MODERN OPERATING SYSTEMS

Third Edition

ANDREW S. TANENBAUM

Chapter 2
Processes and Threads

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 The Process Model

Figure 2-1. (a) Multiprogramming of four programs. (b) Conceptual

model of four independent, sequential processes. (c) Only
one program is active at once.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Process Creation

Events which cause process creation:

• System initialization.
• Execution of a process creation system call by a
running process.
• A user request to create a new process.
• Initiation of a batch job.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Process Termination

Events which cause process termination:

• Normal exit (voluntary).

• Error exit (voluntary).
• Fatal error (involuntary).
• Killed by another process (involuntary).

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Process States

Figure 2-2. A process can be in running, blocked, or ready state.

Transitions between these states are as shown.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Implementation of Processes (1)

Figure 2-3. The lowest layer of a process-structured operating

system handles interrupts and scheduling. Above that layer
are sequential processes.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Implementation of Processes (2)

Figure 2-4. Some of the fields of a typical process table entry.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Implementation of Processes (3)

Figure 2-5. Skeleton of what the lowest level of the operating

system does when an interrupt occurs.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Modeling Multiprogramming

Figure 2-6. CPU utilization as a function of the number of

processes in memory.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Thread Usage (1)

Figure 2-7. A word processor with three threads.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Thread Usage (2)

Figure 2-8. A multithreaded Web server.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Thread Usage (3)

Figure 2-9. A rough outline of the code for Fig. 2-8. (a) Dispatcher
thread. (b) Worker thread.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Thread Usage (4)

Figure 2-10. Three ways to construct a server.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 The Classical Thread Model (1)

Figure 2-11. (a) Three processes each with one thread. (b) One
process with three threads.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 The Classical Thread Model (2)

Figure 2-12. The first column lists some items shared by all
threads in a process. The second one lists some items private
to each thread.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 The Classical Thread Model (3)

Figure 2-13. Each thread has its own stack.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 POSIX Threads (1)

Figure 2-14. Some of the Pthreads function calls.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 POSIX Threads (2)

...
Figure 2-15. An example program using threads.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Implementing Threads in User Space

Figure 2-16. (a) A user-level threads package. (b) A threads

package managed by the kernel.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Hybrid Implementations

Figure 2-17. Multiplexing user-level threads

onto kernel-level threads.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Pop-Up Threads

Figure 2-18. Creation of a new thread when a message arrives.

(a) Before the message arrives.
(b) After the message arrives.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Making Single-Threaded Code
Multithreaded (1)

Figure 2-19. Conflicts between threads

over the use of a global variable.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Making Single-Threaded Code
Multithreaded (2)

Figure 2-20. Threads can have private global variables.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Race Conditions

Figure 2-21. Two processes want to access

shared memory at the same time.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Critical Regions (1)

Conditions required to avoid race condition:

• No two processes may be simultaneously inside their

critical regions.
• No assumptions may be made about speeds or the
number of CPUs.
• No process running outside its critical region may
block other processes.
• No process should have to wait forever to enter its
critical region.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Critical Regions (2)

Figure 2-22. Mutual exclusion using critical regions.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
Mutual Exclusion with Busy Waiting

Proposals for achieving mutual exclusion:

• Disabling interrupts
• Lock variables
• Strict alternation
• Peterson's solution
• The TSL instruction

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Strict Alternation

; ;

Figure 2-23. A proposed solution to the critical region problem.

(a) Process 0. (b) Process 1. In both cases, be sure to note
the semicolons terminating the while statements.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Peterson's Solution

Figure 2-24. Peterson’s solution for achieving mutual exclusion.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 The TSL Instruction (1)

Figure 2-25. Entering and leaving a critical region

using the TSL instruction.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 The TSL Instruction (2)

Figure 2-26. Entering and leaving a critical region

using the XCHG instruction.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
The Producer-Consumer Problem

...
Figure 2-27. The producer-consumer problem
with a fatal race condition.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Semaphores

...
Figure 2-28. The producer-consumer problem using semaphores.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Mutexes

Figure 2-29. Implementation of mutex lock and mutex unlock.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Mutexes in Pthreads (1)

Figure 2-30. Some of the Pthreads calls relating to mutexes.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Mutexes in Pthreads (2)

Figure 2-31. Some of the Pthreads calls relating

to condition variables.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Mutexes in Pthreads (3)

...
Figure 2-32. Using threads to solve
the producer-consumer problem.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Monitors (1)

Figure 2-33. A monitor.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Monitors (2)

Figure 2-34. An outline of the producer-consumer problem with

monitors.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Message Passing (1)

...
Figure 2-35. A solution to the producer-consumer
problem in Java.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Message Passing (2)
...

...
Figure 2-35. A solution to the producer-consumer
problem in Java.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Message Passing (3)
...

Figure 2-35. A solution to the producer-consumer

problem in Java.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Producer-Consumer Problem
with Message Passing (1)

...
Figure 2-36. The producer-consumer problem with N messages.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Producer-Consumer Problem
with Message Passing (2)
...

Figure 2-36. The producer-consumer problem with N messages.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Barriers

Figure 2-37. Use of a barrier. (a) Processes approaching a barrier.

(b) All processes but one blocked at the barrier. (c) When the
last process arrives at the barrier, all of them are let through.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Scheduling – Process Behavior

Figure 2-38. Bursts of CPU usage alternate with periods of waiting

for I/O. (a) A CPU-bound process. (b) An I/O-bound process.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
Categories of Scheduling Algorithms

• Batch
• Interactive
• Real time

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Scheduling Algorithm Goals

Figure 2-39. Some goals of the scheduling algorithm under

different circumstances.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Scheduling in Batch Systems

• First-come first-served
• Shortest job first
• Shortest remaining Time next

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Shortest Job First

Figure 2-40. An example of shortest job first scheduling.

(a) Running four jobs in the original order. (b) Running them
in shortest job first order.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
Scheduling in Interactive Systems

• Round-robin scheduling
• Priority scheduling
• Multiple queues
• Shortest process next
• Guaranteed scheduling
• Lottery scheduling
• Fair-share scheduling

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Round-Robin Scheduling

Figure 2-41. Round-robin scheduling.

(a) The list of runnable processes. (b) The list of runnable
processes after B uses up its quantum.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Priority Scheduling

Figure 2-42. A scheduling algorithm with four priority classes.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Thread Scheduling (1)

Figure 2-43. (a) Possible scheduling of user-level threads with a

50-msec process quantum and threads that run 5 msec per
CPU burst.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Thread Scheduling (2)

Figure 2-43. (b) Possible scheduling of kernel-level threads with

the same characteristics as (a).
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Dining Philosophers Problem (1)

Figure 2-44. Lunch time in the Philosophy Department.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Dining Philosophers Problem (2)

Figure 2-45. A nonsolution to the dining philosophers problem.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Dining Philosophers Problem (3)

...
Figure 2-46. A solution to the dining philosophers problem.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Dining Philosophers Problem (4)

...

...

Figure 2-46. A solution to the dining philosophers problem.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
 Dining Philosophers Problem (5)
...

Figure 2-46. A solution to the dining philosophers problem.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
The Readers and Writers Problem (1)

...
Figure 2-47. A solution to the readers and writers problem.
Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639
The Readers and Writers Problem (2)

...

Figure 2-47. A solution to the readers and writers problem.

Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems 3 e, (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. 0-13-6006639