CMSC 421 - Fall 2003
Section 0301
Midterm
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1 (C1) What is an operating system? 

2 (C3) List and describe the components of an operating system

3 (C4) Describe in detail how the operating system will respond to the user
       typing in the command, including which process does what and process
       creation.

4 (C4) List and describe the different forms of Inter-Process Communications.

5 (C5) Describe in detail the difference between lightweight threads and
       heavyweight threads.

6 (C6) List and describe the scheduling algorithms and show the order that
       each algorithm would handle the following processes:

Process Burst Time
P1      24
P2      3
P3      3

7 (C6) What is a preemptive operating system?

8 (C7) Describe "Critical Section"

9  (C7) What is the meaning of the term busy waiting?  What other
kinds of waiting are there in an operating system?  Can busy waiting
be avoided altogether?  Explain your answer. 

10 (C8) Deadlock can arise if four conditions hold simultaneously.
Describe the conditions in detail.