o Identify three benefits of multiprocessor systems o How do

o Identify three benefits of multiprocessor systems.

o How does the OS manage processes?

§    be able to name five OS management activities related to processes

o Identify three management activities an OS conducts with memory.

o Why does the OS need to hide peculiarities of I/O subsystems?

o What is the difference between protection and security?

o What is the difference between a dumb terminal and a computer?

Solution

Process Management

The operating system manages many kinds of activities ranging from user programs to system programs like printer spooler, name servers, file server etc. Each of these activities is encapsulated in a process. A process includes the complete execution context (code, data, PC, registers, OS resources in use etc.).

It is important to note that a process is not a program. A process is only ONE instant of a program in execution. There are many processes can be running the same program. The five major activities of an operating system in regard to process management are

Main-Memory Management

Primary-Memory or Main-Memory is a large array of words or bytes. Each word or byte has its own address. Main-memory provides storage that can be access directly by the CPU. That is to say for a program to be executed, it must in the main memory.

The major activities of an operating in regard to memory-management are:

File Management

A file is a collected of related information defined by its creator. Computer can store files on the disk (secondary storage), which provide long term storage. Some examples of storage media are magnetic tape, magnetic disk and optical disk. Each of these media has its own properties like speed, capacity, data transfer rate and access methods.

A file systems normally organized into directories to ease their use. These directories may contain files and other directions.

The five main major activities of an operating system in regard to file management are