Process & Memory Management Flashcards

Which scheduling algorithm can lead to starvation of low-priority processes?

Answer: Priority Scheduling

Priority Scheduling can starve low-priority processes if high-priority processes continuously arrive.

What is the purpose of the Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB)?

Answer: To cache recent virtual-to-physical address translations

The TLB is a fast cache that stores recent page-table lookups to speed up virtual address translation.

In the context of process states, what does it mean for a process to be in the 'blocked' state?

Answer: The process is waiting for an event such as I/O completion

A blocked process is waiting for an event (e.g., I/O completion) before it can continue execution.

Which memory allocation strategy searches the entire free list and picks the partition that leaves the smallest leftover fragment?

Answer: Best Fit

Best Fit selects the smallest free partition that is large enough, minimizing wasted space in that allocation.

What is a zombie process in Unix/Linux?

Answer: A terminated process whose entry remains in the process table

A zombie process has completed execution but retains its process table entry until the parent reads its exit status.

Which page replacement algorithm replaces the page that has not been used for the longest period of time?

Answer: LRU

Least Recently Used (LRU) evicts the page whose last access was the farthest in the past.

What is the difference between a process and a thread?

Answer: Threads share the address space of their process; processes have separate address spaces

Threads within a process share code, data, and heap segments, while separate processes each have their own address space.