Questions and Answers

What is Pipelining?

Computers today have to deal with millions of commands every second. The conventional approach is to process one instruction at a time and after that the next one is waiting for its turn. It is an extremely time consuming process. This conventional method is replaced by the concept of “Pipelining”. In “Pipeline” approach several instructions are processed in parallel (may be undergoing different stages at the same time).

In pipeline approach, a complex process is divided into smaller processes. These processes are generally interdependent as the output of one is the input of the successor. So generally, pipelining is explained as an arrangement of processing elements linked in succession, so that the output of one element is the input of the successive element.

A very simple example could be baking a cake. The whole process can be divided into smaller steps as mixing batter, baking and icing. When the mixture of first cake is ready, it moves to the second step that is baking. Meanwhile work is started on the batter of second cake. After baking the first cake, it is moved to the final process that is icing and the second cake whose batter was ready undergoes the process of baking. After icing, the first cake is ready to be served while the second cake is in the process of icing. In this way several cakes can be baked in parallel.

What is Segmentation?

It is the method of ripping the whole society or business into trivial sections and sets that distribute same quality or conditions. The symbols of segmentation depend on what the user conducts in order to slice the particular society, an area or a business; and the most well-known type is the known as demographics. This type of segmentation involves symbols such as years, sexual identity, the amount of money earned and the list goes on. There are various additional symbols of segmentation as well, which include the concern of topography, behavioral sciences and psychographic.

The process of segmentation permits the markets and different occupations to make or generate items that fully come up to the demands of their clientele. It is also formerly taken as ascertaining the origin, to gain possession and to maintain possession of latent and fresh demands as well as requirements. It also stores and monitors the flavor, priorities and choices of everyone living in the society. This method automatically helps in the promotion of various items of all the public markets. There is a lot more research related to the topic of segmentation which will make us aware of its importance and significance.

What is Mutual Exclusion?

It is a method of being confident about the system or the procedure that it is utilizing a divided and altered information, while the remaining proceedings will be proscribed from taking the similar step. Officially when one procedure performs a divided value, all the remaining procedures will have to stop and wait until the process ends performing the divided value. Under this sequence, when each procedure performs and works with the parted values, it it automatically rejects the rest of the procedures and methods to carry out this way of processing. The whole process is named as Mutual Exlusion. It is required to be implemented only when the procedures acquire the divided and altered information.

The system of mutual exclusion requires four prerequisites in order to have an acceptable and great solving for the decisive segment of this process. It involves the fact that more than one procedure cannot take place at the same time under the analytical part. Presumptions cannot be contrived related to the corresponding rate of procedures. The procedures must not wait for much time in order to penetrate its analytical part or portion. Furthermore, the procedures that take place externally must obstruct all the remaining systems and procedures.

What is CPU scheduling?

The operating systems today allow multitasking, meaning that the respective system is able to run several processes at the same time, using the same main resource. The process is called multiplexing, and it is based on Operating Systems that can allot the same resources to several tasks. As the respective tasks need to have a certain priority and a certain percentage of resources allotted. CPU scheduling is the procedure that makes sure that the resources are allotted effectively, and that the programs work at their maximum capacity, as long as this is possible.

The scheduling can be based on several concepts:

LIFO – last in, first out – this means that the last process in the list is the first one executed
FIFO – first in, first out – meaning that the processes are executed in the order received by the scheduling system

In reality, the modern scheduling devices are able to combine those concepts, and they are executed considering their priority. For example, a system process has priority in front of a simple software, unless otherwise specified by the user. Those modern systems allow the user to define priorities, and to execute the tasks in the order that suits his needs best, which is a good idea, considering that modern machines could run hundreds of tasks at the same time, and the scheduling system cannot anticipate the priorities needed by the user.

What is Demand Paging?

Demand Paging is a system that allows the computer to buffer only the important programs and codes for a certain operation. In other words, whenever a user accesses a program, the computer would bring into the buffer the most important files of the respective process, so the user could take advantage of those files a lot easier.

This procedure makes sure that the computer is fast and that all the actions of the user are executed fast. Once the user changes the main working program, the Demand Paging concept brings other files into the buffering memory of the computer.

The advantage is obvious: only the important pages are used during execution, so the RAM memory saves space, while the ROM memory is only used when it is needed. Moreover, this procedure allows the users to run several processes at the same time, as long as the buffering memory of the computer allows this. One disadvantage of the process is the fact that the buffering memory might have difficulties in accessing a page for the first time, and the systems are a lot more vulnerable to exterior attacks while Demand Paging is active. Moreover, if the needed page is not accessible in the ROM memory, the program could act as faulty, and the reliability of the system could be affected.