Operating Systems Question (Please help if you can)

5. What is a trap? Give an example. How does it differ from an interrupt?

6. Why does the Linux kernel handle certain interrupts in two stages: top half and bottom

half?

7. What is a context switch? What is the role of the kernel in a context switch?

8. What is the maximum number of processes in the system at any time using the following

code segment?

extern char mypath[];

for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ )

{

pid_t pid, pid_out;

unsigned char status;

if ( pid = fork() )

pid_out = wait ( &status );

else

execl ( mypath, "child", "parameter", NULL );

}

Assume that child performs some simple computation and returns the result, that is captured

in status.