CSE 430
SPRING 2006 MIDTERM 1
(6:40 CLASS)
NAME
Put Name on Every Page
1. (8) Introduction to operating systems
Early in Chapter 1, SG&G say: “An operating system is similar to a government.”
(a) (3) What is it that an operating system provides that makes it like a government?
(b) (5) What negative characteristic do SG&G say an operating system has in common with a
government? Give an example of this.
2. (15) Interprocess Communication
(a) (5) Give an advantage shared memory communication has over message passing. Note: Just
saying faster gets you no points. You have to say why.
(b) (5) Give an advantage message passing has over shared memory communication.
(c) (5) Synchroneity varies in message passing mechanisms. For example, depending on the
implementation, message send primitives can block awaiting different events. List 3 different
events in order of increasing blocking times that send primitives could block for. GIANT
HINT: A good way to answer this question is to start off by saying “The send can block
until…”. You should assume the system is distributed.
