Chapter : Processes

Chapter : Processes

 Process Concept

 Process Scheduling

 Operations on Processes
 Process
Program: Passive entity
 Process is instance of a program under executing
 Process – a program in execution
– Active Entity b/c it has Program Counter
associated to it.

 Process execution must progress in sequential manner

 A process includes:
 program counter
 stack
 data section
 Process
 A process has text section/ code section.

 It also includes the current activity, as represented by the value of

the program counter and the contents of the processor’s
registers.

 A process also includes the process stack, which contains:

 temporary data (such as function parameters, return
addresses, and local variables)
 data section, which contains global variables.

 A process may also include a heap, which is memory that is

dynamically allocated during process run time.
 Process
 A program is a passive entity, such as a file containing a list
of instructions stored on disk.

 A process is an active entity with a program counter

specifying the next instruction to execute and a set of
associated resources.
 Process States
 As a process executes, it changes state
 new: The process is being created
 ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a
processor and is ready to get executed
 running: Instructions are being executed
 waiting: The process is waiting for some event
to occur/ waiting for resources
 terminated: The process has finished execution
Process States
 Process Control Block (PCB)
Process Control Block (PCB, also called Task Controlling
Block) is a data structure in the operating system kernel
containing the information needed to manage a particular
process.

The PCB is "the manifestation of a process in an operating

system".
 Process Control Block (PCB)
Information associated with each process:
1. Process State- new, ready….etc.
2. Pointer- to the parent process
3. Program Counter- next instruction to be executed.
4. Process Number- Unique identification number in OS
5. CPU Registers- Various CPU registers where process
need to be stored for execution for running state.
6. CPU Scheduling Information- Process Priority and other
info. required for scheduling
 Process Control Block (PCB)
7. Memory-Management Information- Registers, Page
tables (where process is saved)used by OS

8. Accounting Information- For how long CPU and other

resources are allocated to process

9. I/O Status Information- List of devices allocated to the

process
Process Control Block (PCB)
 Context Switch
When CPU switches
to another process,
the system must
save the state of
the old process in
the stack and load
the saved state for
the new process or
reload the state of
current process
from stack.
 Context Switch
 Switching the CPU to another process requires saving the
state of the old process and loading the saved state for the
new process. This task is known as a context switch.
 The context of a process is represented in the Process
Control Block(PCB) of a process;
 it includes the value of the CPU registers, the process state
and memory-management information.
 When a context switch occurs, the Kernel saves the context
of the old process in its PCB and loads the saved context of
the new process scheduled to run.
 Context Switch
 Context switch time is pure overhead, because the system
does no useful work while switching.
 Its speed varies from machine to machine, depending on the
memory speed, the number of registers that must be copied,
and the existence of special instructions(such as a single
instruction to load or store all registers).
 Typical speeds range from 1 to 1000 microseconds.
 Context Switch
 Context switching is expensive:
 Direct Cost: No. of cycles for load and store instructions
 Indirect Cost: When process run a lot of its data is stored on
processor cache.
Processes has hierarchy of caches from L1, L2… which is Big but
slower than the upper in the hierarchy.
-> When one process is running its data is stored in cache, after CPU
switched to other process P2, data of P1 is replaced with data of P2,
but when P1 will be reloaded its data is no longer present in cache,
data will be read from memory that lead to cache miss (data required
for process not found in cache).

Must limit the frequency of context switching.

CPU Switch From Process to Process
 Scheduling Queues
 The activity of determining which process in the ready
state should be moved to the running state is known as
Process Scheduling.

 The prime aim of the process scheduling system is:

 To keep the CPU busy all the time and to deliver
minimum response time for all programs.
 For achieving this, the scheduler must apply
appropriate rules for swapping processes.
 Scheduling Queues
Schedulers fall into one of the two general categories:

 Non pre-emptive scheduling: When the currently

executing process gives up the CPU voluntarily.
 Pre-emptive scheduling: When the operating system
decides to favor another process, pre-empting the
currently executing process.
 Scheduling Queues
 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.
 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.
 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.
Process Scheduling Queues
 Ready Queue And Various I/O Device Queues

Ready Queue is implemented using Linked List

Representation of Process Scheduling

Queuing Diagram
 Schedulers
 Schedulers are special system software which handle
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 / Job Scheduler
 It determines which processes are admitted to the
system for processing.
 Selects processes from pool (disk) and bring them into the
ready queue
 It selects processes from the queue and loads them
into memory for execution.
 When a process changes the state from new to ready, then
there is use of long-term scheduler.
 It controls Degree of Multiprogramming (DoM)
 DoM: The degree of multiprogramming describes the maximum
number of processes that a single-processor system can
accommodate efficiently.
 Long Term Scheduler / Job Scheduler
The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a
balanced mix of jobs, such as I/O bound and processor
(CPU) bound.
 I/O BOUND: that spends its more time in doing I/O than
computations.

 CPU BOUND: that spends its more time doing computations.

 LTS selects a good process.

 Good Process: (I/O Bound + CPU Bound)

 Short-Term Scheduler (CPU
Scheduler)
 Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers.
 Selects which process should be executed next among the
processes and allocates CPU to one of them.
(From Ready Queue Selects one process for execution and
Allocate CPU (Running Queue))

 It must select process for CPU execution frequently.

 Short-term schedulers are faster than long-term
schedulers.
 Medium Term Scheduling
 Medium-term scheduling is a part of swapping.
 Reduces DOM(Degree of Multiprogramming)
 Processes are created and stored in Main Memory by
Long Term Scheduler, But these processes has to wait for
their turn to get execute.
 In Main Memory only those processes are kept that
require execution.
 When ready queue is empty,

MTS Swap-In and Swap-Out the processes from Main

Memory and Secondary Memory.
 Ready + Running + Waiting Queues are in Main Memory
Medium Term Scheduling
 MCQ
1. CPU performance is measured
through ________.
 a. Throughput
 b. MHz
 c. Flaps
 d. None of the above
 MCQ
1. a
 MCQ

2. Which of the following is a criterion to evaluate a

scheduling algorithm?
a. CPU Utilization: Keep CPU utilization as high as
possible
b. Throughput: number of processes completed per
unit time
c. Waiting Time: Amount of time spent ready to run
but not running
d. All of the above
 MCQ
2. d
 MCQ
3. _________ does the job of allocating a
process to the processor.
a. Long term scheduler
b. Short term scheduler
c. Medium term scheduler
d. Dispatcher
 MCQ
3. d
 MCQ

4. In the multi-programming environment, the

main memory consisting of _________
number of process.
a. Greater than 100
b. Only one
c. Greater than 50
d. More than one
 MCQ
4.d
 MCQ

5. CPU Scheduling is the basis of

_________ operating system.
a. Batch
b. Real time
c. Multiprogramming
d. Mono programming
 MCQ
5c
 MCQ

6. ________ scheduler selects the jobs from the

pool of jobs and loads into the ready queue.
a. Long term
b. Short term
c. Medium term
d. None of the above
 MCQ
6. a
 MCQ

7. Saving the state of the old process and

loading the saved state of the new process
is called ________.
a. Context Switch
b. State
c. Multi programming
d. None of the above
e. PCB
 MCQ
7. a
 Operations on Process

 1. Process Creation

 2. Process Termination
 Process Creation
 Parent process create children processes, which, in turn
create other processes, forming a tree of processes
 The process which creates other process, is termed the
parent of the other process, while the created sub-
process is termed its child.
 Each process is given an integer identifier, termed as
process identifier, or PID. The parent PID (PPID) is also
stored for each process.
 Process Creation (Cont.)
 Resource sharing
 Parent and children share all resources
 Children share subset of parent’s resources
 Parent and child share no resources
 Execution Sequence
 Parent and children execute concurrently
 Parent waits until children terminate
 Process Creation (Cont.)
 Address Space
Address space may refer to a range of either physical or virtual addresses
accessible to a processor or reserved for a process.
 Child process is duplicate of parent process (same program
and data
 Child process has new program loaded into it

 Each process is identified by its process identifier

 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
 fork()
 System call fork() is used to create processes.

 It takes no arguments and returns a process ID.

 The purpose of fork() is to create a new process,

which becomes the child process of the caller.

 After a new child process is

created, both processes will execute the next
instruction following the fork() system call.
This can be done by testing the returned value of fork():

 If fork() returns a negative value, the creation of

a child process was unsuccessful.
 fork() returns a zero to the newly created child
process.
 fork() returns a positive value, the process ID of
the child process, to the parent.
 Process Creation
 There are two options for the parent process after creating the
child :
1. Wait for the child process to terminate before proceeding.
 Parent process makes a wait() system call, for either a
specific child process or for any particular child process,
which causes the parent process to block until the wait()
returns.
2. Run concurrently with the child, continuing to process
without waiting.
There are also two possibilities in terms of the address space of
the new process:
 The child process is a duplicate of the parent process.
 The child process has a program loaded into it.
 Process Termination
 Process executes last statement and asks the operating system to
terminate it (by using exit() system call)
 Output data from child to parent (via wait)
 Process’ resources are de-allocated by operating system
 Parent may terminate execution of children processes (abort)

Why?
 Child has exceeded allocated resources
 Task assigned to child is no longer required
 If parent is exiting/Terminated
 Some operating system do not allow child to continue if its
parent terminates
– All children terminated - cascading termination
 Process Termination
 Processes may also be terminated by the system for a variety
of reasons,
 The inability of the system to deliver the necessary system
resources.
 In response to a KILL command or other unhandled process
interrupts.
 A parent may kill its children if the task assigned to them is
no longer needed.
 If the parent does not exit, the system may or may not allow
the child to continue without a parent (orphaned processes
are generally inherited by init, which then proceeds to kill
them.)
 Process Termination
 When a process ends, all of its system resources are freed
up. The process termination status and execution times are
returned to the parent if the parent is waiting for the child to
terminate,
or eventually returned to init if the process already became an
orphan.
 The processes which are trying to terminate but cannot do so
because their parent is not waiting for them are termed
zombies. These are eventually inherited by init process as
orphans and killed off.
 MCQ
 Restricting the child process to a subset of the parent’s
resources prevents any process from :
 a) overloading the system by using a lot of secondary storage
 b) under-loading the system by very less CPU utilization
 c) overloading the system by creating a lot of sub-processes
 d) crashing the system by utilizing multiple resources
 MCQ
 c
 MCQ
 A parent process calling _____ system call will be suspended
until children processes terminate.
 a) wait
 b) fork
 c) exit
 d) exec
 MCQ
 a
 MCQ
 Cascading termination refers to termination of all child
processes before the parent terminates ______
 a) Normally
 b) Abnormally
 c) Normally or abnormally
 d) None of the mentioned
 MCQ
 a
 MCQ
 With _____________ only one process can execute at a time;
meanwhile all other process are waiting for the processor. With
______________ more than one process can be running
simultaneously each on a different processor.
 a) Multiprocessing, Multiprogramming
 b) Multiprogramming, Uniprocessing
 c) Multiprogramming, Multiprocessing
 d) Uniprogramming, Multiprocessing
 MCQ
 d
 MCQ
 In UNIX, each process is identified by its :
 a) Process Control Block
 b) Device Queue
 c) Process Identifier
 d) None of the the mentioned
 MCQ
 c
 MCQ
 In UNIX, the return value for the fork system call is _____ for the
child process and _____ for the parent process.
 a) A Negative integer, Zero
 b) Zero, A Negative integer
 c) Zero, A nonzero integer
 d) A nonzero integer, Zero
 MCQ
 c
 MCQ
 The child process can :
 a) be a duplicate of the parent process
 b) never be a duplicate of the parent process
 c) cannot have another program loaded into it
 d) never have another program loaded into it
 MCQ
 a
 MCQ
 aa