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Comp 220:Operating System November 2009 Question Paper

Comp 220:Operating System November 2009 

Course:Bachelor Of Education Science

Institution: Kabarak University question papers

Exam Year:2009



KABARAK UNIVERSITY
EXAMINATIONS
2009/2010 ACADEMIC YEAR
FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF EDUCATION SCIENCE
COURSE CODE: COMP 220

INSTRUCTIONS:
Answer Question one and ANY OTHER TWO questions.

QUESTION ONE [30MKS]
a) An operating system can be viewed as a scheduler, servant, …………………..and
……………………..[2mks]
b) The desirable qualities of an operating system includes facilities, cost,
……………………….and …………………..[2mks]
c) Carson is a system programmer, he has attempted to develop and an operating
system. He found out that it is difficult to create, use and maintain. Why do you this
he made this conclusion? [5mks]
d) The collection of all process control blocks for all processes include execution, state,
…………………………… and accounting. [1mk]
e) The CPU scheduling processes may be in a number of states. Highlight them. [3mks]
f) Briefly describe the following scheduling disciplines:
a. FCFS [2mks]
b. Round Robin [2mks]
g) Explain the condition that must be present for deadlocks to occur. [6mks]
h) Priority Inversion problem was first observed in 1979. Suppose the you have three
processes: P1(highest priority), P2 (medium priority), and P3(Lowest Priority). And
suppose that you have the following critical section, S:
S: mutex. P()
…….
……..
mutex. V().
The three processes execute as follow:
P3 enters S, locking the critical section
P3 is preempted by the scheduler and P2 starts running.
P2 is preempted by the scheduler and P1 starts running
P1 tries to enter S and is blocked at the P2 operation
P2 starts running again, preventing P1 from running.
Required: Identify the likely problems to occur using suitable illustration [7mks]

QUESTION TWO [20MKS]
a) Your school wants to buy new operating system for the computers that were donated
to your school. Your principal has approached you to help in this exercise, what are
the consideration that you will want the school bursar know when going to choose
an operating system for your school[5mks]
b) What is process synchronization?[2mks]
c) State the functions of scheduling [3mks]
d) State and explain any five functions of an operating system [10mks]



QUESTION THREE [20MKS]
a) Identify the process management activities related to operating systems.[5mks]
b) Briefly explain dynamic portioning [5mks]
c) Explain briefly the following terms
i. Dispatcher [2mks]
ii. Scheduling [2mks]
iii. Process [2mks]
iv. Dynamic partitioning [2mks]
v. Software [2mks]

QUESTION FOUR [20MKS]
a) What is paging [4mks]
b) Briefly explain the causes of system interrupts [4mks]
c) State the benefits of threads [4mks]
d) Grace has been using Windows operating system and she want to change to Linux.
Discuss the main security features of Linux operating system that she must consider
before switching to new operating system [8mks]

QUESTION FIVE [20MKS]
a) Static memory is not sufficient for everything because of the unpredictability of
time, how much memory or what form will be needed. What are the reasons for this?
[3mks]
b) Explain any five characteristics of an operating system[5mks]
c) Identify the weakness of Windows operating system[5mks]
d) Dijkstra’s Banker Algorithm is an approach that tries to give processe4s as much
as possible while guaranteeing no deadlock. Briefly explain how this works [7mks]






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