Deck 6: Concurrent Processes

Question 1

Test-and-set is a single indivisible machine instruction.In a single machine cycle,it tests to see if a key is available and,if it is,sets it to unavailable.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Parallel processing is a situation in which two or more processors operate in one system at the same time and may or may not work on related activities.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The success of process synchronization hinges on the capability of the operating system to make a resource available to other processes while it is being used by one of them.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In parallel computations,mutual exclusion is achieved automatically because each operation is handled in order,one at a time.

Question 5

The two operations that can be performed on a semaphore variable are select and increment (P and V).

Question 6

The master/slave configuration is a symmetric multiprocessing system.

Question 7

Java uses both a compiler and an interpreter.

Question 8

The classic problem of producers and consumers is one in which one or more processes produce some data that one or more processes consume later.

Question 9

The only tangible benefit of parallel processing systems is faster processing.

Question 10

Java technology is used for many Web and Internet applications,and it integrates well with browsers that can run Java applets with audio,video,and animation directly in a Web page.

Question 11

In a loosely coupled system,a job may move from one processor to another during execution.

Question 12

The primary disadvantage of the WAIT and SIGNAL operation set is that it does not address busy waiting.

Question 13

The common element in all synchronization schemes is to allow a process to finish work on a critical region of the program before other processes have access to it.

Question 14

The loosely coupled multiprocessing configuration features several complete computer systems,each with its own memory,I/O devices,CPU,and operating system.

Question 15

When a programmer indicates in the code which instructions can be executed in parallel in a program (for example,using COBEGIN and COEND),it is called implicit parallelism.

Question 16

In a master/slave system,the master processor is responsible for managing the entire system-all files,devices,memory,and processors.

Question 17

Each active thread in a process has its own processor registers,data area,and resources.

Question 18

Multiprocessing can refer to one job using several processors to execute sets of instructions in parallel.

Question 19

Early programming languages did not support the creation of threads or the existence of concurrent processes.The Ada programming language was one of the first to do so.

Question 20

When multiprocessing takes place at the thread level,a high degree of synchronization is required to disassemble each process.

Question 21

The ____ multiprocessing configuration is the most difficult to implement because the processes must be well synchronized to avoid races and deadlocks.

A) master/slave
B) loosely coupled
C) symmetric
D) shared load

Question 22

A computer system that can support jobs that use multiple processors to execute sets of instructions in parallel is referred to as a ____ system.

A) concurrent processing
B) process synchronization
C) parallel extraction
D) processing optimization

Question 23

In its simplest form,Amdahl's Law maintains that if a given program would take one hour to run to completion with one processor,but 80 percent of the program had to run sequentially (and therefore could not be sped up by applying additional processors to it),then a resulting parallel program would run only a maximum of ____ percent faster.

A) 5
B) 10
C) 20
D) 25

Question 24

Most current operating systems support the implementation of threads,or ____,which have become part of numerous application packages.

A) parallel processes
B) lightweight processes
C) heavyweight processes
D) semaphores

Question 25

A ____ of processing must be handled as a single unit.

A) line
B) segment
C) critical region
D) semaphore

Question 26

In general,parallel systems can be put into two broad categories: ____ level parallelism and instruction level parallelism.

A) resource
B) register
C) data
D) task

Question 27

The ____ multiprocessing configuration is an asymmetric system.

A) loosely coupled
B) master processors
C) start/end
D) master/slave

Question 28

What is the name traditionally given to a semaphore that enforces the concept of mutual exclusion?

A) synch
B) flag
C) mutex
D) signal

Question 29

The source code of a Java program is first compiled into an intermediate language called Java ____,which are platform-independent.

A) beans
B) nibs
C) bits
D) bytecodes

Question 30

When using the WAIT and SIGNAL operations,____ sets the process's process control block to the blocked state and links it to the queue of processes waiting to enter this particular critical region.

A) TS
B) SIGNAL
C) WAIT
D) BLOCK

Question 31

The operation P in a semaphore scheme requires a(n)____ sequence to be performed as an indivisible action in a single machine cycle.

A) test, fetch, increment, and store
B) test, fetch, decrement, and store
C) increment and store
D) decrement and store

Question 32

A problem with test-and-set is that when many processes are waiting to enter a critical region,____ can occur because the processes gain access in an arbitrary fashion.

A) starvation
B) synchronization
C) deadlock
D) an error

Question 33

____ semaphores are used in the solution to the readers and writers problem that does not involve starvation.

A) Zero
B) One
C) Two
D) Three

Question 34

When a compiler automatically detects instructions that can be performed in parallel,____ is in place.

A) automatic parallelism
B) array parallelism
C) explicit parallelism
D) implicit parallelism

Question 35

The Java ____ class is a collection of methods used to start,run,stop,and check the status of a thread.

A) Thread
B) Multiprocessing
C) Distributed
D) Concurrency

Question 36

The ____ multiprocessing configuration features several complete computer systems,each with its own memory,I/O devices,CPU,and operating system.

A) loosely coupled
B) master/slave
C) symmetric
D) synchronized

Question 37

The two operations defined by Dijkstra to be performed on a semaphore are ____.

A) P and V
B) WAIT and SIGNAL
C) test and set
D) check and update

Question 38

Lock and key synchronization must take place within a single ____.

A) instruction
B) computer
C) processor
D) machine cycle

Question 39

____ proposed a solution to the readers and writers problem that did not result in starvation for readers or writers.

A) Hoare
B) Courtois
C) Heymans
D) Parnas

Question 40

____ semaphores are used in the producer and consumer problem.

A) One
B) Two
C) Three
D) Four