Explore tens of thousands of sets crafted by our community.
Operating System Concepts
37
Flashcards
0/37
Semaphore
A synchronization tool used to control access to a common resource in a concurrent system.
Memory management unit (MMU)
A hardware component that handles virtual to physical address translations.
Bootloader
A small program that initiates the startup sequence and loads the operating system when a computer starts.
Virtual Memory
A memory management technique that provides an 'idealized abstraction of the storage resources' that is larger than physical memory.
I/O Management
A function of the operating system that translates input or output requests from the system or user into data manipulations on hardware and peripheral devices.
Device Driver
Software that communicates between the operating system and a hardware device.
Buffer
A region of physical memory storage used to temporarily store data while it is being moved from one place to another.
Thread
The smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by a scheduler.
Microkernel
A kernel design that provides the minimal amount of mechanisms needed to implement an operating system, with other services running in user space.
File System
The method and data structures that an operating system uses to keep track of files on a disk or partition.
Monolithic Kernel
A type of kernel architecture where all the basic system services like process and memory management, interrupt handling, are put together in one large block of code.
Cache
A high-speed data storage layer that stores a subset of data, typically transient in nature, so that future requests for that data are served up faster than is possible by accessing the data's primary storage location.
Swapping
The process of moving a process from main memory to disk and back to main memory in order to manage memory more efficiently.
Translation lookaside buffer (TLB)
A cache used to reduce the time taken to access a user memory location, storing the recent translations of virtual memory to physical memory addresses.
Context Switch
The mechanism in which the state of a process is saved so that another process can be loaded and executed.
File Permissions
Settings that determine who can read, write, or execute a file in a Unix-like operating system.
Environment Variable
A dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer.
Kernel Panic
An action taken by an operating system upon detecting an internal fatal error from which it cannot safely recover.
Multitasking
The capability of an operating system to execute more than one process at a time, either by switching among processes quickly or executing them concurrently.
Hard Lockup
A condition in which the hardware is unresponsive and not processing interrupts, often requiring a physical reset or power cycle.
Paging
A memory management scheme that eliminates the need for contiguous allocation of physical memory by dividing memory into fixed-size blocks.
Soft Lockup
A condition in which the kernel of a Unix-like operating system cannot process scheduled tasks for an unexpectedly long time.
Kernel Mode
A mode of operation that allows the OS unrestricted access to all machine resources, including all MPU instructions.
Scheduler
Part of the operating system that handles the process scheduling. It decides which process will run at any given time.
Segmentation
A memory management technique that divides the process' memory into different segments such as code, stack, and data segments.
RAID
A redundant array of independent disks; a way of storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks to protect data in the case of a drive failure.
Daemon
A background process on Unix-like systems that often starts with the system and runs without direct user interaction.
Kernel
The core component of an operating system that manages system resources and the communication between hardware and software components.
System Call
A programmatic way a computer program requests a service from the kernel of the operating system it is executed on.
Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)
A computing architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single, shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance.
Process
An instance of a running program that includes the program code, its current activity, and the resources assigned to it.
Interrupt
A signal to the processor emitted by hardware or software when an event that needs immediate attention occurs.
Deadlock
A state where several processes are unable to continue execution because each is waiting for the other to release resources.
Multithreading
The ability of a CPU or a single core in a multi-core processor to execute multiple threads concurrently.
Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP)
A computing architecture where each processor is assigned a specific task or tasks, and the main processor controls the system.
User Mode
A restricted processing mode designed for applications, where they don't have direct access to hardware and critical system resources.
Swap Space
The portion of a hard disk drive that's used as a virtual extension of a computer's real memory (RAM).
© Hypatia.Tech. 2024 All rights reserved.