Chapter 4: Threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Thread
 A lightweight process
 A flow of execution through the process code
 It comprises a thread ID, a PC, a register set, a stack
 Shares code section, data section, other OS resources

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Single and Multithreaded Processes

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Motivation
 Threads run within an application
 Multiple tasks with the application can be implemented by
separate threads
 Update display
 Fetch data
 Spell checking
 Answer a network request
 Process creation is heavy-weight while thread creation is light-
weight
 Can simplify code, increase efficiency
 Kernels are generally multithreaded

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Benefits

 Responsiveness

 Resource Sharing

 Economy

 Scalability

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multicore Programming
 Multicore systems putting pressure on programmers -
Challenges include:
 Dividing activities
 Balance
 Data splitting
 Data dependency
 Testing and debugging

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Concurrent Execution on a
Single-core System

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Parallel Execution on a
Multicore System

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 User Threads
 Thread management done by user-level threads library
 Three primary thread libraries:
 POSIX Pthreads
 Win32 threads
 Java threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Kernel Threads
 Supported by the Kernel

 Examples
 Windows XP/2000
 Solaris
 Linux
 Tru64 UNIX
 Mac OS X

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multithreading Models
 Many-to-One
 One-to-One
 Many-to-Many

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Many-to-One
 Many user-level threads mapped to single kernel thread

 Examples:
 Solaris Green Threads
 GNU Portable Threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Many-to-One Model

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 One-to-One
 Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread

 Examples
 Windows NT/XP/2000
 Linux
 Solaris 9 and later

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 One-to-one Model

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Many-to-Many Model

 Allows many user level threads to be mapped to many

kernel threads
 Allows the operating system to create a sufficient number
of kernel threads
 Solaris prior to version 9

 Windows NT/2000 with the ThreadFiber package

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Many-to-Many Model

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Two-level Model

 Similar to M:M, except that it allows a user thread to be

bound to kernel thread
 Examples
 IRIX
 HP-UX
 Tru64 UNIX
 Solaris 8 and earlier

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Two-level Model

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Thread Libraries
 Thread library provides programmer with API for creating
and managing threads
 Two primary ways of implementing
 Library entirely in user space
 Kernel-level library supported by the OS

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Pthreads
 May be provided either as user-level or kernel-level

 A POSIX standard (IEEE 1003.1c) API for thread creation

and synchronization
 API specifies behavior of the thread library, implementation
is up to development of the library
 Common in UNIX operating systems (Solaris, Linux, Mac
OS X)

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Pthreads Example

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Pthreads Example (Cont.)

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 End of Chapter 4

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009