Applied Operating System

Educational Resources Information

Module Number Sub Topic Number Supplementary Level

2 1 1

SUBTOPIC 1: PROCESS MANAGEMENT

PROCESS CONCEPT

• A process is a program in execution. A program by itself is not a process.

• A program is a passive entity, such as the contents of a file stored on disk while a process
is an active entity.
• A computer system consists of a collection of processes:
• Operating system processes execute system code, and
• User processes execute user code.
• Although several processes may be associated with the same program, they are
nevertheless considered separate execution sequences.
• All processes can potentially execute concurrently with the CPU (or CPUs) multiplexing
among them (time sharing).
• A process is actually a cycle of CPU execution (CPU burst) and I/O wait (I/O burst).
Processes alternate back and forth between these two states.
• Process execution begins with a CPU burst that is followed by an I/O burst, which is
followed by another CPU burst, then another I/O burst, and so on. Eventually, the last
CPU burst will end with a system request to terminate execution.

Example:

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PROCESS ARCHITECTURE

 To put it in simple terms, we write our computer programs in a text file and when we
execute this program, it becomes a process which performs all the tasks mentioned in the
program.

 When a program is loaded into the memory and it becomes a process, it can be divided
into four sections ─ stack, heap, text and data. The figure shows a simplified layout of a
process inside main memory

The process Stack contains the temporary data such as

Stack
method/function parameters, return address and local variables.

Heap This is dynamically allocated memory to a process during its run time.

This includes the current activity represented by the value of Program

Text
Counter and the contents of the processor's registers.

Data This section contains the global and static variables.

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PROCESS STATE

As a process executes, it changes state. The current activity of a process party defines its state.
Each sequential process may be in one of following states:

1. New. The process is being created.

2. Running. The CPU is executing its instructions.
3. Waiting. The process is waiting for some event to occur (such as an I/O completion).
4. Ready. The process is waiting for the OS to assign a processor to it.
5. Terminated. The process has finished execution.

PROCESS STATE DIAGRAM

new terminated
admitted exit

interrupt

ready running

I/O or event scheduler dispatch I/O or event

completion wait

waiting

PROCESS CONTROL BLOCK

Each process is represented in the operating system by a process control block (PCB) – also
called a task control block. A PCB is a data block or record containing many pieces of the
information associated with a specific process including:

1. Process state. The state may be new, ready, running, waiting, or halted.
2. Program Counter. The program counter indicates the address of the next instruction to
be executed for this process.
3. CPU Registers. These include accumulators, index registers, stack pointers, and
general-purpose registers, plus any condition-code information. Along with the program
counter, this information must be saved when an interrupt occurs, to allow the process to
be continued correctly afterward.

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 4. CPU Scheduling Information. This information includes a process priority, pointers to
scheduling queues, and any other scheduling parameters.
5. Memory Management Information. This information includes limit registers or page
tables.
6. Accounting Information. This information includes the amount of CPU and real time
used, time limits, account numbers, job or process numbers, and so on.
7. I/O Status Information. This information includes outstanding I/O requests, I/O devices
(such as disks) allocated to this process, a list of open files, and so on.

• The PCB simply serves as the repository for any information that may vary from process to
process.

process
pointer
state
process number

program counter

registers

memory limits

list of open files

.
.
.

PROCESS CONCEPT

Example of the CPU being switched from one process to another. This is also known as Context
Switch Diagram

process P0 operating system process P1

interrupt or system
executing
call

save state into PCB0

.
. idle
.

reload state into PCB1

idle interrupt or executing

system call

save state into PCB1

.
. idle
.

reload state into PCB0

executing

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CONCURRENT PROCESSES

• The processes in the system can execute concurrently; that is, many processes may be
multitasked on a CPU.
• A process may create several new processes, via a create-process system call, during
the course of execution. Each of these new processes may in turn create other processes.
• The creating process is the parent process whereas the new processes are the children
of that process.
• When a process creates a sub-process, the sub-process may be able to obtain its
resources directly from the OS or it may use a subset of the resources of the parent
process.

Restricting a child process to a subset of the parent’s resources prevents any process from
overloading the system by creating too many processes.

When a process creates a new process, two common implementations exist in terms of execution:

1. The parent continues to execute concurrently with its children.

2. The parent waits until all its children have terminated.
• A process terminates when it finishes its last statement and asks the operating system to
delete it using the exit system call.

• A parent may terminate the execution of one of its children for a variety of reason, such as:
1. The child has exceeded its usage of some of the resources it has been allocated.
2. The task assigned to the child is no longer required.
3. The parent is exiting, and the OS does not allow a child to continue if its parent
terminates. In such systems, if a process terminates, then all its children must also be
terminated by the operating system. This phenomenon is referred to as cascading
termination.

The concurrent processes executing in the OS may either be independent processes or

cooperating processes.
• A process is independent if it cannot affect or be affected by the other processes. Clearly,
any process that does not share any data (temporary or persistent) with any other process is
independent. Such a process has the following characteristics:

1. Its execution is deterministic; that is, the result of the execution depends solely on the
input state.
2. Its execution is reproducible; that is, the result of the execution will always be the same
for the same input.
3. Its execution can be stopped and restarted without causing ill effects.

• A process is cooperating if it can affect or be affected by the other processes. Clearly, any
process that shares data with other processes is a cooperating process. Such a process has
the following characteristics:

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 1. The results of its execution cannot be predicted in advance, since it depends on relative
execution sequence.
2. The result of its execution is nondeterministic since it will not always be the same for the
same input.
Concurrent execution of cooperating process requires mechanisms that allow processes to
communicate with one another and to synchronize their actions.

SCHEDULING CONCEPTS

• The objective of multiprogramming is to have some process running at all times, to maximize
CPU utilization.
• Multiprogramming also increases throughput, which is the amount of work the system
accomplishes in a given time interval (for example, 17 processes per minute).

Example:
Given two processes, P0 and P1.

process P0
start idle; idle; idle; stop
input input input

process P1
start idle; idle; idle; stop
input input input
If the system runs the two processes sequentially, then CPU utilization is only 50%.

• The idea of multiprogramming is if one process is in the waiting state, then another process
which is in the ready state goes to the running state.

Example: Applying multiprogramming to the two processes, P 0 and P1

process P0
start idle; idle; idle; stop
input input input

process P1
start idle; idle; idle; stop
input input input

Then CPU utilization increases to 100%.

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• As processes enter the system, they are put into a job queue. This queue consists of all
processes in the system.
• The processes that are residing in main memory and are ready and waiting to execute are
kept on another queue which is the ready queue.
• A process migrates between the various scheduling queues throughout its lifetime. The OS
must select processes from these queues in some fashion.
• The selection process is the responsibility of the appropriate scheduler.

TYPES OF SCHEDULER

• Long-term scheduler (or Job scheduler) selects processes from the secondary
storage and loads them into memory for execution.
• The long-term scheduler executes much less frequently.
• There may be minutes between the creation of new processes in the system.
• The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming – the number of
processes in memory.
• Because of the longer interval between executions, the long-term scheduler can afford to
take more time to select a process for execution.
• Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) selects process from among the processes
that are ready to execute, and allocates the CPU to one of them.
• The short-term scheduler must select a new process for the CPU frequently.
• A process may execute for only a few milliseconds before waiting for an I/O request.
• Because of the brief time between executions, the short-term scheduler must be very
fast.
• Medium-term scheduler removes (swaps out) certain processes from memory to
lessen the degree of multiprogramming (particularly when thrashing occurs).
• At some later time, the process can be reintroduced into memory and its execution can
be continued where it left off.
• This scheme is called swapping.

SCHEDULING CONCEPTS

• Switching the CPU to another process requires some time to save the state of the old
process and loading the saved state for the new process. This task is known as context
switch.
• Context-switch time is pure overhead, because the system does no useful work while
switching and should therefore be minimized.
• Whenever the CPU becomes idle, the OS (particularly the CPU scheduler) must select
one of the processes in the ready queue for execution.

CPU SCHEDULER

CPU scheduling decisions may take place under the following four circumstances:

1. When a process switches from the running state to the waiting state (for example,
I/O request, invocation of wait for the termination of one of the child processes).

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 2. When a process switches from the running state to the ready state (for example,
when an interrupt occurs).
3. When a process switches from the waiting state to the ready state (for example,
completion of I/O).
4. When a process terminates.

• For circumstances 1 and 4, there is no choice in terms of scheduling. A new process (if
one exists in the ready queue) must be selected for execution. There is a choice,
however, for circumstances 2 and 3.

• When scheduling takes place only under circumstances 1 and 4, the scheduling scheme
is non-preemptive; otherwise, the scheduling scheme is preemptive.

CPU SCHEDULER

• Non-preemptive scheduling, once the CPU has been allocated to a process, the
process keeps the CPU until it releases the CPU either by terminating or switching
states. No process is interrupted until it is completed, and after that processor
switches to another process.

• Preemptive scheduling works by dividing time slots of CPU to a given process. The
time slot given might be able to complete the whole process or might not be able to it.
When the burst time of the process is greater than CPU cycle, it is placed back into the
ready queue and will execute in the next chance. This scheduling is used when the
process switch to ready state.

CPU SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS

• Different CPU-scheduling algorithms have different properties and may favour one class
of processes over another.
• Many criteria have been suggested for comparing CPU-scheduling algorithms.
• The characteristics used for comparison can make a substantial difference in the
determination of the best algorithm. The criteria should include: CPU Utilization,
Throughput, Turnaround Time, Waiting Time, and Response Time

1. CPU Utilization measures how busy is the CPU. CPU utilization may range from 0 to 100
percent. In a real system, it should range from 40% (for a lightly loaded system) to 90% (for
a heavily loaded system).

2. Throughput is the amount of work completed in a unit of time. In other words throughput is
the processes executed to number of jobs completed in a unit of time. The scheduling
algorithm must look to maximize the number of jobs processed per time unit.

3. Turnaround Time measures how long it takes to execute a process. Turnaround time is
the interval from the time of submission to the time of completion. It is the sum of the

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 periods spent waiting to get into memory, waiting in the ready queue, executing in the CPU,
and doing I/O.

4. Waiting Time is the time a job waits for resource allocation when several jobs are
competing in multiprogramming system. Waiting time is the total amount of time a process
spends waiting in the ready queue.

5. Response Time is the time from the submission of a request until the system makes the
first response. It is the amount of time it takes to start responding but not the time that it
takes to output that response.

A good CPU scheduling algorithm maximizes CPU utilization and throughput and minimizes
turnaround time, waiting time and response time.

• In most cases, the average measure is optimized. However, in some cases, it is desired
to optimize the minimum or maximum values, rather than the average.
• For example, to guarantee that all users get good service, it may be better to minimize
the maximum response time.
• For interactive systems (time-sharing systems), some analysts suggests that
minimizing the variance in the response time is more important than averaging
response time.
• A system with a reasonable and predictable response may be considered more
desirable than a system that is faster on the average, but is highly variable.

Non-preemptive:
• First-Come First-Served(FCFS)
• Shortest Job First (SJF)
• Priority Scheduling (Non-preemptive)

Preemptive:
• Shortest Remaining Time First (SRTF)
• Priority Scheduling (Preemptive)
• Round-robin (RR)

REFERENCES

• Siberschatz, A. (2018). Operating System Concepts, Wiley.

• Tomsho, G. (2019). Guide to Operating Systems, Cengage Learning.