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Questions and Answers
What is the primary function of an operating system?
What are the four components of a computer system?
What is the role of the operating system in a computer system?
What is an example of hardware in a computer system?
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What is the role of application programs in a computer system?
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What is the main concern of the operating system?
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What is the operating system's role in relation to the user?
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What is a characteristic of operating systems?
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What did Moore's Law predict?
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What is a real-world example of a device that uses an operating system?
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What was the primary purpose of early computers?
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What is the fundamental goal of computer systems?
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What is the purpose of application programs?
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What is the operating system composed of?
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What is the kernel?
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What is a common definition of an operating system?
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What are the two most prominent mobile operating systems?
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What is the primary function of middleware in an operating system?
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What is the main objective of an operating system?
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What is a computer system composed of?
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What is the role of a device controller?
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What is a feature of a device controller?
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What is an operating system responsible for?
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What is an important aspect of an operating system's design?
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When the CPU is interrupted, what does it do?
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What contains the starting address of the interrupt service routine?
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Why are interrupts handled quickly?
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What is used to provide the necessary speed for interrupt handling?
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Where is the table of pointers to interrupt routines typically stored?
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What is indexed by a unique number given with the interrupt request?
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What must the interrupt architecture save and restore?
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Why must the interrupt routine explicitly save and restore the current state?
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What is the primary function of a device driver in an operating system?
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What is the purpose of a memory controller in a computer system?
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How does a device controller inform the device driver that it has finished its operation?
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What is the main purpose of interrupts in an operating system?
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What is the role of the device driver in managing I/O operations?
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What is the system bus used for in a computer system?
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What happens when a device controller completes its operation?
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What is the result of a device driver's operation when it is a read operation?
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Study Notes
Overview of Operating System
- An operating system is system software that manages a computer's hardware and provides a basis for application programs.
- It acts as an intermediary between the computer user and the computer hardware.
- Operating systems are everywhere, from cars and home appliances to smartphones, personal computers, enterprise computers, and cloud computing environments.
What Operating Systems Do
- A computer system can be divided into four components: hardware, operating system, application programs, and user.
- The hardware provides the basic computing resources, such as the central processing unit (CPU), memory, and input/output (I/O) devices.
- The operating system controls the hardware and coordinates its use among the various application programs for the various users.
- It is especially concerned with the operation and control of I/O devices.
Moore's Law
- In the 1960s, Moore's Law predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every 18 months.
- This prediction has held true, leading to computers gaining in functionality and shrinking in size, resulting in a vast number of uses and a vast number and variety of operating systems.
Operating System Concept
- Computing started as an experiment to determine what could be done and quickly moved to fixed-purpose systems for military and governmental uses.
- The fundamental goal of computer systems is to execute programs and make solving user problems easier.
- The operating system is a piece of software that brings together the common functions of controlling and allocating resources.
Middleware
- Middleware is a set of software frameworks that provide additional services to application developers.
- It supports databases, multimedia, and graphics, among other features.
- The operating system includes the kernel, middleware frameworks, and system programs that aid in managing the system while it is running.
Main Objectives of an Operating System
- An OS can be thought of as having three objectives:
- Convenience: An OS makes a computer more convenient to use.
- Efficiency: An OS allows the computer system resources to be used in an efficient manner.
- Ability to evolve: An OS should be constructed to permit the effective development, testing, and introduction of new system functions without interfering with service.
Computer-System Organization
- A modern general-purpose computer system consists of one or more CPUs and a number of device controllers connected through a common bus.
- Each device controller is in charge of a specific type of device, and more than one device may be attached to a controller.
Device Driver
- Operating systems have a device driver for each device controller.
- The device driver understands the device controller and provides the rest of the operating system with a uniform interface to the device.
Basic Operations of OS
- Interrupts: A signal sent by a hardware or device controller to the CPU, usually via the system bus, requesting an I/O resource or indicating the completion of an execution.
- Interrupts are used for many other purposes as well and are a key part of how operating systems and hardware interact.
Interrupts
- When the CPU is interrupted, it stops what it is doing and immediately transfers execution to a fixed location.
- The interrupt service routine executes, and on completion, the CPU resumes the interrupted computation.
- Interrupts must be handled quickly, as they occur very frequently.
- A table of pointers to interrupt routines can be used to provide the necessary speed.
- The interrupt routine is called indirectly through the table, with no intermediate routine needed.
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Description
This quiz covers the basics of operating systems, including their functions, concepts, and objectives. It introduces Moore's Law and computer system organization, and explains the role of middleware in OS.
