Operating systems

Chapter 3- (Module 2) Processes

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 Chapter 3: Processes
Process Concept
Process Scheduling
Operations on Processes
Interprocess Communication

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 Objectives

To introduce the notion of a process -- a program in

execution, which forms the basis of all computation
To describe the various features of processes, including
scheduling, creation and termination, and communication
To explore interprocess communication using shared
memory and message passing

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 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
● Multiple parts
● The program code, also called text section
● Current activity including program counter, processor registers
● Stack containing temporary data
4 Function parameters, return addresses, local variables
● Data section containing global variables
● Heap containing memory dynamically allocated during run time

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 Process Concept (Cont.)
● Program is passive entity stored on disk (executable file),
process is active
● Program becomes process when executable file loaded
into memory
● Execution of program started via GUI mouse clicks,
command line entry of its name, etc
● One program can be several processes
● Consider multiple users executing the same program

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Process in Memory

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 Process State
● As a process executes, it changes state
● new: The process is being created
● running: Instructions are being executed
● waiting: The process is waiting for some event to
occur
● ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a
processor
● terminated: The process has finished execution

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Diagram of Process State

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 Process Control Block (PCB)
Information associated with each process
(also called task control block)
● Process state – running, waiting, etc
● Program counter – location of instruction
to next execute
● CPU registers – contents of all
process-centric registers
● CPU scheduling information- priorities,
scheduling queue pointers
● Memory-management information –
memory allocated to the process
● Accounting information – CPU used, clock
time elapsed since start, time limits
● I/O status information – I/O devices
allocated to process, list of open files

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CPU Switch From Process to Process

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 Threads
● So far, process has a single thread of execution
● Consider having multiple program counters per process
● Multiple locations can execute at once
4 Multiple threads of control -> threads
● Must then have storage for thread details, multiple
program counters in PCB

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 Process Scheduling
● Maximize CPU use, quickly switch processes onto CPU
for time sharing
● Process scheduler selects among available processes for
next execution on CPU
● Maintains scheduling queues of processes
● Job queue – set of all processes in the system
● Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main
memory, ready and waiting to execute
● Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O
device
● Processes migrate among the various queues
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 Representation of Process Scheduling
● Queueing diagram represents queues, resources, flows

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 Schedulers
● Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process should be
executed next and allocates CPU
● Sometimes the only scheduler in a system
● Short-term scheduler is invoked frequently (milliseconds) ⇒ (must be fast)
● Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which processes should be brought
into the ready queue
● Long-term scheduler is invoked infrequently (seconds, minutes) ⇒ (may be slow)
● The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming
● Processes can be described as either:
● I/O-bound process – spends more time doing I/O than computations, many short
CPU bursts
● CPU-bound process – spends more time doing computations; few very long CPU
bursts
● Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix

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 Addition of Medium Term Scheduling
●Medium-term scheduler can be added if degree of multiple programming needs
to decrease
●Remove process from memory, store on disk, bring back in from disk to
continue execution: swapping

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 Context Switch
● When CPU switches to another process, the system must save the
state of the old process and load the saved state for the new process
via a context switch
● Context of a process represented in the PCB
● Context-switch time is overhead; the system does no useful work
while switching
● The more complex the OS and the PCB 🡺 the longer the context
switch
● Time dependent on hardware support
● Some hardware provides multiple sets of registers per CPU 🡺
multiple contexts loaded at once

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 Operations on Processes
● System must provide mechanisms for:
● process creation,
● process termination

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 Process Creation
● Parent process create children processes, which, in turn create other
processes, forming a tree of processes
● Generally, process identified and managed via a process identifier
(pid)
● Resource sharing options
● Parent and children share all resources
● Children share subset of parent’s resources
● Parent and child share no resources
● Execution options
● Parent and children execute concurrently
● Parent waits until children terminate

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 Process Creation (Cont.)
● 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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C Program Forking Separate Process

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 Process Termination
● Process executes last statement and then asks the operating system
to delete it using the exit() system call.
● Returns status data from child to parent (via wait())
● Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system
● Parent may terminate the execution of children processes using the
abort() system call. Some reasons for doing so:
● Child has exceeded allocated resources
● Task assigned to child is no longer required
● The parent is exiting and the operating systems does not allow a
child to continue if its parent terminates

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 Interprocess Communication
● Processes within a system may be independent or cooperating
● Cooperating process can affect or be affected by other processes, including
sharing data
● Reasons for cooperating processes:
● Information sharing
● Computation speedup
● Modularity
● Convenience
● Cooperating processes need interprocess communication (IPC)
● Two models of IPC
● Shared memory
● Message passing

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 Communications Models
(a) Message passing. (b) shared memory.

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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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 Interprocess Communication – Shared Memory

● An area of memory shared among the processes that wish

to communicate
● The communication is under the control of the users
processes not the operating system.
● Major issues is to provide mechanism that will allow the
user processes to synchronize their actions when they
access shared memory.

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 Interprocess Communication – Message Passing
● Mechanism for processes to communicate and to synchronize their
actions

● Message system – processes communicate with each other without

resorting to shared variables

● IPC facility provides two operations:

● send(message)
● receive(message)

● The message size is either fixed or variable

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 Message Passing (Cont.)
● If processes P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:
● Establish a communication link between them
● Exchange messages via send/receive
● Implementation issues:
● How are links established?
● Can a link be associated with more than two processes?
● How many links can there be between every pair of communicating
processes?
● What is the capacity of a link?
● Is the size of a message that the link can accommodate fixed or
variable?
● Is a link unidirectional or bi-directional?

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 Message Passing (Cont.)
● Implementation of communication link
● Physical:
4 Shared memory
4 Hardware bus
4 Network
● Logical:
4 Direct or indirect
4 Synchronous or asynchronous
4 Automatic or explicit buffering

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 Direct Communication
● 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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 Indirect Communication
● Messages are directed and received from mailboxes (also referred to
as ports)
● Each mailbox has a unique id
● Processes can communicate only if they share a mailbox
● Properties of communication link
● Link established only if processes share a common mailbox
● A link may be associated with many processes
● Each pair of processes may share several communication links
● Link may be unidirectional or bi-directional

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 Indirect Communication
● Operations
● create a new mailbox (port)
● send and receive messages through mailbox
● destroy a mailbox
● Primitives are defined as:
send(A, message) – send a message to mailbox A
receive(A, message) – receive a message from mailbox A

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 Indirect Communication
● Mailbox sharing
● P1, P2, and P3 share mailbox A
● P1, sends; P2 and P3 receive
● Who gets the message?
● Solutions
● Allow a link to be associated with at most two
processes
● Allow only one process at a time to execute a receive
operation
● Allow the system to select arbitrarily the receiver.
Sender is notified who the receiver was.
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 Synchronization
● Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking
● Blocking is considered synchronous
● Blocking send -- the sender is blocked until the message is received
● Blocking receive -- the receiver is blocked until a message is available
● Non-blocking is considered asynchronous
● Non-blocking send -- the sender sends the message and continue
● Non-blocking receive -- the receiver receives:
● A valid message, or
● Null message
● Different combinations possible
● If both send and receive are blocking, we have a rendezvous

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 Buffering
● Queue of messages attached to the link.
● implemented in one of three ways
1. Zero capacity – no messages are queued on a link.
Sender must wait for receiver (rendezvous)
2. Bounded capacity – finite length of n messages
Sender must wait if link full
3. Unbounded capacity – infinite length
Sender never waits

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End of Chapter 3

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 What Operating Systems Do
(User’s view)
Depends on the point of view
• Single user system
• Users want convenience, ease of use
– Don’t care about resource utilization

Optimized for single user experience

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 What Operating Systems Do
(User’s view)
Depends on the point of view
• Shared computer such as mainframe
must keep all users happy
Shared CPU, memory
• Response time minimum
– Keep all the users happy

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 What Operating Systems Do
(System’s view)
• OS is a resource allocator
– Manages all resources
– Decides between conflicting requests for
efficient and fair resource use

• OS is a control program
– Controls execution of programs to prevent
errors and improper use of the computer

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 Types of Operating System
Batch Operating System
▪ Some computer processes are very lengthy and
time-consuming.
▪ To speed the same process, a job with a similar type of needs
are batched together and run as a group.
▪ The user of a batch operating system never directly interacts
with the computer.
▪ In this type of OS, every user prepares his or her job on an
offline device like a punch card and submit it to the computer
operator.
Network Operating System
▪ Network Operating System runs on a server.
▪ It provides the capability to serve to manage data, user, groups,
security, application, and other networking functions.

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Types of Operating System (Contd..)
Multi-Tasking/Time-sharing Operating systems
▪ Time-sharing operating system enables people located at a
different terminal(shell) to use a single computer system at the
same time.
▪ The processor time (CPU) which is shared among multiple users
is termed as time sharing.
Real time OS
▪ A real time operating system time interval to process and
respond to inputs is very small.
▪ Examples: Military Software Systems, Space Software Systems
are the Real time OS example.
Distributed Operating System
▪ Distributed systems use many processors located in different
machines to provide very fast computation to its users.

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 Virtual Machines
● A virtual machine takes the layered approach
to its logical conclusion. It treats hardware
and the operating system kernel as though
they were all hardware.
● A virtual machine provides an interface
identical to the underlying bare hardware.
● The operating system creates the illusion of
multiple processes, each executing on its own
processor with its own (virtual) memory

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 Virtual Machines (Cont.)
● The resources of the physical computer are
shared to create the virtual machines.
● CPU scheduling can create the appearance that
users have their own processor.
● Spooling and a file system can provide virtual card
readers and virtual line printers.
● A normal user time-sharing terminal serves as the
virtual machine operator’s console.

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Virtual Machines

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Advantages/Disadvantages of Virtual Machines
● The virtual-machine concept provides complete
protection of system resources since each virtual
machine is isolated from all other virtual machines. This
isolation, however, permits no direct sharing of
resources.
● A virtual-machine system is a perfect vehicle for
operating-systems research and development. System
development is done on the virtual machine, instead of
on a physical machine and so does not disrupt normal
system operation.
● The virtual machine concept is difficult to implement
due to the effort required to provide an exact duplicate
to the underlying machine

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Advantages/Disadvantages of Virtual Machines
● The virtual-machine concept provides complete
protection of system resources since each virtual
machine is isolated from all other virtual machines. This
isolation, however, permits no direct sharing of
resources.
● A virtual-machine system is a perfect vehicle for
operating-systems research and development. System
development is done on the virtual machine, instead of
on a physical machine and so does not disrupt normal
system operation.
● The virtual machine concept is difficult to implement
due to the effort required to provide an exact duplicate
to the underlying machine

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