Q-1. Define operating systems.

A-1. An Operating System (OS) is an interface between a computer user and computer
hardware. An operating system is a software which performs all the basic tasks like file
management, memory management, process management, handling input and output, and
controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.

Some popular Operating Systems include Linux Operating System, Windows Operating System,
VMS, OS/400, AIX, z/OS, etc.

Q-2. Explain different types function of O/S.

A-2. The operating system performs the following functions in a device.

(a) Instruction: The operating system establishes a mutual understanding between the various
instructions given by the user.

(b) Input/Output Management: What output will come from the input given by the user, the
operating system runs this program.

(c) Memory Management: The operating system handles the responsibility of storing any data,
system programs, and user programs in memory.

(d) File Management: The operating system is helpful in making changes in the stored files and
in replacing them.
(e) Processor Management: The processor is the execution of a program that accomplishes the
specified work in that program.

(f) Job Priority: The work of job priority is creation and promotion. It determines what action
should be done first in a computer system.

(g) Special Control Program: The operating systems make automatic changes to the task
through specific control programs. These programs are called Special Control Program.

(h) Scheduling and resources and jobs: The operating system prepares the list of tasks to be
performed for the device of the computer system. The operating system decides which device
to use for which task.

(i) Security: Modern operating systems use a firewall for security. A firewall is a security system
that monitors every activity happening in the computer and blocks that activity in case of any
threat.

(j) Monitoring Activities: The operating system takes care of the activities of the computer
system during various processes. This aborts the program if there are errors.

(j) Job accounting: It keeps track of time & resources used by various jobs and users.

Q-3. Which computer has a single processor?

A-3. A computer has only one processor which is known as Uniprocessor. A uniprocessor
system is defined as a computer system that has a single central processing unit that is used to
execute computer tasks.

Q-4. What are the advantages of single processor system? Explain.

A-4. Advantages of single processor system: -

(a) Supports one user at a time- In these systems one user is only active at a time. So, there will
be no other user interfering with the applications. And in these systems all computer resources
are used by a user request.

(b) Easy to maintain- These systems use less resources and complexity of them is less so it is
easy to maintain and debug. In multi user operating system there are higher resources needed
and resources are in use most of time.

(c) Less chance to damage- This system includes less requests to hardware and software at a
time so they have less chance to damage. These systems not make higher load time also.

(d) Concentrate on one task- In modern operating system there are running multiple tasks at a
time. Like many applications and tasks are running at a time but in single user OS only one task
run at a time. So, these systems sometimes give less output result at a time.
Q-5. What is a multiple processor system?
A-5. A multiprocessor system is defined as "a system with more than one processor", and, more
precisely, "a number of central processing units linked together to enable parallel processing to
take place".

Q-6. Why multi-processor system is superior to single processor system?

A-6.
(a) More reliable system- In a multiprocessor system, even if one processor fails, the system will
not halt. This ability to continue working despite hardware failure is known as graceful
degradation.

(b)Enhanced Throughput- If multiple processors are working in tandem, then the throughput of
the system increases i.e., number of processes getting executed per unit of time increase.

(c)More Economic System- Multiprocessor systems are cheaper than single processor systems
in the long run because they share the data storage, peripheral devices, power supplies etc.
Q-7. What are the disadvantages of single user operating system?
A-7. Single user operating system also has some disadvantages, such as:

(a) Tasks take longer to complete: Many tasks are waiting for the CPU if no multiple tasks run at
a time. So, these systems respond to processes at a higher time. This will make the system slow,
and response time is higher.

(b) Idle time is higher: If only one task is running and this task doesn't require memory or I/O
use, these devices remain idle. But other tasks need those devices. So only one task is run at a
time, then other tasks have to wait till the first task is finished.

Q-8. What is handheld system?

A-8. Handheld systems include Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), such as Palm-Pilots or Cellular
Telephones with connectivity to a network such as the Internet. They are usually of limited size
due to which most handheld devices have a small amount of memory, include slow processors,
and feature small display screens.
Q-9. What is a clustered system? Explain.
A-9. The clustered systems are a combination of hardware clusters and software clusters. The
hardware clusters help in sharing of high-performance disks between the systems. The software
clusters make all the systems work together.
Each node in the clustered systems contains the cluster software. This software monitors the
cluster system and makes sure it is working as required. If any one of the nodes in the clustered
system fail, then the rest of the nodes take control of its storage and resources and try to
restart.

Q-10. What are the main differences between a multi-processor system and a multi computer
systems?
A- 10
Q-11. What are operating system operations?
A-11. An operating system is a construct that allows the user application programs to interact
with the system hardware. Operating system by itself does not provide any function but it
provides an atmosphere in which different applications and programs can do useful work.

The major operations of the operating system are process management, memory management,
device management and file management.
Q-12. What type of operations are provided by an operating system? Explain.
A-12.
(a) Process Management- The operating system is responsible for managing the processes i.e.,
assigning the processor to a process at a time. This is known as process scheduling.

(b) Memory Management- It deals with memory and the moving of processes from disk to
primary memory for execution and back again. The operating system assigns memory to the
processes as required. This can be done using best fit, first fit and worst fit algorithms.

(c) Device Management- There are many I/O devices handled by the operating system such as
mouse, keyboard, disk drive etc. The user applications can access all the I/O devices using the
device drivers, which are device specific codes.

(d) File Management- Files are used to provide a uniform view of data storage by the operating
system. All the files are mapped onto physical devices that are usually nonvolatile so data is
safe in the case of system failure.

The files can be accessed by the system in two ways i.e., sequential access and direct access −
(1) Sequential Access- The files records are accessed on after another. Most of the file
systems such as editors, compilers etc. use sequential access.

(2) Direct Access- the files can be accessed in random for read and write operations. The
direct access model is based on the disk model of a file, since it allows random accesses.
Q-13. What are different types of services in operating system? Explain.
A-13 Here is a list of common services offered by an almost all operating systems:

(a)Program Execution in Operating System- The operating system must have the capability to
load a program into memory and execute that program. Furthermore, the program must be
able to end its execution, either normally or abnormally / forcefully.

(b) File System Manipulation in Operating System- Programs need has to be read and then write
them as files and directories. File handling portion of operating system also allows users to
create and delete files by specific name along with extension, search for a given file and / or list
file information. Some programs comprise of permissions management for allowing or denying
access to files or directories based on file ownership.

(c) I/O operations in Operating System- A program which is currently executing may require I/O,
which may involve file or another I/O device. For efficiency and protection, users cannot
directly govern the I/O devices. So, the OS provide a means to do I/O Input / Output operation
which means read or write operation with any file.

(d) Communication System of Operating System- Process needs to swap over information with
other process. Processes executing on same computer system or on different computer systems
can communicate using operating system support. Communication between two processes can
be done using shared memory or via message passing.

(e) Resource Allocation of Operating System- When multiple jobs running concurrently,
resources must need to be allocated to each of them. Resources can be CPU cycles, main
memory storage, file storage and I/O devices. CPU scheduling routines are used here to
establish how best the CPU can be used.

(f) Error Detection- Errors may occur within CPU, memory hardware, I/O devices and in the user
program. For each type of error, the OS takes adequate action for ensuring correct and
consistent computing.
(e) Accounting- This service of the operating system keeps track of which users are using how
much and what kinds of computer resources have been used for accounting or simply to
accumulate usage statistics.

(f)Protection and Security- Protection includes in ensuring all access to system resources in a
controlled manner. For making a system secure, the user needs to authenticate him or her to
the system before using (usually via login ID and password).

Q-14. Explain distributed system with example.

A-14. A distributed system allows resource sharing, including software by systems connected to
the network.

Examples of distributed systems / applications of distributed computing:

Internet, WWW, email, Telecommunication networks such as Telephone networks and Cellular
networks. Network of branch office computers -Information system to handle automatic
processing of orders, Real-time process control: Aircraft control systems, electronic banking.
Q-15. What are special purpose systems?
A-15. There are various classes of computer systems based upon their computational speed,
usage and hardware. The following are some special purpose systems according to specific
applications. They use: Real-time embedded systems, Multimedia systems, Hand held and
portable systems.

Q-16. What are examples of special purpose computer? Explain all of them.
A-16. These are explained as following below.

(a)Real-time embedded systems Multimedia systems:

Embedded systems are small computers having a limited set of hardware like a small processor
capable of processing a limited set of instructions (often called as an Application Specific
Integrated Circuit (ASIC) a small memory (RAM or EPROM) and I/O devices. These systems
usually do specific tasks. Examples are microwave ovens, robots in a manufacturing unit, latest
automotive engines, etc.

(b)Multimedia systems:
Multimedia refers to data of multiple types that includes audio and video including
conventional data like text-files, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, etc. It requires that
audio and video data must be processed based upon certain time restrictions. This is called as
streaming. It is usually 30 frames per second for a video file. Applications such as video
conferencing, movies and clips downloaded over internet, mp3, DVD, VCD playing and
recording are examples of various multimedia applications. A multimedia application is usually
a combination of both audio and video. The multimedia is not limited to desktop operating
system or computers but it is also becoming popular in handheld.

(c)Hand held and portable systems:

Hand-held systems refer to small portable devices that can be carried along and are capable of
performing normal operations. They are usually battery powered. Examples include Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, palm-top computers, pocket-PCs etc. As they are
handheld devices, their weights and sizes have certain limitations as a result they are equipped
with small memories, slow processors and small display screens, etc. The physical memory
capacity is very less (512 KB to 128 MB) hence the operating systems of these devices must
manage the memory efficiently. As the processors are slower due to battery problem, the
operating system should not burden.

Q-17. Explain different types of computing environments in operating system.

A- 17. −
(a) Personal Computing Environment- In the personal computing environment, there is a single
computer system. All the system processes are available on the computer and executed there.
The different devices that constitute a personal computing environment are laptops, mobiles,
printers, computer systems, scanners etc.

(b) Time Sharing Computing Environment- The time-sharing computing environment allows
multiple users to share the system simultaneously. Each user is provided a time slice and the
processor switches rapidly among the users according to it. Because of this, each user believes
that they are the only ones using the system.

(c) Client Server Computing Environment- In client server computing, the client requests a
resource and the server provides that resource. A server may serve multiple clients at the same
time while a client is in contact with only one server. Both the client and server usually
communicate via a computer network but sometimes they may reside in the same system.
(d) Distributed Computing Environment- A distributed computing environment contains
multiple nodes that are physically separate but linked together using the network. All the nodes
in this system communicate with each other and handle processes in tandem. Each of these
nodes contains a small part of the distributed operating system software.

(e) Cloud Computing Environment- The computing is moved away from individual computer
systems to a cloud of computers in cloud computing environment. The cloud users only see the
service being provided and not the internal details of how the service is provided. This is done
by pooling all the computer resources and then managing them using a software.

(f) Cluster Computing Environment- The clustered computing environment is similar to parallel
computing environment as they both have multiple CPUs. However, a major difference is that
clustered systems are created by two or more individual computer systems merged together
which then work parallel to each other.

Q-18. Explain all open-source operating system.

A-18. The open-source operating system allows the use of code that is freely distributed and
available to anyone and for commercial purposes. Being an open-source application or
program, the program source code of an open-source OS is available. The user may modify or
change those codes and develop new applications according to the user requirement. Some
basic examples of the open-source operating systems are Linux, Open Solaris, Free RTOS, Open
BDS, Free BSD, Minix, etc.

WINDOWS
The name of the Windows OS comes from the fact that programs are run in “windows”: each
program has its own window, and you can have several programs open at the same time.
Windows is the most popular OS for home computers, and there are several versions of it. The
newest version is Windows 10.

LINUX AND UNIX

Linux is an open-source OS, which means that its program code is freely available to software
developers. This is why thousands of programmers around the world have developed Linux,
and it is considered the most tested OS in the world. Linux has been very much influenced by
the commercial Unix OS. In addition to servers, Linux is widely used in home computers, since
there are a great number of free programs for it (for text and image processing, spreadsheets,
publishing, etc.). Over the years, many different versions of Linux have become available for
distribution, most of which are free for the user (such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Mint, to name a
few).

MAC OS X
Apple’s Mac computers have their own operating system, OS X. Most of the programs that are
available for PCs are also available for Macs running under OS X, but these two types of
computers cannot use the exact same programs: for example, you cannot install the Mac
version of the Microsoft Office suite on a Windows computer. You can install other operating
systems on Mac computers, but the OS X is only available for computers made by Apple.
Apple’s lighter portable devices (iPads, iPhones) use a light version of the same operating
system, called iOS. Mac computers are popular because OS X is considered fast, easy to learn
and very stable and Apple’s devices are considered well-designed—though rather expensive.

ANDROID
Android is an operating system designed for phones and other mobile devices. Android is not
available for desktop computers, but in mobile devices it is extremely popular: more than a half
of all mobile devices in the world run on Android.
Q-19. Explain different types of user O/S interfaces.
A-19. There are four prevalent types of user interface and each has a range of advantages and
disadvantages:

(a) Command Line Interface- The command line interface is no longer common as a form of
basic user interface in everyday consumer products, but it is still in use under certain
circumstances. Command Line Interface requires users to type appropriate instructions into the
command line. The computer is commanded to first go to the required file or directory. From
there, a whole host of commands become available, from retrieving files to running programs

(b) Menu-Driven Interface- The menu-driven user interface provides you with a range of
commands or options in the form of a list or menu displayed in full-screen, pop-up, pull-down,
or drop-down. An ATM is an example of a menu-driven interface.

(c) Graphical User Interface- The graphical user interface, or GUI, is the type of interface with
which the majority of people are the most familiar. You interact with these interfaces by using a
mouse, tack pad, or other peripheral to point and click on graphics or icons.

(d) Touchscreen Graphical User Interface- The touchscreen GUI is very similar to the regular
GUI, except that you use your fingers or a stylus to select icons and perform tasks, rather than a
mouse or trackpad. Touchscreen GUIs are commonly found on tablets, smartphones, and
medical devices. The touchscreen GUI has the same benefits and disadvantages as standard
GUIs, but also offers a more intimate method of interaction. The lack of peripherals makes
touchscreen GUIs very convenient.

Q-20. Define system call. Explain different types of system call.

A-20. The interface between a process and an operating system is provided by system calls. In
general, system calls are available as assembly language instructions. They are also included in
the manuals used by the assembly level programmers.

System calls are usually made when a process in user mode requires access to a resource. Then
it requests the kernel to provide the resource via a system call.

There are mainly five types of system calls. These are explained in detail as follows −

Here are the types of system calls −

(a) Process Control- These system calls deal with processes such as process creation,
process termination etc.
(b) File Management- These system calls are responsible for file manipulation such as
creating a file, reading a file, writing into a file etc.
(c) Device Management- These system calls are responsible for device manipulation such as
reading from device buffers, writing into device buffers etc.
(d) Information Maintenance- These system calls handle information and its transfer
between the operating system and the user program.
(e) Communication- These system calls are useful for inter process communication. They
also deal with creating and deleting a communication connection.

Q-21. Explain the design and implementation of an operating system in detail.

A-21. Operating System Design Goals

It is quite complicated to define all the goals and specifications of the operating system while
designing it. The design changes depending on the type of the operating system i.e., if it is
batch system, time shared system, single user system, multi user system, distributed system
etc.

There are basically two types of goals while designing an operating system. These are −
(a) User Goals- The operating system should be convenient, easy to use, reliable, safe and
fast according to the users. However, these specifications are not very useful as there is
no set method to achieve these goals.
(b) System Goals- The operating system should be easy to design, implement and maintain.
These are specifications required by those who create, maintain and operate the
operating system. But there is not specific method to achieve these goals as well.

Operating System Implementation

The operating system needs to be implemented after it is designed. Earlier they were written in
assembly language but now higher-level languages are used. The first system not written in
assembly language was the Master Control Program (MCP) for Burroughs Computers.

Q-22. What is an operating system structure? What are the types of operating system
structure? Explain.

A-22. Operating System provides the medium for the user to communicate with the computer
hardware. System software is installed on top of the operating system. Operating System
structure is the basic model which is needed to implement Operating Systems.
(a) 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 operating system
(b) Layered structure: An OS can be broken into pieces and retain much more control on
system. In this structure the OS is broken into number of layers (levels).

(c) 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.

(d) Modular structure or approach: It is considered as the best approach for an OS. It involves
designing of a modular kernel. The kernel has only set of core components and other services
are added as dynamically loadable modules to the kernel either during run time or boot time.