CONCURRENCY

Concurrency is the execution of the multiple instruction sequences at the same time. It
happens in the operating system when there are several process threads running in parallel.
The running process threads always communicate with each other through shared memory or
message passing. Concurrency results in sharing of resources result in problems like
deadlocks and resources starvation. It helps in techniques like coordinating execution of
processes, memory allocation and execution scheduling for maximizing throughput.

Principles of Concurrency:
Both interleaved and overlapped processes can be viewed as examples of concurrent
processes, they both present the same problems.
The relative speed of execution cannot be predicted. It depends on the following:
 The activities of other processes
 The way operating system handles interrupts
 The scheduling policies of the operating system

Problems in Concurrency:
 Sharing global resources: Sharing of global resources safely is difficult. If two
processes both make use of a global variable and both perform read and write on that
variable, then the order in which various read and write are executed is critical.
 Optimal allocation of resources: It is difficult for the operating system to manage the
allocation of resources optimally.
 Locating programming errors: It is very difficult to locate a programming error
because reports are usually not reproducible.
 Locking the channel: It may be inefficient for the operating system to simply lock the
channel and prevents its use by other processes.

Advantages of Concurrency :
 Running of multiple applications: It enables to run multiple applications at the same
time.
 Better resource utilization: It enables that the resources that are unused by one
application can be used for other applications.
 Better average response time: Without concurrency, each application has to be run to
completion before the next one can be run.
 Better performance: It enables the better performance by the operating system. When
one application uses only the processor and another application uses only the disk
drive then the time to run both applications concurrently to completion will be shorter
than the time to run each application consecutively.

Drawbacks of Concurrency:
 It is required to protect multiple applications from one another.
 It is required to coordinate multiple applications through additional mechanisms.
 Additional performance overheads and complexities in operating systems are required
for switching among applications.
1
  Sometimes running too many applications concurrently leads to severely degraded
performance.

Issues of Concurrency:
 Non-atomic: Operations that are non-atomic but interruptible by multiple processes
can cause problems.
 Race conditions: A race condition occurs of the outcome depends on which of
several processes gets to a point first.
 Blocking: Processes can block waiting for resources. A process could be blocked for
long period of time waiting for input from a terminal. If the process is required to
periodically update some data, this would be very undesirable.
 Starvation: It occurs when a process does not obtain service to progress.
 Deadlock: It occurs when two processes are blocked and hence neither can proceed to
execute.

PROCESS
A process is basically a program in execution. The execution of a process must progress in
a sequential fashion. A process is defined as an entity which represents the basic unit of
work to be implemented in the system.
To put it in simple terms, we write our computer programs in a text file and when we
execute this program, it becomes a process which performs all the tasks mentioned in the
program.
When a program is loaded into the memory and it becomes a process, it can be divided into
four sections stack, heap, text and data. The following image shows a simplified layout of a
process inside main memory:

2
 S. Component & Description
N.
Stack
1 The process Stack contains the temporary data such as
method/function parameters, return address, and local variables.
2 Heap
This is a dynamically allocated memory to a process during its
runtime.
Text
3 This includes the current activity represented by the value of
Program Counter and the contents of the processor's registers.
4 Data
This section contains the global and static variables.

Program
A program is a piece of code which may be a single line or millions of lines. A computer
program is usually written by a computer programmer in a programming language.
A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when
executed by a computer. When we compare a program with a process, we can conclude that
a process is a dynamic instance of a computer program.
A part of a computer program that performs a well-defined task is known as an algorithm. A
collection of computer programs, libraries and related data are referred to as a software.

Process Life Cycle

When a process executes, it passes through different states. These stages may differ in
different operating systems, and the names of these states are also not standardized.
In general, a process can have one of the following five states at a time.

S State & Description

.
N
.
1 Start
This is the initial state when a process is first started/created.

3
 Operating System

Ready
2 The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor. Ready
processes are waiting to have the processor allocated to them by
the operating system so that they can run. Process may come into
this state after Start state or while running it by but interrupted by
the scheduler to assign CPU to some other process.
Running
3 Once the process has been assigned to a processor by the OS
scheduler, the process state is set to running and the processor
executes its instructions.
Waiting
4 Process moves into the waiting state if it needs to wait for a
resource, such as waiting for user input, or waiting for a file to
become available.
Terminated or Exit
5 Once the process finishes its execution, or it is terminated by the
operating system, it is moved to the terminated state where it waits
to be removed from main memory.

Process Control Block (PCB)

A Process Control Block is a data structure maintained by the Operating System for every
process. The PCB is identified by an integer process ID (PID). A PCB keeps all the
information needed to keep track of a process as listed below in the table:

S Information & Description

.
N
.
Process State
1 The current state of the process i.e., whether it is ready, running,
waiting, or whatever.

4
 Operating System
2 Process privileges
This is required to allow/disallow access to system resources.
3 Process ID
Unique identification for each of the process in the operating
system.
4 Pointer
A pointer to parent process.
Program Counter
5 Program Counter is a pointer to the address of the next instruction
to be executed for this process.
CPU registers
6 Various CPU registers where process need to be stored for
execution for running state.
CPU Scheduling Information
7 Process priority and other scheduling information which is
required to schedule the process.
Memory management information
8 This includes the information of page table, memory limits,
Segment table depending on memory used by the operating
system.
Accounting information
9 This includes the amount of CPU used for process execution, time
limits, execution ID etc.
1 IO status information
0 This includes a list of I/O devices allocated to the process.

The architecture of a PCB is completely dependent on Operating System and may contain
different information in different operating systems. Here is a simplified diagram of a PCB:

The PCB is maintained for a process throughout its lifetime, and is deleted once the process
terminates.
5
 Operating System

PROCESS SCHEDULLING
The process scheduling is the activity of the process manager that handles the removal of the
running process from the CPU and the selection of another process on the basis of a
particular strategy.
Process scheduling is an essential part of a Multiprogramming operating systems. Such
operating systems allow more than one process to be loaded into the executable memory at a
time and the loaded process shares the CPU using time multiplexing.

Process Scheduling Queues

The OS maintains all PCBs in Process Scheduling Queues. The OS maintains a separate
queue for each of the process states and PCBs of all processes in the same execution state
are placed in the same queue. When the state of a process is changed, its PCB is unlinked
from its current queue and moved to its new state queue.
The Operating System maintains the following important process scheduling queues:
 Job queue - This queue keeps all the processes in the system.

 Ready queue - This queue keeps a set of all processes residing in main memory, ready and
waiting to execute. A new process is always put in this queue.

 Device queues - The processes which are blocked due to unavailability of an I/O device
constitute this queue.

The OS can use different policies to manage each queue (FIFO, Round Robin, Priority, etc.).
The OS scheduler determines how to move processes between the ready and run queues
which can only have one entry per processor core on the system; in the above diagram, it has
been merged with the CPU.

Two-State Process Model

Two-state process model refers to running and non-running states which are described
below.

6
 Operating System
S State & Description
.
N
.
1 Running
When a new process is created, it enters into the system as in the
running state.
Not Running
Processes that are not running are kept in queue, waiting for their
2 turn to execute. Each entry in the queue is a pointer to a particular
process. Queue is implemented by using linked list. Use of
dispatcher is as follows. When a process is interrupted, that
process is transferred in the waiting queue. If the process has
completed or aborted, the process is discarded. In either case, the
dispatcher then selects a process from the queue to execute.

Schedulers
Schedulers are special system software which handles process scheduling in various ways.
Their main task is to select the jobs to be submitted into the system and to decide which
process to run. Schedulers are of three types:
 Long-Term Scheduler
 Short-Term Scheduler
 Medium-Term Scheduler

Long-Term Scheduler
It is also called a job scheduler. A long-term scheduler determines which programs are
admitted to the system for processing. It selects processes from the queue and loads them
into memory for execution. Process loads into the memory for CPU scheduling.
The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of jobs, such as I/O
bound and processor bound. It also controls the degree of multiprogramming. If the degree
of multiprogramming is stable, then the average rate of process creation must be equal to the
average departure rate of processes leaving the system.
On some systems, the long-term scheduler may not be available or minimal. Time-sharing
operating systems have no long term scheduler. When a process changes the state from new
to ready, then there is use of long-term scheduler.

Short-Term Scheduler
It is also called as CPU scheduler. Its main objective is to increase system performance in
accordance with the chosen set of criteria. It is the change of ready state to running state of
the process. CPU scheduler selects a process among the processes that are ready to execute
and allocates CPU to one of them.
Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers, make the decision of which process to
execute next. Short-term schedulers are faster than long-term schedulers.

7
 Operating System
Medium-Term Scheduler
Medium-term scheduling is a part of swapping. It removes the processes from the memory.
It reduces the degree of multiprogramming. The medium-term scheduler is in- charge of
handling the swapped out-processes.
A running process may become suspended if it makes an I/O request. A suspended process
cannot make any progress towards completion. In this condition, to remove the process from
memory and make space for other processes, the suspended process is moved to the
secondary storage. This process is called swapping, and the process is said to be swapped
out or rolled out. Swapping may be necessary to improve the process mix.

Comparison among Schedulers

S Long-Term Short-Term Medium-Term

. Scheduler Scheduler Scheduler
N
.
1 It is a job It is a CPU It is a process
scheduler scheduler swapping
scheduler.
Speed is lesser Speed is fastest Speed is in
2 than short term among other two between both
scheduler short and long
term scheduler.
It controls the It provides It reduces the
3 degree of lesser control degree of
multiprogrammi over degree of multiprogrammin
ng multiprogrammi g.
ng
It is almost It is also It is a part of Time
4 absent or minimal in time sharing systems.
minimal in time sharing system
sharing system
It selects It selects those It can re-introduce
5 processes from processes which the process into
pool and loads are ready to memory and
them into execute execution can be
memory for continued.
execution

Context Switch
A context switch is the mechanism to store and restore the state or context of a CPU in
Process Control block so that a process execution can be resumed from the same point at a
later time. Using this technique, a context switcher enables multiple processes to share a
single CPU. Context switching is an essential part of a multitasking operating system
8
 Operating System
features. When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to execute
another, the state from the current running process is stored into the process control block.
After this, the state for the process to run next is loaded from its own PCB and used to set
the PC, registers, etc. At that point, the second process can start executing.
Context switches are computationally intensive since register and memory state must be
saved and restored. To avoid the amount of context switching time, some hardware systems
employ two or more sets of processor registers. When the process is switched, the following
information is stored for later use.
 Program Counter
 Scheduling information
 Base and limit register value
 Currently used register
 Changed State
 I/O State information
 Accounting information

SCHEDULLING ALGORITHMS
A Process Scheduler schedules different processes to be assigned to the CPU based on
particular scheduling algorithms. There are six popular process scheduling algorithms which
we are going to discuss in this chapter:
 First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling
 Shortest-Job-Next (SJN) Scheduling
 Priority Scheduling
 Shortest Remaining Time
 Round Robin(RR) Scheduling
 Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling

These algorithms are either non-preemptive or preemptive. Non-preemptive algorithms are

designed so that once a process enters the running state; it cannot be preempted until it
completes its allotted time, whereas the preemptive scheduling is based on priority where a
scheduler may preempt a low priority running process anytime when a high priority process
enters into a ready state.

First Come, First Served (FCFS)

 Jobs are executed on first come, first served basis.
 It is a non-preemptive scheduling algorithm.
 Easy to understand and implement.
 Its implementation is based on FIFO queue.
 Poor in performance, as average wait time is high.

Shortest Job Next (SJN)

 This is also known as shortest job first, or SJF.
 This is a non-preemptive scheduling algorithm.
 Best approach to minimize waiting time.
 Easy to implement in Batch systems where required CPU time is known in advance.
9
 Operating System
 Impossible to implement in interactive systems where the required CPU time is not known.

 The processer should know in advance how much time a process will take.

Priority Based Scheduling

 Priority scheduling is a non-preemptive algorithm and one of the most common
scheduling algorithms in batch systems.
 Each process is assigned a priority. Process with highest priority is to be executed first and
so on.
 Processes with same priority are executed on first come first served basis.
 Priority can be decided based on memory requirements, time requirements or any other
resource requirement.
Shortest Remaining Time
 Shortest remaining time (SRT) is the preemptive version of the SJN algorithm.
 The processor is allocated to the job closest to completion but it can be preempted by a
newer ready job with shorter time to completion.
 Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU time is not known.
 It is often used in batch environments where short jobs need to be given preference.

Round Robin Scheduling

 Round Robin is a preemptive process scheduling algorithm.
 Each process is provided a fix time to execute; it is called a quantum.
 Once a process is executed for a given time period, it is preempted and other process
executes for a given time period.
 Context switching is used to save states of preempted processes.

Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling

Multiple-level queues are not an independent scheduling algorithm. They make use of other
existing algorithms to group and schedule jobs with common characteristics.
 Multiple queues are maintained for processes with common characteristics.
 Each queue can have its own scheduling algorithms.
 Priorities are assigned to each queue.

For example, CPU-bound jobs can be scheduled in one queue and all I/O-bound jobs in
another queue. The Process Scheduler then alternately selects jobs from each queue and
assigns them to the CPU based on the algorithm assigned to the queue.

10
MULTITHREADING
What is a Thread?
A thread is a flow of execution through the process code, with its own program counter that
keeps track of which instruction to execute next, system registers which hold its current
working variables, and a stack which contains the execution history.
A thread shares with its peer threads few information like code segment, data segment and
open files. When one thread alters a code segment memory item, all other threads see that.
A thread is also called a lightweight process. Threads provide a way to improve application
performance through parallelism. Threads represent a software approach to improving
performance of operating system by reducing the overhead thread is equivalent to a classical
process.
Each thread belongs to exactly one process and no thread can exist outside a process. Each
thread represents a separate flow of control. Threads have been successfully used in
implementing network servers and web server. They also provide a suitable foundation for
parallel execution of applications on shared memory multiprocessors. The following figure
shows the working of a single-threaded and a multithreaded process.

11
 Difference between Process and Thread

S Process Thread
.
N
.
1 Process is heavy weight or Thread is lightweight, taking
resource intensive. lesser resources than a process.
2 Process switching needs Thread switching does not
interaction with operating need to interact with operating
system. system.
In multiple processing
3 environments, each process All threads can share same set
executes the same code but of open files, child processes.
has its own memory and
file resources.
If one process is blocked, While one thread is blocked
4 then no other process can and waiting, a second thread in
execute until the first the same task can run.
process is unblocked.
5 Multiple processes without Multiple threaded processes
using threads use more use fewer resources.
resources.
In multiple processes each One thread can read, write or
6 process operates change another thread's data.
independently of the others.

Advantages of Thread
 Threads minimize the context switching time.
 Use of threads provides concurrency within a process.
 Efficient communication.
 It is more economical to create and context switch threads.
 Threads allow utilization of multiprocessor architectures to a greater scale and efficiency.

Types of Thread
Threads are implemented in following two ways:
 User Level Threads -- User managed threads

 Kernel Level Threads -- Operating System managed threads acting on kernel, an operating
system core.

User Level Threads

 In this case, the thread management kernel is not aware of the existence of threads. The
thread library contains code for creating and destroying threads, for passing message and
data between threads, for scheduling thread execution and for saving and restoring thread
contexts. The application starts with a single thread.
Advantages
 Thread switching does not require Kernel mode privileges.
 User level thread can run on any operating system.
 Scheduling can be application specific in the user level thread.
 User level threads are fast to create and manage.

Disadvantages
 In a typical operating system, most system calls are blocking.
 Multithreaded application cannot take advantage of multiprocessing.

Kernel Level Threads

In this case, thread management is done by the Kernel. There is no thread management code
in the application area. Kernel threads are supported directly by the operating system. Any
application can be programmed to be multithreaded. All of the threads within an application
are supported within a single process.
The Kernel maintains context information for the process as a whole and for individuals
threads within the process. Scheduling by the Kernel is done on a thread basis. The Kernel
performs thread creation, scheduling and management in Kernel space. Kernel threads are
generally slower to create and manage than the user threads.
Advantages
 Kernel can simultaneously schedule multiple threads from the same process on multiple
processes.

 If one thread in a process is blocked, the Kernel can schedule another thread of the same
process.

 Kernel routines themselves can be multithreaded.

Disadvantages
 Kernel threads are generally slower to create and manage than the user threads.

 Transfer of control from one thread to another within the same process requires a mode
switch to the Kernel.

Multithreading Models
Some operating system provides a combined user level thread and Kernel level thread
facility. Solaris is a good example of this combined approach. In a combined system,
multiple threads within the same application can run in parallel on multiple processors and a
blocking system call need not block the entire process. Multithreading models are three types
 Many-to-many relationship
 Many-to-one relationship
 One-to-one relationship

Many-to-Many Model
The many-to-many model multiplexes any number of user threads onto an equal or smaller
number of kernel threads.
The following diagram shows the many-to-many threading model where 6 user level threads
are multiplexing with 6 kernel level threads. In this model, developers can create as many
user threads as necessary and the corresponding Kernel threads can run in parallel on a
multiprocessor machine. This model provides the best accuracy on concurrency and when a
thread performs a blocking system call, the kernel can schedule another thread for execution.

Many-to-One Model
Many-to-one model maps many user level threads to one Kernel-level thread. Thread
management is done in user space by the thread library. When thread makes a blocking
system call, the entire process will be blocked. Only one thread can access the Kernel at a
time, so multiple threads are unable to run in parallel on multiprocessors.
If the user-level thread libraries are implemented in the operating system in such a way that
the system does not support them, then the Kernel threads use the many-to-one relationship
modes.
One-to-One Model
There is one-to-one relationship of user-level thread to the kernel-level thread. This model
provides more concurrency than the many-to-one model. It also allows another thread to run
when a thread makes a blocking system call. It supports multiple threads to execute in
parallel on microprocessors.
Disadvantage of this model is that creating user thread requires the corresponding Kernel
thread. OS/2, Windows NT and windows 2000 use one to one relationship model.

Difference between User-Level & Kernel-Level Thread

S User-Level Threads Kernel-Level Thread
.
N
.
1 User-level threads are Kernel-level threads are slower
faster to create and to create and manage.
manage.
2 Implementation is by a Operating system supports
thread library at the user creation of Kernel threads.
level.
3 User-level thread is Kernel-level thread is specific to
generic and can run on any the operating system.
operating system.
4 Multi-threaded Kernel routines themselves can
applications cannot take be multithreaded.
advantage of
multiprocessing.
 MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Memory management is the functionality of an operating system which handles or manages
primary memory and moves processes back and forth between main memory and disk
during execution. Memory management keeps track of each and every memory location,
regardless of either it is allocated to some process or it is free. It checks how much memory
is to be allocated to processes. It decides which process will get memory at what time. It
tracks whenever some memory gets freed or unallocated and correspondingly it updates the
status.

Process Address Space

The process address space is the set of logical addresses that a process references in its code.
For example, when 32-bit addressing is in use, addresses can range from 0 to 0x7fffffff; that
is, 2^31 possible numbers, for a total theoretical size of 2 gigabytes. The operating system
takes care of mapping the logical addresses to physical addresses at the time of memory
allocation to the program. There are three types of addresses used in a program before and
after memory is allocated:

S Memory Addresses & Description

.
N
.
Symbolic addresses
1 The addresses used in a source code. The variable names,
constants, and instruction labels are the basic elements of the
symbolic address space.
Relative addresses
2 At the time of compilation, a compiler converts symbolic addresses
into relative addresses.
Physical addresses
2 The loader generates these addresses at the time when a program is
loaded into main memory.

Virtual and physical addresses are the same in compile-time and load-time address- binding
schemes. Virtual and physical addresses differ in execution-time address-binding scheme.
The set of all logical addresses generated by a program is referred to as a logical address
space. The set of all physical addresses corresponding to these logical addresses is referred
to as a physical address space.
The runtime mapping from virtual to physical address is done by the memory management unit
(MMU) which is a hardware device. MMU uses the following mechanism to convert virtual
address to physical address.
 The value in the base register is added to every address generated by a user process, which is
treated as offset at the time it is sent to memory. For example, if the base register value is
10000, then an attempt by the user to use address location 100 will be dynamically
reallocated to location 10100.
 The user program deals with virtual addresses; it never sees the real physical addresses.

Static vs Dynamic Loading

The choice between Static or Dynamic Loading is to be made at the time of computer
program being developed. If you have to load your program statically, then at the time of
compilation, the complete programs will be compiled and linked without leaving any
external program or module dependency. The linker combines the object program with other
necessary object modules into an absolute program, which also includes logical addresses.
If you are writing a dynamically loaded program, then your compiler will compile the
program and for all the modules which you want to include dynamically, only references
will be provided and rest of the work will be done at the time of execution.
At the time of loading, with static loading, the absolute program (and data) is loaded into
memory in order for execution to start.
If you are using dynamic loading, dynamic routines of the library are stored on a disk in
relocatable form and are loaded into memory only when they are needed by the program.

Static vs Dynamic Linking

As explained above, when static linking is used, the linker combines all other modules
needed by a program into a single executable program to avoid any runtime dependency.
When dynamic linking is used, it is not required to link the actual module or library with the
program, rather a reference to the dynamic module is provided at the time of compilation
and linking. Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) in Windows and Shared Objects in Unix are
good examples of dynamic libraries.

Swapping
Swapping is a mechanism in which a process can be swapped temporarily out of main
memory (or move) to secondary storage (disk) and make that memory available to other
processes. At some later time, the system swaps back the process from the secondary storage
to main memory.
Though performance is usually affected by swapping process but it helps in running multiple
and big processes in parallel and that's the reason Swapping is also known as a technique
for memory compaction.
The total time taken by swapping process includes the time it takes to move the entire
process to a secondary disk and then to copy the process back to memory, as well as the time
the process takes to regain main memory.
Let us assume that the user process is of size 2048KB and on a standard hard disk where
swapping will take place has a data transfer rate around 1 MB per second. The actual
transfer of the 1000K process to or from memory will take
2048KB / 1024KB per second
= 2 seconds
= 200 milliseconds

Now considering in and out time, it will take complete 400 milliseconds plus other overhead
where the process competes to regain main memory.
 Memory Allocation
Main memory usually has two partitions:
 Low Memory -- Operating system resides in this memory.
 High Memory -- User processes are held in high memory.

Operating system uses the following memory allocation mechanism.

S Memory Allocation & Description

.
N
.

Single-partition allocation

1 In this type of allocation, relocation-register scheme is used to

protect user processes from each other, and from changing
operating-system code and data. Relocation register contains value
of smallest physical address whereas limit register contains range
of logical addresses. Each logical address must be less than the
limit register.

Multiple-partition allocation

2 In this type of allocation, main memory is divided into a number of

fixed-sized partitions where each partition should contain only one
process. When a partition is free, a process is selected from the
input queue and is loaded into the free partition. When the process
terminates, the partition becomes available for another process.

Fragmentation
As processes are loaded and removed from memory, the free memory space is broken into
little pieces. It happens after sometimes that processes cannot be allocated to memory blocks
considering their small size and memory blocks remains unused. This problem is known as
Fragmentation.
Fragmentation is of two types:

External fragmentation
Total memory space is enough to satisfy a request or to reside a process in it, but it is not
contiguous, so it cannot be used.
Internal fragmentation
Memory block assigned to process is bigger. Some portion of memory is left unused, as it
cannot be used by another process.

External fragmentation can be reduced by compaction or shuffle memory contents to place

 all free memory together in one large block. To make compaction feasible, relocation should
be dynamic.
The internal fragmentation can be reduced by effectively assigning the smallest partition but
large enough for the process.

Paging
A computer can address more memory than the amount physically installed on the system. This
extra memory is actually called virtual memory and it is a section of a hard that's set up to
emulate the computer's RAM. Paging technique plays an important role in implementing
virtual memory.
Paging is a memory management technique in which process address space is broken into
blocks of the same size called pages (size is power of 2, between 512 bytes and 8192 bytes).
The size of the process is measured in the number of pages.
Similarly, main memory is divided into small fixed-sized blocks of (physical) memory
called frames and the size of a frame is kept the same as that of a page to have optimum
utilization of the main memory and to avoid external fragmentation.
Address Translation
Page address is called logical address and represented by page number and the offset.
Logical Address = Page number + page offset

Frame address is called physical address and represented by a frame number and the
offset.
Physical Address = Frame number + page offset

A data structure called page map table is used to keep track of the relation between a pages
of a process to a frame in physical memory.
When the system allocates a frame to any page, it translates this logical address into a
physical address and create entry into the page table to be used throughout execution of the
program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding pages are loaded into any available
memory frames. Suppose you have a program of 8Kb but your memory can accommodate
only 5Kb at a given point in time, then the paging concept will come into picture. When a
computer runs out of RAM, the operating system (OS) will move idle or unwanted pages of
memory to secondary memory to free up RAM for other processes and brings them back
when needed by the program.
This process continues during the whole execution of the program where the OS keeps
removing idle pages from the main memory and write them onto the secondary memory and
bring them back when required by the program.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Paging
Here is a list of advantages and disadvantages of paging:
 Paging reduces external fragmentation, but still suffer from internal fragmentation.

 Paging is simple to implement and assumed as an efficient memory management technique.

 Due to equal size of the pages and frames, swapping becomes very easy.

 Page table requires extra memory space, so may not be good for a system having small
RAM.

Segmentation
Segmentation is a memory management technique in which each job is divided into several
segments of different sizes, one for each module that contains pieces that perform related
functions. Each segment is actually a different logical address space of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding segmentation are loaded into non-
contiguous memory though every segment is loaded into a contiguous block of available
memory.
Segmentation memory management works very similar to paging but here segments are of
variable-length where as in paging pages are of fixed size.
A program segment contains the program's main function, utility functions, data structures,
and so on. The operating system maintains a segment map table for every process and a list
of free memory blocks along with segment numbers, their size and corresponding memory
locations in main memory. For each segment, the table stores the starting address of the
segment and the length of the segment. A reference to a memory location includes a value
that identifies a segment and an offset.

VIRTUAL MEMORY
A computer can address more memory than the amount physically installed on the system. This
extra memory is actually called virtual memory and it is a section of a hard disk that's set
up to emulate the computer's RAM.
The main visible advantage of this scheme is that programs can be larger than physical
memory. Virtual memory serves two purposes. First, it allows us to extend the use of
physical memory by using disk. Second, it allows us to have memory protection, because
each virtual address is translated to a physical address.
Following are the situations, when entire program is not required to be loaded fully in main
memory.
 User written error handling routines are used only when an error occurred in the data or
computation.
 Certain options and features of a program may be used rarely.
 Many tables are assigned a fixed amount of address space even though only a small amount of
the table is actually used.
 The ability to execute a program that is only partially in memory would counter many
benefits.
 Less number of I/O would be needed to load or swap each user program into memory.

 A program would no longer be constrained by the amount of physical memory that is

available.
 Each user program could take less physical memory, more programs could be run the same
time, with a corresponding increase in CPU utilization and throughput.
 Modern microprocessors intended for general-purpose use, a memory management unit, or
MMU, is built into the hardware. The MMU's job is to translate virtual addresses into
physical addresses.
Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand paging. It can also be implemented
in a segmentation system. Demand segmentation can also be used to provide virtual
memory.

Demand Paging
A demand paging system is quite similar to a paging system with swapping where processes
reside in secondary memory and pages are loaded only on demand, not in advance. When a
context switch occurs, the operating system does not copy any of the old program’s pages
out to the disk or any of the new program’s pages into the main memory Instead, it just
begins executing the new program after loading the first page and fetches that program’s
pages as they are referenced.
While executing a program, if the program references a page which is not available in the
main memory because it was swapped out a little ago, the processor treats this invalid
memory reference as a page fault and transfers control from the program to the operating
system to demand the page back into the memory.

Advantages
Following are the advantages of Demand Paging:
 Large virtual memory.
 More efficient use of memory.
 There is no limit on degree of multiprogramming.

Disadvantage
 Number of tables and the amount of processor overhead for handling page interrupts are
greater than in the case of the simple paged management techniques.

Page Replacement Algorithm

Page replacement algorithms are the techniques using which an Operating System decides
which memory pages to swap out, write to disk when a page of memory needs to be
allocated. Paging happens whenever a page fault occurs and a free page cannot be used for
allocation purpose accounting to reason that pages are not available or the number of free
pages is lower than required pages.
When the page that was selected for replacement and was paged out, is referenced again, it
has to read in from disk, and this requires for I/O completion. This process determines the
quality of the page replacement algorithm: the lesser the time waiting for page-ins, the better
is the algorithm.
A page replacement algorithm looks at the limited information about accessing the pages
provided by hardware, and tries to select which pages should be replaced to minimize the
total number of page misses, while balancing it with the costs of primary storage and
processor time of the algorithm itself. There are many different page replacement
algorithms. We evaluate an algorithm by running it on a particular string of memory
reference and computing the number of page faults.
 Reference String
The string of memory references is called reference string. Reference strings are generated
artificially or by tracing a given system and recording the address of each memory reference.
The latter choice produces a large number of data, where we note two things.
 For a given page size, we need to consider only the page number, not the entire address.
 If we have a reference to a page p, then any immediately following references to page p will
never cause a page fault. Page p will be in memory after the first reference; the immediately
following references will not fault.
 For example, consider the following sequence of addresses - 123,215,600,1234,76,96
 If page size is 100, then the reference string is 1,2,6,12,0,0

First In First Out (FIFO) Algorithm

 Oldest page in main memory is the one which will be selected for replacement.
 Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages from the tail and add new pages at the head.

Optimal Page Algorithm

 An optimal page-replacement algorithm has the lowest page-fault rate of all algorithms. An
optimal page-replacement algorithm exists, and has been called OPT or MIN.
 Replace the page that will not be used for the longest period of time. Use the time when a
page is to be used.

Least Recently Used (LRU) Algorithm

 Page which has not been used for the longest time in main memory is the one which will
be selected for replacement.
 Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages by looking back into time.

Page Buffering Algorithm

 To get a process start quickly, keep a pool of free frames.
 On page fault, select a page to be replaced.
 Write the new page in the frame of free pool, mark the page table and restart the process.
 Now write the dirty page out of disk and place the frame holding replaced page in free pool.

Least Frequently Used (LFU) Algorithm

 The page with the smallest count is the one which will be selected for replacement.
 This algorithm suffers from the situation in which a page is used heavily during the initial
phase of a process, but then is never used again.

Most Frequently Used (MFU) Algorithm

 This algorithm is based on the argument that the page with the smallest count was probably
just brought in and has yet to be used.

I/O HARDWARE
One of the important jobs of an Operating System is to manage various I/O devices
including mouse, keyboards, touch pad, disk drives, display adapters, USB devices, Bit-
 mapped screen, LED, Analog-to-digital converter, On/off switch, network connections,
audio I/O, printers etc.
An I/O system is required to take an application I/O request and send it to the physical
device, then take whatever response comes back from the device and send it to the
application. I/O devices can be divided into two categories:
 Block devices: A block device is one with which the driver communicates by sending entire
blocks of data. For example, Hard disks, USB cameras, Disk-On-Key etc.

 Character devices: A character device is one with which the driver communicates by
sending and receiving single characters (bytes, octets). For example, serial ports, parallel
ports, sounds cards etc.

Device Controllers
Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a particular
device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O devices.
The Device Controller works like an interface between a device and a device driver. I/O
units (Keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) typically consist of a mechanical component and an
electronic component where electronic component is called the device controller.
There is always a device controller and a device driver for each device to communicate with
the Operating Systems. A device controller may be able to handle multiple devices. As an
interface its main task is to convert serial bit stream to block of bytes, perform error
correction as necessary.
Any device connected to the computer is connected by a plug and socket, and the socket is
connected to a device controller. Following is a model for connecting the CPU, memory,
controllers, and I/O devices where CPU and device controllers all use a common bus for
communication.

Synchronous vs Asynchronous I/O

 Synchronous I/O — In this scheme CPU execution waits while I/O proceeds
 Asynchronous I/O — I/O proceeds concurrently with CPU execution

Communication to I/O Devices

The CPU must have a way to pass information to and from an I/O device. There are three
approaches available to communicate with the CPU and Device.
 Special Instruction I/O
 Memory-mapped I/O
 Direct memory access (DMA)

Special Instruction I/O

This uses CPU instructions that are specifically made for controlling I/O devices. These
instructions typically allow data to be sent to an I/O device or read from an I/O device.

Memory-mapped I/O
When using memory-mapped I/O, the same address space is shared by memory and I/O
devices. The device is connected directly to certain main memory locations so that I/O
device can transfer block of data to/from memory without going through CPU.
While using memory mapped IO, OS allocates buffer in memory and informs I/O device to
use that buffer to send data to the CPU. I/O device operates asynchronously with CPU,
interrupts CPU when finished.
The advantage to this method is that every instruction which can access memory can be used
to manipulate an I/O device. Memory mapped IO is used for most high-speed I/O devices
like disks, communication interfaces.

Direct Memory Access (DMA)

Slow devices like keyboards will generate an interrupt to the main CPU after each byte is
transferred. If a fast device such as a disk generated an interrupt for each byte, the operating
system would spend most of its time handling these interrupts. So a typical computer uses
direct memory access (DMA) hardware to reduce this overhead
Direct Memory Access (DMA) means CPU grants I/O module authority to read from or
write to memory without involvement. DMA module itself controls exchange of data
between main memory and the I/O device. CPU is only involved at the beginning and end of
the transfer and interrupted only after entire block has been transferred.
Direct Memory Access needs a special hardware called DMA controller (DMAC) that
manages the data transfers and arbitrates access to the system bus. The controllers are
programmed with source and destination pointers (where to read/write the data), counters to
track the number of transferred bytes, and settings, which includes I/O and memory types,
interrupts and states for the CPU cycles.
The operating system uses the DMA hardware as follows:

S Description
t
e
p
1 Device driver is instructed to transfer disk data to a buffer address
X.
2 Device driver then instruct disk controller to transfer data to
buffer.
3 Disk controller starts DMA transfer.
4 Disk controller sends each byte to DMA controller.
5 DMA controller transfers bytes to buffer, increases the memory
address, decreases the counter C until C becomes zero.
6 When C becomes zero, DMA interrupts CPU to signal transfer
completion.

Polling vs Interrupts I/O

A computer must have a way of detecting the arrival of any type of input. There are two
ways that this can happen, known as polling and interrupts. Both of these techniques allow
the processor to deal with events that can happen at any time and that are not related to the
 process it is currently running.
Polling I/O
Polling is the simplest way for an I/O device to communicate with the processor the
processor. The process of periodically checking status of the device to see if it is time for the
next I/O operation, is called polling. The I/O device simply puts the information in a Status
register, and the processor must come and get the information.
Most of the time, devices will not require attention and when one does it will have to wait
until it is next interrogated by the polling program. This is an inefficient method and much
of the processors time is wasted on unnecessary polls.
Compare this method to a teacher continually asking every student in a class, one after
another, if they need help. Obviously the more efficient method would be for a student to
inform the teacher whenever they require assistance.

Interrupts I/O
An alternative scheme for dealing with I/O is the interrupt-driven method. An interrupt is a
signal to the microprocessor from a device that requires attention.
A device controller puts an interrupt signal on the bus when it needs CPU’s attention when
CPU receives an interrupt, It saves its current state and invokes the appropriate interrupt
handler using the interrupt vector (addresses of OS routines to handle various events). When
the interrupting device has been dealt with, the CPU continues with its original task as if it
had never been interrupted.
I/O SOFTWARE
I/O software is often organized in the following layers:
 User Level Libraries: This provides simple interface to the user program to perform input
and output. For example, stdio is a library provided by C and C++ programming languages.

 Kernel Level Modules: This provides device driver to interact with the device controller
and device independent I/O modules used by the device drivers.

 Hardware: This layer includes actual hardware and hardware controller which interact with
the device drivers and makes hardware alive.
A key concept in the design of I/O software is that it should be device independent where it
should be possible to write programs that can access any I/O device without having to
specify the device in advance. For example, a program that reads a file as input should be
able to read a file on a floppy disk, on a hard disk, or on a CD-ROM, without having to
modify the program for each different device.
Device Drivers
Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a particular
device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O devices. Device
drivers encapsulate device-dependent code and implement a standard interface in such a way
that code contains device-specific register reads/writes. Device driver is generally written by
the device's manufacturer and delivered along with the device on a CD-ROM.
A device driver performs the following jobs:
 To accept request from the device independent software above to it.
 Interact with the device controller to take and give I/O and perform required error handling

 Making sure that the request is executed successfully

How a device driver handles a request is as follows: Suppose a request comes to read a block
N. If the driver is idle at the time a request arrives, it starts carrying out the request
immediately. Otherwise, if the driver is already busy with some other request, it places the
new request in the queue of pending requests.

Interrupt handlers
An interrupt handler, also known as an interrupt service routine or ISR, is a piece of software
or more specifically a callback function in an operating system or more specifically in a device
driver, whose execution is triggered by the reception of an interrupt.
When the interrupt happens, the interrupt procedure does whatever it has to in order to
handle the interrupt, updates data structures and wakes up process that was waiting for an
interrupt to happen.
The interrupt mechanism accepts an address ─ a number that selects a specific interrupt
handling routine/function from a small set. In most architectures, this address is an offset
stored in a table called the interrupt vector table. This vector contains the memory addresses
of specialized interrupt handlers.

Device-Independent I/O Software

The basic function of the device-independent software is to perform the I/O functions that
are common to all devices and to provide a uniform interface to the user-level software.
Though it is difficult to write completely device independent software but we can write
some modules which are common among all the devices. Following is a list of functions of
device-independent I/O Software:
 Uniform interfacing for device drivers
 Device naming: Mnemonic names mapped to Major and Minor device numbers
 Device protection
 Providing a device-independent block size
 Buffering because data coming off a device cannot be stored in final destination.
 Storage allocation on block devices
 Allocation and releasing dedicated devices
 Error Reporting

User-Space I/O Software

These are the libraries which provide richer and simplified interface to access the
functionality of the kernel or ultimately interactive with the device drivers. Most of the user-
level I/O software consists of library procedures with some exception like spooling system
which is a way of dealing with dedicated I/O devices in a multiprogramming system.
I/O Libraries (e.g., stdio) are in user-space to provide an interface to the OS resident device-
independent I/O SW. For example putchar(), getchar(), printf() and scanf() are example of
user level I/O library stdio available in C programming.
 Kernel I/O Subsystem
Kernel I/O Subsystem is responsible to provide many services related to I/O. Following are
some of the services provided:

 Scheduling - Kernel schedules a set of I/O requests to determine a good order in which to
execute them. When an application issues a blocking I/O system call, the request is placed
on the queue for that device. The Kernel I/O scheduler rearranges the order of the queue to
improve the overall system efficiency and the average response time experienced by the
applications.

 Buffering - Kernel I/O Subsystem maintains a memory area known as buffer that stores
data while they are transferred between two devices or between a device with an application
operation. Buffering is done to cope with a speed mismatch between the producer and
consumer of a data stream or to adapt between devices that have different data transfer sizes.

 Caching - Kernel maintains cache memory which is region of fast memory that holds copies
of data. Access to the cached copy is more efficient than access to the original.

 Spooling and Device Reservation - A spool is a buffer that holds output for a device, such
as a printer, that cannot accept interleaved data streams. The spooling system copies the
queued spool files to the printer one at a time. In some operating systems, spooling is managed
by a system daemon process. In other operating systems, it is handled by an in kernel thread.

 Error Handling - An operating system that uses protected memory can guard against many
kinds of hardware and application errors.

File system
A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded on secondary storage such
as magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and optical disks. In general, a file is a sequence of bits,
bytes, lines or records whose meaning is defined by the files creator and user.

File Structure
A File Structure should be according to a required format that the operating system can
understand.
 A file has a certain defined structure according to its type.

 A text file is a sequence of characters organized into lines.

 A source file is a sequence of procedures and functions.

 An object file is a sequence of bytes organized into blocks that are understandable by the
machine.
 When an operating system defines different file structures, it also contains the code to
support these file structure. Unix, MS-DOS support minimum number of file structure.
File Type
File type refers to the ability of the operating system to distinguish different types of file
such as text files source files and binary files etc. Many operating systems support many
types of files. Operating system like MS-DOS and UNIX have the following types of files:

Ordinary files
 These are the files that contain user information.
 These may have text, databases or executable program.
 The user can apply various operations on such files like add, modify, delete or even remove
the entire file.

Directory files
 These files contain list of file names and other information related to these files.

Special files
 These files are also known as device files.
 These files represent physical device like disks, terminals, printers, networks, tape drive etc.
These files are of two types:
 Character special files - data is handled character by character as in case of terminals or
printers.
 Block special files - data is handled in blocks as in the case of disks and tapes.

File Access Mechanisms

File access mechanism refers to the manner in which the records of a file may be accessed.
There are several ways to access files:
 Sequential access
 Direct/Random access
 Indexed sequential access

Sequential access
A sequential access is that in which the records are accessed in some sequence, i.e., the
information in the file is processed in order, one record after the other. This access method is
the most primitive one. Example: Compilers usually access files in this fashion.

Direct/Random access
 Random access file organization provides, accessing the records directly.
 Each record has its own address on the file with by the help of which it can be directly
accessed for reading or writing.
 The records need not be in any sequence within the file and they need not be in adjacent
locations on the storage medium.

Indexed sequential access

 This mechanism is built up on base of sequential access.
 An index is created for each file which contains pointers to various blocks.
 Index is searched sequentially and its pointer is used to access the file directly.

Space Allocation
Files are allocated disk spaces by operating system. Operating systems deploy following
three main ways to allocate disk space to files.
 Contiguous Allocation
 Linked Allocation
 Indexed Allocation

Contiguous Allocation
 Each file occupies a contiguous address space on disk.
 Assigned disk address is in linear order.
 Easy to implement.
 External fragmentation is a major issue with this type of allocation technique.

Linked Allocation
 Each file carries a list of links to disk blocks.
 Directory contains link / pointer to first block of a file.
 No external fragmentation
 Effectively used in sequential access file.
 Inefficient in case of direct access file.

Indexed Allocation
 Provides solutions to problems of contiguous and linked allocation.
 An index block is created having all pointers to files.
 Each file has its own index block which stores the addresses of disk space occupied by the
file.
 Directory contains the addresses of index blocks of files.

SECURITY
Security refers to providing a protection system to computer system resources such as CPU,
memory, disk, software programs and most importantly data/information stored in the
computer system. If a computer program is run by an unauthorized user, then he/she may
cause severe damage to computer or data stored in it. So a computer system must be
protected against unauthorized access, malicious access to system memory, viruses, worms
etc. We're going to discuss following topics in this chapter:
 Authentication
 One Time passwords
 Program Threats
 System Threats
 Computer Security Classifications

Authentication
 Authentication refers to identifying each user of the system and associating the executing
programs with those users. It is the responsibility of the Operating System to create a
protection system which ensures that a user who is running a particular program is authentic.
Operating Systems generally identifies/authenticates users using following three ways:
 Username / Password - User need to enter a registered username and password with
Operating system to login into the system.

 User card/key - User need to punch card in card slot, or enter key generated by key
generator in option provided by operating system to login into the system.

 User attribute - fingerprint/ eye retina pattern/ signature - User need to pass his/her
attribute via designated input device used by operating system to login into the system.

One Time passwords

One-time passwords provide additional security along with normal authentication. In One-
Time Password system, a unique password is required every time user tries to login into the
system. Once a one-time password is used, then it cannot be used again. One-time password
are implemented in various ways.
 Random numbers - Users are provided cards having numbers printed along with
corresponding alphabets. System asks for numbers corresponding to few alphabets randomly
chosen.

 Secret key - User are provided a hardware device which can create a secret id mapped with
user id. System asks for such secret id which is to be generated every time prior to login.

 Network password - Some commercial applications send one-time passwords to user on

registered mobile/ email which is required to be entered prior to login.

Program Threats
Operating system's processes and kernel do the designated task as instructed. If a user
program made these process do malicious tasks, then it is known as Program Threats. One
of the common example of program threat is a program installed in a computer which can
store and send user credentials via network to some hacker. Following is the list of some
well-known program threats.
 Trojan Horse - Such program traps user login credentials and stores them to send to
malicious user who can later on login to computer and can access system resources.

 Trap Door - If a program which is designed to work as required, have a security hole in its
code and perform illegal action without knowledge of user then it is called to have a trap
door.

 Logic Bomb - Logic bomb is a situation when a program misbehaves only when certain
conditions met otherwise it works as a genuine program. It is harder to detect.

 Virus - Virus as name suggest can replicate themselves on computer system. They are
 highly dangerous and can modify/delete user files, crash systems. A virus is generally a
small code embedded in a program. As user accesses the program, the virus starts getting
embedded in other files/ programs and can make system unusable for user.

System Threats
System threats refer to misuse of system services and network connections to put user in
trouble. System threats can be used to launch program threats on a complete network called
as program attack. System threats creates such an environment that operating system
resources/ user files are misused. Following is the list of some well-known system threats.
 Worm -Worm is a process which can choked down a system performance by using system
resources to extreme levels. A Worm process generates its multiple copies where each copy
uses system resources, prevents all other processes to get required resources. Worms
processes can even shut down an entire network.

 Port Scanning - Port scanning is a mechanism or means by which a hacker can detects
system vulnerabilities to make an attack on the system.

 Denial of Service - Denial of service attacks normally prevents user to make legitimate use
of the system. For example, a user may not be able to use internet if denial of service attacks
browser's content settings.
Computer Security Classifications
As per the U.S. Department of Defense Trusted Computer System's Evaluation Criteria there
are four security classifications in computer systems: A, B, C, and D. This is widely used
specifications to determine and model the security of systems and of security solutions.
Following is the brief description of each classification.

Classific
S ation Description
. Type
N
.
Highest Level. Uses formal design specifications
1 Type A and verification techniques. Grants a high degree
of assurance of process security.
Provides mandatory protection system. Have all
the properties of a class C2 system. Attaches a
sensitivity label to each object. It is of three types.

 B1 - Maintains the security label of each object in

the system. Label is used for making decisions to
2 Type B access control.

 B2 - Extends the sensitivity labels to each system

resource, such as storage objects, supports
covert channels and auditing of events.
  B3 - Allows creating lists or user groups for
access- control to grant access or revoke access to
a given named object.

Provides protection and user accountability using

audit capabilities. It is of two types.

3 Type C C1 - Incorporates controls so that users can

protect their private information and keep other
users from accidentally reading / deleting their
data. UNIX versions are mostly Cl class.

C2 - Adds an individual-level access control to

the capabilities of a Cl level system
4 Type D Lowest level. Minimum protection. MS-DOS,
Window 3.1 fall in this category.