Overall Structure

• Date: unknown as yet
• Two hour exam. 15 minutes reading time.
• All answers will be written in answer booklets, NOT on the exam paper.
• Four questions totalling 30 marks:
  • details of the format for each question will be here soon
• If you achieve less than 40% in this exam (i.e. less than 12 out of 30 marks), then you WILL automatically obtain a clear fail in the course. In this situation, the maximum mark you will achieve is 46 FL.

Exam Format

• The exam is open-book.
• Attempt all questions. There are no choices as to which questions to answer.
• Questions cover most of the main topics we have explored in the Systems Architecture lectures.
• The emphasis is on the second half of the course, but there will be questions covering the whole of the course.
• Topics that may be covered:
  • basics of computer architecture: layers, interfaces, von Neumann architecture, busses, CPU components
  • instruction set architecture and design: registers, bus sizes, operands, instruction format, CISC, RISC
  • addressing modes for both branches/jumps and for data, implementation issues of addressing modes
  • internal CPU operation: hardwired vs. microcoded
  • flow of execution: branches, jumps, function calls, stack frames
  • user mode and kernel mode, system calls, I/O devices and interfacing, polling, interrupts, exceptions
  • purpose of operating systems, types of operating systems, main abstractions
  • processes, process environment, process state diagrams, batch systems, pre-emption, process control blocks, context switching, scheduling algorithms
  • process memory layout, partitions, pages, MMU & page map, paging, logical memory, copy on write
  • virtual memory: paging & algorithms, device drivers, interrupt handlers, disks and scheduling algorithms
  • files and file systems, file metadata, file operations, directories, FAT filesystem, Unix/Linux filesystems, reliability & performance
  • interprocess communication, pipes, critical sections, synchronisation, semaphores, threads

Exam Hints

• Do NOT answer the multiple-choice questions on the question sheet: answer them in your answer booklet, e.g. 1a, 2b, 3c, 4d, 5a, 6b, 7c, 8d.
• Use the marks allocated per each sub-question to guide you as to how much to write.
• ANSWER THE QUESTION! For descriptive answers, don't waffle on about stuff sort of related to the question. Make sure you explicitly answer the question.
• If you feel the question is open to interpretation, write your assumptions down when giving your answer, e.g. "I have assumed that the operating system is performing pre-emptive scheduling".
• The exam will expect that you know more than just the lecture material. The lectures are summaries of the information that you should know. Your only safe bet is to read the relevant chapters and understand them.
• The lab material was designed to reinforce the lecture material, and to give you practical programming skills. You won't be examined on the specific lab work done in the course. However, the ideas covered in the labs can be examined. You will be expected to know how to read and follow MIPS assembly code and write MIPS assembly code.
• The questions on the exam were designed using Bloom's taxonomy. There will be questions that:
  • test your basic knowledge from this course;
  • test your comprehension of the material;
  • ask you to apply this knowledge and comprehension to obtain some answers;
  • ask you to analyse scenarios using your knowledge; and
  • require you to synthesise (infer) an answer which has not been explicitly given to you in the course, but is one which you can answer if you understand and can bring together the course material.