Operating System: Definitions and explanations page 1 PDF Download
Learn operating system definitions and explanations, OS course terminologies (Page 1) for computer science degree programs.
- What is Access Method?
Access method is a program or a hardware mechanism that moves data between the computer and ... - What is Address Space?
Address space is the amount of storage/memory that is allocated for all possible addresses of computational ... - What is Address Translator?
An address translator is a method of concatenating the frame number with the offset part of ... - What is Application Programming Interface (API)?
Application programmable interface is a set of functions and procedures that allows the creation of applications ... - What is Asynchronous Operation?
Asynchronous operations also called asynchronous working is where a sequence of operations is executed such that ... - What is Base Address?
Base address is a unique location in primary storage that serves as a reference point for ... - What is Batch Processing?
Batch processing is the processing of previously collected jobs in a single batch. batch process jobs ... - What is Beowulf?
Beowulf is an approach to building a supercomputer as a cluster of commodity off-the-shelf personal computers, ... - What is Binary Semaphore?
A semaphore can be visualized as a counter that can be incremented or decremented . a ... - What is Block?
A block is a contagious set of bits or bytes that forms an identifiable unit of ... - What is Binary Tree?
A binary tree is a data structure in which each node can have maximum of two ... - What is Busy Waiting?
Busy waiting is a phenomenon in which a process checks repeatedly for a certain condition. it ... - What is Cache Memory?
Cache memory also known as the cpu memory is a volatile very high-speed static random access ... - What is Central Processing Unit (CPU)?
Central processing unit (cpu) sometimes referred to as the central processor, but more commonly called a ... - What is Chained List?
A chained list or linked list is a linear collection of data elements, whose order is ... - What is Client?
A client is basically a desktop computer or a workstation that is capable of obtaining information ... - What is Cluster?
A cluster is a group of servers and other resources that act like a single system ... - What is Communication Architecture?
Communicating architecture is a complex and varied process, varying significantly during the life of a project. ... - What is Compaction?
Compaction is a process in which the free space is collected in a large memory chunk ... - What is Concurrent?
Concurrent processing is a computing model in which multiple processors execute instructions simultaneously for better performance. ... - What is Consumable Resource?
Consumable resources are assets available on machines that can be created or consumed either by the ... - What is Critical Section?
Critical section is the part of a program which tries to access shared resources. the critical ... - What is Database?
A database is an organized collection of data. more specifically, a database is an electronic system ... - What is Deadlock?
A deadlock is a situation in which two computer programs sharing same resources are effectively preventing ... - What is Deadlock Avoidance?
Deadlock avoidance algorithms try not to allocate resources to a process if it will make the ... - What is Deadlock Detection?
Deadlock detection is the process of determining that whether a deadlock exists or not. it also ... - What is Deadlock Prevention?
Deadlock prevention is done by constraining how requests for resources can be made in the system ... - What is Demand Paging?
Demand paging is a method of virtual memory management. it follows that a process starts its ... - What is Device Driver?
Device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of peripheral or ... - What is Direct Access?
Direct access is the ability to obtain data from a storage device by going directly to ... - What is Direct Memory Access (DMA)?
Direct memory access is a method that allows an io device to send or receive data ... - What is Disabled Interrupt?
A disabled interrupt is created by the operating system in order to gain access to internal ... - What is Disk Allocation Table?
A disk allocation table is a table that an operating system maintains on a hard disk ... - What is Disk Cache?
A disk cache is a mechanism for improving the time it takes to write to and ... - What is Dispatch?
Dispatching is done by a dispatcher that is a module that gives control of the cpu ... - What is Distributed Operating System?
A distributed operating system is a software over a collection of independent, networked, communicating, and physically ... - What is Dynamic Relocation?
Dynamic relocation is the process of relocating data currently in the computer memory to other parts ... - What is Enabled Interrupt?
Enabled interrupts are created by operating systems so that the processor works on the interrupt enabled. ... - What is Encryption?
Encryption is the process of using an algorithm to transform information to make it unreadable for ... - What is External Fragmentation?
External fragmentation is the various free spaced holes that are generated in either your memory or ... - What is Field?
A field is an area in fixed or known location in a unit of data like ... - What is File?
A file is a record or a set of data. more precisely, a file is a ... - What is File Allocation Table?
A file allocation table is a table that an operating system maintains on a hard disk ... - What is File Management System?
The system used by the operating system or program to organize or keep track of files. ... - What is File Organization?
File organization refers to the logical relationships, among certain records that are part of the file, ... - What is First In First Out (FIFO)?
Fifo (first in first out) is a method for organizing and manipulating data, where the oldest ... - What is Frame?
A frame could be a storage or central storage frame that is a fixed size block ... - What is Gang Scheduling?
Gang scheduling is a scheduling algorithm for parallel systems that schedules related processes or threads to ... - What is Hashing?
Hashing is the transformation of string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key ... - What is Hit Ratio?
The performance of memory elements is frequently measured in terms of quantity, this measurement is known ... - What is Indexed Access?
Indexed access method is a method of file access in which each file has a specific ... - What is Indexed File?
An indexed file is a computer file that contains an index that allows easy access to ... - What is Indexed Sequential Access?
Indexed sequential access is a method that modifies the direct access method. basically it combines both, ... - What is Indexed Sequential File?
Indexed sequential file is a computer file that contains index. the difference in this file and ... - What is Instruction Cycle?
Instruction cycle is a processor cycle in which one instruction is processed. each cycle processes a ... - What is Internal Fragmentation?
Internal fragmentation is the wasted space inside a block. the reason of this happening is the ... - What is Interrupt?
An interrupt is a function of an operating system that provides multi-process multi-tasking. it is a ... - What is Interrupt Handler?
Interrupt handler could be a callback function in an operating system, more specifically in a device ... - What is Job?
A job is a basically a unit of work that a job scheduler gives to the ... - What is Job Control Language?
Job control language is a language for describing jobs to the operating system. the operating system ...