Gursharan Singh Tatla
professorgstatla@[Link]
[Link]
27-Jan-11
THREADS
THREAD
A thread is a lightweight process and the smallest
unit of CPU utilization. Thus, a thread is like a
miniprocess.
Each thread has a thread id, program counter,
register set and a stack.
A thread undergoes different states such as new,
ready, running, waiting and terminated similar to
that of a process.
However, a thread is not a program as it cannot run
on its own. It runs within a program.
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A thread is a single sequential flow of execution of
the tasks of a process.
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MULTI-THREADING
If a process has single thread of control, it can
perform only one task at a time.
Many modern operating systems have extended
the process concept to allow a process to have
multiple threads.
Thus, allowing the process to perform multiple
tasks at the same time.
This concept is known as Multi-Threading.
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A process can have single thread of control or
multiple threads of control.
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MULTI-THREADING
For e.g.:
The tasks in a web browser are divided into multiple
threads.
Downloading the images, downloading the text and
displaying images and text.
While one thread is busy in downloading the images,
another thread displays it.
The various operating systems the implement
multithreading are Windows XP, Vista, 7, Server
2000 onwards, Linux etc.
In multithreading, a thread can share its code, data
and resources with other threads of same process.
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SINGLE THREAD & MULTI-THREAD
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THREADS & PROCESSES
An idea of how threads & processes can be related
to each other is depicted in the fig.:
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THREADS & PROCESSES
There are several similarities and differences
between a thread and a process:
Similarities:
Like process, each thread has its own program counter and
stack.
Threads share CPU just as a process.
Threads also run sequentially, like a process.
Threads can create child threads.
Threads have the same states as process: new, ready,
running, waiting and terminated.
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THREADS & PROCESSES
Differences:
Each process has its own distinct address space in the main
memory. On the other hand, all threads of a same process
share same address space.
Threads require less system resources than a process.
Threads are not independent of each other, unlike processes.
Threads take less time for creation and termination than a
process.
It takes less time to switch between two threads than to switch
between two processes.
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TYPES OF THREADS
Threads are of three types:
Kernel Level Threads
User Level Threads
Hybrid Threads
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KERNEL LEVEL THREADS
In these types of threads, kernel performs thread
creation, scheduling and management.
Kernel threads are used for internal workings of
operating system.
Kernel threads are slower to create and manage.
The various operating systems that support kernel
level threads are: Windows 2000, XP, Solaris 2.
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Threads of processes defined by operating system
itself are called Kernel Level Threads.
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USER LEVEL THREADS
They are implemented in the user space of main
memory.
User level library (functions to manipulate user
threads) is used for thread creation, scheduling and
management without any support from the kernel.
User level threads are fast to create and manage.
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The threads of user application process are called
User Level Threads.
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HYBRID THREADS
For e.g.: Solaris 2.
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In hybrid approach, both kernel level threads and
user level threads are implemented.
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MULTI-THREADING MODELS
Depending on the support for user and kernel
threads, there are three multithreading models:
Many-to-One Model
One-to-One Model
Many-to-Many Model
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MANY-TO-ONE MODEL
Threads are managed in user space.
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In this model, many user level threads are mapped
to one kernel level thread.
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ONE-TO-ONE MODEL
In this model, each user level thread is mapped to
one kernel level thread.
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MANY-TO-MANY MODEL
In this model, many user level threads are mapped
to many kernel level threads.
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