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EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN EOMPUTER
SCIENCE AND BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN MATHEMATICS AND
COMPUTER SCIENCE
SCO 231: OPERATING SYSTEMS
2ND SEMESTER 2023/2024 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer ALL the FOUR Questions.
QUESTION ONE
a) Suppose that we have free segments with sizes: 6,17,25,14 and 19. Place a program with size
13kB in the free segment using first-fit, best-fit and worst fit? (4 marks)
b) Discuss how the following are used to ensure security of computer resources. Access Control
Matrix, Access Control List, Capability. (6 marks)
c) Describe the actions taken by a kernel to switch context. (4 marks)
i) Among threads
ii) Among process~s.
d) The computer Operating Systems is viewed as a virtual machine. Explain. (2 marks)
e) What do you understand by Boot loader. (4 marks)
f) In the evolution of computer operating systems, terms such as Multiprogramming and job
Control Language (JCL) are mentioned. Discuss some five activities involved in
multiprogramming. (5 marks)
g) Assuming a 15-bit address space with 8 logical pages. How large are the pages? (5 marks)
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QUESTION TWO
a) -What are the differences between the following? (10 marks)
i) Logical and physical address?
ii) Page table and segment table?
iii) First-fit placement and best-fit placement?
lv) Contiguous and non-contiguous storage allocation
v) Multiple contiguous fixed partitions (MFT) and multiple contiguous variables partitions
(MVT).
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b) Explain four general strategies for dealing with deadlocks. (8 marks)
c) What factors could influence he size of the physical address space in a modern computer system
(consider various parts of the hardware). (2 marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) Discuss the process life cycle-phases-In the discussion, explain Glearly-howmultiproGessi-ng- --.
takes place. Illustrate with a diagram to show how the processes interact. (9 marks)
b) Consider the following set of processes, with the length of the CPU-burst time given in
milliseconds:
Process Burst Time Priority
PI 10 3
P2 1 1
P3 2 3
P4 1 4
P5 5 2
The processes are assume to have arrived III the order PI, P2,P3, P4, P5, all at time O.
i) Draw four Gantt charts illustrating the execution of these processes using FCFS, SIP and
RR (quantum =1) scheduling. (6 marks)
ii) Compute the turnaround time for SJF scheduling algorithms? (2 marks)
iii) What is the waiting time of each process for SJF scheduling algorithms? (3 marks)
QUESTION FOUR
. a) What are some of the benefits of mono-programming in operating system? List ANY FOUR.
(5 marks)
b) Consider a disk pack with the following specifications - 16 surfaces, 128 tracks per surface, 256
sectors per track and 512 bytes per sector. Calculate capacity of disk. (5 marks)
c) Consider ,.two possible page-replacement strategies: LRU (the least recently used page is
replaced) and FIFO (the page that has been in the memory longest is replaced). Assume we have
FOUR page frames. Which (if either) replacement strategy will work best when the machine
accesses pages in the following (stack) order: (3,4,5,6,7,6,5,4,3,4,5,6,7,6). Show your working.
(10 marks) •
QUESTION FIVE
a) A certain computer provides its users wit a virtual-memory space of 232 bytes. The computer has
218 bytes of physical memory. The virtual memory is implemented by paging, and the page size
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is 4096 bytes. A user precess generates the virtual address 11123456. Explain hew the system .(.
establishes the corresponding physicanecatie~. De net calculate. (7 marks)
b) List any four parameters to' leek at in computing the disk capacity. (6 marks)
c) The capacity or size of a hard drive refers to' hew many bytes of data the drive can stereo
Capacity is -determined bydrivegeometry.' Other oefails erdlsk-geemetrytncludF.3'e-ektime, .__.
rotational latency access time among ethers. Assume the following details about a hard disk are
provided:
181.6,3.5 inch disk; 12 platters, 24 surfaces; 24,247 cylinders; 7,200 RPM; (4.2 me avg.
latency); 7.4/8.2ms avg. seek(r/w); 64 to' 35 MB/s(intemal); 0.1 ms controller time; 10,3
watts (idle)
REQUIRED:
Calculate time to' read 64 KB (128 sectors) fer hard disk using advertised performance noting
that sector is en outer track. (7 marks)
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