Decribe in a few paragraphs

Which of the following components is responsible for loading the initial value in the program counter for an application program before it starts running:

• Compiler

• Linker

• Loader

• Boot module or boot ROM

Identify three styles of switching from user mode to supervisor mode.

Explain the steps that an operating system goes through when the CPU receives an interrupt.

Describe the advantages of using a MMU (memory management unit) that incorporates segmentation and paging over ones that either use pure paging or pure segmentation.

Describe how an operating system that uses paging could make stacks grow dynamically if the original size proves too small.

What would the page table data structures look like? Explain what would happen when a thread's stack grows past the area that has been allocated for it (e.g., how would the OS notice this fact, and what would happen inside the OS when it notices this fact).

Could a similar effect be achieved with multi-level page tables? Segments? Paged segmentation? Inverted page tables?