Exercises: process management (due first class week 7)

2. Give an original “real life” example (not related to a computer system environment, not discussed in our textbook or in lecture) of each of these concepts: deadlock, starvation, and race.

5. Using the narrow staircase example from the beginning of this chapter, create a list of features or actions that would allow people to use it without causing deadlock or starvation.

14. As discussed in this chapter, a system that is in an unsafe state is not necessarily deadlocked. Explain why this is true. Give an example of such a system (in an unsafe state) and describe how all the processes could be completed without causing deadlock to occur.

16. Given the four primary types of resources—CPU, memory, secondary storage, and files—select for each one the most suitable technique described in this chapter to fight deadlock and briefly explain why you choose it

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Exercises: device management (due first class week 8)

3. Explain the differences between blocking and buffering.

7. Minimizing the variance of system response time is an important goal, but it does not always prevent an occasional user from suffering indefinite postponement. What mechanism would you incorporate into a disk scheduling policy to counteract this problem and still provide reasonable response time to the user population as a whole? Explain your answer.

8. Explain the difference between buffering and spooling.

9. Under light loading conditions, every disk scheduling policy discussed in this chapter tends to behave like one of the policies discussed in this chapter. Which one and why?

12a. Disk track requests are not usually equally or evenly distributed. For example, the tracks where the disk directory resides are accessed more often than those where the user’s files reside. Suppose that you know that 50 percent of the requests are for a small, fixed number of tracks. Which one of the scheduling policies presented in this chapter would work best under these conditions? Explain your answer.

Exercises: file management (due first class week 9)

3. Is device independence important to the File Manager? Explain why or why not.

6. Files can be formatted with fixed length fields or variable length fields. In your opinion, would it be feasible to combine both formats in a single storage medium? Explain the reasons for your answer.

14. Compare and contrast dynamic memory allocation with the allocation of files in secondary storage.

Exercises: security basics (due first class week 10)

1. Give three examples of excellent passwords and explain why each would be a good choice to protect a system from unauthorized users.

2. Give three advantages and disadvantages of password generator software. Would you recommend the use of such software for your own system? Explain why or why not.

7. Many users are required to log into several networks and thus have multiple passwords, which are difficult to remember. Name three ways that a user can manage these password requirements and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each. Which one you would use, and why?