Princess Nora University

Computer Sciences Department

Operating Systems

CS 340 T

1 Level 3 (IT) + Level 4 (IS) + Level 5 (CS)

 Chapter-2
Process Concept

Introduction
Chapter 2: Process-Concept

1. Process Concept
2. Process Scheduling
3. Inter-process Communication

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Process Concept

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OBJECTIVES:

 To introduce the notion of a process

 To describe the various features of processes, including

scheduling, creation and termination, and communication

 To explore interprocess communication using shared memory

and message passing

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Process Concept

 System consists of a collection of processes:

 Operating system processes executing system code

 User processes executing user code

 The terms job and process are used almost

interchangeably, and both refer to the same meaning:

=
( a program that is loaded into memory
and in execution)
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Process Concept (cont..)
 Program : is a collection of instruction in a code manner ,
which is sometimes known as the text section.
 Program = passive entity
 Process = Active entity
 Process : is more general than program as it includes more
details such as :

o Textsection
o Program counter
o Process Stack
o Data section
o Current activity
o Heap
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 The Process (cont..)
contains temporary data (such as function
parameters, return addresses, and local
variables

The current activity: the value of the program

counter & contents of the processor’s registers.

is memory that is dynamically allocated

during process run time.

which contains global variables.

which is program code .

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Process State

 As a process executes, it changes state

 New: the process is being created

 Running: instructions are being executed
 Waiting: the process is waiting for some event to occur
(e.g. An I/O completion).
 Ready: the process is waiting to be assigned to a processor
 Terminated: the process has finished execution

 Only one process can be running on any processor at any

instant. Many processes may be ready and waiting.

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Diagram of Process State

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Process Control Block (PCB)
 Each process is represented in the operating system by a
process control block (PCB)

 PCB contains many information including :

Process state
Program counter
CPU registers
CPU scheduling information
Memory-management information
Accounting information:
I/O status information
Values of program counter & CPU registers must be
saved when an interrupt occurs to allow the process
to be continued correctly afterward
e.g. a process priority
Memory allocated to a process
e.g . when the process was last run, how much
CPU time it has used
It includes the list of I/O devices allocated to
the process, a list of open files….etc .

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Process Control Block (PCB) (cont..)

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CPU Switch From Process to Process
Time

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Process Scheduling

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Process Scheduling

 Multiprogramming aims to have some process running at all

times to maximize CPU utilization.

 Time sharing aims to switch the CPU among processes so

frequently user interact with each program while it is running.

 Process scheduler selects one process (from a set of several

available processes in RAM) for execution on the CPU.

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Process Scheduling
 Scheduler: it is an operating system module that responsible
of selecting process(/es).
Short-term
scheduler
(CPU scheduler/
process scheduler)

Long-term
Schedulers scheduler
(job scheduler )

Medium Term
Scheduling

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Process Scheduling Queues

 Job queue – set of all processes in the system

 Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory,

ready and waiting to execute
 This queue is generally stored as a linked list.

 Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device

 Each device has its own device queue

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Process Scheduling Queues (cont.)

 Processes migrate among the various queues:

 A new process is initially put in the ready queue.

 It waits there until it is selected for execution.
 Once the process is allocated the CPU and is executing, one
of several events could occur:

The process could The process could The process could be

issue an I/O request create a new sub- removed forcibly from
and then be placed in process and wait for the CPU as a result of
an I/O queue. the sub-process’s an interrupt, and be
termination put back in the ready
queue.
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Process Scheduling Queues (cont.)

 A process continues this cycle until it terminates, at which

time it is removed from all queues and has its PCB and
resources deallocated.

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Representation of Process Scheduling

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Queuing diagram
Schedulers

 The operating system must select processes scheduling for these

queues.
 The selection process is carried out by the appropriate scheduler.

 Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which

processes should be brought from mass-storage into RAM (to the
ready queue )
 Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which
process (from ready queue) should be executed next and allocates
CPU

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Schedulers

 Short-term scheduler is invoked very frequently (milliseconds)

 (must be fast)

 Long-term scheduler is invoked very infrequently (seconds,

minutes)  (may be slow)
Number of
processes in RAM
 The long-term scheduler:
controls the degree of multiprogramming

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Schedulers (Cont)

 Processes can be described as either:

I/O-bound process CPU-bound process

– spends more time doing I/O – spends more time doing

than computations, many short computations; few very long
CPU burst CPU burst.

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Schedulers (Cont)

 The long-term scheduler must select a good process mix of I/O-

bound and CPU-bound processes to improve total
performance.

If all processes are I/O bound If all processes are CPU bound
• the ready queue will almost • the I/O waiting queue will
always be empty, almost always be empty,
• the short-term scheduler will • devices will go unused….
have little to do… • (minimize devices utilization)
• .(minimize CPU utilization)

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Schedulers (Cont)
1. Medium Term Scheduling
 Sometimes it can be advantageous to remove processes
from RAM …….(swap out)
 Later, the process can be reintroduced into RAM
…….(swap in), and its execution can be continued where it
left off.
 This scheme is called swapping. ( done by medium-term
scheduler)
 Swapping may be necessary to:
 Improve the process mix
 Or because a change in memory requirements has
exceeded available memory (i.e. memory is almost full)
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Schedulers (Cont)

2. Addition of Medium Term Scheduling

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Context Switch

 Context Switch Time:

Is amount of time needed by OS to switch CPU from one process to another

 When CPU switches to another process, the system must save the state of
the old process and load the saved state for the new process via a context
switch
 Context of a process represented in the PCB
 Context-switch time is overhead; the system does no useful work while
switching
 Time dependent on hardware support

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Operation on Processes
 OS provide mechanisms for
 process creation,
 process termination

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Process Creation
 Parent process create children processes, which, in turn
create other processes, forming a tree of processes
 Generally, process identified and managed via a process
identifier (pid)
 Resources sharing options
 Parent and children share all resources
 Children share subset of parent’s resources
 Parent and child share no resources
 Execution options
 Parent and children execute concurrently
 Parent waits until children terminate

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Process Termination
 Process executes last statement and then asks the
operating system to delete it.
 Returns status value (integer) from child to parent
 Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system
 Parent may terminate the execution of children
processes. Some reasons for doing so:
 Child has exceeded allocated resources
 Task assigned to child is no longer required
 The parent is exiting and the operating systems does not allow
a child to continue if its parent terminates

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Interprocess Communication

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Interprocess Communication

Processes within a system may be

independent cooperating
Cannot affect or be affected by Can affect or be affected by the
the execution of another execution of another process
process.

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Interprocess Communication

 Reasons (/advantages) for cooperating processes:

1. Information sharing : (e.g. shared file)

2. Computation speedup:
 To make a particular task run faster, we must break it into
subtasks, each of which will be executing in parallel with the
others.
 This can be achieved only if the computer has multiple
processing elements (e.g. CPUs).

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Interprocess Communication

 Reasons (/advantages) for cooperating processes:

3. Modularity:

 We may want to construct the system in a modular fashion

(i.e. dividing the system functions into separate processes)

4. Convenience
 An individual user may work on many tasks at the same
time.

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Interprocess Communication (Cont.)

 Cooperating processes need interprocess

communication (IPC)

 IPC: mechanism that will allow cooperating processes to

exchange data and information.

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 Interprocess Communication (Cont.)

 Two models of IPC: process can exchange information by

Shared memory: Message passing

• reading and writing data to
the shared region.
• Shared memory is faster than
message passing ….
• Because message passing
systems requires more system
calls (interrupts) .
• By messages exchanged
between the cooperating
processes.
• Useful for exchanging
smaller amounts of data,
because no conflicts need be
avoided.
• Easier to implement than
shared memory .

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Communications Models

Message passing model Shared memory model

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Thank you
End of Chapter 2