CS 421 hw2

This is a written assignment submit a plaintext file/Word/PDF. I am using a PC, so please dont submit a .Pages document you should be able to export your file to a .PDF

This is an individual assignment. You are encouraged to use the internet, but you need to provide citations (a specific URL or URLs) for anything you use as a source, and you need to put things into your own words.

This is a short answer assignment. You should be able to explain your answer in about 2 sentences for each question. Focus on the question questions 2, 4a and 4b all talk about a specific example, so your answer should be about them specifically.

I have a program that ran fine on an old machine where the processor had a single core. I have installed it on a new, multicore machine, and yet the program runs slower. Why might this happen, and what would I have to do to get faster performance?

Suppose I have a babys stuffed animal toy which includes a chip and sensors to enable the toy to say which part of the head is being squeezed or pressed, like Thats my ear! or Thats my nose! Assume there is one process per sensor. Explain how the operating system must handle resource sharing.

As you may have noticed, your computer is idle for a lot of the day. People have made use of this idle time to run code trying to find signs of extra-terrestrial life, among other things. If you want your operating system to support such processes, how should it treat them differently than regular applications?

For Canvas, discuss how it might take advantage of data access patterns to improve performance. Specifically, you can assume that by default the files and data are stored in a database that is connected to the server or servers.

What is one kind of data that might be good to bring into RAM, and when?

What is one kind of data that might be good to move onto cheaper, slower memory?

Grading

You get 50 points for making a decent attempt, where decent is purely to avoid some kind of empty or nearly empty submission.

10 points for each question, with 4a and 4b considered separate questions.