Operating Systems and Networkingg (C227)

Flashcards covering CPU architecture, memory, processes, and scheduling.

ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit)

Responsible for all mathematical operations in the CPU.

Cc

Control Unit (CU)

Manages data flow and instruction decoding within the CPU; directs the operations of other CPU components.

Registers

Tiniest, fastest memory in the computer; temporarily hold data the CPU is working with.

Cache Memory

Memory on the CPU used for reading and writing data; provides faster access than main memory.

Data Bus

Moves data between the CPU, memory, and I/O devices.

Address Bus

Sends the location (address) where data is stored or needs to go.

Control Bus

Sends timing and control signals.

Memory Bus

Connects RAM to the CPU.

DMI (Direct Media Interface)

Connects the CPU to the PCH (Platform Controller Hub) for peripherals.

PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)

High-speed interface standard used to connect components like graphics cards and SSDs to a computer’s motherboard.

USB (Universal Serial Bus)

Specification for communication between devices and a host controller for peripherals.

SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)

Computer bus interface for connecting mass storage devices such as SSDs and HDDs.

CPU Word Size

Number of bits the CPU can process or transmit in one operation; defines the basic unit of data a processor handles.

Clock Speed

Timing signal to set the pace of instruction execution; measured in Hertz (Hz).

Base Clock Speed

The default clock speed of the CPU.

Boost/Turbo Frequency

Maximum speed under load.

CPU Core

Physical processing unit within a CPU; more cores allow for better multitasking and parallel processing.

RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing)

Processor architecture that reduces cycles per instruction while increasing the number of instructions per program.

CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing)

Processor architecture that reduces the number of instructions per program while increasing the number of cycles per instruction.

Process

An instance of a program that is loaded into memory and executed by the OS.

Thread

A unit of execution inside a process that shares memory and resources with other threads in the same process.

Process Manager

Manages processes by describing the state and resource ownership of the process.

Thread Manager

Creates and manages threads within processes.

Thread Scheduler

Decides which thread to run next on a CPU by implementing priority-based preemptive scheduling.

Context Switching

Saving the state of a currently running process and restoring the state of another process.

Deadlock

A situation where two or more processes or threads are blocked indefinitely, waiting for each other to release a resource.

Synchronization

Ensuring that only one process accesses a critical section at a time to maintain data consistency.

Inter-Process Communication (IPC)

Methods processes use to communicate with each other, such as pipes, message queues, shared memory, and sockets.

Clock Cycle

Smallest unit of time in a CPU.

Machine Cycle

Smallest unit of time to do any actual work by the CPU. Involves Fetch, Decode, Execute, and Store (Write Back) steps continuously to process instructions in a computer.

Instruction Cycle

Time required to fetch, decode, and execute a complete instruction from a program including one or more machine cycles.