Q. In following Section we mentioned that disabling interrupts frequently could affect the system's clock. Describe why it could and how such effects could be minimized.

Answer: The system clock is updated at each clock interrupt. If interrupts were hindered-particularly for a long period of time-it is probable the system clock could easily lose the correct time. The system clock is as well used for scheduling purposes. For instance the time quantum for a process is expressed as a number of clock ticks. At each clock interrupt the scheduler determines if the time quantum for the currently running process has expired. If clock interrupts were hindered the scheduler couldn't accurately assign time quantum. This effect can be minimized by disabling clock interrupts for only very short periods.