CS162

Operating Systems and

Systems Programming
Lecture 3

Concurrency:
Processes, Threads, and Address Spaces

September 7, 2005
Prof. John Kubiatowicz
http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs162
 Review: History of OS
• Why Study?
– To understand how user needs and hardware constraints
influenced (and will influence) operating systems
• Several Distinct Phases:
– Hardware Expensive, Humans Cheap
» Eniac, … Multics
– Hardware Cheaper, Humans Expensive
» PCs, Workstations, Rise of GUIs
– Hardware Really Cheap, Humans Really Expensive
» Ubiquitous devices, Widespread networking
• Rapid Change in Hardware Leads to changing OS
– Batch  Multiprogramming  Timeshare  Graphical UI
 Ubiquitous Devices  Cyberspace/Metaverse/??
– Gradual Migration of Features into Smaller Machines
• Situation today is much like the late 60s
– Small OS: 100K lines/Large: 10M lines (5M browser!)
– 100-1000 people-years
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 Review: Migration of OS Concepts and Features

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 Review: Implementation Issues
(How is the OS implemented?)
• Policy vs. Mechanism
– Policy: What do you want to do?
– Mechanism: How are you going to do it?
– Should be separated, since policies change
• Algorithms used
– Linear, Tree-based, Log Structured, etc…
• Event models used
– threads vs event loops
• Backward compatability issues
– Very important for Windows 2000
– POSIX tries to help here
• System generation/configuration
– How to make generic OS fit on specific hardware

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 Goals for Today

• How do we provide multiprogramming?

• What are Processes?
• How are they related to Threads and Address
Spaces?

Note: Some slides and/or pictures in the following are

adapted from slides ©2005 Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne

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 Concurrency

• “Thread” of execution
– Independent Fetch/Decode/Execute loop
– Operating in some Address space
• Uniprogramming: one thread at a time
– MS/DOS, early Macintosh, Batch processing
– Easier for operating system builder
– Get rid concurrency by defining it away
– Does this make sense for personal computers?
• Multiprogramming: more than one thread at a time
– MULTIX, UNIX, OS/2, Windows NT/2000/XP
– Often called “multitasking”, but multitasking has
other meanings (talk about this later)

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 The Basic Problem of Concurrency

• The basic problem of concurrency involves resources:

– Hardware: single CPU, single DRAM, single I/O devices
– Multiprogramming API: users think they have exclusive
access to machine
• OS Has to coordinate all activity
– Multiple users, I/O interrupts, …
– How can keep this straight?
• Basic Idea: Use Virtual Machine abstraction
– Decompose hard problem into simpler ones
– Abstract the notion of an executing program
– Then, worry about multiplexing these abstract machines

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 Recall (61C): What happens during execution?

Addr 232-1
R0
… …
R31
Fetch Data1
F0
… Exec Data0
F30 Inst237
PC Inst236
…
• Execution sequence: Inst5
Inst4
– Fetch Instruction at PC
Inst3 PC
– Decode
Inst2 PC
– Execute (possibly using registers) Inst1 PC
– Write Results to registers Inst0 PC
– PC = Next Instruction(PC)
Addr 0
– Repeat
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 How can we give the illusion of multiple processors?

CPU1 CPU2 CPU3

CPU1 CPU2 CPU3 CPU1 CPU2

Shared Memory Time

• How do we provide the illusion of multiple processors?
– Multiplex in time!
• Each virtual “CPU” needs a structure to hold:
– Program Counter (PC)
– Registers (Integer, Floating point, others…?)
• How switch from one CPU to the next?
– Save PC and registers in current state block
– Load PC and registers from new state block
• What triggers switch?
– Timer, voluntary yield, I/O, other things
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 Properties of this simple multiprogramming technique

• All virtual CPUs share same non-CPU resources

– I/O devices the same
– Memory the same
• Consequence of sharing:
– Each thread can access the data of every other
thread (good for sharing, bad for protection)
– Threads can share instructions
(good for sharing, bad for protection)
– Can threads overwrite OS functions?
• This (unprotected) model common in:
– Embedded applications
– Windows 3.1/Machintosh (switch only with yield)
– Windows 95/ME? (switch with both yield and timer)

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 Modern Technique: SMT/Hyperthreading
• Hardware technique
– Exploit natural properties
of superscalar processors
to provide illusion of
multiple processors
– Higher utilization of
processor resources
• Can schedule each thread
as if were separate CPU
– However, not linear
speedup!
– If have multiprocessor,
should schedule each
processor first
• Original technique called “Simultaneous Multithreading”
– See http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/smt/
– Alpha, SPARC, Pentium 4 (“Hyperthreading”), Power 5
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 How to protect threads from one another?

• Need three important things:

– Protection of memory
» Every task does not have access to all memory
– Protection of I/O devices
» Every task does not have access to every device
– Preemptive switching from task to task
» Use of timer
» Must not be possible to disable timer from usercode

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 Recall: Program’s Address Space

• Address space  the set of

accessible addresses + state
associated with them:

Program Address Space

– For a 32-bit processor there are
232 = 4 billion addresses
• What happens when you read or
write to an address?
– Perhaps Nothing
– Perhaps acts like regular memory
– Perhaps ignores writes
– Perhaps causes I/O operation
» (Memory-mapped I/O)
– Perhaps causes exception (fault)

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 Providing Illusion of Separate Address Space:
Load new Translation Map on Switch
Data 2
Code Code
Stack 1
Data Data
Heap 1
Heap Heap
Code 1
Stack Stack
Stack 2
Prog 1 Prog 2
Data 1
Virtual Virtual
Address Heap 2 Address
Space 1 Space 2
Code 2

OS code

Translation Map 1 OS data Translation Map 2

OS heap &
Stacks

Physical Address Space

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 Administriva: Time for Project Signup
• Project Signup:
– Only submit once per group!
– Everyone in group must have logged into their cs162-xx
accounts before you register the group
– Make sure that you select at least 2 potential sections
– Due date: Today by 11:59pm
• Will have sections assigned by end of week
– Go to new sections next week!
Section Time Location TA
310 Hearst
101 Tu 1:00-2:00P Dominic
Mining
102 W 10:00-11:00A 2 Evans Rajesh
103 W 11:00-12:00P 85 Evans Rajesh
104 W 1:00-2:00P 85 Evans Chris
105 W 2:00-3:00P 85 Evans Chris
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 Administrivia (2)

• Cs162-xx accounts:
– Make sure you got an account form
– If you haven’t logged in yet, you need to do so
• Email addresses
– We need an email address from you
– If you haven’t given us one already, you should get
prompted when you log in again
• Nachos readers:
– Available from Northside Copy Central
– Includes printouts of all of the code
• Next Week: Start Project 1
– Go to Nachos page and start reading up

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 Traditional UNIX Process

• Process: Operating system abstraction to

represent what is needed to run a single program
– Often called a “HeavyWeight Process”
– Formally: a sequential stream of execution in its
own address space
• Two parts:
– Sequential Program Execution Stream
» Code executed as a single, sequential stream of
execution
» Includes State of CPU registers
– Protected Resources:
» Main Memory State (contents of Address Space)
» I/O state (i.e. file descriptors)
• Important: There is no concurrency in a
heavyweight process

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 How do we multiplex processes?
• The current state of process held in a
process control block (PCB):
– This is a “snapshot” of the execution and
protection environment
– Only one PCB active at a time
• Give out CPU time to different
processes (Scheduling):
– Only one process “running” at a time
– Give more time to important processes
• Give pieces of resources to different
processes (Protection):
– Controlled access to non-CPU resources
– Sample mechanisms:
» Memory Mapping: Give each process their
PCB
own address space
» Kernel/User duality: Arbitrary
multiplexing of I/O through system calls
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 CPU Switch From Process to Process

• This is also called a “context switch”

• Code executed in kernel above is overhead
– Overhead sets minimum practical switching time
– Less overhead with SMT/hyperthreading, but…
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contention forKubiatowicz
resources instead
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 Diagram of Process State

• As a process executes, it changes state

– new: The process is being created
– running: Instructions are being executed
– waiting: Process waiting for some event to occur
– ready: The process is waiting to run
– terminated: The process has finished execution
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 Process Scheduling

• PCBs move from queue to queue as they change state

– Decisions about which order to remove from queues are
Scheduling decisions
– Many algorithms possible (few weeks from now)
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 What does it take to create a process?

• Must construct new PCB

– Inexpensive
• Must set up new page tables for address space
– More expensive
• Copy data from parent process? (Unix fork() )
– Semantics of Unix fork() are that the child
process gets a complete copy of the parent
memory and I/O state
– Originally very expensive
– Much less expensive with “copy on write”
• Copy I/O state (file handles, etc)
– Medium expense

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 Process =? Program
main () main () Heap
{ {
…; …;
} } Stack

A() { A() { A
… … main

} Program } Process
• More to a process than just a program:
– Program is just part of the process state
– I run emacs on lectures.txt, you run it on
homework.java – Same program, different processes
• Less to a process than a program:
– A program can invoke more than one process
– cc starts up cpp, cc1, cc2, ld, etc
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 Multiple Processes to Contribute on Task

Proc 1 Proc 2 Proc 3

• High Creation/memory Overhead

• (Relatively) High Context-Switch Overhead
• Need Communication mechanism:
– Separate Address Spaces Isolates Processes
– Shared-Memory Mapping
» Accomplished by mapping addresses to common DRAM
» Read and Write through memory
– Message Passing
» send() and receive() messages
» Works across network
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 Shared Memory Communication

Data 2
Code Code
Stack 1
Data Data
Heap 1
Heap Heap
Code 1 Stack
Stack
Stack 2 Shared
Shared
Data 1
Prog 1 Prog 2
Heap 2 Virtual
Virtual
Address Code 2 Address
Space 1 Space 2
Shared
• Communication occurs by “simply” reading/writing
to shared address page
– Really low overhead communication
– Introduces complex synchronization problems
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 Inter-process Communication (IPC)

• Mechanism for processes to communicate and to

synchronize their actions
• Message system – processes communicate with
each other without resorting to shared variables
• IPC facility provides two operations:
– send(message) – message size fixed or variable
– receive(message)
• If P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:
– establish a communication link between them
– exchange messages via send/receive
• Implementation of communication link
– physical (e.g., shared memory, hardware bus)
– logical (e.g., logical properties)
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 Modern “Lightweight” Process with Threads

• Thread: a sequential execution stream within process

(Sometimes called a “Lightweight process”)
– Process still contains a single Address Space
– No protection between threads
• Multithreading: a single program made up of a
number of different concurrent activities
– Sometimes called multitasking, as in Ada…
• Why separate the concept of a thread from that of
a process?
– Discuss the “thread” part of a process (concurrency)
– Separate from the “address space” (Protection)
– Heavyweight Process  Process with one thread

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 Single and Multithreaded Processes

• Threads encapsulate concurrency

– “Active” component of a process
• Address spaces encapsulate protection
– Keeps buggy program from trashing the system
– “Passive” component of a process
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 Examples of multithreaded programs
• Embedded systems
– Elevators, Planes, Mecical systems, Wristwatches
– Single Program, concurrent operations
• Most modern OS kernel
– Internally concurrent because have to deal with
concurrent requests by multiple users
– But no protection needed within kernel
• Database Servers
– Access to shared data by many concurrent users
– Also background utility processing must be done

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 Examples of multithreaded programs (con’t)

• Network Servers
– Concurrent requests from network
– Again, single program, multiple concurrent operations
– File server, Web server, and airline reservation
systems
• Parallel Programming (More than one physical CPU)
– Split program into multiple threads for parallelism
– This is called Multiprocessing

• Some multiprocessors are actually uniprogrammed:

– Multiple threads in one address space but one program
at a time

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 Thread State

• State shared by all threads in process/addr space

– Contents of memory (global variables, heap)
– I/O state (file system, network connections, etc)
• State “private” to each thread
– Kept in TCB  Thread Control Block
– CPU registers (including, program counter)
– Execution stack – what is this?

• Execution Stack
– Parameters, Temporary variables
– return PCs are kept while called procedures are
executing

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 Execution Stack Example

A: tmp=1
A(int tmp) { ret=exit
if (tmp<2)
B: ret=A+2
B();
printf(tmp); C: ret=b+1

} A: tmp=2
B() { Stack ret=C+1
Pointer
C();
} Stack Growth

C() {
• Stack holds temporary results
A(2);
• Permits recursive execution
}
• Crucial to modern languages
A(1);

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 Classification

spaces:
# of addr
One Many
# threads
Per AS:

MS/DOS, early
One Traditional UNIX
Macintosh
Embedded systems Mach, OS/2, Linux
(Geoworks, VxWorks, Windows 95???
Many JavaOS,etc)
Win NT to XP,
JavaOS, Pilot(PC) Solaris, HP-UX, OS X
• Real operating systems have either
– One or many address spaces
– One or many threads per address space
• Did Windows 95/98/ME have real memory protection?
– No: Users could overwrite process tables/System DLLs
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 Example: Implementation Java OS
• Many threads, one Address Space
• Why another OS?
Java OS
– Recommended Minimum memory sizes:
Structure
» UNIX + X Windows: 32MB
» Windows 98: 16-32MB
» Windows NT: 32-64MB Java APPS
» Windows 2000/XP: 64-128MB
– What if want a cheap network OS
point-of-sale computer?
» Say need 1000 terminals Hardware
» Want < 8MB
• What language to write this OS in?
– C/C++/ASM? Not terribly high-level.
Hard to debug.
– Java/Lisp? Not quite sufficient – need
direct access to HW/memory management
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 Summary
• Processes have two parts
– Threads (Concurrency)
– Address Spaces (Protection)
• Concurrency accomplished by multiplexing CPU Time:
– Unloading current thread (PC, registers)
– Loading new thread (PC, registers)
– Such context switching may be voluntary (yield(),
I/O operations) or involuntary (timer, other interrupts)
• Protection accomplished restricting access:
– Memory mapping isolates processes from each other
– Dual-mode for isolating I/O, other resources
• Book talks about processes
– When this concerns concurrency, really talking about
thread portion of a process
– When this concerns protection, talking about address
space portion of a process
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