Questions and Answers Subject Code & Subject: 08.705-Real Time Operating Systems

08.
705 Real Time Operating Systems
Module 1 Question and Answers
Questions and Answers

Subject code & Subject: 08.705-Real Time Operating Systems
Module 1
Part A
1. What are the functions of an OS? (Nov. 2012)
Ans: The basic functions of an operating system:
OS provide services to programs and to users of those programs. It provide environment for the
execution of programs.
The common functions are:
1. Program execution: Loads the program into memory and executes the program. Also end
its execution normally or abnormally.
2. I/O operation: Open or close any I/O device or any file.
3. File system management: Read a file or write a file.
4. Communications: Share the data between different processes.
5. Error detection: To detect and make appropriate action to correct the errors for consistent
computing.
2. What is shared data problem? (Nov. 2012)
Ans: Shared data problems
ISRs and task code must share one or more variables that they can use to communicate with one
another.
The shared-data problem arises when the ISRs need to communicate with the rest of the code.
A classical code with shared-data problem is shown below.
The main code monitors two temperatures, which are always supposed to be equal. If they differ,
it indicates an alarm.
The main code stays in an infinite loop and ISR vReadTemperatures happens periodically due to
the hardware interrupts if one or both of the temperatures changes or a timer interrupts every few
ms to cause the execution to jump to ISR.
Suppose both temperatures have been 73o for a while and processor finished the execution of line
of code iTemp0 = iTemperatures[0]; ie iTemp0 = 73.
Suppose an interrupt occurs and that both temperatures changed to 74o. The ISR writes the value
into the elements of iTemperatures array.
Department of ECE, VKCET
Page 1
08.705 Real Time Operating Systems
When ISR ends, processor continues the line of code

iTemp1 = iTemperatures[1];
This sets iTemp1 = 74. When the processor compares iTemp0 and iTemp1, they will differ and
system set the alarm even though the actual values are same.
3. What are the benefits of a multiuser OS as against a single user OS? (Nov. 2012)
Ans: Advantages of multi-user OS:1. As the OS is handling multiple application at a time most of the CPU time is efficiently using.
2. Resources like memory, CPU are utilizing at the maximum.
3. Multiple users can use a system at a time.
4. Networked, distributed system can be implemented.
4. Describe how are system calls used while a file is copied from a source location to destination
location? (Oct. 2011)
Ans: System call:
Provides an interface to the OS services.
Available as routines written in C and C++, also certain low-level tasks may be in assembly
language instructions.
An example to illustrate how system calls are used for writing a simple program to read data from
one file and copy them to another file.
5. What is microkernel? (Oct. 2011)

Ans: Micro-kernel:
OS kernels can be quite small, consisting of most of the rst two classes (Process and thread
management and Interrupt and trap handling) and some limited resource management, usually
processor scheduling and perhaps some low-level virtual memory allocation.
The classes are:
1. Process and thread management: process creation, destruction, and basic interprocess
communication and synchronization.
2. Interrupt and trap handling: Responding to signals triggered by various system events;
among these are the termination of a process, completion of an I/O operation, a timer
Page 2
signal indicating a timeout or clock tick, an error caused by a program, or hardware

malfunctioning, etc.
Windows NT and Mach are examples of systems with such micro-kernels.
6. List the criterion for considering the scheduler design (Oct. 2011)
Ans: Scheduling Criteria
Different CPU-scheduling algorithms have different properties, and the choice of a particular
algorithm may favor one class of processes over another.
The criteria include the following:
1. CPU utilization: To keep the CPU as busy as possible. Conceptually, CPU utilization can
range from 0 to 100%. In a real system, it should range from 40% (for a lightly loaded
system) to 90% (for a heavily used system)
2. Throughput: One measure of work and is the number of processes that are completed per time
unit, called throughput. For long processes, this rate may be one process per hour; for short
transactions, it may be ten processes per second
3. Turnaround time: The important criterion of scheduler is how long it takes to execute a
process. It is the interval from the time of submission of a process to the time of completion.
It is the sum of the periods spent waiting to get into memory, waiting in the ready queue,
executing on the CPU, and doing I/O.
4. Waiting time: Waiting time is the sum of the periods spent waiting in the ready queue.
5. Response time: Another measure is the time from the submission of a request until the first
response is produced. This measure, called response time, is the time it takes to start
responding, not the time it takes to output the response. The turnaround time is generally
limited by the speed of the output device
It is desirable to maximize CPU utilization and throughput and to minimize turnaround time,
waiting time, and response time
7. What is critical section problem? (Oct. 2011)
Ans: Atomic and Critical Section:
A part of the program is said to atomic if it cannot be interrupted. By another way, we can say
that the task code uses the shared data that is not atomic.
When we disable interrupts around the lines of task code that uses the shared data, we can make
the collection of lines as atomic and can solve the problem.
A part of the code is atomic means that it cannot be interrupted at all, but it cannot be interrupted
by anything that might mess up the data it is using.
A set of instructions that must be atomic for the system to work properly is called critical
section.
Critical section problem is share-data problem. The shared-data problem arises when the ISRs
need to communicate with the rest of the code.
Part B
1. Explain various memory management schemes. (Nov 2012)
Ans: Memory Allocation Schemes:
The main memory must accommodate both the OS and the various user processes.
There is a need to allocate main memory in the most efficient way possible.
Two types of memory allocation scheme:
Page 3
1. Contiguous Allocation
2. Non-contiguous Allocation
Contiguous Allocation:
Main memory usually into two partitions:
1. Resident OS, usually held in low memory with interrupt vector.
2. User processes held in high memory
Multiple-partition allocation: A simplest method for allocating memory is to divide memory

into several fixed-sized partitions.
When a partition is free, a process is selected from the input queue and is loaded into the free
partition.
When the process terminates, the partition becomes available for another process
In variable-sized partition scheme, OS keeps a table indicating which parts of memory are
available and which are occupied.
Initially, all memory is available for user processes and is considered one large block of available
memory called hole.
When a process arrives, it is allocated memory from a hole large enough to accommodate it.
The memory blocks available comprise a set of holes of various sizes scattered throughout
memory.
OS maintains information about the allocated partitions and free partitions (hole).
Dynamic Storage-Allocation Problem; which concerns how to satisfy a request of size n from a
list of free holes.
Many solutions to this problem. The first-fit, best-fit and worst-fit strategies are the common,
used to select a free hole from the set of available holes.
1. First-t: Allocate the rst hole that is big enough
Page 4
2. Best-t: Allocate the smallest hole that is big enough; must search entire list, unless ordered
by size. Produces the smallest leftover hole.
3. Worst-t: Allocate the largest hole; must also search entire list. Produces the largest leftover
hole.
First-t and best-t better than worst-t in terms of speed and storage utilization
Neither first fit nor best fit is clearly better than the other in terms of storage utilization, but first
fit is generally faster.
Non-Contiguous Allocation:
Paging:
Memory-management scheme that permits the physical address space of a process to be
noncontiguous.
Process is allocated physical memory whenever it is available.
Paging avoids external fragmentation and the need for compaction.
Divide physical memory into xed-sized blocks called frames (size is power of 2, between 512
bytes and 8192 bytes).
Divide logical memory into blocks of same size called pages.
Keep track of all free frames.
To run a program of size n pages, need to nd n free frames and load program.
Set up a page table to translate logical to physical addresses.
Cause internal fragmentation.
Hardware support for paging:
Address generated by CPU is divided into:

Page number (p) used as an index into a page table, which contains base address of each
page in physical memory
Page offset (d) combined with base address to dene the physical memory address that is
sent to the memory unit
Page 5
2. Describe the steps followed after an interrupt is caused by an I/O call. (Nov 2012)
Ans: Interrupt driven I/O cycle is shown below.
3. a) Explain the performance measures in RTOS. (Nov. 2012)

Ans: (Refer file: C M Krishna, Kang G. Shin- Real-Time Systems: Chapter 2, page 12 to 18)
b) Briefly discuss atomic and critical section. (Nov. 2012)
Ans: Atomic and Critical Section:
A part of the program is said to atomic if it cannot be interrupted. By another way, we can say
that the task code uses the shared data that is not atomic.
When we disable interrupts around the lines of task code that uses the shared data, we can make
the collection of lines as atomic and can solve the problem.
A part of the code is atomic means that it cannot be interrupted at all, but it cannot be interrupted
by anything that might mess up the data it is using.
A set of instructions that must be atomic for the system to work properly is called critical
section.
4. Define process. Explain the operations on process. (Oct. 2011)
Ans: Process:
OS executes variety of programs and is called jobs, tasks etc.
Process is a program in execution and process execution must progress in sequential fashion.
The structure of process in memory is:
Page 6
A process is more than the program code, which is sometimes known as the text section.
It includes the current activity, as represented by the value of the program counter (PC) and the
contents of the processor's registers.
A process generally also includes the process stack, which contains temporary data (such as
function parameters, return addresses, and local variables), and a data section, which contains
global variables.
A process may also include a heap, which is memory that is dynamically allocated during process
run time.
Process is an active entity, but a program is passive entity, which is also referred as executable
file.
Operation on process:
The processes in most system can execute concurrently, and they may be created and deleted
dynamically. Therefore two mechanisms provided by OS for this are:
1. Process creation
2. Process termination
Process creation:
A process may create several new processes using create-process system call during the execution
of process. The creating process is called parent process and the new processes are called children
of that processes, forming a tree of processes.
Most OS including UNIX and Windows family identify the processes according to a unique
process identifier (pid), which is typically an integer number
Parent and children can share all resources. Children share subset of parents resources, but parent
and child share no resources.
When a process creates a new process, two possibilities exist in terms of execution:
Parent and children execute concurrently.
Parent waits until children terminate.
There are also two possibilities in terms of the address space of the new process:
Child duplicate of parent.
Child has a program loaded into it.
A UNIX example:
fork() is a system call and create a new process, which consists a copy of address space of the
original process. This allows the parent process to communicate with child process. Both process
Page 7
continue execution after system call fork(), but one difference: the return code for the fork() is
zero for child process, whereas the a nonzero pid of the child is returned to the parent.
exec() is a system call after fork(). Parent can create more children or it has nothing else to while
the child runs, it can issue a wait() system call to move itself in the ready queue until the
termination of child. The illustration is shown below:
Process Termination:
Process executes last statement and asks the OS to delete it by using the exit system call.
Output data from child to parent via wait system call.
Processs resources are deallocated by OS
Parent may terminate execution of children processes via abort system call for a variety of
reasons, such as:
Child has exceeded allocated resources.
Task assigned to child is no longer required.
Parent is exiting, and the operating system does not allow a child to continue if its parent
terminates.
A UNIX example to terminate a process is system call exit().
5. What is paging? How paging is implemented with TLB. (Oct. 2011)
Ans: Paging:
Non-Contiguous memory allocation scheme.
Memory-management scheme that permits the physical address space of a process to be
noncontiguous.
Process is allocated physical memory whenever it is available.
Paging avoids external fragmentation and the need for compaction.
Divide physical memory into xed-sized blocks called frames (size is power of 2, between 512
bytes and 8192 bytes).
Divide logical memory into blocks of same size called pages.
Keep track of all free frames.
To run a program of size n pages, need to nd n free frames and load program.
Set up a page table to translate logical to physical addresses.
Cause internal fragmentation.
Page 8
Hardware support for paging:
Address generated by CPU is divided into:

Page number (p) used as an index into a page table, which contains base address of each
page in physical memory
Page offset (d) combined with base address to dene the physical memory address that is
sent to the memory unit
The paging model example:
If the size of the logical address space is 2m, and a page size is 2n addressing units (bytes or
words) then the high-order m- n bits of a logical address designate the page number p, and the n
low-order bits designate the page offset d.
The logical address is as follows:
Where p is an index into the page table and d is the displacement within the page.
Implementation of Page Table
Hardware implementation of the page table can be done in several ways.
Page 9
A simple way is the page table is implemented as a set of dedicated registers. If the address
consists of 16 bits, and the page size is 8KB. The page table thus consists of eight entries that are
kept in fast registers. The use of registers for the page table is satisfactory if the page table
is reasonably small (for example, 256 entries). This is not suitable for large page table,
because fastest registers with large size in CPU is not feasible.
Another method is keeping page table in main memory. There is a Page-Table Base Register
(PTBR) points to the page table and a Page-Table Length Register (PRLR) indicates size of the
page table.
In this scheme every data/instruction access requires two memory accesses. One for the page
table and one for the data/instruction. Thus, memory access is slowed by a factor of 2.
The two memory access problem can be solved by the use of a special fast-lookup hardware
cache called associative memory or Translation Look-aside Buffers (TLBs).
The TLB is associative, high-speed memory. Each entry in the TLB consists of two parts: a key
(or tag) and a value. When the associative memory is presented with an item, the item is
compared with all keys simultaneously. If the item is found, the corresponding value field is
returned.
The search is fast; the hardware, however, is expensive. Typically, the number of entries in a TLB
is small, often numbering between 64 and 1,024.
A paging hardware with TLB is shown below.
The TLB contains only a few of the page-table entries.

When a logical address is generated by the CPU, its page number is presented to the TLB. If the
page number is found, its frame number is immediately available and is used to access memory.
If the page number is not in the TLB (known as a TLB miss) a memory reference to the page
table must be made.
If the TLB is already full of entries, the OS must select one for replacement. Replacement
policies range from least recently used (LRU) to random.
Page 10
6. Consider the following set of processes with CPU burst given in milliseconds.
Process
Burst time
Priority
P1
10
3
P2
1
1
P3
2
3
P4
1
4
P5
5
2
a) Draw the Gantt chart that illustrates the execution of these process using the following
scheduling algorithms: FCFS, SJF and non-preemptive priority (a smaller priority number implies
a higher priority)
b) What is the turnaround time and waiting time of each process for the above algorithms?
(Oct. 2011)
Ans:
a) Gantt chart for FCFS
Gantt chart for SJF (non-preemptive)
Gantt chart for non-preemptive priority
b) Turnaround time
FCFS:
P1 = 10ms, P2 = 11ms, P3 = 13ms, P4 = 14ms P5 = 19ms
SJF:
P1 = 19ms, P2 = 1ms, P3 = 4ms, P4 = 2ms, P5 = 9ms
Priority:
Waiting time
FCFS:
P1 = 0ms, P2 = 10ms, P3 = 11ms, P4 = 13ms P5 = 14ms
SJF:
P1 = 9ms, P2 = 0ms, P3 = 2ms, P4 = 1ms,
P5 = 4ms
Priority:
Page 11

Questions and Answers Subject Code & Subject: 08.705-Real Time Operating Systems

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Questions and Answers Subject Code & Subject: 08.705-Real Time Operating Systems

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

08.

705 Real Time Operating Systems

Module 1 Question and Answers