Operating Systems and Translation Software

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture on operating systems and translation software.

Operating System (OS)

Software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System, a firmware interface for hardware initialization during the booting process.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

Temporary storage that provides the space for the execution of programs and storage for currently utilized data.

Direct Memory Access (DMA) Controller

A component that allows hardware to directly access the main memory independent of the CPU.

Kernel

The core component of an operating system that manages system resources, processes, and communication between hardware and software.

Multitasking

Executing multiple processes simultaneously by sharing resources among them.

Preemptive Multitasking

A multitasking method where the operating system can interrupt currently running tasks to allocate CPU time to higher priority tasks.

Process Control Block (PCB)

A data structure that contains all information about a process, such as its state, priority, and CPU time requirements.

Paging

Memory management scheme that eliminates the need for contiguous allocation of physical memory and helps manage fragmentation.

Segmentation

Memory management technique that divides the logical address space into variable-sized segments, allowing easier management of complex data structures.

Virtual Memory

A memory management technique that gives an application the impression of a very large address space by using disk space.

Disk Thrashing

Performance degradation that occurs when a system spends the majority of its time swapping data between physical memory and disk storage rather than executing processes.

Compiler

A program that translates source code written in a high-level programming language into machine code or intermediate code.

Interpreter

A program that executes instructions written in a programming language without requiring them to have been compiled into machine code.

Backus-Naur Form (BNF)

A notation technique used to express context-free grammars, often used in defining the syntax of programming languages.

Reverse Polish Notation (RPN)

A mathematical notation in which every operator follows all of its operands, used to eliminate the need for parentheses.

Job Queue

A queue that holds jobs that are waiting to be executed by the CPU.

Ready Queue

A queue that contains all processes that are ready to execute but are waiting for CPU time.

Blocked Queue

A queue that holds processes that cannot proceed until some external event occurs.

Quantum Time

The fixed time interval that a process is allowed to run in a round-robin scheduling system.

Page Replacement

The process that occurs when a requested page is not found in memory, requiring the operating system to swap it with an existing page.

FIFO Algorithm

A page replacement policy that removes the oldest page in memory when a new page needs to be added.

LRU (Least Recently Used)

A page replacement algorithm that replaces the least recently used pages first.

Interrupt Handling

The mechanism by which the CPU receives and reacts to interrupt signals from hardware or software.

Device Drivers

Software components that allow the operating system to communicate with hardware devices.

Resource Management

The process by which an operating system manages and allocates resources such as CPU time, memory space, and input/output devices.