Homework 1

22C:116, Spring 1995

Due Friday Jan. 25, 1995, in class

Douglas W. Jones

This assignment is dominated by review questions that are not as much specific to the material in the book as they are to material you should have learned in prior courses or work experience.

Note that one purpose of this assignment is to collect the names of the students in the class. Make sure your name is on your answers!

  1. What is the function of a process manager? Write a paragraph giving clear general description, as used in the context of operating systems. Try to avoid giving a definition specific to one particular system.

  2. What is a page fault? Write a paragraph giving a clear general definition.

  3. Why do most processors have a privileged mode of execution? Write a paragraph giving a general answering to this question.

  4. In the writeup on third generation operating systems, section 1.2.3, pages 8-10 in Tannenbaum, he says that ``the concept of a computer utility eventually fizzled out.'' How do companies like Compuserve and Prodigy differ from computer utilities, and how are they similar to the utility envisioned when Multics was under development? Limit your answer to a paragraph!