How Computer Automation Affects Occupations Paper Example

Q.1. Jobs Replaced by Computers

Businesses currently are implementing strategies that support improved efficiency and effectiveness of work processes. Computers are increasingly replacing human effort, with high-speed performance, accuracy and full-time availability of services at minimal supervision, quite enticing for organizations (Bessen 2016, p.22). Jobs that are currently being taken over by computers include Factory and assembly line workers.

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Assembly and Factory Workers

Industrial and assembly robots controlled and managed by computers can adequately assemble products and cars which replaces human effort (Bessen 2016, p.22). Currently, almost all manufacturing jobs use robots to create millions of products at a low cost and efficiency.

Bus, Truck and Taxi Drivers

The emergence of self- driving buses and cars are becoming a reality, such technologies are already in use today (Bessen 2016, p.22). Transport jobs for taxi, truck and bus drivers are currently under threat due to the introduction of computer systems in the venture.

Cashier

Cashier's relevance is slowly being swept away by computers. Most grocery shops have self-checkout systems (Bessen 2016, p.22). Despite that the systems are being controlled by a human, one person takes over a job used to be occupied by two or more cashiers.

Bank Clerks and Tellers

ATMs have replaced workers in the bank through the provision of electronic deposit and withdrawal services on a 24hour basis (Bessen 2016, p.22). Digital currency such as Bitcoins is said to take over bank services in the near future like ten years to come.

Prescription Services

Most pharmacies are using robots capable of handling and separating customer prescriptions. The robots help reduce mistakes and occupy little space than human operators. Introduction of robots in pharmacies has probabilities of taking roots in about less than 20 years from now (Bessen 2016, p.22).

Q.2. Live Lock, Dead Lock, and Starvation

Live Lock

Live lock presents or describes a case where two threads are busy responding to each other's actions (Asadollah et al. 2016, p.17). They keep on repeating a specific code so the program cannot achieve further progress. Thread one acts, as an active response of thread two, while thread two acts as an active response of thread one. The program cannon proceeds any further once it runs into a point of an infinite loop.

Dead Lock

Deadlock presents a case where two more threads get blocked when they wait for each other forever (Asadollah et al. 2016, p.18). When deadlock happens, the program hangs entirely or permanently, and the only option is to kill the program.

Starvation

Starvation defines a situation where one thread becomes greedy and holds resources for more extended periods of time such that other threads become blocked forever (Asadollah et al. 2016, p.18). The threads blocked wait to access the resources, but they end up never getting a chance and starve till they finally die. Starvation can happen as a result of several reasons. For example, when a threat takes longer to execute synchronized code, which results to threads being infinitely blocked. Threads with lower priority fail to get CPU's execution time, compared to threads with higher priority, and finally threads that cannot access resources because another one is holding them.

Synchronization in preventing Deadlock, Live Lock and Starvation

Synchronization is a mechanism that ensures that 2 or more processes that are concurrent do not execute a specific program referred to as critical section simultaneously. Synchronization ensures that the other process waits until the first one is through to avoid live lock situations. Synchronization controls conflicts for resources by guaranteeing all threads can access resources to prevent starvation. Synchronization controls the order in which activity is executed to ensure the order is maintained preventing deadlock.

Q.3. Segmentation of Programs in the Memory

In this case, we can use the Buddy system partition to segment the four programs in the memory. The memory is, therefore, divided as shown in the following figure and program Loaded in the segments

The memory is subdivided into four fixed segments of 128KB, and programs P1, P2, P3, and P4 are loaded into the four segments. However, every program is 100KB which means the programs do not take up all allocated memory and, therefore, internal segmentation occurs. Buddy system of memory allocation attempts to satisfy memory requirements is requests as efficiently as possible. In the partition process, the size of the smallest memory is first determined. The programmer then writes a code to achieve the highest likely order that can effectively fit in the remaining memory space. All blocks that are unallocated are recorded by the system and can merge to create a big chunk. This case does not apply in the example above, all parts of the blocks are allocated. Using buddy partition system is simple, blocks are allocated to their correct sizes, and it is easy to connect and merge holes that are adjacent. Memory allocation and de-allocation are fast when using the buddy system (Jia et al. 201, p.142).

References

Asadollah, S.A., Sundmark, D., Eldh, S., Hansson, H. and Enoiu, E.P., 2016, May. A study of concurrency bugs in an open source software. In IFIP International Conference on Open Source Systems (pp. 16-31). Springer, Cham.

Bessen, J.E., 2016. How computer automation affects occupations: Technology, jobs, and skills. Boston Univ. School of Law, Law and Economics Research Paper, No. 15-49.

Jia, G., Shi, L., Li, X. and Dai, D., 2016. PUMA: From Simultaneous to Parallel for Shared Memory System in Multi-core. Journal of Signal Processing Systems, 84(1), pp.139-150.