Operating Systems

Lecture 7

Suad Alaofi 1
Outlines

 Threads
 Threads Uses
 Threads Benefits
 Multicore Processor
 Multithreading Models

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Threads

 A thread is the smallest unit of instructions that can be managed

independently by a scheduler.
 It shares with other threads belonging to the same process its
code section, data section, and other operating-system resources,
such as open files and signals.
 One process may contain multiple threads. So, it can perform
more than one task at a time.
 The process that has one thread called single-threaded process.
 The process that has multiple threads called multithreaded
process
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Single Vs. Multi threaded process

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Threads Uses

 Many software packages that run on modern desktop PCs are

multithreaded.
 Most operating system kernels are now multithreaded; several
threads operate in the kernel, and each thread performs a specific
task.
 Web browser might have one thread display images or text while
another thread retrieves data from the network, for example.
 A word processor may have a thread for responding to keystrokes
from the user, and another thread for performing spelling and
grammar checking in the background.
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Threads Benefits

 1. Responsiveness:
 Multithreading an interactive application may allow a program to
continue running even if part of it is blocked or is performing a
lengthy operation, thereby increasing responsiveness to the user.
 For instance, a multithreaded Web browser can allow user
interaction in one thread while an image is being loaded in
another thread.
 2. Resource sharing:
 Threads share the memory and the resources of the process to
which they belong by default.
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Cont.

 3. Economy:
 Allocating memory and resources for process creation is costly.
 Because threads share the resources of the process to which they
belong, it is more economical to create and context-switch
threads.
 4. Scalability:
 Multithreading on amulti- CPU machine increases parallelism.
 A single-threaded process can only run on one processor,
regardless how many are available.

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Multicore Processor

 Multicore Processor is a processor that has multiple cores on a

single chip. Each of these cores appears as a separate processor to
the operating system.
 Multithreaded programming provides a mechanism for more efficient
use of multiple cores and improved concurrency.
 Concurrency means that the threads can run in parallel, because
the system can assign a separate thread to each core.
 The trend toward multicore systems has placed pressure on system
designers as well as application programmers to make better use of
the multiple computing cores.
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Challenges with multicore systems

 Challenges in programming for multicore systems:

1. Dividing activities
2. Balance
3. Data splitting
4. Data dependency
5. Testing and debugging

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Multithreading Models

 Support for threads may be provided either at the user level, for
user threads, or by the kernel for kernel threads.
 User threads are supported above the kernel and are managed
without kernel support.
 kernel threads are supported and managed directly by the operating
system.
 A relationship must exist between user threads and kernel threads.
 There are three common models of relationships:
1. Many-to-One Model
2. One-to-One Model
3. Many-to-Many Model 10
Many-to-One Model

 The many-to-one model maps

many user-level threads to one
kernel thread.
 Because only one thread can
access the kernel at a time,
multiple threads are unable to run
in parallel on multiprocessors

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One-to-One Model

 The one-to-one model maps each user

thread to a kernel thread.
 It provides more concurrency than the
many-to-one model by allows multiple
threads to run in parallel on
multiprocessors.
 The drawback to this model is the overhead
of creating kernel threads can reduce the
performance of an application.
 The number of user threads is restricted.
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Many-to-Many Model

 The many-to-many model multiplexes many

user-level threads to a smaller or equal
number of kernel threads.
 Developers can create as many user threads
as necessary,
 and the corresponding kernel threads can run
in parallel on a multiprocessor.

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