Computer Operating System Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: FORMAT command

FORMAT writes the track and sector structure onto a blank diskette, gives every sector its address marks, and lays down the boot sector, file allocation table and root directory. Until that is done the surface carries no organisation and DOS cannot store anything on it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: absolute mode

In absolute (direct) addressing the instruction carries the actual address of the operand, so one memory access fetches the value. Immediate addressing carries the value itself, and indirect addressing carries the address of a location that in turn holds the address.

Answer: D

Correct answer: batch and interactive.

The two basic modes are batch, where jobs are submitted with all their input and run without human involvement, and interactive, where the user sits at a terminal and each response shapes the next request. Real-time and time-sharing systems are refinements of these.

Answer: B

Correct answer: COPY *.TXT A:

The source comes first and the destination second, so COPY *.TXT A: takes every .TXT file in the current directory and writes it to the diskette in drive A, keeping the same names.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 5.0

In “MS-DOS 5.0”, MS names the vendor and DOS the product family; the 5.0 is the version number, which is what distinguishes one release of the product from another.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Both of the above

Compilation runs in phases, and both named here are among them: lexical analysis groups the source characters into tokens at the front of the process, and code generation emits the target instructions at the end, with syntax analysis, semantic analysis and optimisation in between.

Answer: B

Correct answer: SORT < filename

SORT is a filter: it reads from standard input and writes to standard output, so the file must be redirected into it with <. Writing SORT > filename would redirect its output and leave it waiting for input from the keyboard.

Answer: C

Correct answer: execute more jobs in the same time period

Multiprogramming keeps several jobs in memory, so when one blocks for input or output the processor turns immediately to another. No individual job runs faster - it may run slightly slower - but the idle time disappears and more jobs complete in a given period.

Answer: B

Correct answer: VER Command

VER displays the version of MS-DOS that is running. DATE shows the date, FORMAT prepares a disk, and there is no DISK command.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Terminal table

The terminal table holds the language’s own fixed symbols - keywords, operators and punctuation - one entry for each terminal symbol of the grammar. It is permanent because it is identical for every compilation, whereas the identifier and literal tables are built anew from each source program.