Chapter 6: CPU Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter 6: CPU Scheduling

 Basic Concepts
 Scheduling Criteria
 Scheduling Algorithms
 Thread Scheduling
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
 Real-Time CPU Scheduling
 Operating Systems Examples
 Algorithm Evaluation

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Objectives

 To introduce CPU scheduling, which is the basis for

multiprogrammed operating systems
 To describe various CPU-scheduling algorithms
 To discuss evaluation criteria for selecting a CPU-scheduling
algorithm for a particular system
 To examine the scheduling algorithms of several operating
systems

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Basic Concepts

 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 followed by I/O burst
 CPU burst distribution is of main
concern

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 CPU Scheduler
 Short-term scheduler selects from among the processes in
ready queue, and allocates the CPU to one of them
 Queue may be ordered in various ways
 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 to ready
4. Terminates
 Scheduling under 1 and 4 is nonpreemptive
 All other scheduling is preemptive
 Consider access to shared data
 Consider preemption while in kernel mode
 Consider interrupts occurring during crucial OS activities

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Dispatcher

 Dispatcher module gives control of the CPU to the process

selected by the short-term scheduler; this involves:
 switching context
 switching to user mode
 jumping to the proper location in the user program to
restart that program
 Dispatch latency – time it takes for the dispatcher to stop
one process and start another running

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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)

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Scheduling Algorithm Optimization Criteria

 Max CPU utilization

 Max throughput
 Min turnaround time
 Min waiting time
 Min response time

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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
 Consider one CPU-bound and many I/O-bound processes

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 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
 SJF is optimal – gives minimum average waiting time for a given
set of processes
 The difficulty is knowing the length of the next CPU request
 Could ask the user

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of SJF

ProcessArrival Time Burst Time

P1 0.0 6
P2 2.0 8
P3 4.0 7
P4 5.0 3

 SJF scheduling chart

P4 P1 P3 P2
0 3 9 16 24

 Average waiting time = (3 + 16 + 9 + 0) / 4 = 7

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of Shortest-remaining-time-first

 Now we add the concepts of varying arrival times and preemption to

the analysis
ProcessAarri Arrival TimeT Burst Time
P1 0 8
P2 1 4
P3 2 9
P4 3 5
 Preemptive SJF Gantt Chart

P1 P2 P4 P1 P3
0 1 5 10 17 26

 Average waiting time = [(10-1)+(1-1)+(17-2)+5-3)]/4 = 26/4 = 6.5

msec

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Priority Scheduling

 A priority number (integer) is associated with each process

 The CPU is allocated to the process with the highest priority

(smallest integer  highest priority)
 Preemptive
 Nonpreemptive

 SJF is priority scheduling where priority is the inverse of predicted

next CPU burst time

 Problem  Starvation – low priority processes may never execute

 Solution  Aging – as time progresses increase the priority of the

process

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of Priority Scheduling

ProcessA arri Burst TimeT Priority

P1 10 3
P2 1 1
P3 2 4
P4 1 5
P5 5 2

 Priority scheduling Gantt Chart

P1 P2 P1 P3 P4
0 1 6 16 18 19

 Average waiting time = 8.2 msec

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Round Robin (RR)

 Each process gets a small unit of CPU time (time quantum q),
usually 10-100 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.
 Timer interrupts every quantum to schedule next process
 Performance
 q large  FIFO
 q small  q must be large with respect to context switch,
otherwise overhead is too high

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of RR with Time Quantum = 4
Process Burst Time
P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
 The Gantt chart is:

P1 P2 P3 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
0 4 7 10 14 18 22 26 30

 Typically, higher average turnaround than SJF, but better

response
 q should be large compared to context switch time
 q usually 10ms to 100ms, context switch < 10 usec

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Time Quantum and Context Switch Time

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multilevel Queue
 Ready queue is partitioned into separate queues, eg:
 foreground (interactive)
 background (batch)
 Process permanently in a given queue
 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

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multilevel Queue Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multilevel Feedback Queue

 A process can move between the various queues; aging can be

implemented this way
 Multilevel-feedback-queue scheduler defined by the following
parameters:
 number of queues
 scheduling algorithms for each queue
 method used to determine when to upgrade a process
 method used to determine when to demote a process
 method used to determine which queue a process will enter
when that process needs service

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Example of Multilevel Feedback Queue

 Three queues:
 Q0 – RR with time quantum 8
milliseconds
 Q1 – RR time quantum 16 milliseconds
 Q2 – FCFS

 Scheduling
 A new job enters queue Q0 which is
served FCFS
 When it gains CPU, job receives 8
milliseconds
 If it does not finish in 8
milliseconds, job is moved to
queue Q1
 At Q1 job is again served FCFS and
receives 16 additional milliseconds
 If it still does not complete, it is
preempted and moved to queue Q2

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Thread Scheduling

 Distinction between user-level and kernel-level threads

 When threads supported, threads scheduled, not processes
 Many-to-one and many-to-many models, thread library schedules
user-level threads to run on LWP
 Known as process-contention scope (PCS) since scheduling
competition is within the process
 Typically done via priority set by programmer
 Kernel thread scheduled onto available CPU is system-contention
scope (SCS) – competition among all threads in system

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Pthread Scheduling

 API allows specifying either PCS or SCS during thread creation

 PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS schedules threads using
PCS scheduling
 PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM schedules threads using
SCS scheduling
 Can be limited by OS – Linux and Mac OS X only allow
PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Pthread Scheduling API
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define NUM_THREADS 5
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int i, scope;
pthread_t tid[NUM THREADS];
pthread_attr_t attr;
/* get the default attributes */
pthread_attr_init(&attr);
/* first inquire on the current scope */
if (pthread_attr_getscope(&attr, &scope) != 0)
fprintf(stderr, "Unable to get scheduling scope\n");
else {
if (scope == PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS)
printf("PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS");
else if (scope == PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM)
printf("PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM");
else
fprintf(stderr, "Illegal scope value.\n");
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Pthread Scheduling API
/* set the scheduling algorithm to PCS or SCS */
pthread_attr_setscope(&attr, PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM);
/* create the threads */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_create(&tid[i],&attr,runner,NULL);
/* now join on each thread */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_join(tid[i], NULL);
}
/* Each thread will begin control in this function */
void *runner(void *param)
{
/* do some work ... */
pthread_exit(0);
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
 CPU scheduling more complex when multiple CPUs are
available
 Homogeneous processors within a multiprocessor
 Asymmetric multiprocessing – only one processor accesses
the system data structures, alleviating the need for data sharing
 Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) – each processor is self-
scheduling, all processes in common ready queue, or each has
its own private queue of ready processes
 Currently, most common
 Processor affinity – process has affinity for processor on which
it is currently running
 soft affinity
 hard affinity
 Variations including processor sets

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 NUMA and CPU Scheduling

Note that memory-placement algorithms can also consider affinity

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling – Load Balancing

 If SMP, need to keep all CPUs loaded for efficiency

 Load balancing attempts to keep workload evenly distributed
 Push migration – periodic task checks load on each processor,
and if found pushes task from overloaded CPU to other CPUs
 Pull migration – idle processors pulls waiting task from busy
processor

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multicore Processors

 Recent trend to place multiple processor cores on same

physical chip
 Faster and consumes less power
 Multiple threads per core also growing
 Takes advantage of memory stall to make progress on
another thread while memory retrieve happens

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Real-Time CPU Scheduling
 Can present obvious
challenges
 Soft real-time systems – no
guarantee as to when critical
real-time process will be
scheduled
 Hard real-time systems –
task must be serviced by its
deadline
 Two types of latencies affect
performance
1. Interrupt latency – time from
arrival of interrupt to start of
routine that services interrupt
2. Dispatch latency – time for
schedule to take current process
off CPU and switch to another

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Real-Time CPU Scheduling (Cont.)

 Conflict phase of
dispatch latency:
1. Preemption of
any process
running in kernel
mode
2. Release by low-
priority process
of resources
needed by high-
priority
processes

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Virtualization and Scheduling
 Virtualization software schedules multiple guests onto
CPU(s)
 Each guest doing its own scheduling
 Not knowing it doesn’t own the CPUs
 Can result in poor response time
 Can effect time-of-day clocks in guests
 Can undo good scheduling algorithm efforts of guests

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Operating System Examples

 Linux scheduling

 Windows scheduling

 Solaris scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Algorithm Evaluation
 How to select CPU-scheduling algorithm for an OS?
 Determine criteria, then evaluate algorithms
 Deterministic modeling
 Type of analytic evaluation
 Takes a particular predetermined workload and defines the
performance of each algorithm for that workload
 Consider 5 processes arriving at time 0:

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deterministic Evaluation

For each algorithm, calculate minimum average waiting time

Simple and fast, but requires exact numbers for input, applies only to
those inputs
FCS is 28ms:

Non-preemptive SFJ is 13ms:

RR is 23ms:

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 6.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 6

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013