Chapter 4: Threads &

Concurrency

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Outline

▪ Overview
▪ Multicore Programming
▪ Multithreading Models
▪ Thread Libraries
▪ Implicit Threading
▪ Threading Issues
▪ Operating System Examples

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Motivation

▪ Most modern applications are multithreaded

▪ Threads run within 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

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 Single and Multithreaded Processes

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 Multithreaded Server Architecture

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 Benefits

▪ Responsiveness – may allow continued execution if part of

process is blocked, especially important for user interfaces
▪ Resource Sharing – threads share resources of process, easier
than shared memory or message passing
▪ Economy – cheaper than process creation, thread switching
lower overhead than context switching
▪ Scalability – process can take advantage of multicore
architectures

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 Multicore Programming

▪ Multicore or multiprocessor systems putting pressure on

programmers, challenges include:
• Dividing activities
• Balance
• Data splitting
• Data dependency
• Testing and debugging

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Concurrency vs. Parallelism
▪ Concurrent execution on single-core system: more than one task
making progress

▪ Parallelism on a multi-core system: a system can perform more than

one task simultaneously

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 Data and Task Parallelism
▪ Types of parallelism
• Data parallelism – distributes subsets of the same data
across multiple cores, same operation on each
• Task parallelism – distributing threads across cores, each
thread performing unique operation

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 User Threads and Kernel Threads
▪ User threads - management done by user-level threads library
▪ Three primary thread libraries:
• POSIX Pthreads
• Windows threads
• Java threads
▪ Kernel threads - Supported by the Kernel
▪ Examples – virtually all general -purpose operating systems, including:
• Windows
• Linux
• Mac OS X
• iOS
• Android

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 User and Kernel Threads

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 Multithreading Models

▪ Many-to-One

▪ One-to-One

▪ Many-to-Many

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 Many-to-One

▪ Many user-level threads mapped to single kernel thread

▪ One thread blocking causes all to block
▪ Multiple threads may not run in parallel on multicore system because
only one may be in kernel at a time
▪ Few systems currently use this model
▪ Examples:
• Solaris Green Threads
• GNU Portable Threads

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 One-to-One

▪ Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread

▪ Creating a user-level thread creates a kernel thread
▪ More concurrency than many-to-one
▪ Number of threads per process sometimes restricted due to overhead
▪ Examples
• Windows
• Linux

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 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
▪ Windows with the ThreadFiber package
▪ Otherwise not very common

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 Two-level Model
▪ Similar to M:M, except that it allows a user thread to be bound to
kernel thread

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 Implicit Threading

▪ Growing in popularity as numbers of threads increase, program

correctness more difficult with explicit threads
▪ Creation and management of threads done by compilers and run-time
libraries rather than programmers
▪ Five methods explored
• Thread Pools
• Fork-Join
• OpenMP
• Grand Central Dispatch
• Intel Threading Building Blocks

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Thread Pools
▪ Create a number of threads in a pool where they await work
▪ Advantages:
• Usually slightly faster to service a request with an existing thread
than create a new thread
• Allows the number of threads in the application(s) to be bound to
the size of the pool
• Separating task to be performed from mechanics of creating task
allows different strategies for running task
 i.e.,Tasks could be scheduled to run periodically
▪ Windows API supports thread pools:

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 Java Thread Pools

▪ Three factory methods for creating thread pools in Executors class:

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 Java Thread Pools (Cont.)

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 Fork-Join Parallelism

▪ Multiple threads (tasks) are forked, and then joined.

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 Fork-Join Parallelism

▪ General algorithm for fork-join strategy:

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 Fork-Join Parallelism

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 Fork-Join Parallelism in Java

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 Fork-Join Parallelism in Java

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 Fork-Join Parallelism in Java

▪ The ForkJoinTask is an abstract base class

▪ RecursiveTask and RecursiveAction classes extend
ForkJoinTask
▪ RecursiveTask returns a result (via the return value from the
compute() method)
▪ RecursiveAction does not return a result

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 OpenMP

▪ Set of compiler directives and

an API for C, C++,
FORTRAN
▪ Provides support for parallel
programming in shared-
memory environments
▪ Identifies parallel regions –
blocks of code that can run in
parallel
#pragma omp parallel
Create as many threads as there
are cores

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 ▪ Run the for loop in parallel

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 Grand Central Dispatch
▪ Apple technology for macOS and iOS operating systems
▪ Extensions to C, C++ and Objective-C languages, API, and run-time
library
▪ Allows identification of parallel sections
▪ Manages most of the details of threading
▪ Block is in “^{ }” :

ˆ{ printf("I am a block"); }

▪ Blocks placed in dispatch queue

• Assigned to available thread in thread pool when removed from
queue

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 Grand Central Dispatch

▪ Two types of dispatch queues:

• serial – blocks removed in FIFO order, queue is per process,
called main queue
 Programmers can create additional serial queues within
program
• concurrent – removed in FIFO order but several may be removed
at a time
 Four system wide queues divided by quality of service:
o QOS_CLASS_USER_INTERACTIVE
o QOS_CLASS_USER_INITIATED
o QOS_CLASS_USER_UTILITY
o QOS_CLASS_USER_BACKGROUND

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Grand Central Dispatch

▪ For the Swift language a task is defined as a closure – similar to a

block, minus the caret
▪ Closures are submitted to the queue using the dispatch_async()
function:

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 Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB)

▪ Template library for designing parallel C++ programs

▪ A serial version of a simple for loop

▪ The same for loop written using TBB with parallel_for statement:

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Threading Issues
▪ Semantics of fork() and exec() system calls
▪ Signal handling
• Synchronous and asynchronous
▪ Thread cancellation of target thread
• Asynchronous or deferred
▪ Thread-local storage
▪ Scheduler Activations

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Semantics of fork() and exec()

▪ Does fork()duplicate only the calling thread or all threads?

• Some UNIXes have two versions of fork
▪ exec() usually works as normal – replace the running process
including all threads

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Signal Handling
▪ Signals are used in UNIX systems to notify a process that a particular
event has occurred.
▪ A signal handler is used to process signals
1. Signal is generated by particular event
2. Signal is delivered to a process
3. Signal is handled by one of two signal handlers:
1. default
2. user-defined
▪ Every signal has default handler that kernel runs when handling
signal
• User-defined signal handler can override default
• For single-threaded, signal delivered to process

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Signal Handling (Cont.)
▪ Where should a signal be delivered for multi-threaded?
• Deliver the signal to the thread to which the signal applies
• Deliver the signal to every thread in the process
• Deliver the signal to certain threads in the process
• Assign a specific thread to receive all signals for the process

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 Thread Cancellation
▪ Terminating a thread before it has finished
▪ Thread to be canceled is target thread
▪ Two general approaches:
• Asynchronous cancellation terminates the target thread
immediately
• Deferred cancellation allows the target thread to periodically
check if it should be cancelled
▪ Pthread code to create and cancel a thread:

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Thread Cancellation (Cont.)
▪ Invoking thread cancellation requests cancellation, but actual
cancellation depends on thread state

▪ If thread has cancellation disabled, cancellation remains pending until

thread enables it
▪ Default type is deferred
• Cancellation only occurs when thread reaches cancellation point
 i.e., pthread_testcancel()
 Then cleanup handler is invoked
▪ On Linux systems, thread cancellation is handled through signals

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 Thread Cancellation in Java

▪ Deferred cancellation uses the interrupt() method, which sets the

interrupted status of a thread.

▪ A thread can then check to see if it has been interrupted:

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Thread-Local Storage

▪ Thread-local storage (TLS) allows each thread to have its own copy
of data
▪ Useful when you do not have control over the thread creation process
(i.e., when using a thread pool)
▪ Different from local variables
• Local variables visible only during single function invocation
• TLS visible across function invocations
▪ Similar to static data
• TLS is unique to each thread

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 Scheduler Activations
▪ Both M:M and Two-level models require
communication to maintain the appropriate
number of kernel threads allocated to the
application
▪ Typically use an intermediate data structure
between user and kernel threads – lightweight
process (LWP)
• Appears to be a virtual processor on which
process can schedule user thread to run
• Each LWP attached to kernel thread
• How many LWPs to create?
▪ Scheduler activations provide upcalls - a
communication mechanism from the kernel to
the upcall handler in the thread library
▪ This communication allows an application to
maintain the correct number kernel threads

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 Operating System Examples

▪ Windows Threads
▪ Linux Threads

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 Windows Threads
▪ Windows API – primary API for Windows applications
▪ Implements the one-to-one mapping, kernel-level
▪ Each thread contains
• A thread id
• Register set representing state of processor
• Separate user and kernel stacks for when thread runs in user mode
or kernel mode
• Private data storage area used by run-time libraries and dynamic
link libraries (DLLs)
▪ The register set, stacks, and private storage area are known as the
context of the thread

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 Windows Threads (Cont.)
▪ The primary data structures of a thread include:
• ETHREAD (executive thread block) – includes pointer to process
to which thread belongs and to KTHREAD, in kernel space
• KTHREAD (kernel thread block) – scheduling and synchronization
info, kernel-mode stack, pointer to TEB, in kernel space
• TEB (thread environment block) – thread id, user-mode stack,
thread-local storage, in user space

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 Windows Threads Data Structures

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 Linux Threads
▪ Linux refers to them as tasks rather than threads
▪ Thread creation is done through clone() system call
▪ clone() allows a child task to share the address space of the
parent task (process)
• Flags control behavior

▪ struct task_struct points to process data structures (shared or

unique)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 4.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 End of Chapter 4

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018