COP 4600 Final Terms & Definitions | 2025/2026 | OS Scheduling, Memory, IPC, Virtualization | Operating Systems

This document presents a structured glossary of COP 4600 Final Exam terms and definitions for the 2025/2026 academic year. It serves as a high-value resource for students enrolled in university-level Operating Systems or Systems Programming courses. Designed for fast recall and deep understanding, each entry provides a concise yet accurate definition relevant to core exam topics in process management, memory, synchronization, and system architecture. Organized in a Q&A format, the content is aligned with typical curriculum used in top universities (e.g., based on textbooks by Silberschatz or Tanenbaum), making it ideal for preparing for finals, interviews, or system-level software development roles. Covered terms and concepts include: Memory and address management: Paging, MMU, page tables, page faults, hit ratio Process scheduling and control: Pre-emption, long-term scheduler, multilevel queue, feedback queues Synchronization and concurrency: Mutual exclusion, Peterson’s Algorithm, semaphores, pipes System architecture: Kernel mode, microkernel, layered design, privilege escalation Interprocess communication (IPC): Shared memory, message passing, non-blocking communication Multitasking and parallelism: Multiprogramming, hot standby mode, independent vs cooperating processes Security and protection: Kernel/user mode separation, access rights, ID manipulation Perfect for: Computer science undergraduates enrolled in COP 4600 or equivalent OS courses Students preparing for final exams, midterms, or review quizzes Tutors, teaching assistants, or course instructors needing quick concept reinforcement tools Job seekers reviewing for systems-related technical interviews (e.g., operating systems, backend engineering) This glossary equips students with the theoretical depth and vocabulary essential to succeed in advanced computer science coursework and professional software engineering environments. Keywords: operating systems definitions, COP 4600 terms, memory management, MMU, paging, hit ratio, IPC, message passing, shared memory, page replacement, scheduling algorithms, mutual exclusion, microkernel, privilege escalation, multitasking, final exam glossary, concurrency control, CPU scheduling, system calls, university computer science