Unit 02

Processes and CPU Scheduling

 Process
• A program in execution is called a process.
• A Program does nothing unless its instructions are executed by
a CPU.
• Program is a passive entity.
• process is an active entity.
• In order to accomplish its task, process needs the computer
resources(CPU,memory,IO).
• There may exist more than one process in the system which
may require the same resource at the same time.
• Therefore, the operating system has to manage all the
processes and the resources in a convenient and efficient way.
 Process
• Some resources may need to be executed by one
process at one time to maintain the consistency
otherwise the system can become inconsistent and
deadlock may occur.
• The operating system is responsible for Process
Management……………
• Creating and deleting both user and system processes.
• Scheduling processes and threads on the CPUs.
• Suspending and resuming processes.
• Providing mechanisms for process synchronization.
• Providing mechanisms for process communication.
Process Architecture
 Process Architecture

• Stack
contains the temporary data such as method/function
parameters, return address and local variables.
• Heap
This is dynamically allocated memory to a process during its
run time.
• Text
This includes the value of Program Counter and the
contents of the processor's registers.
• Data
This section contains the global and static variables.
Process Life Cycle
• New: This is the initial state when a process is first
started/created.
• Ready: In a ready state, the process should be
loaded into the primary memory, which is ready for
execution.
• Waiting: The process is waiting for the allocation of
CPU time and other resources for execution.
• Running: The process is an execution state.
• Terminated: Terminated state specifies the time
when a process is terminated
• After completing every step, all the resources are used by
a process, and memory becomes free.
 Process Control Block(PCB)

• Every process is represented in the operating

system by a process control block, which is also
called a task control block/ process descriptor.
• A process control block (PCB) is a data structure
used by computer operating systems to store all the
information about a process.
• When a process is created the operating system
creates a corresponding process control block.
Process Control Block (PCB)
• Process ID:
This shows the id/number of the particular process.
• Process State:
This specifies the process state i.e. new, ready,
running, waiting or terminated.
• Program Counter:
This contains the address of the next instruction that
needs to be executed in the process.
• Registers:
This specifies the registers that are used by the
process. They may include accumulators, index
registers, stack pointers, general purpose registers
etc.
• CPU Scheduling Information:
The process priority, pointers to scheduling queues
etc.
• Memory Management Information:
• includes the page tables or the segment tables
depending on the memory system used.
• Accounting information:
• The time limits, amount of CPU used, process
numbers etc.
• I/O Status Information:
• This information includes the list of I/O devices
used by the process, the list of files etc.
 Process Scheduling
• Multiprogramming: maximum CPU utilization
• Time sharing: minimize response time.
• The process scheduler selects an available
process for program execution on the CPU.
• The act of determining which process is in
the ready state, and which process should be
moved to the running state is known
as Process Scheduling.
 Scheduling Queue
• All processes, upon entering into the system,
are stored in the Job Queue.
• Processes in the Ready state are placed in
the Ready Queue.
• Processes waiting for a device to become
available are placed in Device Queues. There
are unique device queues available for each
I/O device.
Queuing diagram representation of process scheduling
• Queues are stored as a linked list.

• Ready queue header contains pointer to the

first and final PCB in the list.

• Each PCB includes a pointer field that points to

next PCB in ready queue.
 Process Life Cycle

Suspend ready

Suspend wait
 Schedulers

• Schedulers are special system software which handle

process scheduling in various ways.
• Their main task of scheduler is
• select the process
• submitted into the system
• 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.
• 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.
 Short Term Scheduler

• It is also called as CPU scheduler.

• Its main objective is to increase system performance 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.
 Medium Term Scheduler

• It is process swapping scheduler.

• It removes the processes from the memory.
• A running process may become suspended if it makes
an I/O request. A suspended processes 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 is called swapping, and the process is said to be
swapped out or rolled out.
 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.
• Context switching is an essential part of a
multitasking operating system features.
When the process is
switched,,,,,,,,,,
Program Counter
Scheduling information
register value
Changed State
I/O State information
Accounting information
 Operation on process
Process Creation
• A process may create several new processes, via
a create-process system call, during the course
of execution.
• The creating process is called a parent process,
and the new processes are called the children
of that process.
• Each of these new processes may in turn create
other processes, forming a tree of processes.
• When a process creates a new process, two
possibilities exist in terms of execution:
1. The parent continues to execute concurrently with its
children.
2. The parent waits until some or all of its children have
terminated.
For example, suppose the parent is to execute c=a+b;
while the child has to execute a=e+f;
Now, the parent can not proceed until the value of ‘a’
is calculated by the child.
resources allocation:
Children may have all resources of parent process.
Subset or part of resources of parent process.
• There are also two possibilities in terms of the
address space of the new process:
1. The child process is a duplicate of the parent
process (it has the same program and data as the
parent).
Program to be executed and data is required.
2. The child process has a new program loaded into it.
When the fork() call is used and child is created successfully,
the id of child process will be returned to parent process
and 0 will be returned to the child process.
main()
{
Fork();
printf(“hello”);
}

Output:
hello
hello
 Operation on process
Process termination
• A process terminates when it finishes executing its final
statement and asks the operating system to delete it by
using the exit () system call.
• At that point, the process may return a status value
(typically an integer) to its parent process (via the wait()
system call).
• All the resources of the process—including physical and
virtual memory, open files, and I/O buffers—are
deallocated by the operating system.
• Termination can occur in other circumstances
as well.
• A process can cause the termination of another
process via an appropriate system call.
• Usually, such a system call can be invoked only
by the parent of the process that is to be
terminated.
• Otherwise users could arbitrarily kill each
others job.
• A parent may terminate the execution of one of its
children for a variety of reasons:
• The child has exceeded its usage of some of the
resources that it has been allocated.
• The task assigned to the child is no longer required.
(If parent doesn’t required that task)
• The parent is exiting, and the operating system
does not allow a child to continue if its parent
terminates.
 Cooperating Process

• Cooperating processes are those that can

affect or are affected by other processes
running on the system.
• Cooperating processes may share data with
each other.
 Reasons for cooperating processes

• Modularity:
dividing complicated tasks into smaller subtasks.
leads to faster and more efficient completion.
• Information Sharing:
access to the same files.
processes can access the files in parallel to each
other.
• Computation Speedup:
Subtasks of a single task can be performed in
parallel .
increases the computation speedup .
• Convenience:
individual user may work on many tasks at
the same time.
For instance, a user may be editing, printing,
and compiling in parallel.
 Methods of Cooperation

• Cooperating processes require an interprocess

communication (IPC) mechanism that will
allow them to exchange data and information.
(1) shared memory.
(2) message passing.