1|Page Operating System – Unit Test Paper

Structured and Essy

A/L ICT – 2025 / 2026
Time – 2 h

Part A – Structured Essay

❖ Answer all questions on this paper itself.

01. a)
i) What is time sharing system?

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…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

ii) The operating system is doing many process at same time for process management.As one of
task , keep track of satus about the processor and process state. Draw the seven state
trastision diagram for represent above scenario.

b)
i. Write 2 disadvantage of contiguous File Allocation?
1. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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ii. Write one advantage of Index File Allocation?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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1. The block size of the disk is 4 KB. The abc.py file has multiple partitions and a file allocation table
(FAT) as shown below.

FAT
401
400
401
402 -1

403 402

404 400

a. What is the directory enty block of above table? …………………………………………………

b. Write the last block index and block number? ……………………………………………………..
c. Write the size od abc.py file size? ……………………………………………………….
d. If you want to extend the abc.py file size by 4 KB. Write two changes you need to
make for it in above FAT table?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. The computer has 32 MB virtual memory and 8 GM physical memory. If the page size is 4 KB.
a. How many bits are used to represent page numbers?

b. Calculate total no of pages?

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c. How many frame are in there physical memory?

3. The computer use 18 bit virtual memory address space and 6 bit use for a represent page no.
a. How many total pages are there in memory above?

b. Write the total maximum access memory address space in KB of this virtual memory
address space?

c. If the 18-bit virtual address space is given as 01 0111 0101 0011 1101, clearly show
the page number and offset

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4. a)
i. Ashen starts word processing software to create a document using a single processor
computer. he also starts a web browser to find some information. Show the process state
transition diagram for his function as given below.

New Exit

Admit release

Ready running

block

Write the reason for the transitions A,B,C and D above

A. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

B. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

C. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

D. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

ii. Write 3 sheduling algorithm use in above diagram for process trasitions

1. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

iii. Write 3 improvement of NTFS file system?

1. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
2. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
3. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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5. A section of seven state transitions isgiven below.

Block / Ready /
suspended suspended

i. In which memory are the processes labeled A and B stored?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………
ii. Write one reason why the process is "Blocked and suspended"?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

iii. Write one reason why a process transforms from A to B?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

iv. What is paging?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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v. What is the advantage of using virtual memory in computer?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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vi. Explain the term “interrupt” in brifly.

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vii. State two type of interrupts?

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viii. Briefly describe the way of occurring each interrupt mentioned in part vii
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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6. a) A file is stored in 2KB blocks.The file allocation table (FAT) maintains a list of file blocks. The file
“Multiply.py” is stored as follows:

114 1. -1 Indicating the end of the file

110
2. The files directory entry contain the
first block number
-1
112
113

i) What is the starting block number? ……………………………………..

ii) Which of the file size (KB) ……………………………………
iii) A virtual memory system has a 4 MB virtbual address space. The page size is 4 KB.
a. How many pages are there in the virtual memory?

b. Hoe many bits are required for the page number?

c. Hoe many bits are required for the page offset?

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7. A file allocation table with 4 KB block is given below.

i. A program with 32 KB of memory is running on a computer. At a certain moment during

the execution of this program, a few fileds selected from the page table are shown below
the page numbers and frame numbers are given as binary numbers.

a. If the page size is 4 KB in virtual memory and the address is byte addressed is byte
addressed, how many bits are required for the page offset in the address?

b. How many pages are in this ?

ii. What is the physical address of 000 0101 1000 1001 of virtual address space

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8. (a) The files exam.py and school.py each occupy 2 blocks of storage. The size of each block is 4 Kb,
meaning exam.py is 8 Kb and school.py is 16 Kb. the given table represents a File Allocation
Table(FAT) that keeps track of file blocks.

• -1 value in the FAT indicates the last block of a file.

• The directory entry for exam.py states the its starting block is 304, and for
school.py, it is 303.
i. Complete the given FAT table correctly. (marks 4)

300
-1
-1

302

ii. Write a security feature in FAT table for protect data?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

9. (a). Consider the following ststement.

“Secondary storage is not essentially required for memory mamangement”
Do you agree with this statement? Justify your answer?

(b). for the following transition is seven state process transition diagram, state if the trasition is
Possible and if it is then list an event that can cause it.

i. Ready Running ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

ii. Running Terminated ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
iii. Rnunnig Ready …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
iv. Blocked/suspended Ready/suspended …………………………………………………………………………

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(c) Consider the following virtual memory address.

0101 1101 0101 0101
i. Calculate the maxium accessible virtual address space in kilo bytes?
ii. Assum 4 its are used for a page address. What is the page and displacement of this
address?
iii. Calculate the total number of pages defined by the above address scheme?

10. (a) Consider the following process states transition diagram.

Fill in the blanks given below mentioning the most suitable terms for Ⓐ"Ⓑ"Ⓒ"Ⓓ and Ⓔ in the
above image

A. …………………………………………………………………………………….
B. …………………………………………………………………………………….
C. …………………………………………………………………………………….
D. …………………………………………………………………………………….
E. …………………………………………………………………………………….

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(b) What are the schedulers used to schedule processes among following process states in the
given diagram.

Ⓐ to Ⓑ - ……………………………………………………………………………….
Ⓒ to Ⓓ - ……………………………………………………………………………….
created(new) to Ⓐ - ………………………………………………………………..

(c) If a memory address contains 24 bits and the memory is two bytes addressable, calculate the
memory size.

(d) In the linked allocation method, when accessing for a file if there is an error in a block next
block of the file becomes inaccessible. Briefly describe how this weaknesses is removed by
using FAT.

11. An operating system uses Process Control Block (PCBs) to maintain important information about
each process.
Read the following scenario and answer the given questions:

“kasun” starts a computational application on a single processor computer. While the relevant
computations are in progress, he starts a zoom meeting as well, in order to
search for some information on web browser.

Write down the content rhat will be stored in the following PCB fields of the computing
process when the "computing process --> web browser process" context switch is made

i. Program counter?
ii. Select the witch process state (Rady, Running or Blocked)?
iii. What is the mean by “contiguous file space allocation” ?
iv. Write down two draw back contiguous file allocation
v. In addition to the normal data items, write down one other information that will
exist in a file block in the linked file space allocation scheme

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12. Consider a user program of logical address of size 6 pages and page size is 4 bytes. The physical
address contains 300 frames. The user program consists of 22 instructions a, b, c, . . . u, v . Each
instruction takes 1 byte. Assume at that time the free frames are 7, 26, 52, 20, 55, 6, 18, 21, 70,
and 90. Find the following? (10 marks)

A) Draw the logical and physical maps and page tables?

B) Allocate each page in the corresponding frame?
C) Find the physical addresses for the instructions m, d, v, r?
D) Calculate the fragmentation if exist?
E) whatis the Differenece between Segment and pagine storage

13. Consider a program consists of five segments: S0 = 600, S1 = 14 KB, S2= 100 KB, S3 =580 KB, and
S4 = 96 KB. Assume at that time, the available free space partitions of memory are 1200–1805,
50 – 150, 220-234, and 2500-3180.
Find the following of given Logical Map of memory:

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1. Calculate the external fragmentation and the internal fragmentation?

A/L Past Paper Question

2018 A/L Essay

1. (a) Consider the following diagram which shows the abstract layers of a computer system are
related.

Choose and wite down the correct answers from the list given below for labels A,B,C and D.
List = {compiler, comptLter hordware , live ware, operating system, system / applicaticn programs}

A. ………………………………………………………. B. …………………………………………………………………
C. ………………………………………………………. D. …………………………………………………………………

(b) In a certain computer the physical memory has a total capacity 4 GB. The size of a memory
Frame 4KB.
i. Calculate the total numer of frames in the physical memory?

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(c) Assume that a 32 KB program is run on a computer having 32 KB of physical memory.

The page size of the system is 4 KB. The page table of this process at a particular
time is shown on the table below.
Notes:
• Only a few selected fields of each page table
entry is shown.
• The frame nurnber is indicated in binary.
• The virtual addresses on page 0 are from 0 to
4095 and on page I arc from 4O96 to 8l9l
and so on.
• The Present/absent bit indicates the validity of
the entry. If this bit is l, the entry is valid and
can be used. If it is 0, then the relevant virtual
page is not in PhYsical memory

i. Assume this program rcquires accessing virtual address 8200. To which physical address
will it get transformed to?

ii. Wriie down one advantage that the use of page tables bring with respect to program
sizes compared to the size of physical memory.

iii. give one rsason as to why a particular page of a prooess could be absent in physical
memory.

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