Operating Systems, unit: Processes and Threads. Core concepts, terminology, and worked-example cues a college student meets for this unit, building on prior units without repeating them. Front: a term, concept, or short problem cue. Back: the definition, explanation, or answer.
38 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What is a process?
Show answer
A program in execution, with its own memory space and resources- What is the difference between a program and a process?
Show answer
A program is static code on disk; a process is that program actively running in memory- What is a process control block (PCB)?
Show answer
A data structure the OS uses to store information about a specific process- What information does a PCB typically store?
Show answer
Process state, program counter, CPU registers, memory limits, and scheduling information- What are the typical states of a process?
Show answer
New, ready, running, waiting (blocked), and terminated- What is context switching?
Show answer
Saving one process's state and loading another's, allowing the CPU to switch between them- What is a thread?
Show answer
A lightweight unit of execution within a process, sharing the process's memory space- What is the main difference between a process and a thread?
Show answer
Processes have separate memory spaces; threads within the same process share memory- What is multithreading?
Show answer
Running multiple threads within a single process concurrently- What is the advantage of using threads instead of separate processes?
Show answer
Threads are lighter weight and can share data more easily and efficiently- What is a race condition?
Show answer
A bug where the outcome depends on the unpredictable timing of concurrent operations- What is inter-process communication (IPC)?
Show answer
Mechanisms allowing separate processes to exchange data and synchronize- What are common IPC mechanisms?
Show answer
Pipes, message queues, shared memory, and sockets- What is a pipe, as an IPC mechanism?
Show answer
A unidirectional channel allowing one process to send data to another- What is shared memory, as an IPC mechanism?
Show answer
A region of memory accessible by multiple processes for fast data exchange
FlashKeepers