Week 4

Exercise 1 Review Questions Chapter

1.1. What is an instruction trace?

1.2. Explain the concept of a process and mark its differences from a program.

1.3. For the processing model of Figure 3.6, briefly define each state.

1.4. What is process spawning?

1.5. List four characteristics of a suspended process.

1.6. For what types of entities does the OS maintain tables of information for management purposes?

1.7. What are the elements of a process image?

1.8. Why are two modes (user and kernel) needed?

Exercise 2 Review Questions

2.1. List reasons why a mode switch between threads may be cheaper than a mode switch between processes.

2.2. What are the two separate and potentially independent characteristics embodied in the concept of process?

2.3. Give four general examples of the use of threads in a single-user multiprocessing system.

2.4. How is a thread different from a process?

2.5. What are the advantages of using multithreading instead of multiple processes?

2.6. List some advantages and disadvantages of using kernel-level threads.