Midterm Assessment Policy

Assigned Date: 29-05-2021

Due Date: 08-06-2021
Written Assignment Marks: 20
VIVA VOICE Marks: 05

In pursuance to the Higher Education Commission and Government of Punjab Guidelines on

Second Wave of Covid-19, Following SOPs will be applicable for Mid- term Examination.
1. The midterm exam shall be conducted online via CMS and will be Assignment based.
2. The assignment will contribute 25% to the overall grade and will comprise of two
components, a written part worth 20 and viva voce 5.
3. The written part of the assignments shall only be submitted via CMS, should be typed on
MS word or excel. Submitted either in PDF or MS Office format.
4. Viva Voce shall be conducted on Zoom and recorded to keep the evidence.
5. Each submitted assignment will be uploaded on Turnitin.com to check similarity index.
The similarity index allowed will be as per the following criteria:
i. For BS allowed index is <50%
ii. For M.Phil allowed index is < 35%
iii. For Phd allowed index is < 19%.
6. Each faulty member will evaluate the assignment keeping in view the similarity index,
responses of the written part and viva voce.
7. Mid-Term Assessments shall be conducted as per following Schedule
Programs Date
Morning & Evening Assignment Dates
31st May 2021 – 8th June 2021
(All BS, Master and M. Phil Programs)
Weekend Assignment Dates
4th June 2021 – 13th June 2021
(All Master, M.Phil and PhD Programs)
8. During the said period, classes will remain suspended.
9. Results for all courses will be uploaded on CMS in the due course of time.

Written Assignment Instructions

The assignment must be typed on a computer and comply with the following requirements:

Font: Times New Roman, font size 12 and a line spacing of 1.5

Word count: The length of the home assignment should not exceed 2500 to 3000

words.

Draw the diagram using MS-VISIO or EDRAW Max or any other tool except MS-

Paint. Diagram must be drawn where mentioned “ERD” or where mentioned the

word “Draw”

Final submission: Only softcopy through CMS is accepted, hard copy and hand submission is not
allowed.

If the students exceed the word count, the assignment will not be sent to grading.
Footnotes should be included in the word count of the main text. Not included in this count: the
front page (with name and title etc), summary, table of contents and references (bibliography).

Please remember to include footnotes in word count!

Structure
Technically the document should be as good as possible: well organized in titles and subtitles,
footnotes and references. The document should follow the following recommended structure
for each question:

Formal submission requirements for the assignment

Please remember to indicate:

1. Mention your name and roll number on the front page of your document.
2. Course code (i.e. SE5508)
3. Title (home assignment)
4. Number of words (not exceed than 3000)
5. Remember to add page numbering
6. Assignment uploaded in after the deadline will not be uploaded
 Section A
Assignment Topics Virtual System & Services

Sr.# Registration # Student Topics

Name
1 Which network configuration—LAN or WAN—would best suit the
following environments?
a. A campus student union
b. Several campus locations across a statewide university system
2019F-mulbsit-001 Faiqa Aslam c. A neighborhood
2 In a multiprogramming and time-sharing environment, several users
share the system simultaneously. This situation can result in various
security problems. a. What are two such problems? b. Can we
ensure the same degree of security in a time-shared machine as in a
Hammad-Ul- dedicated machine? Explain your answer.
2019F-mulbsit-003 Haq
The issue of resource utilization shows up in different forms in
different types of operating systems. List what resources must be
managed carefully in the following settings:
3 a. Mainframe or minicomputer systems
b. Workstations connected to servers
Muhammad c. Mobile computers
2019F-mulbsit-005 Zohaib Zafar
Q1.Under what circumstances would a user be better off using a
4 timesharing system than a PC or a single-user workstation?
Q2. Describe the differences between symmetric and asymmetric
multiprocessing. What are three advantages and one disadvantage
Usman Akhtar of multiprocessor systems?
2019F-mulbsit-006 Sindhu
Q1. How do clustered systems differ from multiprocessor systems?
What is required for two machines belonging to a cluster to
5 cooperate to provide a highly available service?
Q2. Consider a computing cluster consisting of two nodes running a
database. Describe two ways in which the cluster software can
manage access to the data on the disk. Discuss the benefits and
Mubashar disadvantages of each.
2019F-mulbsit-007 Yaqoob
6 Q1. How are network computers different from traditional personal
computers? Describe some usage scenarios in which it is
advantageous to use network computers.
Q2. What is the purpose of interrupts? How does an interrupt differ
Muhammad from a trap? Can traps be generated intentionally by a user
2019F-mulbsit-009 Usman program? If so, for what purpose?
7 Direct memory access is used for high-speed I/O devices in order to
avoid increasing the CPU’s execution load.
a. How does the CPU interface with the device to coordinate the
transfer?
b. How does the CPU know when the memory operations are
complete?
c. The CPU is allowed to execute other programs while the DMA
controller is transferring data. Does this process interfere with the
2019F-mulbsit- Syeda Mehr-Un-Nisa execution of the user programs? If so, describe what forms of
010 Adeel interference are caused.
8 Some computer systems do not provide a privileged mode of
operation in hardware. Is it possible to construct a secure operating
2019F-mulbsit- system for these computer systems? Give arguments both that it is
011 Mohaib Ur Rehman and that it is not possible.
Many SMP systems have different levels of caches; one level is local
9 to each processing core, and another level is shared among all
2019F-mulbsit- processing cores. Why are caching systems designed this way?
012 Muhammad Jahanzaib
Consider an SMP system similar to the one shown in Figure 1.6.
2019F-mulbsit- Muhammad Tauseef Illustrate with an example how data residing in memory could in fact
10 have a different value in each of the local caches.
013 Akhtar
1 Discuss, with examples, how the problem of maintaining coherence
1 of cached data manifests itself in the following processing
environments:
a. Single-processor systems
b. Multiprocessor systems
2019F-mulbsit-
c. Distributed systems
014 Abdul Rehman
1 Which network configuration—LAN or WAN—would best suit the
2 following environments?
a. A campus student union
2019F-mulbsit- b. Several campus locations across a statewide university system
015 Asma Batool c. A neighborhood
1 Q1. Describe some distributed applications that would be
3 appropriate for a peer-to-peer system. Q2. Identify several
advantages and several disadvantages of open-source operating
2019F-mulbsit- systems. Include the types of people who would find each aspect to
016 Zarmeen Afzal be an advantage or a disadvantage.
 Q1. List five services provided by an operating system, and explain
14 how each creates convenience for users. In which cases would it be
impossible for user-level programs to provide these services? Explain
your answer.
Raja Muhammad Q2. What is the purpose of the command interpreter? Why is it
2019F-mulbsit-017 Awais usually separate from the kernel?
Q1. How could a system be designed to allow a choice of operating
15 systems from which to boot? What would the bootstrap program
need to do?
Q2. The services and functions provided by an operating system can
be divided into two main categories. Briefly describe the two
2019F-mulbsit-018 Hassan Raza categories, and discuss how they differ.
Q1. Describe three general methods for passing parameters to the
16 operating system.
Q2. Describe how you could obtain a statistical profile of the amount
of time spent by a program executing different sections of its code.
Discuss the importance of obtaining such a statistical profile.
2019F-mulbsit-019 Zain Ul Abidin
Q1. Would it be possible for the user to develop a new command
17 interpreter using the system-call interface provided by the operating
system?
Muhammad Q2. What are the two models of interprocess communication? What
2019F-mulbsit-020 Hussnain Afzaal are the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches?
18 It is sometimes difficult to achieve a layered approach if two
components of the operating system are dependent on each other.
Identify a scenario in which it is unclear how to layer two system
2019F-mulbsit-021 Vardah Mazhar components that require tight coupling of their functionalities.
19 Q1. What is the main advantage of the microkernel approach to
system design? How do user programs and system services interact
in a microkernel architecture? What are the disadvantages of using
the microkernel approach?
Q2. How are iOS and Android similar? How are they different?
2019F-mulbsit-022 Muqadas Asad
20 Describe one method of deciding whether to use either the
centralized or view integration approach, or a combination of both
Muhammad when developing a database system with multiple user views.
2019F-mulbsit-024 Usman
21 Q1. Explain why Java programs running on Android systems do not
use the standard Java API and virtual machine.
Q2. Describe the actions taken by a kernel to context-switch
2019F-mulbsit-026 Abdul Rehman between processes.
22 What are the benefits and the disadvantages of each of the
following? Consider both the system level and the programmer level.
a. Synchronous and asynchronous communication b. Automatic and
explicit buffering
c. Send by copy and send by reference
Mirza Samar d. Fixed-sized and variable-sized messages
2019F-mulbsit-029 Subhani
23 Assume that an operating system maps user-level threads to the
kernel using the many-to-many model and that the mapping is done
through LWPs. Furthermore, the system allows developers to create
real-time threads for use in real-time systems. Is it necessary to bind
Usman Ul a real-time thread to an LWP? Explain.
2019F-mulbsit-030 Mustafa
24 Under what circumstances does a multithreaded solution using
Muhammad multiple kernel threads provide better performance than a single-
2019F-mulbsit-032 Kashif threaded solution on a single-processor system?
 Which of the following components of program state are shared
25 across threads in a multithreaded process?
a. Register values
b. Heap memory
c. Global variables
d. Stack memory
2019F-mulbsit-033 Tanveer Ali
26 Can a multithreaded solution using multiple user-level threads
achieve better performance on a multiprocessor system than on a
Awon singleprocessor system? Explain.
2019F-mulbsit-034 Muhammad
27 A system with two dual-core processors has four processors
available for scheduling. A CPU-intensive application is running on
this system. All input is performed at program start-up, when a
single file must be opened. Similarly, all output is performed just
before the program Exercises 193 terminates, when the program
results must be written to a single file. Between startup and
termination, the program is entirely CPU bound. Your task is to
improve the performance of this application by multithreading it.
The application runs on a system that uses the one-to-one threading
model (each user thread maps to a kernel thread).
• How many threads will you create to perform the input and
output? Explain.
Malik Marghoob • How many threads will you create for the CPU-intensive portion of
2019F-mulbsit-035 Ahmad the application? Explain.
28 Explain why Windows, Linux, and Solaris implement multiple locking
mechanisms. Describe the circumstances under which they use
spinlocks, mutex locks, semaphores, adaptive mutex locks, and
condition variables. In each case, explain why the mechanism is
needed.
2019F-mulbsit-039 Zill e Hassan
 Sr.# Registration no Student Name TOPIC
Q1. What is the meaning of the term busy waiting?
29 What other kinds of waiting are there in an operating
system? Can busy waiting be avoided altogether?
Explain your answer.
Q2.Explain why spinlocks are not appropriate for
single-processor systems yet are often used in
multiprocessor systems.
2019F-mulbsit-040 Eman Nadeem
The experimental Synthesis operating system has an
30 assembler incorporated in the kernel. To optimize
system-call performance, the kernel assembles
routines within kernel space to minimize the path
that the system call must take through the kernel.
This approach is the antithesis of the layered
approach, in which the path through the kernel is
extended to make building the operating system
easier. Discuss the pros and cons of the Synthesis
approach to kernel design and system-performance
2019F-mulbsit-042 Adrish Arshad optimization.
31 Explain why implementing synchronization
primitives by disabling interrupts is not appropriate
in a single-processor system if the synchronization
primitives are to be used in user-level programs

2019F-mulbsit-044 Azka
Sr No Student Registration Student Name Assignment Topic

1 Q1. Would it be possible for the user to develop a

new command interpreter using the system-call
interface provided by the operating system?
Q2. What are the two models of interprocess
Okkaz Ahmad communication? What are the strengths and
2019F-mulbsit-045 Sultan weaknesses of the two approaches?
2 Assume that a system has multiple processing cores.
For each of the following scenarios, describe which is
a better locking mechanism—a spinlock or a mutex
lock where waiting processes sleep while waiting for
the lock to become available:
• The lock is to be held for a short duration.
• The lock is to be held for a long duration.
2019F-mulbsit-048 Hijab Sohail • A thread may be put to sleep while holding the lock.
3 Servers can be designed to limit the number of open
connections. For example, a server may wish to have
only N socket connections at any point in time. As
soon as N connections are made, the server will not
accept another incoming connection until an existing
connection is released. Explain how semaphores can
be used by a server to limit the number of concurrent
2019F-mulbsit-052 Hammd Ashfaq connections.
4 Windows Vista provides a lightweight synchronization
tool called slim reader–writer locks. Whereas most
implementations of reader–writer locks favor either
readers or writers, or perhaps order waiting threads
using a FIFO policy, slim reader–writer locks favor
neither readers nor writers, nor are waiting threads
ordered in a FIFO queue. Explain the benefits of
2019F-mulbsit-059 Sheeza Amir providing such a synchronization tool.
5 Demonstrate that monitors and semaphores are
equivalent insofar as they can be used to implement
solutions to the same types of synchronization
Muhammad problems.
2019F-mulbsit-060 Khizar
6 Discuss the tradeoff between fairness and throughput
of operations in the readers–writers problem.
Propose a method for solving the readers–writers
problem without causing starvation.
2019F-mulbsit-063 Nabia Noor
1 2019F-mulbsit-037 Hamza Naseem Consider a system consisting of processes P1, P2, ...,
Pn, each of which has a unique priority number. Write
a monitor that allocates three identical printers to
these processes, using the priority numbers for
deciding the order of allocation.

2 2019F-mulbsit-047 Naeem Abbas When a signal is performed on a condition inside a

monitor, the signaling process can either continue its
execution or transfer control to the process that is
signaled. How would the solution to the preceding
exercise differ with these two different ways in which
signaling can be performed?
3 2019F-mulbsit-049 Hafiz Abdullah Q1. Explain the difference between preemptive and
Ishaq non-preemptive scheduling.
Q2. What advantage is there in having different time-
quantum sizes at different levels of a multilevel
queueing system?

4 2019F-mulbsit-051 Muhammad Which of the following scheduling algorithms could

Hussnain result in starvation? Logically explain your answer by
explaining all the algorithms.
a. First-come, first-served
b. Shortest job first
c. Round robin
d. Priority
5 2019F-mulbsit-053 Muhammad Saqib Explain the differences in how much the following
Bilal scheduling algorithms discriminate in favor of short
processes:
a. FCFS
b. RR
c. Multilevel feedback queues
6 2019F-mulbsit-054 Asim Zafar Q1. List three examples of deadlocks that are not
related to a computersystem environment.
Q2. Suppose that a system is in an unsafe state. Show
that it is possible for the processes to complete their
execution without entering a deadlocked state.
7 2019F-mulbsit-056 Talha Mustafvi Assume a multithreaded application uses only reader–
writer locks for synchronization. Applying the four
necessary conditions for deadlock, is deadlock still
possible if multiple reader–writer locks are used?
8 2019F-mulbsit-062 Muhammad Umar Consider a system consisting of four resources of the
same type that are shared by three processes, each of
which needs at most two resources. Show that the
system is deadlock free.
9 2019F-mulbsit-064 Hassan All Consider a system consisting of m resources of the
same type being shared by n processes. A process can
request or release only one resource at a time. Show
that the system is deadlock free if the following two
conditions hold:
a. The maximum need of each process is between one
resource and m resources.
b. The sum of all maximum needs is less than m + n.
10 2019F-mulbsit-065 Haris Waheed Consider the version of the dining-philosophers
problem in which the chopsticks are placed at the
center of the table and any two of them can be used
by a philosopher. Assume that requests for chopsticks
are made one at a time. Describe a simple rule for
determining whether a particular request can be
satisfied without causing deadlock given the current
allocation of chopsticks to philosophers.
11 2019Fmulbsit-070 Muhammad Saud The experimental Synthesis operating system has an
Bin Asif assembler incorporated in the kernel. To optimize
system-call performance, the kernel assembles
routines within kernel space to minimize the path that
the system call must take through the kernel. This
approach is the antithesis of the layered approach, in
which the path through the kernel is extended to
make building the operating system easier. Discuss
the pros and cons of the Synthesis approach to kernel
design and system-performance optimization.
12 2019F-mulbsit-071 Muhammad Ubaid A system with two dual-core processors has four
Ullah processors available for scheduling. A CPU-intensive
application is running on this system. All input is
performed at program start-up, when a single file
must be opened. Similarly, all output is performed just
before the program Exercises 193 terminates, when
the program results must be written to a single file.
Between startup and termination, the program is
entirely CPU bound. Your task is to improve the
performance of this application by multithreading it.
The application runs on a system that uses the one-to-
one threading model (each user thread maps to a
kernel thread).
• How many threads will you create to perform the
input and output? Explain.
• How many threads will you create for the CPU-
intensive portion of the application? Explain.
13 2019F-mulbsit-073 Muhammad Q1. Would it be possible for the user to develop a
Saleem new command interpreter using the system-call
interface provided by the operating system?
Q2. What are the two models of interprocess
communication? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the two approaches?

14 2019F-mulbsit-074 Muhammad Q1. What is the difference between a procedural and

Jahanzaib a non-procedural language? How would you classify
the relational algebra and relational calculus?
Q2. Describe the differences between a relation and a
relation schema. What is a relational database
schema?

15 2019F-mulbsit-075 Raza Ul Mustafa Q1. What common problems does a collection of

spreadsheets created by end users share with the
typical file system?
Q2. Explain the significance of the loss of direct,
hands-on access to business data that end users
experienced with the advent of computerized data
repositories.