Process Concept &

Scheduling
Swati Mali
Nirmala Shinde Baloorkar
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Engineering
 Outline

• Basic Terminology
• Process
Basic Terminologies &
Definitions
 Task

• A task is a unit of assigned work. It can also be defined as the unit of

programming controlled by an operating system (OS). Depending on
the OS design, the task may involve one or more processes.
• E.g.
• Download a file from the internet
• Bake a cake
 Program

• A program is a sequence of instructions written to accomplish a task.

• A program may comprise one or more processes depending on the
statement being executed.
• It is generally referred to as a passive entity that does not perform any
action until it is executed.
• E.g.
• A particular recipe given in a book
• A web application developed
 Job

• A job is a unit of work submitted by a user to the system.

• A job may be interactive or a batch job, which may in turn consist of
one or more processes.
• E.g.
• A user submitting a print job to a printer
• Executing a scheduled task to back up files
 Process and Thread

• A process is an instance of a • A thread is the unit of execution

program in execution. within a process.
• It is a basic unit of work that can • A process can have anywhere
be scheduled and executed by the from just one thread to many
operating system. threads.
 Process Mode

A process can execute in either user mode or kernel mode, with the
processor switching between these modes depending on the code being
executed.
• User Mode: The process runs with limited privileges, typically to
prevent it from performing harmful operations.
• Kernel Mode: The process runs with full access to all system resources
and hardware, necessary for performing critical tasks.
• E.g.: Typing / Editing document
 Process Context
• When a running process is taken away from the processor, certain
information about its state needs to be saved to allow it to resume execution
later.
• The process context includes:
• address space,
• stack space,
• virtual address space,
• register set image i.e. Program Counter, Stack Pointer, Program Status Word,
Instruction Register and other general processor registers,
• accounting information,
• associated kernel data structures and
• current state of the process (waiting, ready, etc).
 Event

• An activity that is happens or is expected to happen.

• Generally this a software message exchanged when the activity occurs.
• In operating systems, the events may cause the processes to change
their state.
• e.g. mouse click, file lock reset, etc.

• Check- event viewer in windows OS

 Process Concept

• Process priority:
• In a multiprogramming system, the processes are assigned numerical
privileged values indicating their relative importance and/or urgency and/or
value.
• Preemptive:
• Preemption is the ability of the system to take over a currently executing
process by another one (possibly with high privileged one) with an intention to
resume the preempted process later on.
• Non-preemptive:
• Non-preemptive entities are the one those cannot be taken over by other
entities
Process
 Process Component

• The program code, also called text section

• Current activity including program counter, registers
• Stack containing temporary data
• Function parameters, return addresses, local variables
• Data section containing global variables
• Heap containing memory dynamically allocated during run time
 Process in Memory

• Program is passive entity,

process is active
• Program becomes process
when executable file loaded
into memory
 Process Control Block (PCB)

• Information associated with each process (also called task control

block)
• Repository of any information related to Process.
• PCB components:
• Identifiers
• Processor State Information
• Process Control Information

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 Process Control
Block (PCB)
• Process Identifier/Number - An
identifier that helps us
in identifying and locating a process.
• Process state –It identifies the state
that the process is currently in. It
could be running, waiting, etc
• Program counter – address of the
next instruction to be executed for this
process.

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 Process Control
Block (PCB)
CPU registers –
• contents of all process-centric
registers,
• Registers may vary in
number and type depending
on system architecture.

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 Process Control
Block (PCB)
CPU scheduling information-
• Process priorities,
• scheduling queue pointers,
• any other scheduling
parameters.

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 Process Control
Block (PCB)
Memory-management
information –
• memory allocated to the
process,
• value of the Base and limit
registers,
• the page tables or segment
tables.

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 Process Control
Block (PCB)
Accounting information –
• CPU used,
• clock time elapsed since
start, time limits,
• job or process numbers

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 Process Control
Block (PCB)
I/O status information –
• list of I/O devices
allocated to process,
• list of open files

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 Process State
As a process executes, it changes state
• New
• When process creation is taking place, the process is in a new state.
• Ready
• During this state, the process is loaded into the main memory and will be placed in
the queue of processes which are waiting for the CPU allocation.
• Running
• Instruction is being executed.
• waiting
• The process is waiting for some event to occur (such as an I/O completion)
• Terminated
• The process has finished execution.
 Process state transition

• A state transition for process is defined as a change in its state.

• The state transition occurs in response to some event in the computing
system.
• E.g. Two State Model - State transition diagram
Two State Model – Queuing Diagram
Five State Model
Five State Model

• Need of swapping (Suspend State)

• because blocked processes hog up the main memory.
• Swap them out from main memory to disk.
• There are two independent concepts
• whether a process is waiting on an event (blocked or not),
• whether a process has been swapped out of main memory (suspended or not)
7-state process model
9-state process model
 State Transition
State transition Description
Null🡪 New A new process is created to execute a program.
New🡪 ready The OS may move a process from New to Ready state depending
on the predefined maximum number of processes allowed
(Degree of multiprogramming).
Ready🡪 The process is scheduled by dispatcher. The CPU starts or
Running resumes execution of the instruction codes
Blocked 🡪 The request initiated by process is satisfied or the event on which
Ready it is waiting occurs.
 State Transition (cont…)
State transition Description
Running 🡪 The process is preempted by the OS decides to execute some
Ready other process. This transition takes place may be because of
expiration of time quantum or arrival of high priority
process.
Running 🡪 The running process makes request for resource(s) or needs
Blocked some event to occur to proceed further. The process then
calls for a system call to indicate its wish to wait till the
resource or the event becomes available.
Running🡪 The program execution is completed or terminated.
Termination
 State Transition (cont…)
State transition Description
Running 🡪 The running process makes request for resource(s) or needs
Blocked some event to occur to proceed further. The process then calls
for a system call to indicate its wish to wait till the resource or
the event becomes available.
Running 🡪 The program execution is completed or terminated.
Termination
 Causes of process initiation

• Interactive logon: when a user logs into the system, a new process is
created.
• Created by OS to provide some service: The OS initiates a process
to perform the service requested by user directly or indirectly, without
making the user to wait.
• Spawned by an existing process: To support Modularity and/or
parallelism, a user program can create some number of new processes.
• Program Execution: Whenever you open an application, the OS
creates a process to run it
 How the OS creates a process?

1. Create a process
2. Assign a unique process ID to newly created process
3. Allocate the memory and create its process image
4. Initialize process control block
5. Set the appropriate linkages to the different data structures such as
ready queue etc.
6. Create or expand the other data structures if required
 Causes of process blocking

• Process requests an I/O operation

• Process requests memory or some other resource
• Process wishes to wait for a specific interval of time
• Process waits for message from some other process
• Process wishes to wait for some action to be performed by another
process.
 Causes of process termination

• Normal Completion: The process executes an OS system call to

intimate that it has completed its execution.
• Self termination (e.g. incorrect file access privileges, inconsistent
data)
• Termination by the parent process: a parent process calls a system
call to kill/terminate its child process when the execution of child
process is no longer necessary.
• Exceeding resource utilization: An OS may terminate a process if it
is holding resources more than it is allowed to. This step can also be
taken as part of deadlock recovery procedure.
 Causes of process termination (cont…)

• Abnormal conditions during execution: the OS may terminate a

process if an abnormal condition occurs during the program execution.
(e.g. memory protection violation, arithmetic overflow etc)
• Deadlock detection and recovery
 Process Creation in UNIX

• One process can create another process, perhaps to do some work for
it.
• The original process is called the parent
• The new process is called the child
• The child is an (almost) identical copy of parent (same code, same data, etc.)
• The parent can either wait for the child to complete, or continue executing in
parallel (concurrently) with the child
 Process Creation in UNIX (cont…)

• In UNIX, a process creates a child process using the system call fork( )
• Negative: A child process could not be successfully created if
the fork() returns a negative value.
• Zero: A new child process is successfully created if the fork() returns a zero.
• Positive: The positive value is the process ID of a child's process to the parent.
The process ID is the type of pid_t that is defined in OS or sys/types.h.
• Child often uses exec( ) to start another completely different program
Fork()
Example - Process Creation
 System Calls for Process Management
Sr System Call Description
No
1 fork() This system calls creates a new process.
2 exec() This call is used to execute a new program on a process.
3 wait() This call makes a process wait until some event occurs.

4 exit() This call makes a process to terminate

5 getpid() This system call helps to get the identifier associated with the process.
6 getppid() This system call helps to get the identifier associated with the parent process.
7 nice() The current process priority can be changed with execution of this system call.
8 brk() This call helps to increase or decrease the data segment size of the process.
9 Kill() The forced termination of any process can be executed with this system call.

10 Signal() This system call is invoked for sending and receiving software interrupts
 Context Switch

• Stopping one process and starting another is called a context switch

• When the OS stops a process, it stores the hardware registers (PC, SP,
etc.) and any other state information in that process’ PCB
• When OS is ready to execute a waiting process, it loads the hardware
registers (PC, SP, etc.) with the values stored in the new process’ PCB,
and restores any other state information
 Process context switch Vs mode switch

• Context Switch:
• Execution of a process is stopped to respond an interrupt.
• Needs to save Process Image of one process and load process image of the
new process loaded.
• The processes are switched and processes keep on changing their status as
Running and Not running.
• Mode switch:
• Every process may switch in between a low privileged user mode and high
privileged kernel mode in its lifetime.
• Process continues to execute even after mode switches.
 CPU Switch From Process to Process

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 Fundamental kernel functions of process control

• Context save: Save information concerning an

executing process when its execution gets
suspended
• Scheduling: Choose the process as per the
scheduling policy to be executed next on the
CPU.
• Dispatching: Set up execution of the chosen
process on the CPU.
 Fundamental kernel functions of process control

• Occurrence of the event calls the context save functionality and an

appropriate event handling procedure.
• Event handling may initiate some processes, hence the scheduling
function gets invoked to choose the process and in turn,
• The dispatching function transfers control to the new process.
 Control/Data structures maintained by OS to
manage processes
• Memory Tables
• I/O Tables
• File Tables
• Process table
 Control structures maintained by OS to manage
processes
• Memory Tables:
• Memory tables keep track of both main and secondary memory.
• Active processes are stored in main memory and when required, they are
moved to secondary memory through the mechanism called ‘swapping’.
• The memory tables maintain the following information:
• The main memory allocation to all processes in system
• The secondary memory allocation to all processes in system
• Shared memory regions in main and virtual memory and their attributes
• Miscellaneous information required to manage virtual memory.
 Control structures maintained by OS to manage
processes
• I/O Tables:
• I/O tables keep track of I/O devices and channels in the computing system.
• The I/O devices are also resources required by processes.
• So at any given instance, I/O devices may be available or allocated to a
particular process.
 Control structures maintained by OS to manage
processes
• File Tables:
• File tables keeps track of;
• all files,
• their locations on secondary memory,
• their current statuses and
• other attributes such security, sharing, etc.
• Most of the operating systems, this information is maintained by a module
called File Management System.
 Control structures maintained by OS to manage
processes
• Process table:
• Process tables manage processes.
• They maintain information of:
• processes,
• their child process references,
• statuses,
• allocated resources,
• process contexts,
• information required for process synchronization and so on.
• These pieces of information are stored in process images.
 Different interaction mechanisms used by processes
Interaction Description
Mechanism
Data Sharing The processes interact with each other by altering data values. If more than one
processes update the data the same time, they may leave the shared in inconsistent
state. So, shared data items are protected against simultaneous access to avoid such
situation.
Message Passing In this mechanism, the processes exchange information by sending messages to
each other.
Synchronization In certain computing environments, the processes are required to execute their
actions in some particular order. To help this happen, the processes synchronize
with each other to maintain their relative timings and execute in the desired
sequence.
Signals The processes may wait for events to occur. It can be intimated to processes through
the signaling mechanism.
Question ?