Unit-1 2
Unit-1 2
Systems
WEEK 1
DAY 2
Short quiz 2
1. Which of the following is/are not true regarding main memory?
a) Only memory, CPU can access
b) non-erasable
c) Random access
d) Another name for secondary memory
File-System management
Files usually organized into directories
Access control on most systems to determine who can access what
OS activities include
Creating and deleting files and directories
Primitives to manipulate files and directories
Mapping files onto secondary storage
Backup files onto stable (non-volatile) storage media
Mass-Storage Management
Usually disks used to store data that does not fit in main memory or data
that must be kept for a “long” period of time
Proper management is of central importance
Entire speed of computer operation hinges on disk subsystem and its
algorithms
OS activities
Free-space management
Storage allocation
Disk scheduling
Some storage need not be fast
Tertiary storage includes optical storage, magnetic tape
Still must be managed – by OS or applications
Varies between WORM (write-once, read-many-times) and RW
(read-write)
I/O Subsystem
One purpose of OS is to hide peculiarities of hardware devices from the
user
3. As soon as one job goes for an I/O task, the Operating System interrupts that job,
chooses another job from the job pool (waiting queue), gives CPU to this new job and
starts its execution. The previous job keeps doing its I/O operation while this new job
does CPU bound tasks. Now say the second job also goes for an I/O task, the CPU
chooses a third job and starts executing it. As soon as a job completes its I/O operation
and comes back for CPU tasks, the CPU is allocated to it.
The above concept is called ____________________________ .
4. What can you achieve with virtual memory, that cannot be done normally?
Client-Server Computing
Dumb terminals supplanted by smart PCs
Many systems now servers, responding to requests generated
by clients
Compute-server system provides an interface to client to
request services (i.e., database)
File-server system provides interface for clients to store
and retrieve files
Computing Environments - Peer-to-Peer