NAME: DUBE DUMISANI TAWANDA

CLASS: HND ELECTRICAL POWER

ASSIGNMENT: MICROCOMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

Theory Assignment 1

Question 1
(a) State and explain any five scheduling policies of the CPU

i. First Come First Serve (FCFS)

Is considered to be the simplest of all operating system scheduling algorithms, working on the
principle that the process which requests the CPU first is allocated the CPU first and is
implemented by using First in First out (FIFO). Unfortunately, algorithm is not much efficient in
performance as the wait time is quite high (Convoy effect) and therefore average waiting time is
much higher than the other algorithms. Its advantage of simplicity and easiness is negated by its
low efficiency.

ii. Shortest Job First (SJF):

Is a scheduling process that selects the waiting process with the smallest execution time to execute
next and hence considerably reduces the average waiting time for other processes in queue. This
makes it better and more efficient than the FCFS, making it more suitable for long term scheduling.
However, starvation becomes a problem as longer jobs are kept waiting for longer periods.
System also suffers a setback since it has to try and predict the length of the upcoming CPU
request, which is not always easy.

iii. Round robin:

This is a scheduling algorithm where each process is cyclically assigned a fixed time slot. It is the
preemptive version of First Come First Serve scheduling algorithm, focusing on Time Sharing
technique. It is considered preemptive as the processes Round robin seems to be fair as every
process gets an equal share of CPU and is therefore simple, easy to use, and starvation-free as all
processes get the balanced CPU allocation. The main benefits of this algorithm is that the newly
created process is added to the end of ready queue and that it Is fair as every process gets an equal
share of CPU
 iv. Longest Job First (LJF):
Scheduling process is just opposite the SJF and as the name suggests this algorithm is based upon
the fact that the process with the largest burst time is processed first without any other preemptive
considerations. After scanning the processes waiting in a waiting queue, CPU is always assigned
to the process having largest burst time. And consequently no other task can schedule until the
longest job or process executes completely. This prioritizing of longest tasks causes a high average
waiting time/average turn-around time which usually lead to convoy effect.

v. Priority Scheduling:
Preemptive Priority CPU Scheduling Algorithm is a pre-emptive method of CPU scheduling
algorithm that works based on the priority of a process. When the higher priority work arrives
while a task with less priority is executed, the higher priority work takes the place of the less
important one. It is less complex and the average waiting time is less than other systems but
unfortunately it causes a Starvation problem as less important processes have to wait for a longer
amount of time to get scheduled into the CPU.
.
b) Identify and describe any five health problems that may be related to computer use and
give the possible solutions:

i. . Sleeping Problems
Artificial lighting that is given off from computer screens can actually trick your brain and suppress
its release of melatonin – the substance that assists your sleeping patterns.
Solutions:
 Refrain from using a computer right before going to bed.
 Resort to reading a book or something to that degree prior to going to bed, so falling asleep
may come more easily for you.

ii. Eyesight-related health problems

The blue, bright, flickering screen light can cause strain on eyes especially if using computers for
a long time, causing teary eyes or sometimes dryness. One must adjust the brightness on the
computer screen as well as using blue-light glasses to reduce strain while using a computer.
iii. Obesity
Prolonged use of computers may lead to an overall sedentary lifestyle that lacks adequate physical
activity or exercise, leading to obesity. In children prolonged use of computers discourage outdoor
play or active lifestyle. One should take a break and try to squeeze in some exercises.
 iv. Hearing Loss From Headphones
At times you may be required to use headphones in order to better concentrate on something or
maybe because the background noise level is too high. Frequently individuals will turn the volume
up very high, when actually it would not even need to be close to that volume to hear the audio
effectively. Listening to audio with headphones on a consistent basis and using a volume that is
too high can result in hearing impairment.
Solution:
Keep the volume of your headphones down to a tolerable level, one that blocks out any extra noise
but that is just loud enough for you to hear.
Listening to your headphones at approximately 80 decibels is recommended; if you are unaware
of what that sound level is it can easily be researched
v. Repetitive Fatigue and Stress-related health problems
Prolonged computer use may lead to use of muscles in an ways that may cause increased stiffness,
pain, or swelling in any of those fixed area like wrist or neck or shoulders. A common conditions
related to repetitive use of your muscles when using the computer is carpal tunnel syndrome.
Solutions:
a) It is always advisable to place the mouse at an arm-stretch distance rather than too close to
palm so that you move your whole arm to get to it rather than just twisting your wrist
outward to reach it and move it.
b) Keep the wrists flexible when typing and avoid keeping them fixed in a certain position.
c) Always relax arms from time to time.
d) Always get a few stretches here and there when not typing or using mouse.
e) Use a wrist pad when using mouse
 2 a) Question: Memory management involves the allocation of the physical main memory.
Give five objectives of memory management

Memory management is a method in the operating system to manage operations between main
memory and disk during process execution, whose main aim is to enable efficient utilisation of
memory.
The objectives of memory management are:

 Utility- to enable proper utilization of available main memory.

 Economy- enabling optimal allocation and de-allocation of memory before and after
process execution.
 Monitoring- constantly keeps record of memory being used by applications
 Security-to maintain the integrity and quality of data during executing of process.

2 b) (b) With reference to how memory is managed in a modern computer system explain
the following terms
(i) Fragmentation

As processes are loaded and removed from memory, the free memory space is broken into little
pieces. It happens after sometimes that processes cannot be allocated to memory blocks
considering their small size and memory blocks remains unused. This problem is known as
Fragmentation.
Fragmentation is of two types

Fragmentation & Description

External fragmentation
Total memory space is enough to satisfy a request or to reside a process in it, but it is not
contiguous, so it cannot be used.

Internal fragmentation
Memory block assigned to process is bigger. Some portion of memory is left unused, as it cannot
be used by another process.
Paging
A computer can address more memory than the amount physically installed on the system. This
extra memory is actually called virtual memory and it is a section of a hard that's set up to emulate
the computer's RAM. Paging technique plays an important role in implementing virtual memory
because it is a memory management technique in which process address space is broken into
blocks of the same size called pages (size is power of 2, between 512 bytes and 8192 bytes). The
size of the process is measured in the number of pages.

2 b) (ii) Segmentation
Segmentation is a memory management technique in which each job is divided into several
segments of different sizes, one for each module that contains pieces that perform related functions.
Each segment is actually a different logical address space of the program. When a process is to be
executed, its corresponding segmentation are loaded into non-contiguous memory though every
segment is loaded into a contiguous block of available memory.
Segmentation memory management works very similar to paging but here segments are of
variable-length where as in paging pages are of fixed size.

2 b) (iii) Virtual memory

This is a feature of an operating system that uses hardware and software to compensate for
shortages of physical memory. It transfers pages of data from random access memory to disk
storage and works through a temporary process known as swapping which combines RAM and
with space on the hard disk.
3 Discuss the following computer software giving one example of each

a) System software
System software is a type of computer program that is designed to run a computer's hardware and
application programs. If we think of software as being in layers, the system software is the bottom
layer: it sits between the hardware and the application software. System software is used to manage
the computer itself. It runs in the background, maintaining the computer's basic functions so users
can run higher-level application software to perform certain tasks

Operating systems like Windows, macOS, Android and iOS are examples of system software
which are loaded into RAM when the device starts up, and have access to the hard drive.

b) Application software

Application Software is a type of computer program that performs specific functions: personal,
business as well as educational. Unlike System Software, Application Software is specific for its
functionality and completes the task that they are developed to do.

. This application software includes Microsoft products such as Office, PowerPoint, Word, Excel,
Outlook and Music Application Software like Pandora and Spotify.

c) Utility software
These software analyze and maintain a computer and are focused on how OS works, performing
tasks to enable smooth functioning of computer. These software may come along with OS like
windows defender, windows disk cleanup tool. Antivirus, backup software, file manager, disk
compression tool all are utility software.
. This type of software also supports the computer's infrastructure, which differs from application
software that performs tasks to benefit the user.