Part 2

Processes and Threads

2.1 Processes
2.2 Threads
2.3 Interprocess communication
2.4 Scheduling

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2.1 Processes

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 Processes
The Process Model

• (a) Multiprogramming of four programs

• (b) Conceptual model of 4 independent, sequential processes
• (c) Only one program active at any instant-Pseudoparallelism

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 Processes
Process Concept
• An operating system executes a variety of programs:
– Batch system – jobs
– Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
• Process – a program in execution; process execution must
progress in sequential fashion
• A process resources includes:
– Address space (text segment, data segment, stack segment)
– CPU (virtual)
• program counter
• registers
• stack
– Other resource (open files, child processes…)

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 Processes
Process in Memory

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 Processes
Process Creation (1)

Principal events that cause process creation

1. System initialization
2. Execution of a process creation system Call
3. User request to create a new process
4. Initiation of a batch job
System Call
• Unix: fork
• Window: CreateProcess

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 Processes
Process Creation (2)

• Address space
– Child duplicate of parent
– Child has a program loaded into it
• UNIX examples
– fork system call creates new process
– exec system call used after a fork to replace the
process’ memory space with a new program

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 Processes
Process Creation (3) : Example

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 Processes
Process Termination

Conditions which terminate processes

1. Normal exit (voluntary )
• System Call:
• Unix: exit
• Window: ExitProcess
2. Error exit (voluntary)
3. Fatal error (involuntary)
4. Killed by another process (involuntary)
• System Call:
• Unix: kill,
• Window: TerminateProcess

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 Processes
Process Hierarchies

• Parent creates a child process, child processes

can create its own process
• Forms a hierarchy
– UNIX calls this a "process group"
• Windows has no concept of process hierarchy
– all processes are created equal

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 Processes
Process States (1)

• Possible process states

– running
– blocked
– ready
• Transitions between states shown
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 Processes
Process States (2)

• Lowest layer of process-structured OS

– handles interrupts, scheduling
• Above that layer are sequential processes
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 Processes
Process Control Block (PCB)

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Processes
context switch

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 Processes
Implementation of Processes (1)

Fields of a process table entry

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 Modeling Multiprogramming

CPU utilization as a function of the number of processes in memory.

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2.2 Threads

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 Threads
The Thread Model

(a) Three processes each with one thread

(b) One process with three threads
- A thread – Lightweight Process is a basic unit of CPU utilization

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 Threads
Process with single thread

• A process (heavyweight):
– Address space (text segment, data segment,
stack segment)
– Single thread of execution
• program counter
• registers
• Stack
– Other resource (open files, child processes…)

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 Threads
Process with multiple threads
Multiple threads of execution in the same
environment of process
– Address space (text segment, data segment,
stack segment)
– Multiple threads of execution, each thread has
private set:
• program counter
• registers
• stack
– Other resource (open files, child processes…)
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 Threads
Single and Multithreaded Processes

PC

PC PC PC

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 Threads
Items shared and Items private

• Items shared by all threads in a process

• Items private to each thread
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 Threads
Benefits

• Responsiveness
• Resource Sharing
• Economy
• Utilization of Multiprocessor Architectures

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 Threads
Thread Usage (1)

A word processor with three threads

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 Threads
Thread Usage (2)

A multithreaded Web server

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 Threads
Thread Usage (3)

• Rough outline of code for previous slide

(a) Dispatcher thread
(b) Worker thread

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 Threads
Implementing Threads in User Space (1)

A user-level threads package

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 Threads
Implementing Threads in User Space (2)
• Thread library, (run-time system) in user
space
• thread_create
• thread_exit
• thread_wait
• thread_yield (to voluntarily give up the CPU)
• ……
• Thread control block (TCB) ( Thread Table Entry)
stores states of user thread (program counter,
registers, stack)
• Kernel does not know the present of user thread
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 Threads
Implementing Threads in User Space (3)
• Traditional OS provide only one “kernel thread” presented
by PCB for each process.
– Blocking problem: If one user thread is blocked ->the
kernel thread is blocked, -> all other threads in process
are blocked.

user
u u u u u u u u u thread

thread library thread library thread library

PCB PCB PCB

kernel

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 Threads
Implementing Threads in the Kernel (1)

A threads package managed by the kernel

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 Threads
Implementing Threads in the Kernel (2)

• Multithreading is directly supported by OS:

– Kernel manages processes and threads
– CPU scheduling for thread is performed in kernel
• Advantage of multithreading in kernel
– Is good for multiprocessor architecture
– If one thread is blocked does not cause the other thread
to be blocked.
• Disadvantage of Multithreading in kernel
– Creation and management of thread is slower

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 Threads
Hybrid Implementations

Multiplexing user-level threads onto kernel-

level threads 32
 Threads
Pop-Up Threads

Creation of a new thread when a message arrives.

(a) Before the message arrives.
(b) After the message arrives.
2.3 Interprocess
Communication

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 Cooperating Processes

• Independent process cannot affect or be affected by the

execution of another process
• Cooperating process can affect or be affected by the
execution of another process
• Advantages of process cooperation
– Information sharing
– Computation speed-up
– Modularity
– Convenience

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 Problem of shared data

• Concurrent access to shared data may result in data

inconsistency
• Maintaining data consistency requires mechanisms to
ensure the orderly execution of cooperating processes
• Need of mechanism for processes to communicate and to
synchronize their actions

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 Race Conditions
• Two processes want to access shared memory at same time and the final result
depends who runs precisely, are called race condition
• Mutual exclusion is the way to prohibit more than one process from accessing
to shared data at the same time
• Example of race condition

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 Critical Regions (1)

The Part of the program where the shared memory is accessed is called
Critical Regions (Critical Section)
Four conditions to provide mutual exclusion
1. No two processes simultaneously in critical region
2. No assumptions made about speeds or numbers of CPUs
3. No process running outside its critical region may block another
process
4. No process must wait forever to enter its critical region

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 Critical Regions (2)

Mutual exclusion using critical regions (Example)

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Solution: Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting

• Software proposal
– Lock Variables
– Strict Alternation
– Peterson's Solution
• Hardware proposal
– Disabling Interrupts
– The TSL Instruction

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Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Software Proposal 1: Lock Variables

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Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Software Proposal 1: Event

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Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Software Proposal 2: Strict Alternation

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Software Proposal 2: Strict Alternation

• Only 2 processes
• Responsibility Mutual Exclusion
– One variable "turn“, one process “turn” come
in CS at the moment.

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Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Software Proposal 3: Peterson's Solution

Boolean

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Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Software Proposal 3: Peterson's Solution

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Comment for Software Proposal 3:
Peterson's Solution
• Satisfy 3 conditions:
– Mutual Exclusion
• Pi can enter CS when interest[j] == F, or turn == i
• If both want to come back, because turn can only receive value
0 or 1, so one process enter CS
– Progress
• Using 2 variables distinct interest[i] ==> opposing cannot lock
– Bounded Wait: both interest[i] and turn change value
• Not extend into N processes

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Comment for Busy-Waiting solutions

• Don't need system’s support

• Hard to extend
• Solution 1 is better when atomicity is
supported

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Hardware Proposal 1: Disabling Interrupt (1)

• Disable Interrupt: prohibit all interrupts, including spin interrupt

• Enable Interrupt: permit interrupt

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Hardware proposal 1: Disable Interrupt (2)

• Not be careful
– If process is locked in CS?
• System Halt
– Permit process use command privileges
• Danger!
• System with N CPUs?
– Don't ensure Mutual Exclusion

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Hardware proposal 2: TSL Instruction

• CPU support primitive Test and Set Lock

– Return a variable's current value, set variable to
true value
– Cannot divide up to perform (Atomic)

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Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Hardware proposal 2: Applied TSL

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Comment for hardware solutions

• Necessary hardware mechanism's support

– Not easy with n-CPUs system
• Easily extend to N processes

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 Mutual exclusion with Busy waiting
Comment

• Using CPU not effectively

– Constantly test condition when wait for coming
in CS
• Overcome
– Lock processes that not enough condition to
come in CS, concede CPU to other process
• Using Scheduler
• Wait and See...

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Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup

– Sleep & Wakeup

– Semaphore
– Monitor
– Message passing

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
"Sleep & Wakeup" solution

• Give up CPU when not come in CS

• When CS is empty, will be waken up to come in CS
• Need support of OS
– Because of changing status of process

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
"Sleep & Wake up" solution: Idea

• OS support 2 primitive:
– Sleep(): System call receives blocked status
– WakeUp(P): P process receives ready status
• Application
– After checking condition, coming in CS or calling
Sleep() depend on result of checking
– Process that using CS before, will wake up processes
blocked before

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Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Apply Sleep() and Wakeup()

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Problem with Sleep & WakeUp

• Reason:
– Checking condition and giving up CPU can be
broken
– Lock variable is not protected

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Semaphore

• Suggested by Dijkstra, 1965

• Properties: Semaphore s (special integer
variable;)
– Unique value
– Manipulate with 2 primitives:
• Down(s), (Originally called P(s))
• Up(s), (Originally called V(s))
– Down and Up primitives executed cannot
divide up (atomic)

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Semaphore

• Counting semaphore – integer value can range over an unrestricted

domain
• Binary semaphore – integer value can range only between 0
and 1; can be simpler to implement
• Mutexs
– A simplified version of the semaphore when the semaphore’s ability to count is not
needed
– Is good only for managing mutual exclusion to some shared resource or piece of
code
– Is a variable that can be in one of two states: unlocked or locked

• Can implement a counting semaphore s as a binary semaphore

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Semaphore

Provides mutual exclusion

– Semaphore S; // initialized to 1
– Down(s);
Critical Section
– Up(s);

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Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Using Semaphore

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Monitor

• Hoare (1974) & Brinch (1975)

• Synchronous mechanism is provided by
programming language
– Support with functions, such as Semaphore
– Easier for using and detecting than Semaphore
• Ensure Mutual Exclusion automatically
• Using condition variable to perform
Synchronization

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Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Monitor: structure

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Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Using Monitor

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 Synchronous solution with Sleep & Wakeup
Message Passing
• Processes must name each other explicitly:
– send (P, message) – send a message to process P
– receive(Q, message) – receive a message from process
Q
• Properties of communication link
– Links are established automatically
– A link is associated with exactly one pair of
communicating processes
– Between each pair there exists exactly one link
– The link may be unidirectional, but is usually bi-
directional

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 Classical Problems of Synchronization

• Bounded-Buffer Problem
(Producer-Consumer Problem)
• Readers and Writers Problem
• Dining-Philosophers Problem
(Lab)

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2.4 Scheduling

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (1)

• Maximum CPU utilization obtained with

multiprogramming
• CPU–I/O Burst Cycle – Process
execution consists of a cycle of CPU
execution and I/O wait
• CPU burst distribution

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (2)

• Bursts of CPU usage alternate with periods of I/O wait

– (a) a CPU-bound process
– (b) an I/O-bound process
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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (3)

Three level scheduling

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (4)

• Selects from among the processes in memory that are ready to execute,
and allocates the CPU to one of them
• CPU scheduling decisions may take place when a process:
1. Switches from running to waiting state
2. Switches from running to ready state
3. Switches from waiting or new process is created to ready
4. Terminates
• Nonpreemptive scheduling algorithm picks process and let it run until
it blocks or until it voluntarily releases the CPU
• preemptive scheduling algorithm picks process and let it run for a
maximum of fix time

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (5)

terminated
terminated
new
new admit dispatch exit

ready
ready running
running

interrupt
I/O or event I/O or
completion event wait
waiting
waiting

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (6)
Scheduling Criteria
• CPU utilization – keep the CPU as busy as possible
• Throughput – # of processes that complete their execution
per time unit
• Turnaround time – amount of time to execute a particular
process
• Waiting time – amount of time a process has been waiting
in the ready queue
• Response time – amount of time it takes from when a
request was submitted until the first response is produced,
not output (for time-sharing environment)

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (7)

Optimization Criteria
• Max CPU utilization
• Max throughput
• Min turnaround time
• Min waiting time
• Min response time

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 Scheduling
Introduction to Scheduling (8)
Scheduling Algorithm Goals

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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Batch Systems (1)
First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling
Process Burst Time
P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
• Suppose that the processes arrive in the order: P1 , P2 , P3
The Gantt Chart for the schedule is:

P1 P2 P3

0 24 27 30

• Waiting time for P1 = 0; P2 = 24; P3 = 27

• Average waiting time: (0 + 24 + 27)/3 = 17

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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Batch Systems (2)
FCFS Scheduling (Cont.)
Suppose that the processes arrive in the order
P2 , P3 , P1
• The Gantt chart for the schedule is:
P2 P3 P1

0 3 6 30

• Waiting time for P1 = 6; P2 = 0; P3 = 3

• Average waiting time: (6 + 0 + 3)/3 = 3
• Much better than previous case
• Convoy effect short process behind long process
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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Batch Systems (3)

Shortest-Job-First (SJF) Scheduling

• Associate with each process the length of its next CPU burst. Use
these lengths to schedule the process with the shortest time
• Two schemes:
– nonpreemptive – once CPU given to the process it cannot be
preempted until completes its CPU burst
– preemptive – if a new process arrives with CPU burst length less
than remaining time of current executing process, preempt. This
scheme is know as the
Shortest-Remaining-Time-Next (SRTF)
• SJF is optimal – gives minimum average waiting time for a given set
of processes

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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Batch Systems (4)
Example of Non-Preemptive SJF

Process Arrival Time Burst Time

P1 0.0 7
P2 2.0 4
P3 4.0 1
P4 5.0 4
• SJF (non-preemptive)

P1 P3 P2 P4

0 3 7 8 12 16
• Average waiting time = (0 + 6 + 3 + 7)/4 = 4
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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Interactive Systems (1)

• Round Robin Scheduling

– list of runnable processes (a)
– list of runnable processes after B uses up its quantum (b)

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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Interactive Systems (2)
Round Robin (RR)`
• Each process gets a small unit of CPU time (time
quantum), usually 20-50 milliseconds. After this time has
elapsed, the process is preempted and added to the end of
the ready queue.
• If there are n processes in the ready queue and the time
quantum is q, then each process gets 1/n of the CPU time
in chunks of at most q time units at once. No process
waits more than (n-1)q time units.
• Performance
– q large ⇒ FCFS
– q small ⇒ overhead is too high respect to context switch

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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Interactive Systems (3)

Example of RR with Time Quantum = 20

Process Burst Time
P1 53
P2 17
P3 68
P4 24
• The Gantt chart is:
P1 P2 P3 P4 P1 P3 P4 P1 P3 P3

0 20 37 57 77 97 117 121 134 154 162

Typically, higher average turnaround than SJF, but better response

84
 Scheduling
Priority Scheduling (1)
Priority Scheduling: A priority number (integer) is associated
with each process
– The CPU is allocated to the process with the highest priority
– Preemptive
– nonpreemptive
• SJF is a priority scheduling where priority is the predicted next CPU
burst time
• Problem ≡ Starvation – low priority processes may never execute
• Solution ≡ Aging – as time progresses increase the priority of the
process

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 Scheduling
Priority Scheduling (2)

A scheduling algorithm with four priority classes

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 Scheduling
Priority Scheduling (3)

Example of Multilevel Queue

• Ready queue is partitioned into separate queues:
foreground (interactive)
background (batch)
• Each queue has its own scheduling algorithm
– foreground – RR
– background – FCFS
• Scheduling must be done between the queues
– Fixed priority scheduling; (i.e., serve all from foreground then
from background). Possibility of starvation.
– Time slice – each queue gets a certain amount of CPU time which
it can schedule amongst its processes; i.e., 80% to foreground in
RR, 20% to background in FCFS
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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Real-Time Systems (1)

• Hard real-time systems – required to

complete a critical task within a guaranteed
amount of time
• Soft real-time computing – requires that
critical processes receive priority over less
fortunate ones

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 Scheduling
Scheduling in Real-Time Systems(2)

Schedulable real-time system

• Given
– m periodic events
– event i occurs within period Pi and requires Ci
seconds
• Then the load can only be handled if
m
Ci
∑ ≤1
i =1 Pi
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 Scheduling
Policy versus Mechanism

• Separate what is allowed to be done with

how it is done
– a process knows which of its children threads
are important and need priority
• Scheduling algorithm parameterized
– mechanism in the kernel
• Parameters filled in by user processes
– policy set by user process
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 Scheduling
Thread Scheduling (1)

• Local Scheduling – How the threads

library decides which thread to put onto
an available
• Global Scheduling – How the kernel
decides which kernel thread to run next

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 Scheduling
Thread Scheduling (2)

Possible scheduling of user-level threads

• 50-msec process quantum
• threads run 5 msec/CPU burst
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 Scheduling
Thread Scheduling (3)

Possible scheduling of kernel-level threads

• 50-msec process quantum
• threads run 5 msec/CPU burst
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