Chapter 2: Processes
1
Chapter 3: Processes
Process Concept
Process Scheduling
Operations on Processes
Interprocess Communication
Examples of IPC Systems
Communication in Client-Server Systems
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
To describe communication in client-server systems
Process Concept
An operating system executes a variety of programs:
Batch system – jobs
Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
Textbook uses the terms job and process almost interchangeably
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
Function parameters, return addresses, local variables
Data section containing global variables
Heap containing memory dynamically allocated during run time
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
Process in Memory
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
Diagram of Process State
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
CPU Switch From Process to Process
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
Representation of Process Scheduling
Queueing diagram represents queues, resources, flows
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) Þ (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) Þ (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
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
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
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
Communications Models
(a) Message passing. (b) shared memory.
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
Producer-Consumer Problem
Paradigm for cooperating processes, producer process
produces information that is consumed by a consumer
process
unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of
the buffer
bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size
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.
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
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?
Message Passing (Cont.)
Implementation of communication link
Physical:
Shared memory
Hardware bus
Network
Logical:
Direct or indirect
Synchronous or asynchronous
Automatic or explicit buffering
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
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
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
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.
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
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
End of Chapter 3
30
References:
» Abraham Silberschatz, Greg Gagne, and Peter Baer Galvin,
"Operating System Concepts, Ninth Edition “
» Operating Systems, by Dhananjay Dhamdhere
17EECC304_OS&ESD
Thank you
17EECC304_OS&ESD
