How does Interrupt-Driven I/O improve CPU utilization compared to Programmed I/O?
Option C is correct. Interrupt-driven I/O allows the CPU to perform useful work while I/O takes place. When the device finishes, it asserts an interrupt line to notify the CPU.
In file system journal implementation (e.g., ext4, NTFS), what is the main purpose of maintaining a $\log(journal)$?
Option A is correct. Journaling file systems write metadata updates to a sequential transaction $\log(journal) first$. Following a power crash, the OS replays the log to restore consistency quickly.
In magnetic hard disk geometry, what is a set of tracks located at the same radial distance across all parallel recording platters called?
Option C is correct. A Cylinder consists of all tracks positioned at the same arm location across all platters. Reading data within a cylinder requires no movement of the read/write head assembly.
What is the smallest addressable unit of physical storage on a traditional magnetic hard disk drive?
Option E is correct. Option E is correct. None of the listed options (A, B, C) are correct. The actual correct concept is: Sector (typically 512 bytes or 4096 bytes).
In file system storage terminology, what is a 'Cluster' (or Allocation Unit)?
Option A is correct. A cluster is the file system's logical allocation unit consisting of one or more physical disk sectors (e.g., 4 KB cluster = 8 * 512-byte sectors).