Process Design in Os
Process Design in Os
Scheduling strategies are essential in efficiently allocating CPU time among processes in a multiprogramming operating system. They determine which processes are given CPU time based on various criteria, such as process priority, CPU burst time, and I/O requirements. Strategies like round-robin, priority scheduling, and shortest job first each optimize different aspects of performance, such as response time, throughput, or turnaround time. Efficient scheduling maximizes CPU utilization, reduces wait times for processes, and balances resource usage, ultimately enhancing the overall performance and user experience of the system by ensuring that different types of processes are handled adequately and fairly .
Schedulers each impact system performance and efficiency differently. The long-term scheduler manages multiprogramming by controlling which processes enter the system, thus influencing CPU and memory workload balancing . The short-term scheduler has the greatest impact on CPU utilization as it frequently selects which processes to execute next, optimizing active process management . The medium-term scheduler enhances process mix and resource allocation by removing processes from memory into secondary storage as needed, balancing active jobs with available memory . Together, these layers of scheduling improve overall system throughput and responsiveness.
Context switching is critical in multitasking operating systems because it enables the sharing of a single CPU among multiple processes by storing and restoring their states in the process control block, allowing processes to resume from where they left off. Performance is significantly affected by context switch time, which is considered pure overhead. This time is influenced by the number of registers that need to be saved and restored, with more registers leading to longer switch times. Hardware support, such as having multiple sets of registers, can reduce context switch time .
The ready queue and device queue serve different purposes in process scheduling. The ready queue contains processes that are loaded in memory and waiting to be allocated CPU time to execute. Processes in this queue are ready to run and only need the CPU to execute their tasks. In contrast, the device queue includes processes that are waiting for I/O operations to complete on specific devices. Each device in the system has its own device queue, which holds processes until they can access necessary I/O resources .
The medium term scheduler improves the process mix by handling process swapping. It periodically moves processes that are not actively requiring CPU time, such as those waiting for I/O operations, to secondary storage. By freeing up main memory, it allows more processes to be brought into memory from the ready state, optimizing resource utilization and ensuring a balanced mix of I/O-bound and CPU-bound processes. This management improves overall system efficiency and responsiveness .
Hardware support can reduce context switching overhead by employing multiple sets of processor registers, which allow the operating system to keep the state of multiple processes readily available. This reduces the need to save and restore the registers for each context switch, significantly decreasing the time required. The effectiveness depends on hardware architecture, as context switch time is highly influenced by the operations needed to save and restore the state of processes .
A context switch in an operating system is the process of storing the state or context of a CPU for a running process so that it can be resumed later and switching the CPU to another process. The information typically stored during a context switch includes the program counter, scheduling information, base and limit register values, currently used register values, changed state, I/O state, and accounting information .
The long-term scheduler, also known as the job scheduler, manages which programs are admitted for processing by selecting processes from a pool and loading them into memory for execution. It plays a key role in balancing I/O-bound and processor-bound jobs and controlling the degree of multiprogramming. By controlling the admission of processes, it ensures that the average rate of process creation equals the average departure rate, maintaining stability. In systems with stable multiprogramming, the degree of multiprogramming is directly influenced by the rate at which the long-term scheduler admits new processes .
The primary role of the dispatcher in an operating system is to manage process transitions between the running and ready states. When a process is interrupted, the dispatcher moves it to a waiting queue if it still needs CPU time, allowing another process to be selected and executed. If the interrupted process has completed or aborted, it is discarded. This function ensures that CPU resources are efficiently allocated among competing processes .
The short-term scheduler, also known as the CPU scheduler, is the fastest of the three types of schedulers and focuses on selecting processes that are ready to execute and allocating CPU time to them. Its main function is to increase system performance by frequently deciding which process to execute next . In contrast, the medium-term scheduler handles process swapping and operates at a speed between the long-term and short-term schedulers. It reduces the degree of multiprogramming by swapping out processes from memory that are not immediately required, freeing resources for other processes .