QUESTION BANK

CST 206 – OPERATING SYSTEM

MODULE I
PART A (3 MARKS)
1. What is an operating system?

• A program that controls the execution of application programs.

• An interface between applications and hardware.
• Controls and coordinates the usage of hardware among various applications and
users.
• It is responsible for the execution of all the processes, Resource Allocation, CPU
management, File Management, and many other tasks.
• The purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which a user
can execute programs in a convenient and efficient manner.

2. What are the components of a computer system?

A computer system can be divided into four components namely:

a. the hardware
b. the operating system
c. the application programs
d. the users
3. What are the main functions of an operating system?

○ Memory Management –
■ The operating system manages the Primary Memory or Main
Memory.
■ It keeps track of primary memory, i.e., which bytes of memory are
used by which user program.
■ In multiprogramming, the OS decides the order in which
processes are granted access to memory, and for how long.
○ Processor Management –
■ In a multiprogramming environment, the OS decides the order in
which processes have access to the processor, and how much
processing time each process has.
■ This function of the OS is called process scheduling.
○ Device Management –
■ An OS manages device communication via their respective
drivers.
■ Keeps track of all devices connected to the system. designates a
program responsible for every device known as the
Input/Output controller.
■ Decides which process gets access to a certain device and for how
long. Allocates devices in an effective and efficient way.
○ File Management –
■ A file system is organized into directories for efficient or easy
navigation and usage.
■ OS keeps track of where information is stored, user access
settings and status of every file and more…
■ These facilities are collectively known as the file system.

4. What are the services given by operating system?

a. Program Execution:
i. The Operating System is responsible for execution of all types of
programs whether it be user programs or system programs.
ii. The Operating System utilises various resources available for the
efficient running of all types of functionalities.
b. Handling Input/Output Operations:
i. The Operating System is responsible for handling all sorts of inputs,
i.e, from keyboard, mouse, desktop, etc.
ii. The Operating System does all interfacing in the most
appropriate manner regarding all kinds of Inputs and Outputs.
c. Manipulation of File System:
i. The Operating System is responsible for making decisions
 regarding the storage of all types of data or files, i.e, floppy
disk/hard disk/pen drive, etc.
ii. The Operating System decides how the data should be
manipulated and stored.
d. Error Detection and Handling:
i. The Operating System is responsible for detection of any types of
error or bugs that can occur while any task.
ii. The well secured OS sometimes also acts as countermeasure
for preventing any sort of breach to the Computer System
from any external source and probably handling them.
e. Resource Allocation:
i. The Operating System ensures the proper use of all the
resources available by deciding which resource to be used
by whom for how much time.
ii. All the decisions are taken by the Operating System.
f. Accounting:
i. The Operating System tracks an account of all the
functionalities taking place in the computer system at a time.
ii. All the details such as the types of errors occurred are
recorded by the Operating System.
g. Information and Resource Protection:
i. The Operating System is responsible for using all the information and
resources available on the machine in the most protected way.
ii. The Operating System must foil an attempt from any external
resource to hamper any sort of data or information.

3. What is the Kernel?

Central core of any operating system is its kernel. When a system boots or starts
up, this is the first layer of software loaded into protected area of memory to prevent
overwriting. It remains there itself for the entire duration of the functioning of computer
because its services are required continuously.
5. Explain multiprogramming concept.

Multiprogramming increases CPU utilization by organizing jobs so that the CPU

always has one to execute. Several jobs are placed in the main memory and the
processor is switched from job to job as needed to keep several jobs advancing while
keeping the peripheral devices in use. Multiprogramming is the first instance where
the Operating system must make decisions for the users. Therefore, they are fairly
sophisticated.

6. What do you mean by Time-sharing systems? Mention the advantages of

timesharing systems.
 Time-sharing or multitasking is a logical extension of multiprogramming. It allows many
users to share the computer simultaneously. The CPU executes multiple jobs by
switching among them, but the switches occur so frequently that the users can interact
with each program while it is running.
The advantages of a time-sharing operating system are:
a. It allows many users to share the computer simultaneously.
b. The use of virtual memory frees programmers from concern over memory-
storage limitations.

7. What is a system call?

○ A system call is a mechanism that provides the interface between a process and
the operating system.
○ It is a programmatic method in which a computer program requests a service from
the kernel of the OS.
○ System call offers the services of the operating system to the user programs via
API (Application Programming Interface).
○ System calls are the only entry points for the kernel system.

8. What is graceful degradation? What do you mean by fault tolerant system?

In multiprocessor systems, failure of one processor will not halt the system, but
only slow it down. If there are ten processors & if one fails, the remaining nine processors
pick up the work of the failed processor. This ability to continue providing service is
proportional to the surviving hardware is called graceful degradation.
Systems with the property of graceful degradation is called fault tolerant systems.
9. What is Dual-Mode Operation?

The dual mode operation provides us with the means for protecting the operating
system from wrong users and wrong users from one another. User mode and monitor
mode are the two modes. Monitor mode is also called supervisor mode, system mode or
privileged mode. Mode bit is attached to the hardware of the computer to indicate the
current mode. Mode bit is '0' for monitor mode and '1' for user mode.

10. Explain the various system calls.

● Process Control
○ This system calls perform the task of process creation, process
termination, etc.
○ Functions:
■ End and Abort
■ Load and Execute
■ Create Process and Terminate Process
■ Wait and Signed Event
■ Allocate and free memory
● File Management
○ File management system calls handle file manipulation jobs like
creating a file, reading, and writing, etc.
○ Functions:
■ Create a file
■ Delete file
■ Open and close file
■ Read, write, and reposition
■ Get and set file attributes
● Device Management
○ Device management does the job of device manipulation like reading
from device buffers, writing into device buffers, etc.
○ Functions
■ Request and release device
■ Logically attach/ detach devices
■ Get and Set device attributes
● Information Maintenance
○ It handles information and its transfer between the OS and the user
program.
○ Functions:
■ Get or set time and date
■ Get process and device attributes
● Communications
○ These types of system calls are specially used for inter process
communications.
○ Functions:
■ Create, delete communications connections
 ■ Send, receive message
■ Help OS to transfer status information
■ Attach or detach remote devices

11. How does hardware find the Operating System kernel after system switch-on?

● The CPU initializes itself after the power in the computer is first turned on.
● This is done by triggering a series of clock ticks that are generated by
the system clock.
● After this, the CPU looks for the system’s ROM BIOS to obtain the first
instruction in the start-up program.
● This first instruction is stored in the ROM BIOS and it instructs the
system to run POST (Power On Self-Test) in a memory address that is
predetermined.
● POST first checks the BIOS chip and then the CMOS RAM.
● If there is no battery failure detected by POST, then it continues to initialize the
CPU.
● POST also checks the hardware devices, secondary storage devices
such as hard drives, ports etc. And other hardware devices such as the
mouse and keyboard.
● This is done to make sure they are working properly.
● After POST makes sure that all the components are working properly, then
the BIOS finds an operating system to load.
● In most computer systems, the operating system loads from the C drive onto
the hard drive.
● The CMOS chip typically tells the BIOS where the operating system is found.
● The order of the different drives that CMOS looks at while finding the
operating system is known as the boot sequence.
● This sequence can be changed by changing the CMOS setup.
● After finding the appropriate boot drive, the BIOS first finds the boot
record which tells it to find the beginning of the operating system.
● After the initialization of the operating system, the BIOS copies the files
into the memory. Then the operating system controls the boot process.
● In the end, the operating system does a final inventory of the system
memory and loads the device drivers needed to control the peripheral
devices.
● The users can access the system applications to perform various tasks.

12. Differentiate between monolithic and micro kernel structures.

• The microkernel is much smaller in size as compared to the monolithic

kernel.
• The microkernel is easily extensible whereas this is quite complicated for
the monolithic kernel.
 • The execution of the microkernel is slower as compared to the
monolithic kernel.
• Much more code is required to write a microkernel than the monolithic
kernel.
• Examples of Microkernel are QNX, Symbian, L4 Linux etc.
Monolithic Kernel examples are Linux, BSD etc.

13. Differentiate asymmetric and symmetric multiprocessor system.

Asymmetric Multiprocessing Symmetric Multiprocessing

In asymmetric In symmetric multiprocessing, all the

multiprocessing, the processors are treated equally.
processors are not
treated equally.
Tasks of the operating system are Tasks of the operating system are done
done by individual processor
the master processor.
No Communication between All processors communicate with another
Processors as they are controlled processor by a shared memory.
by the master processor.
In asymmetric multiprocessing, In symmetric multiprocessing, the process
processes is taken from the ready queue.
are master-slave.
Asymmetric multiprocessing Symmetric multiprocessing systems are
systems are cheaper. costlier.

Asymmetric multiprocessing Symmetric multiprocessing systems are

systems are complex to design
easier to design

14. What are multiprocessor systems & give their advantages?

Multiprocessor systems also known as parallel systems or tightly coupled systems

are systems that have more than one processor in close communication, sharing the
computer bus, the clock and sometimes memory & peripheral devices.
Their main advantages are
• Increased throughput
• Economy of scale
• Increased reliability

15. What is Real time OS? Explain the different types of RTOS.

● These types of OSs serve real-time systems.

● The time interval required to process and respond to inputs is very small.
● This time interval is called response time.
● Real-time systems are used when there are time requirements that are
very strict like missile systems, air traffic control systems, robots, etc.
● Two types of Real-Time Operating System which are as follows:
○ Hard Real-Time Systems:
■ These OSs are meant for applications where time
constraints are very strict and even the shortest possible
delay is not
acceptable.
■ These systems are built for saving life like automatic
parachutes or airbags which are required to be readily
available in case of any accident.
■ Virtual memory is rarely found in these systems.
○ Soft Real-Time Systems:
■ These OSs are for applications where time-constraint is
less strict
 PART B (7/8/9/10 MARKS)

16. Explain the following structures of operating system.

a. Simple structure
b. Layered Systems
c. Modular approach.

● Simple structure:
▪ Such operating systems do not have well defined structure and are small,
simple and limited systems.
▪ The interfaces and levels of functionality are not well separated.
▪ MS-DOS is an example of such an operating system.
▪ In MS-DOS application programs can access the basic I/O routines.
▪ These types of operating systems cause the entire system to crash if one of
the user programs fails.
▪ Diagram of the structure of MS-DOS is shown below.

○ Advantages of Simple structure:

■ It delivers better application performance because of the few
interfaces between the application program and the hardware.
■ Easy for kernel developers to develop such an operating system.
○ Disadvantages of Simple structure:
■ The structure is very complicated as no clear boundaries exist
 between modules.
■ It does not enforce data hiding in the operating system.
● Modular structure or approach:
○ It is considered as the best approach for an OS.
○ It involves designing a modular kernel.
○ The kernel has only a set of core components and other services are added
as dynamically loadable modules to the kernel either during run time or boot
time.
○ It resembles layered structure since each kernel has defined and protected
interfaces but it is more flexible than the layered structure as a module can
call any other module.
○ For example, Solaris OS is organized as shown in the figure.

○ Advantages of Modular structure

■ advantages of layered structure but with more flexible
■ advantages of microkernel approach, without message passing
overhead

○ Disadvantages of Modular structure

■ not as clean a design as the layered approach
■ not as small a kernel as a microkernel
■ but, achieves best of both worlds as far as possible
● Layered structure:
○ An OS can be broken into pieces and retain much more control on the system.
○ In this structure the OS is broken into a number of layers (levels).
○ The bottom layer (layer 0) is the hardware and the topmost layer (layer N)
 is the user interface.
○ These layers are so designed that each layer uses the functions of the lower-
level layers only.
○ This simplifies the debugging process as if lower-level layers are debugged
and an error occurs during debugging then the error must be on that layer
only as the lower-level layers have already been debugged.
○ The main disadvantage of this structure is that at each layer, the data needs
to be modified and passed on which adds overhead to the system.
○ Moreover, careful planning of the layers is necessary as a layer can use only
lower-level layers.
○ UNIX is an example of this structure.

○ Advantages of Layered structure:

■ Layering makes it easier to enhance the operating system as
implementation of a layer can be changed easily without affecting the
other layers.
■ It is very easy to perform debugging and system verification.
○ Disadvantages of Layered structure:
■ In this structure the application performance is degraded as compared
to simple structure.
■ It requires careful planning for designing the layers as higher layers use
the functionalities of only the lower layers.

17. Explain monolithic and microkernel design structures.

● Micro-kernel:
○ This structure designs the operating system by removing all non-essential
components from the kernel and implementing them as system and user
 programs.
○ This results in a smaller kernel called the micro-kernel.
○ Advantages of this structure are that all new services need to be added to
user space and does not require the kernel to be modified.
○ Thus it is more secure and reliable as if a service fails then the rest of the
operating system remains untouched.
○ Mac OS is an example of this type of OS.
○ Microkernel architecture is small and isolated therefore it can function
better.
○ Providing services in a microkernel system are expensive compared to
the normal monolithic system

○ Advantages of Microkernel structure:

■ It makes the operating system portable to various platforms.
■ As microkernels are small so these can be tested effectively.

○ Disadvantages of Microkernel structure:

■ Increased level of inter module communication degrades system
performance.
○ Monolithic System
● The entire operating system works in the kernel space in the
monolithic system.
● This increases the size of the kernel as well as the operating system.
● This is different from the microkernel system where the minimum software
that is required to correctly implement an operating system is kept in the
kernel.
○ The kernel provides various services such as memory management, file management,
 process scheduling etc. using function calls.
○ This makes the execution of the operating system quite fast as the services are
implemented under the same address space.

○ Advantages of Monolithic Kernel

■ The execution of the monolithic kernel is quite fast as the
services such as memory management, file management,
process scheduling etc.are implemented under the same
address space.
■ A process runs completely in a single address space in the
monolithic kernel.
■ The monolithic kernel is a static single binary file.
○ Disadvantages of Monolithic Kernel
■ If any service fails in the monolithic kernel, it leads to the
failure of the entire system.
■ To add any new service, the entire operating system
needs to be modified by the user.

18. Explain the different types of OS.

Batch operating system

● This type of operating system does not interact with the computer directly.
● There is an operator which takes similar jobs having the same requirement
and groups them into batches.
● It is the responsibility of the operator to sort jobs with similar needs.
● Examples of Batch based Operating System: Payroll System, Bank
Statements, etc.
 ● Advantages of Batch Operating System:
○ It is very difficult to guess or know the time required for any job
to complete. Processors of the batch systems know how long the
job would be when it is in queue
○ Multiple users can share the batch systems
○ The idle time for the batch system is very less
○ It is easy to manage large work repeatedly in batch systems
● Disadvantages of Batch Operating System:
○ The computer operators should be well known with batch systems
○ Batch systems are hard to debug
○ It is sometimes costly
○ The other jobs will have to wait for an unknown time if any job fails

Time-Sharing Operating Systems –

● Each task is given some time to execute so that all the tasks work smoothly.
● Each user gets the time of CPU as they use a single system.
● These systems are also known as Multitasking Systems.
● The task can be from a single user or different users also.
● The time that each task gets to execute is called quantum. After this time
interval is over OS switches over to the next task.
● Examples of Time-Sharing OSs are: Multics, Unix, etc.
 ● Advantages of Time-Sharing OS:
○ Each task gets an equal opportunity
○ Fewer chances of duplication of software
○ CPU idle time can be reduced
● Disadvantages of Time-Sharing OS:
○ Reliability problem
○ One must have to take care of the security and integrity of
user programs and data
○ Data communication problem

Distributed Operating System –

● These types of operating systems are a recent advancement in the world

of computer technology and are being widely accepted all over the world and, that
too, with a great pace.
● Various autonomous interconnected computers communicate with each
other using a shared communication network.
● Independent systems possess their own memory unit and CPU.
● These are referred to as loosely coupled systems or distributed systems.
● These system’s processors differ in size and function.
● The major benefit of working with these types of the operating system is that
it is always possible that one user can access the files or software which are
not actually present on his system but some other system connected within
this network i.e., remote access is enabled within the devices connected in that
network.
● Examples of Distributed Operating Systems are- LOCUS, etc.
● Advantages of Distributed Operating System:
○ Failure of one will not affect the other network communication, as
all systems are independent from each other
○ Electronic mail increases the data exchange speed
○ Since resources are being shared, computation is highly fast
and durable
○ Load on host computer reduces
○ These systems are easily scalable as many systems can be easily
added to the network
○ Delay in data processing reduces
 ● Disadvantages of Distributed Operating System:
○ Failure of the main network will stop the entire communication
○ To establish distributed systems the language which is used are
not well defined yet
○ These types of systems are not readily available as they are very
expensive. Not only that the underlying software is highly complex
and not understood well yet

Network Operating System –

● These systems run on a server and provide the capability to manage data,
users, groups, security, applications, and other networking functions.
● These types of operating systems allow shared access of files, printers,
security, applications, and other networking functions over a small private
network.
● One more important aspect of Network Operating Systems is that all the users
are well aware of the underlying configuration, of all other users within the
network, their individual connections, etc. and that’s why these computers are
popularly known as tightly coupled systems.
● Examples of Network Operating System are: Microsoft Windows Server 2003,
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, Novell NetWare, and
BSD, etc.

● Advantages of Network Operating System:

○ Highly stable centralized servers
○ Security concerns are handled through servers
 ○ New technologies and hardware up-gradation are easily integrated
into the system
○ Server access is possible remotely from different locations and types
of systems
● Disadvantages of Network Operating System:
○ Servers are costly
○ User has to depend on a central location for most operations
○ Maintenance and updates are required regularly

Real-Time Operating System –

● These types of OSs serve real-time systems.

● The time interval required to process and respond to inputs is very small.
● This time interval is called response time.
● Real-time systems are used when there are time requirements that are
very strict like missile systems, air traffic control systems, robots, etc.
● Two types of Real-Time Operating System which are as follows:
○ Hard Real-Time Systems:
■ These OSs are meant for applications where time
constraints are very strict and even the shortest possible
delay is not
acceptable.
■ These systems are built for saving life like automatic
parachutes or airbags which are required to be readily
available in case of any accident.
■ Virtual memory is rarely found in these systems.
○ Soft Real-Time Systems:
■ These OSs are for applications where time-constraint is
less strict
● Examples of Real-Time Operating Systems are: Scientific experiments,
medical imaging systems, industrial control systems, weapon systems,
robots, air traffic control systems, etc.
● Advantages of RTOS:
○ Maximum Consumption: Maximum utilization of devices and system,
thus more output from all the resources
○ Task Shifting: The time assigned for shifting tasks in these systems are
very less. For example, in older systems, it takes about 10
microseconds in shifting one task to another, and in the latest
systems, it takes 3 microseconds.
○ Focus on Application: Focus on running applications and less
importance to applications which are in the queue.
○ Real-time operating system in the embedded system: Since the size
of programs are small, RTOS can also be used in embedded systems
like in transport and others.
○ Error Free: These types of systems are error-free.
○ Memory Allocation: Memory allocation is best managed in these types
of systems.
● Disadvantages of RTOS:
○ Limited Tasks: Very few tasks run at the same time and their
concentration is very less on few applications to avoid
errors.
○ Use heavy system resources: Sometimes the system resources are
not so good and they are expensive as well.
○ Complex Algorithms: The algorithms are very complex and difficult
for the designer to write on.
○ Device driver and interrupt signals: It needs specific device drivers and
interrupts signals to respond earliest to interrupts.
○ Thread Priority: It is not good to set thread priority as these
systems are very less prone to switching tasks.