Question

Subject: Operating System Design

Homework:

1. List and briefly define the four main elements of a computer.

2. Define the two main categories of processor registers.

3. In general terms, what are the four distinct actions that a machine instruction can specify?

4. What characteristics distinguish the various elements of a memory hierarchy?

5. What is the difference between a multiprocessor and a multi-core system?

6. What is the distinction between spatial locality and temporal locality? In general, what are the strategies for exploiting spatial locality and temporal locality?

Answer 1

1.

Solution:

The four main components of the CPU are as follows:

Processor: The processor, the operation of the computer is being controlled and performs the processing of the data functions.

Main memory: In the main memory, the programs and the data are stored.

Input output module: The input output module is used to move the data between the computer and the external environment.

System bus: System bus is used for the communication among the main memory, processor and the input output module.

2.

Solution:

The two main categories of the processor registers are as follows:

MAR: MAR refers to the memory address register. This provides the specification of the address in the memory for the next read and write instructions.

MBR: MBR refers to the memory buffer register. This is used to get the data from the memory or to write the memory in the memory.

3.

Solution:

Memory Processor: The data transferred from the processor to the memory and from memory to the processor.

Input output processor: The data may get transferred to or to the peripheral devices by the transfer of data between the input output module and the processor.

Processing of Data: Some operations such as logical or arithmetic can be performed on the data.

Control: Specification of the instruction which can alter the sequence of the execution.

4.

• The characteristics that distinguishes the various elements of a memory hierarchy are the cost, the access time and the capacity.

5.

Solution:

Multiprocessors: This compute consists of more than two central processing units.

Each of them share the common main memory along with the shared peripherals.

The multiprocessor computers are helpful for simultaneous processing of the programs.

Multicore processors: the multicore processors also refers to the chip multiprocessor. In this, more than two processes are combined into a single piece of silicon which is called as a die.

6.

Solution:

• Spatial locality refers to the involvement of the various number of locations of the memory that are being clustered.
• Temporal locality refers to the processor’s tendency in order to access the locations of the memory that are being used recently.

The strategies for exploiting the localities are as follow:

• The temporal locality is exploit by keeping the data and the instructions that are recently being used in the memory of cache and then exploit the hierarchy of the cache.
• The spatial locality is being exploit by making use of larger blocks of cache along with incorporating the prefetching mechanisms.