CST 334 - Week 2

 Hey everyone!
    I am back with another update of this online journey of learning. This week, we spent time learning about processes, focusing on the fork method and how the operating system handles tasks. In our studies, we used Chapters 4 through 8 of OSTEP, which cover the concept of a process, process APIs, CPU scheduling, and advanced techniques like the Multi-Level Feedback Queue (MLFQ). Understanding fork was especially valuable because it’s a method that lets a process create a copy of itself. This is important for many programs that need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, like running background processes while the main task continues. We also practice this method through the lab that our professor had prepared for us. It was really fun because the instructions were clear and we knew exactly what to do. She even gave us a starter code to understand how to use the method. 

    We also explored Linux and the bash shell, gaining practical skills with basic shell commands, utilities, and commands specifically for managing processes. Learning how to work with the shell and using commands like `ps` and `top` to view and manage running processes helps us see how processes are created, managed, and scheduled on an actual operating system. These tools make it easier to interact with processes directly and understand how the OS allocates CPU time, balancing resources efficiently.

    That was about it for this week. I am excited to learn more as the weeks come! See you next time!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CST 334 - Week 6

 Hey everyone!      This week we submitted our research collab project. It was quite interesting and fun. I learned a lot and our team bonded more as well. We also learned many new things through our lectures and labs.       Concurrency is a critical concept in computer systems, enabling multiple processes to execute simultaneously. However, with great power comes great complexity.       A semaphore is a synchronization primitive that helps manage access to shared resources in a concurrent environment. Semaphores can be thought of as counters that control the number of processes allowed to access a resource. They come in two main types :             - Counting Semaphores : These can have values greater than one and are often used to manage a   pool of resources, such as threads or connections.           - Binary Semaphores : These function like locks and c...
Read more

CST 334 - Week 4

Hey everyone!       This week, I learned about how operating systems manage memory, which is one of their most important jobs. One topic was free space management , where the system keeps track of memory or storage that isn’t being used. Two common methods are bitmaps (using bits to mark if memory is free or taken) and linked lists (connecting free memory blocks together). Each method has its pros and cons, like how much space they use or how fast they work.      I also studied paging , which splits memory into small chunks called pages. These pages are mapped to physical memory, keeping processes separate and organized. However, this mapping can slow things down because the computer has to translate addresses often. To make it faster, Translation Lookaside Buffers (TLBs) store recent translations in a small, quick cache. I also learned about advanced page tables , which are smarter ways of organizing these mappings to save memory.    ...
Read more

CST 370 - Week 1

 Hey everyone, This week, we learned several important topics that form the foundation of computer science and programming. We started with GitHub and practiced using manual commands like git init, git add, git commit, and git push to manage our code. This helped us understand version control and how to keep track of changes when working on projects, especially when collaborating with others. We were also introduced to algorithms and learned what they are—step-by-step methods for solving problems. One example we focused on was Euclid’s Algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor (GCD) of two numbers. It uses a simple but powerful idea: repeatedly replace the numbers with GCD(b, a % b) until the second number becomes zero. We also practiced writing pseudocode, which helped us plan out algorithms in plain language before coding. We also had a homework assignment to help us further understand GitHub commands. Later in the week, we learned about graphs, both weighted and unweight...
Read more