Operating System and Computer Architecture Page 1 of 8

SECTION A
For each question, you are required to shade ONLY ONE correct answer on the MCQ sheet.
Each correct answer carries TWO marks. A zero mark will be given for every wrong answer as
well as for questions with NO or MORE than one answer marked.
Answer ALL questions. This section carries 70 Marks.

1. Match the following:

1. Phishing i. Using passwords, one-time tokens, digital
signatures.
2. Authentication ii. IP address filtering.
3. Authorization iii. Directs users to enter details at a fake
website whose look and feel are almost
identical to the legitimate one.
4. Accounting iv. Keeping track of network
resource consumption.

a) 1 - i, 2 - ii, 3 - iii, 4 - iv b) 1 - iii, 2 - i, 3 - iv, 4 - ii

c) 1 - iii, 2 - i, 3 - ii, 4 - iv d) 1 - iii, 2 - ii, 3 - i, 4 - iv

2. On a basic disk, the first sector of the hard drive is called:

a) Cylinder 0 b) Boot Sector
c) Partition Table d) The First Partition

3. In developing Scheduling Algorithms, computer scientists have several aims, one of which is
ensuring high throughput. How can throughput be defined?
a) The process of ensuring all processes have b) The reduction of the amount of time
the resources they require required to perform an instruction
c) The process of increasing efficiency d) The number of processes completed
per unit time
4. An operating system can be defined as
a) A resource allocator b) A resource manager
c) A control program d) All the above

5. What is Virtualization?
a) The act of creating, simulating a thing by b) The act of creating Computer Games
means of a computer or computer
network
c) The act of creating Virtual Reality d) Running a JAVA Virtual Machine

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6. In servicing an interrupt, where is the context of the running program stored?

a) Stack area b) Cache
c) Memory buffer d) RAM
7. The Stored Program Concept is an idea that is still in use today. Who was the pioneer of this
technology?
a) Allen Turing b) Charles Boole
c) Tim Burners Lee d) John Von Neumann

8. A signal is a form of energy which can be used to encode a message. In real-life, Sound,
Light and Electricity are all examples of what type of signal?
a) Digital b) Analog
c) Binary d) Finite

9. Computers work best with Digital signals primarily because?

a) Digital signals are easier to work with b) Digital signals can be compressed
c) Digital signals are easier to correct in d) All the above case of errors

10. What is a Bit?

a) 8 bytes b) 4 bytes
c) Binary digit as a single 0 or 1 d) 1024 bytes

11. Which one of these is an open source operating system?

a) MacOS b) Unix
c) IOS d) Windows XP

12. What is the range of values for a 3-bit octal system?

a) 4,096 b) 16
c) 512 d) 64

13. Transistors can control the flow of electricity in a circuit. What are transistors made of?
a) Semi-conductors. b) Insulators.
c) Conductors. d) None of the above.

14. What type of logic gate does this symbol represent?

a) Exclusive OR c) OR

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b) Exclusive NOR d) NOR

15. Which one of the following is the address generated by a CPU?

a) Physical Address b) Absolute Address
c) Logical Address d) None of the above

16. Define the Boolean Equation for the circuit design in the diagrams below:

a) {( AxB) + (AxB) + (BxC )} b) {( AxB) + (AxB) + (AxC )}

c) {(AxB) + (AxB) + (B+C)} d) {(AxB) + (AxB) + (BxC)}

17. Which of the following information is required to initiate a Direct Memory Access (DMA)
transfer?
a) The size of the data block b) The format of the data
c) The name of the I/O device d) The technology used in the I/O
device

18. As computers become more powerful and affordable, more people are able to access them.
Along with the reach of the Internet, people are now more connected than ever, via
networks run by large organizations like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook. These
ongoing developments have raised serious concerns in the area of “Personal Privacy” and
“Security”. Which of the following statements best captures the risks of Privacy and
Security?

a) Privacy helps individuals maintain b) Personal information privacy is their

autonomy and individuality important to prevent manipulation of an individual’s
feelings
c) Security is important as it helps d) All the above protect users from identity theft

19. Registers are little store houses for information, asides from simply storing data, some
registers can perform computations. Which of the following functions cannot be handled by
a register.

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a) Shift. b) Check zero condition.

c) Rotate. d) None of the above.

20. Symmetrical Multiprocessing is implemented in multiple core systems. Which of the

following describes an ADVANTAGE of this technique?
a) Balanced workload b) Protection of system data
c) Simplicity d) Avoids resource conflicts

21. Which of the following is a memory device best used to store an embedded system
(Firmware)?
a) DRAM b) ROM
c) Flash d) EEPROM

22. What is the purpose of using “Compaction Technique” in Memory Management?

a) To find space for a new incoming b) To search for the smallest set of free
process blocks
c) To collect all free-hole blocks (areas) d) To find a free hole
to form a merged free-hole area

23. What is the name of the mechanism by which a computer is made aware of external events?
a) Programmed I/O b) DMA
c) Interrupts d) Device driver

24. What is the main difference between Flash and ROM technology?
a) ROM is faster than Flash. b) Flash has greater storage capacity.
c) Flash can be rewritten. d) ROM is cheaper

25. Which of the following depicts storage devices in order of the slowest to the fastest?
a) Magnetic HDD, SSD, Optical CD b) Magnetic Tape, Optical Blue Ray,
SSD
c) Optical DVD, Magnetic HDD, d) ROM, SSD, EEPROM
Magnetic Tape

26. 4K is approximately equivalent to a resolution of: 3840 x 2160. How many pixels would a
4K display have?
a) About 8.2million pixels b) About 4 million Pixels
c) About 3million Pixels d) About 6 million Pixels

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27. When handling interrupts, the CPU must find and load the interrupt handler program.
Another name for the interrupt handler is:
a) Device manager b) Device controller
c) Device handler d) Interrupt routine

28. The main function of an operating system is to manage all hardware and software of a
computer. A user interacts with the operating system via a User Interface whereas an
Application Program interacts with the Operating system via __________.
a) Interrupt Line b) Bus Line
c) Application Programming Interface d) System Software

29. Whenever a computer is started, the Operating System needs to be loaded from storage.
What is the name given to the part of the Operating System responsible for its loading?
a) Jog-strap program b) Initial Program Load
c) Loader program d) Kernel

30. What is the maximum amount of RAM a 32-bit computer can reliably use?
a) About 4GB b) Up to 16GB
c) About 2GB d) Up to 8GB

31. What is the Blocked state of a process?

a) When a process is scheduled to run after b) When a process is unable to run
some execution until some task has been
completed
c) When a process is using the CPU d) None of the mentioned

32. Which register stores the address of a piece of data/instruction which the CPU requests to
be fetched?
a) Instruction Register b) Program Counter Register
c) General Purpose Register d) Memory Address Register

33. The Latency of a HDD is defined as:

a) The amount of time it takes to access b) The amount of time it takes for a
data read/write head to move to the
correct track
c) The amount of time it takes the disk d) None of the above
to spin to the correct sector

34. Which of the following is NOT a function of the ALU?

a) Boolean operations b) Controls movement of data in and out

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of the CPU
c) Arithmetic operations d) Execute CU instructions

35. The interrupt handling technique, in which the interrupt signal contains the identity of the
interrupting device, is called:
a) Polling approach b) Multi-data approach
c) Vectored approach d) Duplex approach
SECTION B
Answer ALL questions. Each question carries 10 Marks.
This section carries 30 Marks

QUESTION B1

A chemical process gives out a warning signal (W = 1) when the process operates incorrectly. A
logic circuit (network) is used to monitor the process and to determine whether W = 1.

Inputs Binary Values Description of plant status

C 1 Chemical rate = 20 litres/second
0 Chemical rate < 20 litres/second
T 1 Temperature = 91ºC
0 Temperature > 91ºC
X 1 Concentration > 5M
0 Concentration = 5M

A warning signal (W = 1) will be generated if either:

I. Chemical rate < 20 litres/second OR
II. Temperature > 91ºC and Concentration > 5M OR
III. Chemical rate = 20 litres/second and Temperature > 91C.

a) Define the Truth Table (3marks).

b) Use a Karnaugh Map to show the simplification of the circuit design (4marks).
c) Draw the Logic Circuit (3marks).
Total: 10 Marks

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QUESTION B2

Consider the following set of processes, with the length of CPU-burst times given in
milliseconds:

Time Slice: 2ms

Process Burst Time
P1 10
P2 1
P3 2
P4 1
P5 5

The processes have arrived in the order P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5 at a time 0.

a) Draw a Gantt chart illustrating the execution of the processes using Round Robin.
(2 marks)

b) Calculate the overall average wait time and turnaround time for the algorithm.
(4 marks)

c) Operating systems make use of constructs known as Process Control Blocks (PCB) to manage
the processes of computer software. Explain the function of any TWO (2) data elements
contained in the Process Control Block
(4 marks)

Total: 10 Marks

QUESTION B3

Memory management is one of the responsibilities of an operating system; it is concerned with

allocating memory space for running processes.

a) Illustrate the behaviour of the Best Fit memory allocation algorithm for the following set
of processes and their respective requirements on a memory block of size 128KB:
Process Size of Process in KB
ID
P1 20 kb
P2 15 kb
P3 10 kb
P4 25 kb

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Deallocat P1
e
Deallocat P3
e
P5 8 kB
P6 30 kb
Deallocat P2
e
P7 15 kb
(5 marls)
b) The memory management process employs virtual memory to make up for a lack of
memory space; this process sometimes results in a page fault. Consider the following
sequence of page references:

1 2 3 4 4 2 1 4 1 3 4

Determine how many page faults will occur for the Optimal algorithm, assuming there are
only TWO (2) physical page frames, and both are initially invalid.
(5 marks)

Total: 10 Marks

Level 1 Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation 201906