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UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS

EXAMINATION FOR SEPTEMBER/DECEMBER 2015/2016 DIPLOMA IN COMPUTER


SCIENCE
DCS 021 INTRODUCTION TO OPERATING SYSTEM
DATE: 30TH NOVEMBER 2015. TIME: 2 HOURS

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:
Students are NOT permitted to write on the examination paper during reading time.
This is a closed book examination. Text book/Reference books/notes are not permitted.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
This examination paper consists Questions in Section A followed by section B.
Answer Question 1 and any Other Two questions.
QUESTIONS in ALL Sections should be answered in answer booklet(s).
1. PLEASE start the answer to EACH question on a NEW PAGE.
2. Keep your phone(s) switched off at the front of the examination room and NOT
on your person.
3. Keep ALL bags and caps at the front of the examination room and DO NOT
refer to ANY unauthorized material before or during the course of the
examination.
4. ALWAYS show your working.
5. Marks indicated in parenthesis i.e. ( ) will be awarded for clear and logical
answers.
6. Write your REGISTRATION No. clearly on the answer booklet(s).
7. For the Questions, write the number of the question on the answer booklet(s) in
the order you answered them.
8. DO NOT use your PHONE as a CALCULATOR.
9. YOU are ONLY ALLOWED to leave the exam room 30minutes to the end of the
Exam.

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SECTION A (COMPULSORY)
Question One (30marks)
a. Define the following terms as used by the operating system (5marks)
i. Process
ii. Dispatcher
iii. Scheduler
iv. Scheduling queue
v. Context switch
b. Give an account on the history of operating system (4marks)
c. Describe any operating system architecture in use and state its advantages as well as
disadvantage. (3marks)
d. A Classmate of yours has asked you to assist him in identifying five functions of the
operating system. Explain (10marks)
e. The following table describes the processes awaiting execution by the central processing
unit (CPU). The process scheduling algorithm used is FIFO.
Processes Arrival time Execution Time Service Time
P0 0 5 0
P1 1 3 5
P2 2 8 8
P3 3 6 16

i. Draw a Gantt chart that shows the waiting time of the various processes shown in the
table. (3marks)
ii. Supposing the process scheduling algorithm used was Shortest Job Next (SJN) draw a
Gantt chart demonstrating waiting time. (3marks)
iii. Calculate the average waiting time for both algorithms (2marks)

SECTION B (ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS)


Question two (20marks)
a. What is an operating system? (2marks)
b. Give five reasons why companies opt to use open source operating system over windows
operating system. (5marks)
c. Outline four differences between standalone operating system and network operating
systems. Give examples for each type of operating system. (8marks)
d. As an expert in the Operating system environment, you are expected to advice a company
that seeks consultancy from you .State six factors you need to consider when buying an
Operating system. (5marks)

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Question Three (20marks)
a. Describe the following terms as used in memory management
i. Segmentation (2marks)
ii. Paging (2marks)
iii. Demand Paging (2marks)
iv. Fragmentation (2marks)

b. Outline four circumstances that would make the system use the virtual memory over the
physical memory. (4marks)
c. Explain two memory allocation mechanisms used by the operating system (4marks)
d. Page replacement algorithm is a mechanisms used by a virtual memory. List any four
Algorithm used. (4marks)
Question Four (20marks)
a. What is a multithreading model? Name the types of models present. (5marks)
b. With an Illustration of a diagram, use the techniques stated below to show how memory
pages swap out, write to disk when a page of memory needs to be allocated. Supposing
four pages can be in the memory at a time per process. Use the following reference
string(0,2,1,6,4,0,1,0,3,1,2,1) to construct the following.
i. First in First Out (FIFO) (5marks)
ii. Optimum Algorithm (5marks)
iii. Least Recently Used (5marks)

Question Five (20marks)


a. What is a deadlock? (2marks)
b. Identify four circumstance under which a deadlock would occur? (4marks)
c. Explain three types of deadlocks present in the operating system. (9marks)
d. Discuss how we resolve deadlocks in the event that they occur. (5marks)

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