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A.R.

ENGINEERING COLLEGE,VILLUPURAM

Question Bank
Subject: System Software CS2304 Year / Sem: III / V
UNIT I INTRODUCTION PART-A (2 MARKS) 1. Define system software. 2. How system software is dependent on machine architecture? System software are intended to support the operation and use of the computer itself, rather than doing any particular application. So they are realted to architecture of machine on which they are to run. 2. Give examples of machine dependent and machine independent features? 3. Define compiler and interpreter. 4. What is meant by upward compatibility of system architecture?Give example. 5. What is the need of MAR register? 6. Draw SIC instruction format. 7. Give any two differences between base relative and program relative addressing. 8. Define indirect addressing. Give example 9. Define immediate addressing. Give example 10. List out any two CISC and RISC machine. 11. Write about the memory in SIC architecture? 12. List out the various addressing modes used in SIC/XE. 13. What is the name of X and L register in SIC machine and also specify its use. 14. What are the instruction formats used in SIC/XE architecture? Give any one format. 15.Following is a memory configuration: ADDRESS VALUE REGISTER R 1 5 5 5 7 6 5 7 7 What is the result of the following statement? ADD 6(immediate) to R(indirect). 16. What is the difference between the instructions LDA # 3 and LDA THREE? 17.Give some advantages of assembly language over machine language. It is mnemonic; we write LDA instead of bit configuration. Addresses are symbolic; not absolute. Reading is easier. 17. Differentiate trailing numeric and leading separate numeric. 18. What are the addressing modes used in VAX architecture?(May be asked) 19. How do you calculate the Target address in the case of register indirect with immediate index mode? Give example. 20. Write the sequence of instructions to perform the operation BETA = ALPHA + 1 using SIC instructions. (Refer back of ur textbook) 21. Write the sequence of instructions to perform the operation BETA = ALPHA+5 using SIC/XE instructions. (Refer back of ur textbook) 22. What is the use of TD instruction in SIC architecture?(sure 2 mark) PART-B (16 marks) 1. Describe the architecture of SIC machine. (16) 2. Explain in detail, architecture of SIC/XE machine . (16) (Or)Explain in detail, the architecture of SIC machine and SIC/XE machine(16). 3. Explain the different RISC & CISC machine architecture. (16)(May be asked) 4. Explain in detail the addressing modes and instruction formats of SIC/XE machine. (16) 5. Explain the Data formats and instruction formats of SIC & SIC/XE machine.(16) 6. Write short notes on : i) Data formats and instruction formats (10) ii)I/O programming(6)

UNIT II ASSEMBLERS PART-A (2-MARKS) 1. Define the basic functions of assembler. 2. What is meant by assembler directives? Give example. 3. What is a forward reference?(give example) Sure two mark. 4. What are the three different records used in object program? 5. What is the need of SYMTAB (symbol table) in assembler? 6. What is the need of OPTAB (operation code table) in assembler? 7. What are the symbols defining statements generally used in assemblers? 8. Define re locatable program. 9. Differentiate absolute expression and relative expression. 10. Write the steps required to translate the source program to object program. 11. What is the use of the variable LOCCTR (location counter) in assembler? 12. Define load and go assembler. 13. What are the two different types of jump statements used in MASM assembler? 14. What are the uses of base register table in AIX assembler? 15. Differentiate the assembler directives RESW and RESB. 16. Define modification record and give its format. 17.What is relocation? The movement of object code from one location to another location at load time is called relocation. 18.Differentiate location counter and program counter? Location counter is a variable that holds the address of currently translated instruction. It is initialized to the beginning address specified in START statement. After each source statement is processed 19. What is meant by EQU and ORG? 20. What is meant by external references? 21. Define control section. 22. What is the difference between the assembler directive EXTREF and 23. Give the general format of defines record. 24. Give the use of assembler directive CSECT and USE 25. What is the use of the assembler directive START? 26. How does an assembler perform when it encounters LTORG ? 27. In one pass assembler how forward references can be avoided. It is easy to eliminate forward references to data items by defining them in the source program before they are referenced. Programmer can place all storage reservation statements at the start of the program. 28.What is an object program? An object program contains translated instructions and data values from the source program and specifies addresses in the memory where these items are to be loaded. 29. Write down the pass numbers(PASS 1/PASS 2) of the following activities that occur in a two pass assembler. a. Object code generation. b.Literals added to literal table c. Listing printed d. Address resolution of local symbols. PART-B 1. What are the data structures used in assembler?Discuss how the structures are organized? (Repeated question) 2. Explain in detail about pass1 assembler algorithm with example. (16) 3. Explain in detail about pass2 assembler algorithm with example. (16) 4. Explain Program relocation assembler features with an example. 5. Explain the machine independent assembler features. (16) 6.Explain the machine dependent assembler features.(16) 7. Explain various assembler design options. (16) 8.Expalin in detail the features of MASM assembler for Pentium system.

UNIT III LOADERS AND LINKERS PART-A (2-MARKS) 1. What are the basic functions of loaders? 2. Define absolute loader 3. What is meant by bootstrap loader? 4. What are relative (re locative) loaders? 5. What is the use of modification record? 6. What are the 2 different techniques used for relocation? 7. Relocation bit method 8. Define bit mask 9. What is the need of ESTAB? 10. What is the use of the variable PROGADDR? 11. Write the two passes of a linking loader. 12. Define automatic library search. 13. List the loader options INCLUDE &DELETE. 14. Give the functions of the linking loader. 15. Give the difference between linking loader and linkage editors. 16. Define dynamic linking. 17. Write the advantage of dynamic linking. 18. What is meant by static executable and dynamic executable? 19. What is shared and private data? 20. Write the absolute loader algorithm. 21.What is a load map table? At the end of pass 1,ESTAB contains all external symbols defined in the set of control sections together with the address assigned to each.Many loaders include as an option the ability to print a load map that shows these symbols and addresses.This information is often used in program debugging. 22. What are the disadvantages of an absolute loader or machine dependent loader? The program has to specify the actual address(i.e) at which the object code will be loaded into memory. The starting address of the program should be known in advance, on larger and more advanced machines this is not possible. 23.Define linker? Linker is a system software which combines no.of object program intone program and supplies the information needed to allow references between them. PART - B 1. Explain the following basic loader functions a. Design of an Absolute loader (8) b. Bootstrap loader (8) 2. Explain program linking machine independent loader features with an example. (16) 3. Explain the algorithm and data structures for a linking loader (16) 4. Explain the following terms a. Linkage editors (8) b. Dynamic linking (8) 5. Explain in detail about MS-DOS linker. (16) 6. Explain the design of relocation loader with an example.(16)

UNIT IV MACRO PROCESSORS PART A (2-MARKS) 1. Define macro processor. 2. What do macro expansion statements mean? 3. What are the directives used in macro definition? 4. What are the data structures used in macro processor? 5. Define conditional macro expansion. 6. What is the use of macro time variable? 7. What are the statements used for conditional macro expansion? 8. What is meant by positional parameters? 9. Consider the macro definition 10. What are known as nested macro call? 11. How the macro is processed using two passes? 12. Give the advantage of line by line processors. 13. What is meant by line by line processor? 14. Give the advantages of general-purpose macro processors. 15. What is meant by general-purpose macro processors? 16. What are the important factors considered while designing general purpose macro processors? 17. What is the symbol used to generate unique labels? 18. How the nested macro calls are executed? 19. Mention the tasks involved in macro expansion. 20. How to design the pass structure of a macro assembler? PART B 1. Explain in detail about Macro processor algorithm and data structures. (16) 2. Explain conditional Macro expansion with example (16) 3. Explain the following machine independent macro features. a. Concatenation of macro parameters (6) b. Generation of unique labels (6) c. Keyword macro parameters (4) 4. Explain in detail about MASM macro processor. (16) 5. Explain ANSI C macro processor. (16)

UNIT V SYSTEM SOFTWARE TOOLS PART A (2-MARKS) 1. Define interactive editor? 2. What are the tasks performed in the editing process? 3. What are the three categories of editors devices? 4. What is the function performed in editing phase? 5. Define Locator device? 6. What is a current editing pointer? In editing a document the start of the area is determined by the current editing pointer maintained by the editing component, which is the collection of modules dealing with editing tasks. It can be set explicitly by traveling commands or implicitly by system. 6. What is the function performed in voice input device? 7. What are called tokens? 8. Name some of typical tokens. 9. What is meant by lexeme? 10. Mention the main disadvantage of interpreter. 11. What is meant by code optimization? 12. What is error handler? 13. Name some of text editors. 14. What for debug monitors are used? 15. Mention the features of word processors. 16. What are the phases in performing editing process? 17. What is a viewing filter? When the display needs to be updated the viewing component invokes the viewing filter. This component filters the document to generate a new viewing buffer based on the current viewing pointer and viewng filter parameters. 18. Define a.)Filtering phase b.) Traveling phase c.) Editing phase 19. What is a window? The viewing buffer is passed to the display component which produces a display by mapping the buffer to a rectangular subset of the screen usually called a window. 20. Define user interface? 21. Define input device? 22. Define output devices 23. What are the methods in Interaction language of a text editor? 24. Define interactive debugging systems 25. Define editor structure. 26. Give the components of editor structure 27. What must be the features of a command language? It must be flexible,clear,logical,simple syntax. Contains very few parameters. Must be very flexible. PART B 1. Explain the Editor structure with a neat diagram. (16) 2. Write short notes on a. Interactive debugging systems (8) b. Write short notes on Text editors. (8) 3. Write short notes on a. User Interface Criteria (8) b. System software tools with example (8) 4. Discuss in detail about debugging functions and capabilities. (16)

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