Process

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Process Concept

• An operating system executes a variety of programs

• batch systems - jobs

• time-shared systems - user programs or tasks
• Job, task and program used interchangeably

• Process - a program in execution

• process execution proceeds in a sequential fashion

• A process contains

• program counter, stack and data section

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 Process vs Program
• program is a group of instructions to carry out a specified task.
• A program is a passive entity, for example, a file accommodating a group of
instructions to be executed (executable file).
• Program is stored on disk in some file and does not require any other
resources.
• When a program is executed, it is known as process.
• It is considered as an active entity and realizes the actions specified in a
program.
• Process holds resources such as CPU, memory address, disk, I/O etc.
• Multiple processes can be related to the same program. It handles the
operating system activities through PCB (Process control Block) which
includes program counter, stack, state etc
• A web browser launches multiple processes, e.g., one per tab 3
• Text section is made up of the compiled
program code, read in from non-volatile
storage when the program is launched.
• The Data section is made up the global
and static variables, allocated and
initialized prior to executing the main.
• The Heap is used for the dynamic
memory allocation, and is managed via
calls to new, delete, malloc, free, etc.
Process in Memory
• The Stack is used for local variables.
Space on the stack is reserved for local
variables when they are declared.

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The Process Model

Figure 3-1. (a) Multiprogramming of four programs. (b) Conceptual model of four
independent, sequential processes. (c) Only one program is active at once.

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• Conceptually, every process has its own virtual CPU but in reality CPU switches back
and forth from process to process.
• This Rapid switching back and forth is called "Multi-Programming.“
Multi-Programming
• In this there is 4 program in memory. We have single shared processor by all programs.
• There is only one program counter all programs in memory. In this program counter is
initialized to execute the part of program A then with the help of process switch it transfer
control to program B and execute some part of this.
• After that program counter for program C is active and execute some part of it and so
onto program D. Then all the steps continuous may be randomly with the help of process
switches until all program is not completed.
One Program At One Time
• At any given instant only one process run and other process after some interval of time.
• In other point of view all processes progress but only process actually runs at given
instant of time.
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 Process States

Three-state process model is constituted of READY, RUNNING & WAITING.

Running: the process is currently executed by the CPU
Blocked: the process is waiting for a resource to come available
Ready: the process is ready to be selected.

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Five state process models

Figure 3-2. five-state Process State Transition Diagram

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New : The process is being created.

Running : Instructions are being executed.

Waiting : Waiting for some event to occur(such as an I/O completion or

reception of a signal).

Ready : Waiting to be assigned to a processor.

Terminated : Process has finished execution.

• Preemptive scheduling allows a running process to be interrupted by a high

priority process.

• Non-preemptive scheduling, any new process has to wait until the

running process finishes its CPU cycle.

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Process suspension
• Many OS are built around (Ready, Running, Blocked) states. But there is
one more state that may aid in the operation of an OS - suspended state.
• When none of the processes occupying the main memory is in a Ready state,
OS swaps one of the blocked processes out onto to the Suspend queue.

Suspend ready: A process in the ready state, which is moved to secondary

memory from the main memory due to lack of the resources (mainly primary
memory) is called in the suspend ready state.
Suspend wait: Instead of removing the process from the ready queue, it's better
to remove the blocked process which is waiting for some resources in the main
memory.

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Process State Transition Diagram

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Process Control Block(PCB)

• Each process is represented in the

operating system by a process control
block (PCB)-also called a task control
block.
• Process State - e.g. new, ready,
running etc.
• Process Number – Process ID
• Program Counter - address of next
instruction to be executed
Figure 3.3. Process control block
(PCB).

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 CPU registers - general purpose registers, index registers, stack pointer
etc.
 CPU scheduling information - This information includes a process
priority, pointers to scheduling queues, and any other scheduling
parameters.
 Memory Management information - This information may include such
information as the value of the base and limit registers, the page tables, or
the segment tables, depending on the memory system used by the
operating system.
 Accounting information - This information includes the amount of CPU
and real time used, time limits, account numbers, job or process numbers,
and so on.
 I/O Status information - This information includes the list of I/O devices
allocated to the process, a list of open files, and so on. 13
Process Creation
Events which cause process creation:

• Initialization of operating system

• A user request to create a new process

• Initiation of a batch job

• Parent process create children process

• Address space

• Resource sharing

• Parent and child share no resources

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Process Hierarchy
• Modern general purpose operating system used to create and destroy
processes. A process may create several new processes during its time of
execution.
• The creating process is called "Parent Process", while new processes are called
"Child Processes".

There are different possibilities concerning creating new processes:-

Execution: The parent process continues to execute concurrently with its children
processes or it waits until all of its children processes have terminated
(sequentially).
Sharing: Either the parent and children processes share all resources (like
memory or files) or the children processes share only a subset of their parent's
resources or the parent and children process share number of resources in
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common.
A parent process can terminate equation of one of its children for one of these
reasons:
• The child process has exceeded its usage of the resources it has been allocated.
For this a mechanism must be available to allow the parent process inspect the state
of its children process.
• Task assigned to child process is no longer required.

In unix this is done by the

'Fork' system call, which creates
a 'child' process and the 'exit
system call', which terminates
current process.

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Process Termination
Events which cause process termination:

• Normal exit (voluntary).

• Error exit (voluntary).

• Fatal error (involuntary).

• Killed by another process (involuntary).

• When a process is terminated, the resources that were being utilized

by the process are released by the operating system.

• When a child process terminates, it sends the status information back

to the parent process before terminating.

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Implementation of Processes

• Process Model is implemented by Process Table and Process Control

Block which keep track all information of process.
• At the time of creation of a new process, operating system allocates a
memory for it loads a process code in the allocated memory and setup data
space for it .
• The state of process is stored as ' new ' in its PCB and when this process
move to ready state its state is also changes in PCB.
• When a running process needs to wait for an input output devices, its state is
changed to 'blocked'. The various queues used for this which is implemented
as linked list.

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There are many following queues:
• Read Queue: This queue is used for storing the processes with state ready .
• Blocked Queue: it is used for storing the processes but need to wait for an
input output device or resource.
• Suspended Queue: It is used for storing the blocked process that have been
suspended.
• Free process Queue: it is used for the information of empty space in the
memory where a new PCB can be created.

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Figure. Some of the fields of a typical process-table entry.

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Implementation of Processes

Figure 3-5. Skeleton of what the lowest level of the operating system does
when an interrupt occurs.

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