Midterm Topic List

1. Operating system organization & overview

   • basic definition & OS responsibilities
   • isolation mechanisms
   • Intel "CPL" and interrupt descriptor / vector usage for kernel vs. user protection
   • approaches to multasking (cooperative vs. preemptive) and kernel considerations
   • OS organization pros/cons (e.g., monolithic vs. micro- kernel)

2. Scheduling

   • macro scheduling states and state transition diagram
   • scheduling metrics
   • bursty execution and interactive process considerations
   • scheduling policies: operation and characteristics
     • computing scheduling metrics given process arrival times / bursts and determining policies from tabulated metrics
   • priorities and aging
   • priority inversion and "solutions"
   • aggregate scheduling: multi-level feedback queue

3. Queueing theory

   • basic queueing model and related metrics
   • Little's law
   • PASTA and memoryless properties
   • application of M/M/1 and M/G/1 queueing theory equations