Final Exam,
Preliminary Terms and Concepts
The focus of this exam will be from chapter 4 and onwards,
with the majority of exam questions coming from the
material covered since the midterm.
Chapter 1: entire chapter: all sections.



What is an operating system.
What are the primary responsibilities of an OS.: supporting convenient use and
controlling sharing of resources,
Primary functions of an OS: User interface, process management, job and session
management, device management, time management, memory management, file
management, error handling, reliability and security, monitoring and accounting,
system management.
Review Questions to consider:
1 – 5, Assignment #3
Chapter 2: History of Operating systems:
Terms:
Process management
Process scheduling
Punched cards
Batch processing systems
interactive computing
Multi-tasking (timesharing)
interleaved execution multiprogramming
device management
interrupts
resident monitor/loader
JCL
batch serial operation
batch multiprogramming
time quantum/time slicing
device driver
command line interface
Concepts:
all sections. You should understand the major types of operating systems, how operating
systems evolved, why they evolved, features of the different CATAGORIES of operating
systems. How did punched cards, magnetic tapes, JCL, magnetic disks, and
professional operators revolutionize computing, and how did they help lead to the
evolution of operating systems. Know the importance of the “resident loader” (resident
monitor). Understand the concepts of multiprogramming, spooling, and multitasking.
What is meant by BATCH computing? What is a batch operating system.
Questions to consider:
1-7, Assignment questions: 3,
Instructors Notes:
Lecture notes from instructor with information from additional sources.
Chapter 4: process management:
Terms:
Sequential process
Thread
Context
Batch processes
Preemption
Job
concurrent sequential processes
process control block (PCB)
processor state
context switching
interactive processes
real-time processes
fork
ready queue
SCHEDULING
scheduler
Concepts:
entire chapter!!! - very important chapter-- You must understand what is a process,
and what are the different types of processes and what are their characteristics. It is
important to understand what it means to execute processes in an interleaved fashion.
What is the role of the PCB? What is the context of a process? Understand what is a
process state. What are the different process states? What causes a transition from one
state to another.. focus on diagram 4-4. Be able to draw a state chart and explain it!!! Be
able to discuss the various operations that can be performed on processes, and what they
involve (especially creation and termination).
Questions to consider:
1 - 10
Instructors Notes:
Lecture notes from instructor with information from additional sources.
Chapter 5 – process scheduling
Terms
Long term scheduling short term scheduling medium term scheduling
Active set
swapping
dispatcher
Process states
waiting time
response time
Preemption
FIFO scheduling
Dynamic priority scheduling
Preemptive scheduling
shortest remaining time next
Time quantum
processor time quantum
storage time quantum
Round robin scheduling
aging
feedback queues
CPU bound processes
I/O bound processes
selfish scheduling
Active set
dispatcher
priorities
Static priority algorithms
dynamic priority algorithms starvation
Concepts:
Process scheduling: !!!! entire chapter, very important!!!!! --- Know the 3 types of
scheduling that can be performed and what each type of scheduling accomplishes. (longterm, short-term, medium-term), know the types of scheduling which must occur in the 3
major types of operating systems (real-time, batch, and interactive). Know the scheduling
objectives that are often used in the evaluation of scheduling algorithms. Why is
calculating the average waiting time important in assessing an algorithm. Understand
the concept of aging!!! Understand what it means for a process to be CPU bound .vs.
I/O bound. BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN, EACH OF THE FOLLOWING
SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS. Also be able to estimate the average waiting time for
a set of processes.. FIFO, shortest job next, shortest time remaining next, round
robin (fifo), priority round robin, feed back queues, selfish scheduling, fair-share
scheduling
Questions to review in your text book:
1,2, 3, 4, 7, 8 & 9
Instructors Notes:
1. Notes on Process scheduling: Additional information and terms have been added
from other sources . This source adds additional information on I/o vs cpu bound
processes, as well as additional objectives of scheduling algorithms
2. Notes on scheduling algorithms: Additional information and terms have been
added from other sources This contains additional details about the various
scheduling algorithms, and gives examples of calculating the average waiting time of
processes.
Chapter 6 – Interrupts
Terms:
Interrupt
Interrupt handler
Interrupt Vector
Concepts:
1. KNOW THE ISSUES INVOLVED IN HANDLING INTERRUPTS:
1. SAVING THE STATE
2. LINKING TO THE INTERRUPT
3. HANDLING PARAMETERS
4. RESOURCE USE AND PROCEDURE CALLS
5. HANDLING OTHER INTERRUPTS
2. Understand how interrupts affect the flow of control within a program
3. Know the different categories of interrupts: i/O, alert, timer, machine faults,
system request interrupts, program fault interrupts.
Questions to review:
Review: 1- 3 Assignment #5
Instructors notes / slides:
Power point slides on Interrupts.
Chapter 7 – Memory management
Terms:
Memory Management
Allocation
Relocation
Protection
Static Allocation
Dynamic Allocation
Static memory Area Definition
Dynamic memory area definition
Fixed partitions
Regions
Fragmentation
Statically defined partitions
Dynamically defined regions
Memory control block
Boundary tag method
First Fit
Best fit
Next fit
Worst fit
buddy system
Relocation dictionary
Based Addressing
Fence address
Bounds registers
Protection keys
Swapping
Overlays
Compaction
Concepts:
1. Understand the three main issues involving memory management: Allocation,
Relocation, and protection.
2. Understand STATIC vs DYNAMIC ALLOCATION of memory
3. understand static memory area definition and dynamic memory area
definition
4. Under static allocation techniques: understand statically defined partitions and
dynamically defined regions
5. Under dynamic allocation techniques: boundary tag method, first_fit,
next_fit, best_fit, worst_fit
6. For protection strategies understand: fence addresses, bounds registers, etc
Questions to Review:
1, 2, 4 - 11
Instructors notes and slides:
Power point slides on memory Management
Chapter 8 – time management
Terms:
Clock
programmable clocks
hardware clocks
Clock drivers
time-of-day services
timer queues
Understand the various types of timing services – beginning on page 9 in chapter 8
Concepts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Understand the different types of clocks
Understand some of the basic issues with respect to time of day services
Timer queues!!! and their use in managing program timing needs
Be able to list various types of time related services that a system might be
required to provide, from the end of the chapter.
Questions to Review:
1-5
Instructors notes and slides:
There are both lecture notes and power point slides on time management
Chapter 9 – I/O Devices: (chapters 9 and 10 are
merged in my lecture notes)
Terms:
Device Drivers
Blocking
Character devices
I/O controller
Block devices
Concepts:
1. Understand the differences between character devices and block devices.
2. Role of a device driver in performing I/O
Chapter 10 – Device Management
Terms:
Device Registers
I/O Control Block
Polling
Interrupts
Event flag
Buffer Management
Double Buffering
Disk/Software Caching
I/O Queues
Synchronous communications
Asynchronous communications
Concepts:
1. Understand the device driver components and responsibilities in diagram10-22
2. On page 5, understand the programming strategies: programmed I/O and block
transfer!
3. Understand what happens during polling
4. Contrast using Interrupt drive I/O vs polling to service I/O requests.
5. Understand how buffering and double buffering can improve I/O performance
6. Understand how software/disk caching can improve I/O performance, and the
drawbacks to this technique
7. Be able to discuss issues with managing I/O request queues in a
multiprogramming environment
Questions to Review:
Review: 1, 2, 3, 4 Assignment #5
Instructors notes and slides:
Power point slides, and lecture notes
Chapter 12 – File management
Terms:
File system
file manager
file descriptor
Volume
logical volume
physical volume
Volume descriptor
allocation table
system area
Simple contiguous organization
contiguous organization with extents
Free chain
blocked organizations
blocked chained organization
File allocation table
blocked indexed organization
File attributes
simple/single directories
user directories
Hierarchical directories
buffers
file control blocks
Concepts
1. Understand the basic file operations discussed in my lecture. (these are called
primitive file operations in Dr. Mooney’s text)
2. Understand the purpose of a volume descriptor.
3. Understand how different areas are sometimes laid out on a volume: Volume
descriptor, system area, allocation table, directory area, and file area
4. UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT FILE STORAGE ORGANIZATIONS,
AND ISSUES RELATED TO INFORMATION RETAINED IN FILE
DESCRIPTORS FOR EACH. (contiguous, contiguous with extents, blocked
chained, blocked indexed)
Questions to Review:
1 – 5, 7, 9, 10
Instructors notes and slides:
Instructor notes and slides
Chapter 13 – Virtual Memory
Terms:
memory translation
translation table
segment
page frame
internal
fragmentation
associative memory
Principle of locality
page referenced bit
virtual memory
system
block descriptor
mapping register
page table
external
fragmentation
page present flag
demand fetching
least recently used
strategy
physical address
virtual address
access control
field
paging
page descriptors
paging cache
segmentation
page fault
clustering
dirty bit
page
page table register
Translation
lookaside buffer
thrashing
prepaging
global replacement
strategy
local replacement
strategy
Concepts:

Understand the generalized translation scheme presented at the beginning of the
chapter
 Understand how protection can be incorporated into this generalized scheme
 Understand the concept of segments, how it can be used with a virtual memory
system
 Understand the concept of paging in general
 understand how paging is use to support a virtual memory system
 How does paging help to reduce/eliminate internal and external fragmentation
 How does the use of a paging cache help to decrease the # of memory accesses in
a paging environment
 what are the steps that need to be take to translate a virtual address to a physical
address in a virtual memory system
 what is a page fault, and what is thrashing
 What are the 3 principal problems involved in supporting a virtual memory
system
 What issues are involved with fetching a page from secondary storage, or
selecting a page for replacement
Questions to Review:
Review questions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 12
Instructors notes and slides:
Power point presentation
Depending on the extent of lecture, the material for chapter 13 may
only be lightly covered.