UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2017/2018
EXAMINATION FOR THE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY & DIPLOMA IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
DIT301 DBIT403 OPERATING SYSTEMS
FULLTIME/PARTTIME
DATE: APRIL, 2018 TIME: 1 ½ HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question ONE and ANY other TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
(a) Explain four hardware factors to consider when acquiring an operating system [3 Marks]
(b) (i) Define the term “utility software” [2 Marks]
(ii) List three examples of utility programs [3 Marks]
(c) Highlight four ways that could be used to prevent modification or unauthorized access to
information in a computer within a networked environment. [4 Marks]
(d) Explain three reasons for using Graphical User Interface (GUI) rather than a command Line
Interface (CLI) [6 Marks]
(e)List and explain six functions of a computer operating system [6 Marks]
(f) Briefly describe the following processing scheduling algorithms: – [6 Marks]
(i) First-In-First-Out(FIFO)
(ii) Priority scheduling
(iii)Shortest Job First
QUESTION TWO [20 MARKS]
(a) Define the following computer related terms:- [5 Marks]
(i) Kernel
(ii) Process
(iii)Buffering
(iv)Semaphore
(v) Operating system
(b) List and explain the five states of a process [5 Marks]
(c) Explain five features of a good operating system [5 Marks]
(d) List and explain five types of operating systems [5 Marks]
QUESTION THREE [20 MARKS]
(a) Explain the following memory management requirements:-
(i) Relocation
(ii) Protection
(iii)Sharing [3 Marks]
(b) With the aid of a diagram, outline the typical modules of an I/O manager [4 Marks]
(c) A file system supports a collection of operations that can be performed on directories.
describe four such operations [8 Marks]
(d) Figure 1 shows typical information of Process Control Block. State the function of each
element. [5 Marks]
Identifier
State
Priority
Program counter
Memory pointers
QUESTION FOUR [20 MARKS]
(a) Explain the following terms as used in computers: [4 Marks]
(i) Robustness
(ii) Turnaround time
(iii)Throughput
(iv)Operating system
(b) Differentiate between multitasking and multiprocessing operating systems [4 Marks]
(c) With the aid of a diagram, describe the circular wait deadlock condition as used in operating
systems [4 Marks]
(d) State four memory management techniques in respect to operating systems [4 Marks]
(e) Explain the following terms as used in I/O management, giving an example in each case:
[4 Marks]
(i) Character oriented device
(ii) Bock oriented device
QUESTION FIVE [20 MARKS]
(a) James intends to design an operating system to use the following schemes to prevent
deadlocks:-
(i) Preemption
(ii) Resource ordering
Required: Explain the above deadlock prevention schemes [4 Marks]
(b) Outline four techniques used by an operating system to effectively manage computer’s
Random Access Memory [4 Marks]
(c) List and briefly explain the three types of schedulers [6 Marks]
(d) Write DOS commands that would carry out the following:- [4 Marks]
(i) Close the command prompt window
(ii) Display all directories in drive C:/
(iii)Create a directory named Exams in drive D:/
(iv)Change from one directory to a different directory
(e) Outline two objectives of process scheduling as used in operating system [2 Marks]
