total memory available is enough to
process a request but not in contiguous manner.

32 What are the counting based page replacement algorithm?

(Apr/May 2018)
C212.3 BTL-1
Ans: These algorithms keep a counter of the number of
references that have been made to each page. Example: Least
Frequently Used(LFU), Most Frequently Used(MFU)

33 Under what circumstances would a user be better off using a

time-sharing system, rather than a PC or single-user
workstation.(Nov/Dec 2018)
Ans:
A user is better off under three situations: when it is cheaper,
faster, or easier. For example:

1. When the user is paying for management costs, and the costs
are cheaper for a time-sharing system than for a single-user
computer. C212.3 BTL-1

2. When running a simulation or calculationg that takes too long

to run on a single PC or workstation.

3. When a user is travelling and doesn't have laptop to carry

around, they can connect remotely to a time-shared system and
do their work.

34 How is memory protected in a paged environment?

Ans:

Protection bits that are associated with each frame accomplish C212.3 BTL-1
memory protection in a paged environment. The protection bits
can be checked to verify that no writes are being made to a read-
only page.

35 What are the major problems to implement Demand C212.3 BTL-1

 Paging?

Ans:

The two major problems to implement demand paging is

developing,

Frame allocation algorithm

Page replacement algorithm

36 What is Internal Fragmentation?

Ans:
C212.3 BTL-1
When the allocated memory may be slightly larger than the
requested memory, the difference between these two numbers is
internal fragmentation.

37 What do you mean by Compaction?

Ans:
Compaction is a solution to external fragmentation. The C212.3 BTL-1
memory contents are shuffled to place all free memory together
in one large block. It is possible only i f relocation is dynamic,
and is done at execution time.

38 What are Pages and Frames?

Ans:
Paging is a memory management scheme that permits the
C212.3 BTL-1
physical -address space of a process to be non-contiguous. In the
case of paging, physical memory is broken into fixed-sized
blocks called frames and logical memory is broken into blocks of
the same size called pages.

39 What is the use of Valid-Invalid Bits in Paging?

Ans:

When the bit is set to valid, this value indicates that the
C212.3 BTL-1
associated page is in the process’s logical address space, and is
thus a legal page. If the bit is said to invalid, this value indicates
that the page is not in the process’s logical address space. Using
the valid-invalid bit traps illegal addresses.

40 What is the basic method of Segmentation? C212.3 BTL-1

 Ans:
Segmentation is a memory management scheme that supports the
user view of memory. A logical address space is a collection of
segments. The logical address consists of segment number and
offset. If the offset is legal, it is added to the segment base to
produce the address in physical memory of the desired byte.

41 Program containing relocatable code was created, assuming

it would be loaded at address 0. In its code, the program
refers to the following addresses: 50,78,150,152,154. If the
program is loaded into memory starting at location 250, how
do those addresses have to be adjusted? C212.3 BTL-1

Ans:
All addresses need to be adjusted upward by 250.So the adjusted
addresses would be 300, 328, 400, 402, and 40

42 What is a Pure Demand Paging?

Ans:
When starting execution of a process with no pages in memory,
the operating system sets the instruction pointer to the first
instruction of the process, which is on a non-memory resident C212.3 BTL-1
page, the process immediately faults for the page. After this page
is brought into memory, the process continues to execute, faulting
as necessary until every page that it needs is in memory. At that
point, it can execute with no more faults. This schema is pure
demand paging.

43 What is a Reference String?

Ans:
C212.3 BTL-1
An algorithm is evaluated by running it on a particular string of
memory references and computing the number of page faults.
The string of memory reference is called a reference string

44 Define Secondary Memory.

Ans:
This memory holds those pages that are not present in main C212.3 BTL-1
memory. The secondary memory is usually a high speed disk. It
is known as the swap device, and the section of the disk used for
this purpose is known as swap space.
45 What is the basic approach of Page Replacement?

Ans:
If no frame is free is available, find one that is not currently
C212.3 BTL-1
being used and free it. A frame can be freed by writing its
contents to swap space, and changing the page table to indicate
that the page is no longer in memory. Now the freed frame can
be used to hold the page for which the process faulted.

46 What is the various Page Replacement Algorithms used for

Page Replacement?

Ans:
FIFO page replacement

Optimal page replacement C212.3 BTL-1

LRU page replacement

LRU approximation page replacement

Counting based page replacement

Page buffering algorithm

47 What do you mean by Best Fit?

Ans:
C212.3 BTL-1
Best fit allocates the smallest hole that is big enough. The entire
list has to be searched, unless it is sorted by size. This strategy
produces the smallest leftover hole.

48 What do you mean by First Fit?

Ans:
First fit allocates the first hole that is big enough. Searching can C212.3 BTL-1
either start at the beginning of the set of holes or where the
previous first-fit search ended. Searching can be stopped as soon
as a free hole that is big enough is found.

49 Name two differences between logical and physical

addresses.
C212.3 BTL-1
Ans:
A logical address does not refer to an actual existing address;
rather, it refers to an abstract address in an abstract address
 space. Contrast this with a physical address that refers to an actual
physical address in memory. A logical address is generated by the
CPU and is translated into a physical address by the memory
management unit(MMU). Therefore, physical addresses are
generated by the MMU.

50 Consider a logical address space of 64 pages of 1024 words

each, mapped onto a physical memory of 32 frames.

a. How many bits are there in the logical address?

b. How many bits are there in the physical address? C212.3 BTL-1
Ans:

a. Logical address: 16 bits

b. Physical address: 15 bits

PART B&C
1 Explain about given memory management techniques. (i)
Partitioned allocation (ii) Paging and translation look-aside
buffer. (Nov/Dec 2015) (Apr/May 2017)
C212.3 BTL-5
Refer page no 360-371 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

2 Elaborate about the free space management on I/O buffering and

blocking. (Apr/May 2017)
C212.3 BTL-6
Refer page no 561 – 564 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

3 What is copy-on write feature and under what circumstances it is

beneficial? What hardware support is needed to implement this
feature? (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.3 BTL-1
Refer page no 400-401 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

4 When page faults will occur? Describe the actions taken by

operating system during page fault. (May/June 2016)
C212.3 BTL-1
Refer page no 360-371 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

5 C212.3 BTL-3
Consider the following page reference string: 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 5,
 6, 2, 1, 2, 3, 7, 6, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 6.

Identify the no.of page faults would occur for the following
replacement algorithms, assuming one, two, three, four, five, six,
or seven frames? Remember all frames are initially empty, so
your first unique pages will all cost one fault each.
a.LRU replacement b. FIFO replacement
c.Optimal replacement (Apr/May 2015) (Nov/Dec2015)
--Refer class work

6 Explain about the difference between internal fragmentation and

external fragmentation. (Nov/Dec2016)
Refer page no 354-358 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.3 BTL-5
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

7 Why are segmentation and paging sometimes combined into one

scheme? (May/June 2016)
C212.3 BTL-1
Refer page no 358-360 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

8 Explain why sharing a reentrant module is easier when

segmentation is used than when pure paging is used with C212.3 BTL-5
example. (Apr/May 2018)
9 Discuss situation under which the most frequently used page
replacement algorithm generates fewer page faults than the least C212.3 BTL-6
frequently used page replacement algorithm. Also dicuss under
which circumstances the opposite holds. (Apr/May 2018)

10 Compare paging with segmentation in terms of the amount of

memory required by the address translation structures in order to C212.3 BTL-2
convert virtual addresses to physical addresses. (Nov/Dec 2018)

11 Most systems allow programs to allocate more memory to its

address space during execution. Data allocated in the heap
segments of programs is an example of such allocated memory.
What is required to support dynamic memory allocation in the C212.3 BTL-1
following schemes? (Nov/Dec 2018)
i) Contiguous memory allocation ii)Pure segmentation iii) Pure
paging

12 Differentiate local and global page replacement algorithm. C212.3 BTL-4

13 Explain the basic concepts of segmentation. C212.3 BTL-5

14 What is thrashing and explain the methods to avoid thrash C212.3 BTL-1

15 What is the maximum file size supported by a file system with

16 direct blocks, single, double, and triple indirection? The C212.3 BTL-1
block size is 512 bytes. Disk block number can be stored in 4 by

UNIT IV

I/O SYSTEMS

Mass Storage Structure- Overview, Disk Scheduling and Management; File System Storage-
File Concepts, Directory and Disk Structure, Sharing and Protection; File System
Implementation- File System Structure, Directory Structure, Allocation Methods, Free Space
Management; I/O Systems.

PART A
Blooms
S.
Taxano
No Question CO
my
.
Level
1 Distinguish file from dictionary. (Apr/May2017)
Ans: C212.4 BTL-4
A file is any kind of computer document whereas a directory is a
collection of files and folders.

2 Why it is important to scale up system bus and device speed

as CPU speed increases? (Nov/Dec 2016)
Ans:
Consider a system which performs 50% I/O and 50% computes.
Doubling the CPU performance on this system would increase C212.4 BTL-1
total system performance by only 50%. Doubling both system
aspects would increase performance by 100%. Generally, it is
important to remove the current system bottleneck, and to increase
overall system performance, rather than blindly increasing the
performance of individual system components.

3 Define C-SCAN scheduling. (Nov/Dec 2016)

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
The elevator algorithm (also SCAN) is a disk scheduling
algorithm to determine the motion of the disk's arm and head in
servicing read and write requests.
 This algorithm is named after the behaviour of a building elevator,
where the elevator continues to travel in its current direction (up
or down) until empty, stopping only to let individuals off or to
pick up new individuals heading in the same direction.

4 How does DMA increase system concurrency? (May/June

2016)
Ans: C212.4 BTL-1
DMA increases system concurrency by allowing the CPU to
perform tasks while the DMA system transfers data via the system
and memory buses.

5 Why rotational latency is not considered in disk scheduling?

(May/June2016)
Ans:
Most disks do not export their rotational position information to
the host. Even if they did, the time for this information to reach C212.4 BTL-1
the scheduler would be subject to imprecision and the time
consumed by the scheduler is variable, so the rotational position
information would become incorrect. Further, the disk requests
are usually given in terms of logical block numbers, and the
mapping between logical blocks and physical locations is very
complex.

6 List the various file attributes. (Apr/May 2015) (Nov/Dec

2018)
Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
A file has certain other attributes, which vary from one operating
system to another, but typically consist of these: Name, identifier,
type, location, size, protection, time, and date and user
identification

7 What is HSM? Where it is used? (Apr/May 2015)

Ans:
Hierarchical storage management (HSM) is a data storage
technique, which automatically moves data between high-cost and C212.4 BTL-1
low-cost storage media. HSM systems exist because high- speed
storage devices, such as solid state drive arrays, are more
expensive (per byte stored) than slower devices, such as hard disk
drives, optical discs and magnetic tape drives.

8 What are the functions of Virtual File System (VFS) layer in C212.4 BTL-1
file system implementation? (Nov/Dec 2015)
 Ans:
A virtual file system (VFS) or virtual file system switch is an
abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system. The
purpose of a VFS is to allow client applications to access different
types of concrete file systems in a uniform way. A VFS can, for
example, be used to access local and network storage devices
transparently without the client application noticing the
difference.

9 What is a file?
Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded
on secondary storage. A file contains either programs or data. A
file has certain "structure" based on its type.

10 What are the various file operations? (Nov/Dec2018)

Ans:
The six basic file operations are
Creating a file
Writing a file C212.4 BTL-1

Reading a file
Repositioning within a file
Deleting a file
Truncating a file

11 What are the informations associated with an open file?

Ans:
Several pieces of information are associated with an open file
which may be:
C212.4 BTL-1
File pointer
File open count
Disk location of the file

Access rights

12 What are the different accessing methods of a file?

C212.4 BTL-1
Ans:
 The different types of accessing a file are:
Sequential access: Information in the file is accessed
sequentially
Direct access: Information in the file can be accessed without
any particular order.
Other access methods: Creating index for the file, indexed
sequential access method (ISAM) etc.

13 Define Directory.
Ans:
The device directory or simply known as directory records C212.4 BTL-1
information-such as name, location, size, and type for all files on
that particular partition. The directory can be viewed as a symbol
table that translates file names into their directory entries.

14 List the operations that can be performed on a directory. C212.4 BTL-1

15 Determine the most common schemes for defining the logical

structure of a directory?
Ans:
The most common schemes for defining the logical structure of
a directory
Single-Level Directory C212.4 BTL-5

Two-level Directory

Tree-Structured Directories
Acyclic-Graph Directories
General Graph Directory

16 Define UFD and MFD.

Ans:
In the two-level directory structure, each user has her own user
file directory (UFD). Each UFD has a similar structure, but lists C212.4 BTL-1
only the files of a single user. When a job starts the system's
master file directory (MFD) is searched. The MFD is indexed by
the user name or account number, and each entry points to the
UFD for that user.

17 Examine how an index file is used to speed up the access in C212.4 BTL-4
direct-access files?
 Ans:
Have an index in memory; the index gives the key and the disk
location of its corresponding record. Scan the index to find the
record you want, and then access it directly.

18 Explain what ISAM is.

Ans:
ISAM is Indexed sequential access method in which the file is C212.4 BTL-5
stored in sorted order. ISAM has a master index file, indicating in
what part of another index file the key you want is; the secondary
index points to the file records. In both cases, a binary search is
used to locate a record.

19 List disadvantages of using a single directory.

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-4
Users have no privacy. Users must be careful in choosing file
names, to avoid names used by others. Users may destroy each
other’s work.

20 List the advantages of two-level directory?

Ans: C212.4 BTL-4

Users are isolated from each other. Users have more freedom in
choosing file names.

21 List the disadvantages of two-level directory?

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-4
Without other provisions, two users who want to cooperate with
each other are hampered in reaching each other‘s files, and
system files are inaccessible.
22 Discover the ways to overcome the disadvantages of two-
level directory?
Ans:
C212.4 BTL-4
Provide links from one user directory to another, creating path
names; system files become available by letting the command
interpreter search your directory first, and then the system
directory if file needed is not in first directory.
23 What are the allocation methods of a disk space?
Ans:
Methods of allocating disk space which are widely in use are C212.4 BTL-1

a. Contiguous allocation
b. Linked allocation
 c. Indexed allocation

24 List various layers of a file system.

Ans:
The file system is composed of many different levels. Each level
in the design uses the feature of the lower levels to Creating new
features for use by higher levels.
Application programs
C212.4 BTL-1
Logical file system

File-organization module
Basic file system
I/O control
Devices

25 Define seek time and latency time.

Ans:
The time taken by the head to move to the appropriate cylinder or C212.4 BTL-1
track is called seek time. Once the head is at right track, it must
wait until the desired block rotates under the read-write head. This
delay is latency time.
26 Define rotational latency and disk bandwidth.

Ans:

Rotational latency is the additional time waiting for the disk to C212.4 BTL-1
rotate the desired sector to the disk head. The disk bandwidth is
the total number of bytes transferred, divided by the time between
the first request for service and the completion of the last transfer.

27 How free-space is managed using bit vector

implementation?List its advantages. (Apr/May 2018)
Ans:
The free-space list is implemented as a bit map or bit vector. Each BTL-1 &
C212.4
BTL-4
block is represented by 1 bit. If the block is free, the bit is 1; if the
block is allocated, the bit is 0.
Advantages: It is relatively simple and its efficiency in finding
the first free block or n consecutive free blocks on the disk.

28 Define Spooling. C212.4 BTL-1

 Ans:
A spool is a buffer that holds output for a device, such as printer,
that cannot accept interleaved data streams. When an application
finishes printing, the spooling system queues the corresponding
spool file for output to the printer. The spooling system copies the
queued spool files to the printer one at a time.

29 What are the various disk-scheduling algorithms?

Ans:
The various disk-scheduling algorithms are
C212.4 BTL-1
• First Come First Served Scheduling
• Shortest Seek Time First Scheduling
• SCAN Scheduling
• C-SCAN Scheduling
• LOOK scheduling
30 What is the use of boot block?
Ans:
For a computer to start running when powered up or rebooted it
needs to have an initial program to run. This bootstrap program
tends to be simple. It finds the operating system on the disk loads C212.4 BTL-1
that kernel into memory and jumps to an initial address to begin
the operating system execution. The full bootstrap program is
stored in a partition called the boot blocks, at fixed location on the
disk. A disk that has boot partition is called boot disk or system
disk.

31 List three ways of allocating storage, and give advantages of

each.
Ans:
a. Contiguous allocation. Fastest, if no changes are to be made.
Also easiest for random access files. C212.4 BTL-4

b. Linked allocation. No external fragmentation. File can grow

without complications.
c. Indexed allocation. Supports direct access without external
fragmentation.

32 Define typical bad sector transaction.

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
• The operating system tries to read logical block 87.
• The controller calculates the ECC and finds that the
sector is bad, It reports this finding to the OS.
• The next time the system is rebooted, a special command
 is run to tell the controller to replace the bad sector with a
space.
• After that, whenever the system requests logical block 87,
the request is translated into the replacement sector’s
address by the controller.
33 List the significance of LDT and GDT in segmentation.
(Nov/Dec 2018)
Ans: LDT contains memory segments which are private to a
specific program, the GDT contains global segments. The x86 C212.4 BTL-4
processors have facilities for automatically switching the current
LDT on specific machine events, but no facilities for
automatically switching the GDT.

34 What is a Path Name?

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
A pathname is the path from the root through all subdirectories
to a specified file. In a two-level directory structure a user name
and a file name define a path name.

35 What is Access Control List?

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
The most general scheme to implement identity-dependent
access is to associate with each file and directory an access
control unit.

36 Define Equal Allocation.

Ans:
The way to split „m’ frames among „n’ processes is to give
C212.4 BTL-1
everyone an equal share, m/n frames. For instance, if there are 93
frames and 5 processes, each process will get 18 frames. The
leftover 3 frames could be used as a free-frame buffer pool. This
scheme is called equal allocation.

37 What is the cause of Thrashing? How does the system detect

thrashing? Once it detects thrashing, what can the system do
to eliminate this problem?

Ans: C212.4 BTL-1

Thrashing is caused by under allocation of the minimum number
of pages required by a process, forcing it to continuously page
fault. The system can detect thrashing by evaluating the level of
CPU utilization as compared to the level of multiprogramming.
 It can be eliminated by reducing the level of multiprogramming.

38 If the average page faults service time of 25 ms and a

memory access time of 100ns.Calculate the

effective access time.

Ans:
Effective access time = (1-p) *ma + p*page fault time C212.4 BTL-5
= (1-p) *100+p*25000000

= 100-100p+25000000*p

= 100 + 24999900p

39 What is Belady’s Anomaly?

Ans: C212.4 BTL-1

For some page replacement algorithms, the page fault rate may
increase as the number of allocated frames increases

40 What are the types of Path Names?

Ans:
Path names can be of two types.
C212.4 BTL-1
Absolute path name: Begins at the root and follows a path down
to the specified file, giving the directory names on the path.

Relative path name: Defines a path from the current directory.

41 What is meant by Locality of Reference?

Ans:
The locality model states that, as a process executes, it moves
C212.4 BTL-1
from locality to locality. Locality is of two types.

Spatial locality

Temporal locality.

42 What are the advantages of Contiguous Allocation?

Ans: C212.4 BTL-1

The advantages are,

 Supports direct access

Supports sequential access

Number of disk seeks is minimal.

43 What are the drawbacks of Contiguous Allocation of Disk

Space?

Ans:
The disadvantages are,

Suffers from external fragmentation

C212.4 BTL-1
Suffers from internal fragmentation

Difficulty in finding space for a new file

File cannot be extended

Size of the file is to be declared in advance

44 What are the advantages of Linked Allocation?

Ans:
The advantages are, C212.4 BTL-1

No external fragmentation

Size of the file does not need to be declared

45 What are the disadvantages of Linked Allocation?

Ans:
The disadvantages are,

Used only for sequential access of files. C212.4 BTL-1

Direct access is not supported

Memory space required for the pointers.

Reliability is compromised if the pointers are lost or damaged

46 What are the various Disk-Scheduling Algorithms?

Ans: C212.4 BTL-1

The various disk-scheduling algorithms are,

 First Come First Served Scheduling

Shortest Seek Time First Scheduling

SCAN Scheduling

C-SCAN Scheduling

LOOK scheduling

47 What are the techniques used for performing I/O.

Ans:

Programmed I/O C212.4 BTL-1

Interrupt driven I/O

Direct Memory Access

48 Give an example of an application in which data in a file

should be accessed in the following order:

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
Sequentially - Print the content of the file.

Randomly - Print the content of record i. This record can be

found using hashing or index techniques.

What problems could occur if a system allowed a file system

49 to be mounted simultaneously at more than one location?

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
There would be multiple paths to the same file, which could
confuse users or encourage mistakes. (Deleting a file with one
path deletes the file in all the other).

50 Why must the bit map for file allocation be kept on mass
storage rather than in main memory?

Ans:
C212.4 BTL-1
In case of system crash (memory failure ), the free-space list
would not be lost as it would be if the bit map had been stored in
main memory

PART B
1 Explain about directory structure? (Apr/May 2015) (Apr/May C212.4 BTL-5
2017)
 Refer page no 517 – 526 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.
2 What are files and explain the access methods for files?
(Apr/May 2017)
C212.4 BTL-1
Refer page no 379 – 382 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

3 Explain about kernel I/O subsystem and transforming I/O to

hardware operations. (Apr/May 2017)
Refer page no 592-600 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.4 BTL-5
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

4 Explain about RAID in detail. (Apr/May 2015) (Nov/Dec2016)

Refer page no 484 – 491 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.4 BTL-5
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

5 Compare the functionalities of FCFS, SSTF, C-SCAN and C-

LOOK with example. (Apr/May 2015) (Apr/May 2018)
Refer page no 472 – 478 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.4 BTL-4
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

6 Explain about file system mounting in detail. (May/June 2016)

Refer page no 498 – 502 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.4 BTL-5
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

7 Explain about free space management with example. (Nov/Dec

2015)
Refer page no 561 – 564 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.4 BTL-5
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

8 Illustrate the functions of file and file implementation. (Nov/Dec

2015)
Refer page no 411 – 419 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.4 BTL-2
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

9 C212.4 BTL-4
Distinguish between a STREAMS driver and STREAMS
 module. (Nov/Dec 2016)
Refer page no 601-602 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

10 BTL – 1
What are the various disk space allocation methods. Explain in C212.4 & BTL-
detail. (Apr/May 2018) 5

11 Consider a file system where a file can be deleted and the disk
space reclaimed while the links to that file still exist. What
C212.4 BTL-1 &
problems may occur if a new file is created in the same storage BTL-4
area or with the same absolute path name? How these problem be
avoided? (Nov/Dec 2015)

12 Illustrate an application that could benefit from operating system C212.4 BTL-2
support for random access to indexed files. (Nov/Dec 2015)

13 Explain the following:a. RAID b. I/O in Linux C212.4 BTL-2

14 Write briefly about file attributes, operations, types and structure C212.4 BTL-5

15 Discuss in detail about file allocation methods. What are the C212.4 BTL-6
possible structures for directory? Discuss themin detail.

UNIT V
CASE STUDY

Linux System- Basic Concepts; System Administration-Requirements for Linux System

Administrator, Setting up a LINUX Multifunction Server, Domain Name System, Setting Up
Local Network Services; Virtualization- Basic Concepts, Setting Up Xen,VMware on Linux
Host and Adding Guest OS.

PART A
Blooms
S. Taxano
Question CO
No. my
Level
1 What are the features of Linux file system? (Apr/May 2017)
Ans:
• Specifying paths C212.5 BTL-1
• Partition, drives/devises and Directories
• Mounting and Unmounting
• Case sensitivity
• File Extensions
• Hidden files
 • File System Permissions
2 What is the use of kernel modules in Linux? (Apr/May 2017)
Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Kernel modules are pieces of code that can be loaded and
unloaded into the kernel upon demand. They extend the
functionality of the kernel without the need to reboot the system.
3 Define the components of LINUX system. (May/June 2016)
Ans:
Linux Operating System has primarily three components:
Kernel − Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all
major activities of this operating system. It consists of various
modules and it interacts directly with the underlying hardware.
Kernel provides the required abstraction to hide low level
C212.5 BTL-1
hardware details to system or application programs.
System Library − System libraries are special functions or
programs using which application programs or system utilities
accesses Kernel's features. These libraries implement most of the
functionalities of the operating system and do not requires kernel
module's code access rights.
System Utility − System Utility programs are responsible to do
specialized, individual level tasks.

4 Define the function of caching-only serves. (May/June 2016)

Ans:
A cache server is a dedicated network server or service acting as C212.5 BTL-1
a server that saves Web pages or other Internet content locally. By
placing previously requested information in temporary storage, or
cache, a cache server both speeds up access to data and reduces
demand on an enterprise's bandwidth.
5 What is virtualization? ?(Nov/Dec 2016)
Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Virtualization is the creation of a virtual -- rather than actual --
version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a
storage device or network resources.
6 What scheduling algorithm is used in Linux to schedule
jobs? (Nov/Dec2016)
C212.5 BTL-1
Ans:
The current Linux task scheduler is called Completely Fair
 Scheduler (CFS). It handles CPU resource allocation for
executing processes, and aims to maximize overall CPU
utilization while also maximizing interactive performance.
7 List some of the Linux Network services. (Apr/May 2015)
Ans:
• ntpd – Network Time Protocol Daemon
• httpd – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Daemon
• sshd – Secure SHell Daemon C212.5 BTL-1
• sendmail – Mail Server Daemon
• snmpd – Simple Network Management Protocol Daemon
• iptables – Network Filtering Protocol Service
• nfsd – Network File System Server Daemon
• nscd – Name Service Cache Daemon
• named – Dynamic Naming Service Server Daemon
8 Why virtualization is required? (Nov/Dec 2015)
Ans:
Virtualization reduces the number of physical servers, reducing C212.5 BTL-1
the energy required to power and cool them. Save time. ... It's also
much faster to deploy a virtual machine than it is to deploy a new
physical server. Reduce desktop management headaches.
9 What are the requirements for Linux system administrator?
(Nov/Dec2015)
Ans:
The administrator must have the knowledge about, C212.5 BTL-1

• Linux file systems

• File system hierarchy
• Handling files and directories
• System Management, etc.
10 What is the responsibility of kernel in LINUX operating
system? (Apr/May2015) (Nov/Dec 2018)
Ans:
The kernel is the essential centre of a computer operating system, C212.5 BTL-1
the core that provides basic services for all other parts of the
operating system. A synonym is nucleus. A kernel can be
contrasted with a shell, the outermost part of an operating system
that interacts with user commands

11 Do FAT file system is advantageous? Why? (Apr/May 2015)

(Nov/Dec 2018)
C212.5 BTL-1
Ans:
The main advantage of FAT is its efficient use of disk space.
 FAT can place the parts of the file wherever they fit. File names
can be up to 255 characters and file extensions longer than 3
characters. Easy to recover file names that have been deleted. FAT
is also useful for cross-platform compatibility.
12 What are the components of kernel module?
Ans:
Linux Kernel modules has three component,
C212.5 BTL-1
Module management
Driver registration
Conflict resolution mechanism

13 Define: Conflict Resolution.

Ans:
A mechanism that allows different device drivers to, reserve C212.5 BTL-1
hardware resources and to protect those resources from accidental
use by another driver.
Linux provides a ventral conflict resolution mechanism.

14 Define the design principles of LINUX systems.

Ans:

• Linux is a multiuser, multitasking system

• Linux is UNIX compatible
• its file system adheres to traditional UNIX semantics C212.5 BTL-1
• it fully implements the standard UNIX networking model
• its API adheres to the SVR4 UNIX semantics
• it is POSIX-compliant
• Linux supports a wide variety of architectures
• Main design goals are speed, efficiency, and
standardization
15 Classify Virtualization.
Ans:
C212.5 BTL-4
• Full virtualization
• Paravirtualization
• Hardware-assisted virtualization
16 Define Hypervisor.
Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
A hypervisor or virtual machine monitor (VMM) is computer
software, firmware or hardware that Creatings and runs virtual
machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more
 virtual machines is called a host machine, and each virtual
machine is called a guest machine.
17 List the two types of Hypervisor.
Ans:
There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 C212.5 BTL-1
hypervisors run directly on the system hardware. They are often
referred to as a "native" or "bare metal" or "embedded"
hypervisors in vendor literature. Type 2 hypervisors run on a host
operating system.

18 Define XEN.
Ans:
Xen is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) for x86-compatible C212.5 BTL-1
computers. Xen can securely execute multiple virtual machines,
each running its own OS, on a single physical system with close-
to-native performance. Xen is open source, and is released under
terms of the GNU General Public License.
19 List the advantages of Virtualization.
Ans:
• Better utilization of computer hardware.
• More securable and manageable than one kernel running C212.5 BTL-1
many applications.
• Reduce complexity of hardware.
• Consumes less power and less space.
• Requires less maintenance
• Extended life for installed software.
20 Illustrate the key features of VMware server virtualization.

Ans:
• High Availability (HA) C212.5 BTL-2
• Fault Tolerance (FT)
• vMotion
• Storage vMotion
• Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
21 Explain guest operating system.
Ans: A guest OS is the software installed on either a virtual C212.5 BTL-2
machine (VM) or partitioned disk that describes an operating
system that is different than the host operating system.
22 Summarize the three layers network in LINUX kernel.
Ans: C212.5 BTL-2
• L2 corresponds to Datalink Layer of OSI
• L3 corresponds to Network Layer of OSI
 • L4 corresponds to Transport Layer of OSI
23 Define demand-zero memory.
Ans: "Demand zero" memory is a sections of memory that exist C212.5 BTL-1
only as virtual memory, without existing anywhere as physical
memory nor backed anywhere on disk.

24 Illustrate the type of LINUX device classes.

Ans: C212.5 BTL-2
i) Character Devices ii) Block Devices iii) Network
interfaces

25 Compare the types of hypervisors.

Ans:

Type 1 Hypervisor Type 2 Hypervisor

also known as Bare Metal or • This is also known

d or Native Hypervisor. Hypervisor.
directly on the hardware of the • In this case, the hypervisor
can monitor operating systems on an operating system
bove the hypervisor. supports other operating sys
mpletely independent from the it.
g System. • It is completely dependen
ervisor is small as its main task Operating System for its oper C212.5 BTL-4
ng and managing hardware s • While having a base operat
between different operating allows better specification
any problems in the base
advantage is that any problems system a ffects the entire sys
rtual machine or guest operating even if the hypervisor runnin
do not affect the other guest base OS is secure.
systems running on the Examples:
or.
• VMware Workstation
• Microsoft Virtual PC
ware ESXi Server • Oracle Virtual Box
rosoft Hyper-V
ix/Xen Server
26 Define LINUX Virtualization.

Ans:
Linux virtualization refers to running one or more virtual
machines on a physical computer that's operated by the Linux C212.5 BTL-1
open source operating system. Linux virtualization can be used
for isolating specific apps, programming code or even an
operating system itself, as well as for security and performance
testing purposes.
27 Prepare a list of LINUX system administrator responsibilities.
Ans:
The Linux system administrators are responsible for installing, C212.5 BTL-1
configuring and maintaining the Linux servers and workstations.
They are responsible for maintaining the network environment as
well as the health of the network and servers.

28 What are the functions of virtual file system (VFS)?

Ans:
a. It separates file-system-generic operations from their
implementation defining a clean VFS interface. It allows
transparent access to different types of file systems C212.5 BTL-1
mounted locally.

b. VFS is based on a file representation structure, called a

vnode. It contains a numerical value for a network-wide
unique file .The kernel maintains one vnode structure for
each active file or directory
29 What is Domain Name System?
Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
DNS server or Domain Name Server is used to map the internet
names to an IP address. The system distributes data and the
naming of hosts hierarchically in a domain name space.
30 Define the functions of cache only servers.
Ans:
A cache server is a dedicated network server or service acting as C212.5 BTL-1
a server that saves Web pages or other Internet content locally. By
placing previously requested information in temporary storage, or
cache, a cache server both speeds up access to data and reduces
demand on an enterprise's bandwidth.

31 List the advantages and disadvantages of writing an operating

system in high-level language such as C. (Apr/May 2018)
Ans: The advantages is that all files are accessed in the same
manner. C212.5 BTL-1

The disadvantages is that the operating system become more

complex.

32 C212.5 BTL-1
What is handle? How does a process obtain a handle?
 (Apr/May 2018)
Ans: A handle is an abstract reference to a resources.
A process gets a handle by creating an object, by opening an
existing object, by receiving a duplicated handle from another
process, or by inhering a handle from the parent process. When a
process exists, all its open handles are implicitly closed.

33 What is meant by Data Striping?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Data Stripping means splitting the bits of each byte across
multiple disks .It is also called as Bit –level Striping.

34 What is meant by Boot Disk?

Ans: C212.5 BTL-1

A Disk that has a boot partition is called as Boot Disk

35 What are the Components of a Linux System?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Linux System composed of three main modules. They are:

(i).Kernel (ii).System libraries (iii).System utilities

36 What are the main supports for the Linux modules?

Ans:
The Module support under Linux has three components. They
are:
C212.5 BTL-1
(i). Module Management

(ii).Driver Registration.

(iii).Conflict Resolution mechanism.

37 What is meant by Process?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
A Process is the basic context within which all user-requested
activity is serviced within the Operating system.

38 What is meant by Process -ID?

C212.5 BTL-1
Ans:
 Each process has a unique identifier. PID’s are used to specify
processes to the operating system when an application makes a
system call to signal, modify or wait for another process.
39 What is meant by Personality?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Process Personalities are primarily used by emulation libraries to
request that system call be compatible with certain versions of
UNIX.

40 What is meant by Buffer cache?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
It is the kernel's main cache for block-oriented devices such as
disk drives and is the main mechanism through which I/O to
these devices is performed.

What is the Disadvantage of Static Linking?

41
Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
The main disadvantage of static linking is that every program
generated must contain copies of exactly the same common
system library functions.

42 What is meant by Kernel in Linux system?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Kernel is responsible for maintaining all the important
abstractions of the operating system including such things as
virtual memory and processes.

43 What is meant by System Libraries?

Ans:
System Libraries define a standard set of functions through C212.5 BTL-1
which applications can interact with the kernel and that implement
much of the operating -system functionality that doesn’t need the
full privileges of kernel code.

44 What is meant by System Utilities?

Ans: C212.5 BTL-1

System Utilities are system programs that perform individual,
specialized management tasks. Some of the System utilities may
 be invoked just to initialize and configure some aspect of the
system and others may run permanently, handling such tasks as
responding to incoming network connections, accepting logon
requests from terminals or updating log files.

45 What is the function of Module management?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
The module management allows modules to be loaded into
memory and to talk to the rest of the kernel.

46 What is the function of Driver registration?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Driver Registration allows modules to tell the rest of the kernel
that a new driver has become available

47 What is the function of Conflict Resolution mechanism?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
This mechanism allows different device drivers to reserve
hardware resources and to protect those resources from
accidental use by another driver.

48 What is meant by Device drivers?

Ans:
C212.5 BTL-1
Device drivers include (i) Character devices such as printers,
terminals (ii) Block devices including all disk drives) and
network interface devices.

49 What does Media Layer mean?

Ans:
Media layer is an Apple Inc. term that refers to software
C212.5 BTL-1
frameworks and technologies that enable audio, visual and other
multimedia capabilities within an iOS powered device. It defines
the entire multimedia architecture within Apple-powered mobile
devices and applications.

50 Define Services Layer.

Ans: C212.5 BTL-1

Service layer is the middle layer between presentation and data
store. It abstracts business logic and data access. The idea behind
 such a layer is to have an architecture which can support
multiple presentation layers such as web, mobile, etc.

PART B&C
1 Explain about Linux kernel and virtualization with neat sketch.
(Apr/May 2017) (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.5 BTL-2
Refer page no 703 – 705 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.
2 Explain the step-by-step procedure for setting up a local network
services. (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.5 BTL-6
Refer: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-
lan/index.html

3 Discuss the advantages of dynamic linkage of libraries compared

with static linkage. (Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.5 BTL-5
Refer:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_aix_71/c
om.ibm.aix.performance/when_dyn_linking_static_linking.htm

4 What are the primary goals of conflict-resolution mechanisms

used by the Linux kernel for loading kernel modules? (May/June
2016)
C212.5 BTL-1
Refer page no 703 – 705 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

5 Explain the concept of Domain name system and multi-function

server. (Apr/May 2017) (Nov/Dec 2015)
C212.5 BTL-2
Refer page no 804 – 809 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

6 Discuss about the steps involved in the installation of the Linux

multi-function server. (Apr/May 2015) (May/June 2016)
Refer page no 804 – 809 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz, C212.5 BTL-6
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

7 Explain the significance and steps involved in setting up Xen,

VMWare softwares on Linux Host for successful virtualization.
(Apr/May2015)
C212.5 BTL-2
Refer page no 804 – 809 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.
8 Briefly discuss about the requirements needed to become a Linux
System Administrative. (Apr/May 2015)
C212.5 BTL-6
Refer text book “Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and
Greg Gagne, “Operating System Concepts”, 9th Edition, John
Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

9 Explain about Linux’s Completely-Fair scheduler in detail.

(Nov/Dec 2016)
C212.5 BTL-2
Refer page no 730 – 731 from text book “Abraham Silberschatz,
Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, “Operating System
Concepts”, 9th Edition, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2012”.

10 Under what circumstances would an user process request an

operation that results in the allocation of a demand-zero memory
region. (Apr/May 2018)
Answer: When there are few other users, the task is large, and
the hardware is fast, timesharing
makes sense. The full power of the system can be brought to bear
on the user’s
C212.5 BTL-1
problem. The problem can be solved faster than on a personal
computer. Another case
occurs when lots of other users need resources at the same time.

A personal computer is best when the job is small enough to be

executed reasonably on it
and when performance is sufficient to execute the program to the
user’s satisfaction.

11 What optimization were used to minimize the desrepency between

CPU and I/O speeds on early computer systems. (Apr/May 2018)
Answer:An optimization used to minimize the discrepancy
between CPU and I/O speeds is spooling.Spooling overlaps the
I/O of one job with the computation of other jobs.The spooler for
instance could be reading the input of one job while printing the C212.5 BTL-1
output of a different job

or while executing another job.

12 UNIX coordinates the activities of the kenel I/O components by

manipulating shared in-kernel data structures, whereas Windows C212.5 BTL-6
NT uses object-oriented message passing between kernel I/O
components. Discuss three pros and three cons of each approach.
 (Nov/Dec 2018)
Refer: https://www.passeidireto.com/arquivo/1000684/os6---
solutions-manual-/17

13 Explain in detail the design principles, kernel modules, process C212.5 BTL-2
management, scheduling in LINUX system.
14 Explain in detail the file system in LINUX system. C212.5 BTL-2

15 Explain in detail the memory management in LINUX system. C212.5 BTL-2