1. Describe context-switching in a common, real-life example, and identify the "process" information
that needs to be saved, changed, or updated when context-switching takes place.
2. Five jobs (A, B, C, D, E) are already in the READY queue waiting to be processed. Their
estimated CPU cycles are respectively: 2, 10, 15, 6, and 8. Using SJN, in what order should they be
processed? Explain your answer.
3. Describe the advantages of having a separate queue for a Print I/O interrupt and for a Disk I/O
interrupt as discussed in Lecture 4's "Example: Job and Process State Transition".
4. Compare the processors’ access to main memory for the loosely coupled configuration and the
symmetric multiprocessing configurations. Give a real-life example (not from lecture or textbook!)
where the symmetric configuration might be preferred.
5. Describe the programmer’s role when implementing explicit parallelism.
6. Give a real-life example (not from lecture or textbook!) of busy-waiting.
7. Compare and contrast multiprocessing and concurrent processing. Describe the role of process
synchronization for both systems.
8. Describe the purpose of a buffer and give an example from your own experience (not from lecture
or textbook!) where its use clearly benefits system response.
9. Give an original “real life” example (not related to a computer system environment, not discussed
in our textbook or in lecture) of each of these concepts: deadlock, starvation, and race.
10. Using the narrow staircase example from the beginning of this chapter, create a list of features or
actions that would allow people to use it without causing deadlock or starvation.
11. As discussed in this chapter, a system that is in an unsafe state is not necessarily deadlocked.
Explain why this is true. Give an example of such a system (in an unsafe state) and describe how all
the processes could be completed without causing deadlock to occur.
12. Given the four primary types of resources—CPU, memory, secondary storage, and files—select
for each one the most suitable technique described in this chapter to fight deadlock and briefly
explain why you choose it.
13. Explain the differences between blocking and buffering.
14. Minimizing the variance of system response time is an important goal, but it does not always
prevent an occasional user from suffering indefinite postponement. What mechanism would you
incorporate into a disk scheduling policy to counteract this problem and still provide reasonable
response time to the user population as a whole? Explain your answer.
15. Explain the difference between buffering and spooling.
16. Under light loading conditions, every disk scheduling policy discussed in this chapter tends to
behave like one of the policies discussed in this chapter. Which one and why?
17. Track requests are not usually equally or evenly distributed. For example, the tracks where the
disk directory resides are accessed more ofte.
1. Describe context-switching in a common, real-life example, .docx
1. 1. Describe context-switching in a common, real-life example,
and identify the "process" information
that needs to be saved, changed, or updated when context-
switching takes place.
2. Five jobs (A, B, C, D, E) are already in the READY queue
waiting to be processed. Their
estimated CPU cycles are respectively: 2, 10, 15, 6, and 8.
Using SJN, in what order should they be
processed? Explain your answer.
3. Describe the advantages of having a separate queue for a
Print I/O interrupt and for a Disk I/O
interrupt as discussed in Lecture 4's "Example: Job and Process
State Transition".
4. Compare the processors’ access to main memory for the
loosely coupled configuration and the
symmetric multiprocessing configurations. Give a real-life
example (not from lecture or textbook!)
where the symmetric configuration might be preferred.
5. Describe the programmer’s role when implementing explicit
parallelism.
6. Give a real-life example (not from lecture or textbook!) of
busy-waiting.
7. Compare and contrast multiprocessing and concurrent
processing. Describe the role of process
synchronization for both systems.
2. 8. Describe the purpose of a buffer and give an example from
your own experience (not from lecture
or textbook!) where its use clearly benefits system response.
9. Give an original “real life” example (not related to a
computer system environment, not discussed
in our textbook or in lecture) of each of these concepts:
deadlock, starvation, and race.
10. Using the narrow staircase example from the beginning of
this chapter, create a list of features or
actions that would allow people to use it without causing
deadlock or starvation.
11. As discussed in this chapter, a system that is in an unsafe
state is not necessarily deadlocked.
Explain why this is true. Give an example of such a system (in
an unsafe state) and describe how all
the processes could be completed without causing deadlock to
occur.
12. Given the four primary types of resources—CPU, memory,
secondary storage, and files—select
for each one the most suitable technique described in this
chapter to fight deadlock and briefly
explain why you choose it.
13. Explain the differences between blocking and buffering.
14. Minimizing the variance of system response time is an
important goal, but it does not always
prevent an occasional user from suffering indefinite
postponement. What mechanism would you
incorporate into a disk scheduling policy to counteract this
problem and still provide reasonable
response time to the user population as a whole? Explain your
3. answer.
15. Explain the difference between buffering and spooling.
16. Under light loading conditions, every disk scheduling policy
discussed in this chapter tends to
behave like one of the policies discussed in this chapter. Which
one and why?
17. Track requests are not usually equally or evenly distributed.
For example, the tracks where the
disk directory resides are accessed more often than those where
the user’s files reside. Suppose
that you know that 50 percent of the requests are for a small,
fixed number of tracks. Which one of
the scheduling policies presented in this chapter would work
best under these conditions? Explain
your answer.
