Disabling interrupts frequently could affect the system’s clock. Explain why it could and how such effects could be minimized.

The system clock is updated at every clock interrupt. If interrupts were disabled—particularly for a long period of time—it is possible the system clock could easily lose the correct time. The system clock is also used for scheduling purposes. For example, the time quantum for a process is expressed as a number of clock ticks. At every clock interrupt, the scheduler determines if the time quantum for the currently running process has expired. If clock interrupts were disabled, the scheduler could not accurately assign time quantum’s. This effect can be minimized by disabling clock interrupts for only very short periods.