Multiprocessor OS Amity School of Engineering & Technology
Multiprocessor Operating System refers to the use of
two or more central processing units (CPU) within a single computer system. These multiple CPUs are in a close communication sharing the computer bus, memory and other peripheral devices. These systems are referred as tightly coupled systems. These types of systems are used when very high speed is required to process a large volume of data. These systems are generally used in environment like satellite control, weather forecasting etc. The basic organization of multiprocessing system is shown in fig. Amity School of Engineering & Technology Amity School of Engineering & Technology
Multiprocessing system is based on the symmetric
multiprocessing model, in which each processor runs an identical copy of operating system and these copies communicate with each other. In this system processor is assigned a specific task. A master processor controls the system. This scheme defines a master-slave relationship. These systems can save money in compare to single processor systems because the processors can share peripherals, power supplies and other devices. The main advantage of multiprocessor system is to get more work done in a shorter period of time. Moreover, multiprocessor systems prove more reliable in the situations of failure of one processor. In this situation, the system with multiprocessor will not halt the system; it will only slow it down. Amity School of Engineering & Technology
• In order to employ multiprocessing operating
system effectively, the computer system must have the followings: • 1. Motherboard Support: A motherboard capable of handling multiple processors. This means additional sockets or slots for the extra chips and a chipset capable of handling the multiprocessing arrangement. Amity School of Engineering & Technology
2. Processor Support: processors those are capable of being used in
a multiprocessing system. The whole task of multiprocessing is managed by the operating system, which allocates different tasks to be performed by the various processors in the system. Applications designed for the use in multiprocessing are said to be threaded, which means that they are broken into smaller routines that can be run independently. This allows the operating system to let these threads run on more than one processor simultaneously, which is multiprocessing that results in improved performance. Multiprocessor system supports the processes to run in parallel. Parallel processing is the ability of the CPU to simultaneously process incoming jobs. This becomes most important in computer system, as the CPU divides and conquers the jobs. Generally the parallel processing is used in the fields like artificial intelligence and expert system, image processing, weather forecasting etc.