a) the operating system selects a process to suspend
b) the system crashes
c) then the process crashes
d) the memory overflows
the operating system selects a process to suspend
This is correct.
Working set is the set of memory pages actively used by a process. If the total size of all active processes’ working sets exceeds the available physical memory, the operating system faces a memory shortage.
To prevent system slowdown or crashes due to excessive page swapping (thrashing), the operating system typically suspends one or more processes. This frees up their memory frames, reducing the overall memory demand and allowing the remaining processes to continue operating efficiently.