01

I/O
Buffering
GROUP
Operating Systems
1
BUFFERING

Is a technique that smoothens out peaks in

I/O demands. However, no amount of
buffering will allow an I/O device to keep
pace with a process indefinitely when the
average demand of the process is greater
than the I/O device can service (Stallings,
2018). In order to improve the write
performance, data may be merged in a buffer
before being sent to the next level. This
increases the I/O size and operation
efficiency (Gregg, 2021)
 The following are the major reasons why buffering is
performed (Silberschatz, Galvin, & Gagne, 2018):

1.To cope with a speed mismatch between the

producer and consumer of the data stream;

2.To provide adaptations for devices that

contain different data-transfer sizes; and

3.To support copy semantics for application I/O.

Copy semantics guarantees the version of the data
written to the disk is the same as the version at the
time of the application system call, independent of
any subsequent changes in the application's buffer.
05

| December 2020
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Single
Buffer
. This is the simplest type of
support an operating system can
provide.
When a user process issues an
I/O request, the OS assigns a
buffer in the system portion of
the main memory to the
operation.
FOR BLOCK-ORIENTED DEVICES: INPUT TRANSFERS
ARE MADE TO THE SYSTEM BUFFER. UPON COMPLETING
THE TRANSFER, THE PROCESS MOVES THE BLOCK INTO
USER SPACE AND IMMEDIATELY REQUESTS ANOTHER
BLOCK. THIS PROCESS CAN BE TERMED AS READING
AHEAD (ANTICIPATED INPUT), WHICH IS DONE IN
ANTICIPATION THAT THE BLOCK WILL EVENTUALLY BE
USED

• FOR STREAM-ORIENTED DEVICES: SINGLE BUFFERING

CAN BE USED IN A LINE-AT-ATIME OPERATION WHICH
IS APPROPRIATE FOR SCROLL-MODE TERMINALS, OR IN
A BYTEAT-A-TIME OPERATION WHICH IS USED ON
FORMS- MODE TERMINALS WHERE EACH KEYSTROKE
IS SIGNIFICANT.
07
Double
Buffer
This involves the assignment of two (2) system
buffers to an operation. A process transfers data
to (or from) one (1) buffer while the OS empties
(or fills) the other buffer. This technique is also
known as double buffering or buffer swapping.
The details of the actual process may vary
depending on the manner of data handling
(block-oriented or stream- oriented) of the
device
Circular Buffer
. Utilizing double buffer may be inadequate if the
process performs rapid busts of I/O. In this case,
using more than two (2) buffers can alleviate the
inadequacy. A collection of buffers are called a
circular buffer, where each individual buffer is
treated as one (1) unit.
06

Disk Scheduling and

Cache
WHEN THE DISK DRIVE IS OPERATING, THE DISK IS
ROTATING AT A CONSTANT SPEED. IN ORDER TO READ OR
WRITE, THE HEAD MUST BE POSITIONED AT THE DESIRED
TRACK AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DESIRED SECTOR
ON THE TRACK. TRACK SELECTION IS PERFORMED BY
MOVING THE HEAD IN A MOVING-HEAD SYSTEM OR BY
ELECTRONICALLY SELECTING ONE HEAD ON A FIXED-
HEAD SYSTEM. THE DISK PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS
BELOW ARE INVOLVED IN THE ACTUAL DISK I/O
OPERATIONS (STALLINGS, 2018)
• SEEK TIME – THIS IS THE TIME REQUIRED TO MOVE THE DISK ARM
TO THE REQUIRED TRACK. IT IS COMPOSED OF TWO (2)
COMPONENTS: THE STARTUP TIME AND THE TIME NEEDED TO
TRAVERSE THE TRACKS (NON-LINEAR FUNCTION). A TYPICAL
AVERAGE SEEK TIME ON A CONTEMPORARY HARD DISK IS UNDER 10
MILLISECONDS.

•ROTATIONAL DELAY – THIS IS THE TIME REQUIRED FOR THE

ADDRESSED AREA OF THE DISK TO ROTATE INTO A POSITION WHERE
IT IS ACCESSIBLE BY THE READ/WRITE HEAD. THIS IS ALSO KNOWN
AS ROTATIONAL LATENCY.

• TRANSFER TIME – THIS DEPENDS ON THE ROTATION SPEED OF THE

DISK, WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF BYTES TO BE
TRANSFERRED
(B) DIVIDED BY THE PRODUCT OF THE ROTATION SPEED (R) AND
THE NUMBER OF BYTES ON A TRACK (N).FORMULA: T = B/(RN)
DISK
SCHEDULING
POLICIES
THE MOST COMMON REASON FOR THE DIFFERENCES IN
PERFORMANCE CAN BE LINKED TO THE SEEK TIME. IF A
SECTOR ACCESS REQUESTS INVOLVE RANDOM TRACK
SELECTION, THEN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE DISK I/O
SYSTEM WILL BE POOR. HENCE, THE AVERAGE TIME
SPENT IN MOVING THE DISK ARM TO THE REQUIRED
TRACK MUST BE REDUCED. WITH THIS, VARIOUS DISK
SCHEDULING POLICIES, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS
DISK SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS, ARE DEVELOPED.
 THE PROCESS SELECTION OF THE DISK SCHEDULING POLICIES BELOW
IS BASED ON THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE QUEUE OR THE REQUESTOR
(STALLINGS, 2018):
FIRST-IN FIRST-OUT
(FIFO)
THIS IS THE SIMPLEST FORM OF
SCHEDULING POLICY THAT PROCESSES
ITEMS FROM THE QUEUE IN SEQUENTIAL
ORDER. SINCE EVERY REQUEST IS
ACKNOWLEDGED, THIS TECHNIQUE
GENERALLY ENCOMPASSES FAIRNESS
BETWEEN PROCESSES. IF THERE ARE ONLY
FEW PROCESSES THAT REQUIRE DISK
ACCESS AND MANY OF THE REQUESTS ARE
CLUSTERED TO ACCESS FILE SECTORS,
THEN A GOOD PERFORMANCE CAN BE
EXPECTED. HOWEVER, IF THERE ARE
MANY PROCESSES COMPETING FOR THE
DISK, THIS TECHNIQUE WILL THEN
PERFORM RANDOM SCHEDULING THAT
RESULTS IN POOR PERFORMANCE. THUS,
SELECTING A MORE SOPHISTICATED
SCHEDULING POLICY IS HIGHLY
SUGGESTED.
LAST-IN FIRST-OUT
(LIFO)
IN TRANSACTION-PROCESSING
SYSTEMS, GIVING THE DEVICE TO
THE MOST RECENT USER SHOULD
RESULT IN LITTLE OR NO ARM
MOVEMENT FOR MOVING
THROUGH A SEQUENTIAL FILE.
THIS LOCALITY CAN ACTUALLY
IMPROVE THROUGHPUT AND MAY
REDUCE QUEUE LENGTHS.
HOWEVER, IF THE DISK IS KEPT
BUSY BECAUSE OF A LARGE
WORKLOAD, THERE IS A HIGH
POSSIBILITY OF STARVATION.
• PRIORITY
IN THIS SCHEDULING POLICY, THE
CONTROL OF THE SCHEDULING IS
OUTSIDE THE CONTROL OF THE DISK
MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, WHICH IS
NOT INTENDED TO OPTIMIZE DISK
UTILIZATION BUT TO MEET OTHER
OBJECTIVES WITHIN THE OS. IN MOST
CASES, BATCH AND INTERACTIVE JOBS
ARE GIVEN HIGHER PRIORITY THAN
JOBS THAT REQUIRE LONGER
COMPUTATIONS. THIS ALLOWS SHORT
JOBS TO BE FLUSHED OUT OF THE
SYSTEM RESULTING IN A GOOD
RESPONSE TIME. HOWEVER, LONGER
JOBS MAY HAVE TO WAIT FOR
EXCESSIVELY LONG TIMES. THIS TYPE
OF SCHEDULING POLICY TENDS TO BE
POOR IN PERFORMANCE FOR
DATABASE SYSTEMS.
 THE PROCESS SELECTION OF THE FOLLOWING DISK SCHEDULING
POLICIES IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUESTED ITEM
SHORTEST SERVICE TIME
FIRST (SSTF)
THIS SCHEDULING POLICY SELECTS
THE DISK I/O REQUEST THAT
REQUIRES THE LEAST MOVEMENT
OF THE DISK ARM FROM ITS
CURRENT POSITION. HENCE THE
SELECTION OF REQUESTS THAT
HOLD MINIMAL SEEK TIME. ON THE
OTHER HAND, THIS DOES NOT
GUARANTEE A MINIMAL AVERAGE
SEEK TIME. HOWEVER, THIS POLICY
STILL PROVIDES BETTER
PERFORMANCE THAN FIFO.
SCAN
THIS IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE
ELEVATOR ALGORITHM BECAUSE IT
OPERATES MUCH LIKE AN
ELEVATOR. WITH THIS POLICY, THE
ARM IS REQUIRED TO MOVE IN ONE
(1) DIRECTION ONLY, SATISFYING ALL
OUTSTANDING REQUESTS IN ROUTE,
UNTIL IT REACHES THE LAST TRACK
IN THE DIRECTION OR UNTIL THERE
ARE NO MORE REQUESTS IN THAT
DIRECTION. THEN, THE SERVICE
DIRECTION IS REVERSED AND THE
SCAN PROCEEDS IN THE OPPOSITE
DIRECTION, PICKING UP ALL
REQUESTS IN ORDER.
CIRCULAR SCAN (C-SCAN)
THIS POLICY RESTRICTS
SCANNING TO ONE (1)
DIRECTION ONLY. WHEN THE
LAST TRACK HAS BEEN VISITED
IN ONE DIRECTION, THE ARM IS
RETURNED TO THE OPPOSITE
END OF THE DISK AND THE
SCAN BEGINS AGAIN IN THE
SAME DIRECTION. THIS
REDUCES THE MAXIMUM DELAY
EXPERIENCED BY NEW
REQUESTS
N-STEP SCAN FSCAN

THIS SCHEDULING POLICY THIS POLICY UTILIZES TWO

SEGMENTS THE DISK (2) SUB-QUEUES. INITIALLY,
REQUEST QUEUE INTO SUB- WHEN THE SCAN BEGINS,
QUEUES OF LENGTH N. SUB- ALL REQUESTS ARE PLACED
QUEUES ARE PROCESSED IN ONE OF THE SUB-
ONE QUEUES, WHILE THE OTHER
(1) AT A TIME, USING SCAN. SUB- QUEUE IS EMPTY.
WHILE A QUEUE IS BEING DURING THE SCAN, ALL
PROCESSED, NEW REQUESTS NEW REQUESTS ARE
ARE ADDED TO THE OTHER PLACED INTO THE EMPTY
QUEUE. IF FEWER THAN N SUB- QUEUE. THUS, THE
REQUESTS ARE AVAILABLE SERVICE OF NEW
AT THE END OF A SCAN, REQUESTS IS DEFERRED
THEN ALL OF THEM ARE UNTIL ALL OF THE INITIAL
PROCESSED IN THE NEXT OR OLD REQUESTS HAVE
SCAN. BEEN PROCESSED.
 Redundant array
of independent
disks(RAID)
IS A STANDARDIZED SCHEME FOR MULTIPLE-DISK DATABASE
DESIGN THAT IS COMPOSED OF SEVEN (7) LEVELS, FROM
ZERO
(0) TO SIX (6). WITH THE UTILIZATION OF MULTIPLE DISKS, A
WIDE VARIETY OF WAYS IN WHICH DATA CAN BE ORGANIZED
IS MADE POSSIBLE. IN ADDITION, REDUNDANCY CAN BE
ADDED TO IMPROVE THE RELIABILITY OF DATA. NOTE THAT
THE LEVELS DO NOT IMPLY A HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP
BUT ENCOMPASS DIFFERENT DESIGN ARCHITECTURES THAT
SHARE THREE (3) COMMON CHARACTERISTICS WHICH ARE:
1. IT IS A SET OF 2. DATA ARE 3. REDUNDANT
PHYSICAL DISK DISTRIBUTED DISK CAPACITY
DRIVES VIEWED ACROSS THE IS USED TO
BY THE OS AS A PHYSICAL STORE PARITY
SINGLE LOGICAL DRIVES OF AN INFORMATION,
DRIVEFIFO. ARRAY IN A WHICH
SCHEME KNOWN GUARANTEES
AS STRIPPING. DATA
RECOVERABILITY
IN CASE IF A
DISK FAILURE.
Caches
Are used by operating systems to improve file system read
performance, while their storage is often used as buffers to improve
write performance. Memory allocation performance can also be improved
through caching, since the results of commonly performed operations
may be stored in a local cache for future use (Gregg, 2021). The term
cache memory is used to indicate a memory that is smaller and faster to
access than the main memory. This actually reduces the average memory
access time by exploiting the principles of locality. The same principle can
be applied to disk memory. A disk cache is a buffer in the main memory
for disk sectors
(Stallings, 2018).
THANK
YOU