30 Questions
What is the primary role of an operating system from the computer's point of view?
To act as a resource allocator
What is the emphasis of a control program in an operating system?
To manage the execution of user programs and control I/O devices
According to Moore's Law, what prediction has held true about the number of transistors on an integrated circuit?
It would double every 18 months
What was the initial purpose of computing before it evolved into fixed-purpose systems?
To determine what could be done experimentally
What aspect of computing led to a vast number and variety of operating systems?
Computers gaining in functionality and shrinking in size
How does an operating system handle numerous and conflicting requests for resources?
By deciding how to allocate them to specific programs and users efficiently and fairly
What are the three main objectives of an operating system?
Convenience, Efficiency, Ability to evolve
Describe the responsibility of the operating system in managing computer resources.
The OS is responsible for managing the movement, storage, and processing of data.
Explain the concept of device controllers in a computer system.
Device controllers are responsible for specific types of devices, maintaining local buffer storage and special-purpose registers.
How does a common bus facilitate communication in a computer system?
A common bus provides access between components and shared memory.
What is the significance of middleware frameworks in an operating system?
Middleware frameworks ease application development and provide additional features.
Why is the ability to evolve an important objective for an operating system?
An OS should be constructed to permit effective development, testing, and introduction of new system functions without disrupting service.
What is the role of a device controller in an operating system?
The device controller is responsible for moving data between peripheral devices and local buffer storage.
Why does an operating system have a device driver for each device controller?
To provide a uniform interface to the device for the rest of the operating system.
How does a memory controller ensure orderly access to shared memory?
By synchronizing access to the memory.
What triggers the start of an I/O operation in an operating system?
The device driver loading the appropriate registers in the device controller.
What notifies the device driver that a device controller has finished its operation in an operating system?
An interrupt.
What information can a device driver return after an I/O operation in an operating system?
Status information like 'write completed successfully' or 'device busy'.
What is an interrupt?
A signal sent by a hardware or device controller to the CPU, usually via the system bus, requesting for an I/O resource or indicating the completion of an execution.
Where is the fixed location to which the CPU transfers execution when interrupted?
The starting address where the service routine for the interrupt is located.
Why must interrupts be handled quickly?
Because they occur very frequently.
How is the interrupt service routine executed?
The CPU stops the current computation, executes the routine, and then resumes the interrupted computation.
Where is the table of pointers to interrupt routines typically stored?
In low memory, usually the first hundred locations.
How is the interrupt service routine called indirectly through the table of pointers?
The interrupt vector, indexed by a unique number, provides the address of the interrupt service routine for the interrupting device.
What is the purpose of saving the state information of whatever was interrupted in the interrupt architecture?
To restore this information after servicing the interrupt.
Why must an interrupt routine explicitly save the current state before modifying the processor state?
To restore that state before returning.
What happens after the interrupt is serviced in terms of the program counter and interrupted computation?
The saved return address is loaded into the program counter, and the interrupted computation resumes as though the interrupt had not occurred.
How does the CPU hardware detect interrupt requests?
Through a wire called the interrupt-request line that the CPU senses after executing every instruction.
What does the CPU do when it detects a signal on the interrupt-request line from a controller?
Reads the interrupt number and jumps to the interrupt-handler routine using that interrupt number as an index into the interrupt vector.
What does the interrupt handler do after determining the cause of the interrupt?
Saves any state it will be changing during its operation, performs the necessary processing, performs a state restore, and executes a return from interrupt instruction.
Explore the role of operating systems in resource allocation from a system view perspective. Learn how operating systems manage hardware resources and allocate them to specific programs and users in the computer system.
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