Chapter 10 - Operating Systems Study Guide

Quiz

1. Explain the challenges of programming directly for hardware without an

operating system. Provide an example from early video game consoles.

2. Describe the primary role of an operating system. What key services does it
provide to applications?

3. Differentiate between the kernel and the shell of an operating system. What
is the purpose of each?

4. Explain the concept of kernel mode and user mode. Why is this distinction
important for operating system security and stability?

5. What is a process? How does an operating system manage the execution of

programs using processes?

6. Define a thread and explain how it differs from a process. What benefits do
threads offer for program execution?

7. Explain the concept of virtual memory. Why do operating systems use virtual
memory instead of directly providing physical memory to user mode
processes?

8. Describe what a system call is and why it is necessary for user mode
programs to interact with hardware or perform privileged operations.

9. What is an operating system API? How do software libraries relate to and

implement the OS API? Provide an example.

10. Explain the role of device drivers in an operating system. Why are they
important for the OS to interact with a wide variety of hardware?

Quiz Answer Key

1. Programming without an OS requires developers to directly control

hardware, including initialization, video, and input. This means
understanding the specific intricacies of the target hardware. For example,
on early game consoles like the Atari 2600, game developers had to write
code to directly manage the graphics chip and read controller inputs, and
porting a game to a different console often required a complete rewrite due
to differing hardware designs.

2. An operating system is software that acts as an intermediary between

computer hardware and other software, providing an environment for
program execution. It allows programs to request system services like file
 I/O and network communication. The OS also handles system initialization
and manages program execution, including multitasking and resource
sharing.

3. The kernel is the core of the operating system, responsible for managing
memory, device I/O, and providing system services for applications. The
shell is a user interface that allows users to interact with the kernel. It can
be a command-line interface (CLI) like Bash or a graphical user interface
(GUI) like the Windows desktop.

4. Kernel mode is a privileged level of execution where code has full access to
all system resources, including memory and hardware. User mode is a
restricted level where code has limited access. This distinction is crucial for
security because it prevents untrusted user-level programs from interfering
with the OS or other programs and ensures that sensitive operations can
only be performed by the trusted kernel.

5. A process is a running instance of a program, created by the operating

system when a program is started. The OS loads the program's instructions
into memory within the process's virtual address space and manages its
execution on the CPU. Each process is isolated and has its own resources,
preventing interference between different running programs.

6. A thread is a schedulable unit of execution within a process. Unlike

processes, threads within the same process share the same memory space,
code, and other resources. Threads allow a program to perform multiple
tasks concurrently, improving responsiveness and efficiency, for example,
by running a calculation in one thread while keeping the user interface
responsive in another.

7. Virtual memory is an abstraction that provides each process with its own
large, private address space, independent of the physical RAM. Operating
systems use virtual memory to isolate processes from each other,
preventing them from accessing or corrupting each other's memory or the
kernel's memory. It also allows programs to use more memory than
physically available by using secondary storage (paging).

8. A system call is a request made by a user mode program to the operating

system kernel to perform a privileged operation on its behalf. Since user
mode code has limited access to system resources, it relies on system calls
to interact with hardware (like reading files or sending network data) and
perform other actions that require kernel-level privileges.
 9. An operating system API (Application Programming Interface) describes the
programmatic interface through which applications can request services
from the OS. Software libraries, included with the OS, provide the concrete
implementation of this API, containing code that performs the operations
defined in the API specification. For example, the C standard library provides
the fopen function, which internally uses OS-specific system calls to create
or open a file.

10. Device drivers are software components that enable the operating system
kernel to communicate with and control specific hardware devices. Because
the kernel cannot inherently know how to interact with every possible
hardware device, device drivers provide the necessary low-level instructions
and protocols for the OS to send commands to and receive data from
different pieces of hardware, such as graphics cards, disk drives, and
network adapters.

Essay Format Questions

1. Discuss the evolution of operating systems from the perspective of

managing hardware resources and providing abstractions to application
developers. Consider the shift from systems without OS to modern
multitasking operating systems, highlighting the key challenges and
solutions introduced at each stage.

2. Compare and contrast the architectural differences between Unix-like

operating systems (using Linux as a primary example) and Microsoft
Windows. Focus on their historical roots, kernel design principles, and
approaches to system calls and software libraries.

3. Evaluate the significance of the separation between kernel mode and user
mode in modern operating systems. Explain how this privilege separation
contributes to system security, stability, and overall reliability, providing
specific examples of potential issues that could arise without this
separation.

4. Analyze the concepts of processes and threads as fundamental units of

execution managed by the operating system. Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of using multiple processes versus multiple threads within a
single application, considering factors such as resource sharing, inter-
process/thread communication, and performance.

5. Explain the role of system calls and operating system APIs in enabling user-
level applications to interact with the underlying hardware and kernel
services. Discuss the benefits of using standardized APIs and the
 mechanisms through which different programming languages abstract these
low-level interactions.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Operating System (OS): Software that communicates with computer

hardware and provides an environment for the execution of programs.

• Kernel: The core component of an operating system responsible for

managing memory, device I/O, and providing system services.

• Shell: A user interface for interacting with the operating system kernel. It can
be a command-line interface (CLI) or a graphical user interface (GUI).

• Kernel Mode: A privileged mode of CPU execution where code has full
access to system resources.

• User Mode: A non-privileged mode of CPU execution with restricted access

to system resources.

• Process: A running instance of a program, isolated with its own virtual

memory space and system resources.

• Thread: A schedulable unit of execution within a process, sharing the

process's memory space and resources.

• Multitasking: The ability of an operating system to run multiple programs in

parallel by sharing processor time.

• Virtual Memory: An abstraction that provides each process with its own
large, private address space, managed by the OS and potentially backed by
secondary storage.

• Paging: A memory management technique where the operating system

moves portions of virtual memory between RAM and secondary storage to
manage memory usage.

• System Call: A request from a user mode program to the operating system
kernel for a privileged operation.

• Operating System API (Application Programming Interface): A set of

functions and procedures that allow applications to request services from
the operating system.

• Software Library: A collection of pre-written code that provides

implementations of functions defined in an API, allowing programs to reuse
code.
• Device Driver: Software that enables the operating system to interact with
and control specific hardware devices.

• Filesystem: A method of organizing and storing data on storage devices as

files and directories.

• Volume: A logical abstraction of storage that can span one or more partitions
and hosts a filesystem.

• Partition: A section of a storage device that can be formatted with a specific

filesystem.

• Service (Windows) / Daemon (Unix-like): A background process that runs

without direct user interaction to provide system-level functionality.

• Process ID (PID): A unique numerical identifier assigned to each running

process.

• Thread ID (TID): A unique numerical identifier assigned to each running

thread within a process.

• GNU C Library (glibc): A standard library for the C programming language,

commonly used on Linux systems, which provides access to system calls
and other functions.

• Windows API: The primary API used by applications running on Microsoft

Windows.

• Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL): A feature in Windows that allows Linux
programs to run on Windows.