2/23/24, 7:45 AM Operating System - Process Scheduling

Operating System - Process Scheduling

Definition
The process scheduling is the activity of the process manager that handles the removal
of the running process from the CPU and the selection of another process on the basis
of a particular strategy.

Process scheduling is an essential part of a Multiprogramming operating systems. Such

operating systems allow more than one process to be loaded into the executable
memory at a time and the loaded process shares the CPU using time multiplexing.

Categories of Scheduling
There are two categories of scheduling:

. Non-preemptive: Here the resource can’t be taken from a process until the process
completes execution. The switching of resources occurs when the running process
terminates and moves to a waiting state.
. Preemptive: Here the OS allocates the resources to a process for a fixed amount of
time. During resource allocation, the process switches from running state to ready state
or from waiting state to ready state. This switching occurs as the CPU may give priority
to other processes and replace the process with higher priority with the running
process.

Process Scheduling Queues

The OS maintains all Process Control Blocks (PCBs) in Process Scheduling Queues. The
OS maintains a separate queue for each of the process states and PCBs of all processes
in the same execution state are placed in the same queue. When the state of a process
is changed, its PCB is unlinked from its current queue and moved to its new state
queue.

The Operating System maintains the following important process scheduling queues −

Job queue − This queue keeps all the processes in the system.

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Ready queue − This queue keeps a set of all processes residing in main memory,
ready and waiting to execute. A new process is always put in this queue.
Device queues − The processes which are blocked due to unavailability of an I/O
device constitute this queue.

The OS can use different policies to manage each queue (FIFO, Round Robin, Priority,
etc.). The OS scheduler determines how to move processes between the ready and run
queues which can only have one entry per processor core on the system; in the above
diagram, it has been merged with the CPU.

Two-State Process Model

Two-state process model refers to running and non-running states which are described
below −

Schedulers
Schedulers are special system software which handle process scheduling in various
ways. Their main task is to select the jobs to be submitted into the system and to
decide which process to run. Schedulers are of three types −

Long-Term Scheduler

Short-Term Scheduler
Medium-Term Scheduler

Long Term Scheduler

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It is also called a job scheduler. A long-term scheduler determines which programs

are admitted to the system for processing. It selects processes from the queue and
loads them into memory for execution. Process loads into the memory for CPU
scheduling.

The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of jobs, such as
I/O bound and processor bound. It also controls the degree of multiprogramming. If the
degree of multiprogramming is stable, then the average rate of process creation must
be equal to the average departure rate of processes leaving the system.

On some systems, the long-term scheduler may not be available or minimal. Time-
sharing operating systems have no long term scheduler. When a process changes the
state from new to ready, then there is use of long-term scheduler.

Short Term Scheduler

It is also called as CPU scheduler. Its main objective is to increase system
performance in accordance with the chosen set of criteria. It is the change of ready
state to running state of the process. CPU scheduler selects a process among the
processes that are ready to execute and allocates CPU to one of them.

Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers, make the decision of which process
to execute next. Short-term schedulers are faster than long-term schedulers.

Medium Term Scheduler

Medium-term scheduling is a part of swapping. It removes the processes from the
memory. It reduces the degree of multiprogramming. The medium-term scheduler is
in-charge of handling the swapped out-processes.

A running process may become suspended if it makes an I/O request. A suspended

processes cannot make any progress towards completion. In this condition, to remove
the process from memory and make space for other processes, the suspended process
is moved to the secondary storage. This process is called swapping, and the process is
said to be swapped out or rolled out. Swapping may be necessary to improve the
process mix.

Comparison among Scheduler

Context Switching
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A context switching is the mechanism to store and restore the state or context of a CPU
in Process Control block so that a process execution can be resumed from the same
point at a later time. Using this technique, a context switcher enables multiple
processes to share a single CPU. Context switching is an essential part of a multitasking
operating system features.

When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to execute another,
the state from the current running process is stored into the process control block.
After this, the state for the process to run next is loaded from its own PCB and used to
set the PC, registers, etc. At that point, the second process can start executing.

Context switches are computationally intensive since register and memory state must
be saved and restored. To avoid the amount of context switching time, some hardware
systems employ two or more sets of processor registers. When the process is switched,
the following information is stored for later use.

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Program Counter

Scheduling information

Base and limit register value

Currently used register

Changed State

I/O State information

Accounting information

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