Deck 3: Understanding Processes and Threads in Operating Systems

Question 1

Which of the following is not typically part of a process's address space?

A) text region
B) register region
C) data region
D) stack region

Answer 1

register region

Question 2

Which of the following is a synonym for "process"?

A) task
B) program
C) executable code
D) all of the above

Answer 2

task

Question 3

How many processes truly can execute concurrently in a system at any time?

A) any number
B) at least as many as there are processors
C) at most as many as there are processors
D) none of the above

Answer 3

at most as many as there are processors

Question 4

Which of the following states is not a discrete process state?

A) running state
B) blocked state
C) ready state
D) unblocked state

Question 5

Typically, the ready list of ready processes is maintained in ________ order, while the blocked list of blocked processes is ________.

A) prioritized, unordered
B) random, prioritized
C) alphabetical, ordered chronologically
D) chronological, prioritized

Question 6

When a user runs a program, processes are created and inserted into the ________ list.

A) running
B) ready
C) blocked
D) dispatched

Question 7

________ assigns a processor to the first process in the ready list.

A) Initializing
B) Instantiating
C) Dispatching
D) Loading

Question 8

A process control block (PCB) typically includes which of the following information?

A) the process's execution context
B) the process state
C) the process identification number (PID)
D) all of the above

Question 9

Which of the following typically is not part of a process's execution context?

A) general-purpose registers that store process data
B) process management registers
C) pointers to the process's parent and child processes
D) registers that store pointers to the process's address space

Question 10

Which of the following statements is true?

A) A child process may belong to multiple parents at once.
B) Each parent process may create only one child process.
C) Spawning new processes yields a hierarchical process structure.
D) none of the above

Question 11

Which of the following may occur when a process is destroyed?

A) The process's memory and other resources are returned to the system.
B) The destroyed process's children are destroyed.
C) The process is removed from any system lists or tables.
D) all of the above

Question 12

What operation is particularly useful for detecting security threats and debugging software?

A) dispatch
B) suspend
C) block
D) abort

Question 13

Which of the following can occur?

A) A running process may suspend itself.
B) A running process may be suspended by a blocked process.
C) A running process may be suspended by a ready process.
D) none of the above

Question 14

What must occur for a system to perform a context switch?

A) The kernel must save the current running process's execution context to the process's PCB.
B) The kernel must load the previous execution context of a ready process.
C) both a and b
D) none of the above

Question 15

An operating system must be designed such that ________.

A) context-switching time is maximized
B) context switches are transparent to processes
C) as many "useful" computations as possible are performed while switching contexts
D) all of the above

Question 16

A(n) ________ is a set of instructions to be executed in response to a certain type of interrupt.

A) context switch
B) trap
C) interrupt handler
D) interrupt vector

Question 17

________ can be used instead of interrupts to inform the processor of changes in device status?

A) Polling
B) Querying
C) Exceptions
D) Events

Question 18

The interrupt vector ________.

A) is an array of pointers to PCBs of processes generating interrupts.
B) can be modified only by running processes.
C) is an array of pointers to interrupt handlers.
D) stores information about each interrupt that occurs.

Question 19

Software-generated interrupts in the IA-32 architecture can be used to ________.

A) indicate errors occurring in hardware
B) perform system calls
C) indicate an I/O completion
D) none of the above

Question 20

What type of exception would occur in the IA-32 architecture if a process attempts to divide by zero?

A) fault
B) trap
C) abort
D) any of the above could occur

Question 21

________________ employs interprocess communication.

A) A text editor sending a document to a print spooler
B) A Web browser retrieving data from a distant server
C) A distributed application used to find large prime numbers
D) all of the above

Question 22

Which of the following statements about signals is true?

A) Signals often are used to pass data between processes.
B) All operating systems use the same set of signals.
C) Signals notify a process that an event has occurred.
D) all of the above

Question 23

When a process ________ a signal, the operating system responds to the signal using the default signal handler; however, when a process ________ a signal of a particular type, the operating system does not deliver signals of that type and does not respond to the signal.

A) masks, catches
B) ignores, masks
C) catches, masks
D) masks, ignores

Question 24

A ________ send is an example of ________ communication that requires the sender to wait for receipt notification before continuing program execution.

A) blocking, synchronous
B) blocking, asynchronous
C) nonblocking, synchronous
D) nonblocking, asynchronous

Question 25

Which of the following statements about pipes is true?

A) A pipe serves as a buffer through which two or more processes can exchange data.
B) The operating system synchronizes access to a pipe.
C) After a process reads data from the pipe, the data is removed from the pipe.
D) all of the above

Question 26

Sending and receiving processes often use ________ to ensure that messages are properly received.

A) a receipt protocol
B) an acknowledgment protocol
C) a synchronization protocol
D) an authorization protocol

Question 27

Which of the following statements about UNIX processes is true?

A) The UNIX kernel allows user processes to modify PCBs as needed.
B) UNIX processes are provided with a range of physical addresses in which to store its code, data and stack.
C) The process table allows the operating system to access information regarding every process.
D) all of the above

Question 28

When a child process is spawned, the UNIX fork system call returns ________ to the parent process and ________ to the child process.

A) a value of zero, the PID of the parent process
B) a value of one, the PID of the parent process
C) the PID of the child process, a value of zero
D) the PID of the child process, a value of one

Question 29

In UNIX systems, kernel processes often have ________ numerical priority values and typically have ________ scheduling priority than user processes.

A) positive, higher
B) positive, lower
C) negative, higher
D) negative, lower