CSCI 340 OS Systems
What is a program? ANS✔✔ A set of instructions that process data
What is data? ANS✔✔ The way a computer stores information
What does it mean to run the program? ANS✔✔ The CPU is executing
program code instruction after instruction
What computer component executes programs? ANS✔✔ CPU
Where is the running program stored? What else (other than the program
code) is stored there? ANS✔✔ RAM. Registers are also stored in RAM
What do we know about RAM memory? ANS✔✔ It has random-access, it is
slow, and volatile (it needs a power supply to work)
What is a memory stall? ANS✔✔ When the CPU needs data from RAM, but
RAM can't deliver data at the time and the CPU must wait
What long-term storage do we have? ANS✔✔ Hard disk
Wat is an executable file? ANS✔✔ A file that holds encoded sequence of
instructions for a computer to perform
,How does the speed of the CPU, RAM and hard disk compare to each other?
ANS✔✔ The CPU is the faster, RAM is second fastest, and hard disk is the
slowest
What is machine cycle? ANS✔✔ Sequence of steps CPU takes to execute a
single instruction
What are the basic steps of machine cycle? ANS✔✔ fetch, decode, execute
What is CPU core? What does it mean "quad-core CPU", "octa-core CPU" ?
ANS✔✔ The processor of a CPU. Quad and octa means 4 or 8 processors,
respectively, in a CPU.
How does memory look like? ANS✔✔ A linear array of bytes
What is byte? What is a bit? How many bits are in a byte? ANS✔✔ A byte is 8
bits. A bit is the smallest unit of data a computer can process and store
What is memory address? ANS✔✔ A unique number (normally in
hexadecimal) that has the location of the data
1. What is the length of memory address? 2. What does it mean "32-bit
address"? ANS✔✔ The length of memory address is 32 bits (i.e. 4 bytes). 32-
bit address means the address is 32 bits long.
, What is the relationship between C++ variable, RAM and memory address?
ANS✔✔ The C++ variable gets copied in RAM and it acquires a memory
address for that placement in RAM
What is PC? ANS✔✔ Program counter stores the next instruction that is to
be executed by the CPU
What is the language that the CPU understands? ANS✔✔ Machine language
How can we execute program written in higher-level languages? ANS✔✔ We
need a compiler or interpreter that transforms that language into machine
language for the CPU to understand
What is compiler? What are compiler advantages? ANS✔✔ A compiler takes
the high-level language (such as C++) and translates it to CPU machine
language. The compiler advantages is that it can run quickly but it can be OS
dependable
What is interpreter? What are interpreter advantages? ANS✔✔ transforms or
interprets a high-level programming code line by line into code that can be
understood by the machine. Can be slow, but can run in different platforms
OS definition ANS✔✔ A program that manages computer hardware and
provides other programs with a running environment
Examples of different operating systems ANS✔✔ Windows, Linux, MacOS,
ChromeOS, Android, iOS, Unix, VxWorks
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