CSC 3319: Operating System II: (3 Units)

Concurrency: States and State diagram Structures, Dispatching and context switching; interrupts;
Concurrent execution; Mutual exclusion problem and some solution Deadlock; Models and mechanisms
(Semaphores, monitors etc.). Producer – consumer Problems & Synchronization. Multiprocessor issues.
Scheduling & dispatching, Memory Management: Overlays, Swapping and Partitions, Paging and
Segmentation Placement & replacement policies, working sets and Trashing, caching.

OPERATING SYSTEM II
PROCESSES
A process is basically a program in execution. The execution of a process must
progress in a sequential fashion.
A process is defined as an entity which represents the basic unit of work to be
implemented in the system.
To put it in simple terms, we write our computer programs in a text file and when
we execute this program, it becomes a process which performs all the tasks in the
program.
When a program is loaded into the memory it becomes a process, which is divided
into four sections: stack, heap, text and data.
Stack: ​The process Stack contains the temporary data such as method/function parameters,
return address and local variables.

Heap: ​This is dynamically allocated memory to a process during its run time.

Text: ​This includes the current activity represented by the value of Program Counter and the
contents of the processor's registers.

Data: ​This section contains the global and static variables.

Figure 1 is a simplified layout of a process inside main memory.

Figure 1: A layout of a process inside main memory

Process Life Cycle

When a process executes, it passes through different five states:
i. Start: ​This is the initial state when a process is first started/created.
ii. Ready: ​The process is waiting to be assigned to a processor. Ready processes are
waiting to have the processor allocated to them by the operating system so that they
can run. Process may come into this state after ​Start​ state or while running it by but
interrupted by the scheduler to assign CPU to some other process.
iii. Running: ​Once the process has been assigned to a processor by the OS scheduler, the
process state is set to running and the processor executes its instructions.
iv. Waiting: ​Process moves into the waiting state if it needs to wait for a resource, such as
waiting for user input, or waiting for a file to become available.
v. Terminated or Exit: ​Once the process finishes its execution, or it is terminated by the
operating system, it is moved to the terminated state where it waits to be removed from
main memory.
Figure 2 is a the life cycle of process states showing the flow of a process in the CPU.

Figure 2: Process State / Process Life cycle

Process Control Block (PCB)

A Process Control Block is a data structure maintained by the Operating System for
every process. The PCB is identified by an integer process ID (PID). A PCB keeps all
the information needed to keep track of a process.
i. Process State: ​The current state of the process i.e., whether it is ready, running,
waiting, or whatever.
ii. Process privileges:​ This is required to allow/disallow access to system resources.
iii. Process ID: ​Unique identification for each of the process in the operating system.
iv. Pointer: ​A pointer to parent process.
v. Program Counter: ​Program Counter is a pointer to the address of the next instruction
to be executed for this process.
vi. CPU registers: ​Various CPU registers where process need to be stored for execution for
running state.
vii. CPU Scheduling Information: Process priority and other scheduling information which
is required to schedule the process.
viii. Memory management information: This includes the information of page table,
memory limits, Segment table depending on memory used by the operating system.
ix. Accounting information: This includes the amount of CPU used for process execution,
time limits, execution ID etc.
x. IO status information: ​This includes a list of I/O devices allocated to the process.

The architecture of a PCB is completely dependent on Operating System and may

contain different information in different operating systems. The PCB is maintained
for a process throughout its lifetime, and is deleted once the process terminates.
Figure 3 is a simplified diagram of a PCB.

Figure 3: A simplified PCB Architecture

Process Scheduling
The process scheduling is the activity of the process manager that handles the
removal of the running process from the CPU and the selection of another process
on the basis of a particular strategy. It is an essential part of Multiprogramming
operating systems. Such OS allow more than one process to be loaded into the
executable memory at a time and the loaded process shares the CPU using time
multiplexing.
The OS maintains all PCBs in Process Scheduling Queues. The OS maintains a
separate queue for each of the process states and PCBs of all processes in the
same execution state are placed in the same queue. When the state of a process is
changed, its PCB is unlinked from its current queue and moved to its new state
queue.
The OS maintains the following important process scheduling queues.
i. Job queue​: This queue keeps all the processes in the system.

ii. Ready queue​: This queue keeps a set of all processes residing in main memory, ready
and waiting to execute. A new process is always put in this queue.

iii. Device queues: ​The processes which are blocked due to unavailability of an I/O device
constitute this queue.
The OS can use different policies to manage each queue (FIFO, Round Robin,
Priority, etc.). The OS scheduler determines how to move processes between the
ready and run queues which can only have one entry per processor core on the
system, which has been merged with the CPU as shown in Figure 4. W​hen a process
is interrupted, it is transferred in the waiting queue. If the process has completed or aborted, it
is discarded. In either case, the dispatcher then selects a process from the queue to execute.

Figure 4: Despatch scheduler with CPU

Two-State Process Model
Two-state process model refers to running and non-running states which are
described as:
i. Running: ​When a new process is created, it enters into the system as in the running
state.
ii. Not Running: Processes that are not running are kept in queue, waiting for their turn to
execute. Each entry in the queue is a pointer to a particular process. Queue is
implemented by using linked list.

Schedulers
Schedulers are special system software which handles process scheduling in various
ways. Their main task is to select the jobs to be submitted into the system and to
decide which process to run. Schedulers are of three types:
i. Long Term Scheduler: ​It is also called a ​job scheduler​. A long-term
scheduler determines which programs are admitted to the system for
processing. It selects processes from the queue and loads them into
memory for execution. Process loads into the memory for CPU scheduling.
The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of jobs,
such as I/O bound and processor bound. It also controls the degree of
multiprogramming. If the degree of multiprogramming is stable, then the
 average rate of process creation must be equal to the average departure
rate of processes leaving the system.
On some systems, the long-term scheduler may not be available or minimal.
Time-sharing operating systems have no long term scheduler. When a
process changes the state from new to ready, then there is use of
long-term scheduler.
ii. Short Term Scheduler: ​It is also called as ​CPU scheduler​. Its main
objective is to increase system performance in accordance with the chosen
set of criteria. It is the change of ready state to running state of the
process. CPU scheduler selects a process among the processes that are
ready to execute and allocates CPU to one of them.
Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers, make the decision of which
process to execute next. Short-term schedulers are faster than long-term
schedulers.
iii. Medium Term Scheduler: ​Medium-term scheduling is a part
of ​swapping​. It removes the processes from the memory. It reduces the
degree of multiprogramming. The medium-term scheduler is in-charge of
handling the swapped out-processes.
A running process may become suspended if it makes an I/O request. A suspended
process cannot make any progress towards completion. In this condition,
to remove the process from memory and make space for other processes,
the suspended process is moved to the secondary storage. This process is
called ​swapping​, and the process is said to be swapped out or rolled out.
Swapping may be necessary to improve the process mix.
Comparison among Scheduler
S.N. Long-Term Scheduler Short-Term Scheduler Medium-Term Scheduler
1 It is a job scheduler It is a CPU scheduler It is a process swapping scheduler.
2 Speed is lesser than Speed is fastest among Speed is in between both short and
short term scheduler other two long term scheduler.
3 It controls the degree of It provides lesser control It reduces the degree of
multiprogramming over degree of multiprogramming.
multiprogramming
4 It is almost absent or It is also minimal in time It is a part of Time sharing systems.
minimal in time sharing sharing system
system
5 It selects processes It selects those It can re-introduce the process into
from pool and loads processes which are memory and execution can be
them into memory for ready to execute continued.
execution
Context Switch
A context switch is the mechanism to store and restore the state or context of a
CPU in Process Control block so that a process execution can be resumed from the
same point at a later time. Using this technique, a context switcher enables
multiple processes to share a single CPU. Context switching is an essential part of a
multitasking operating system features.
When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to execute
another, the state from the current running process is stored into the process
control block. After this, the state for the process to run next is loaded from its own
PCB and used to set the PC, registers, etc. At that point, the second process can
start executing.

Figure 5: Context Switch diagram

Context switches are computationally intensive since register and memory state
must be saved and restored. To avoid the amount of context switching time, some
hardware systems employ two or more sets of processor registers. When the
process is switched, the following information is stored for later use.

● Program Counter
● Scheduling information
● Base and limit register value
● Currently used register
● Changed State
● I/O State information
● Accounting information
Scheduling algorithms
A Process Scheduler schedules different processes to be assigned to the CPU based
on particular scheduling algorithms. There are six popular process scheduling
algorithms which we are going to discuss:

● First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling

● Shortest-Job-Next (SJN) Scheduling
● Priority Scheduling
● Shortest Remaining Time
● Round Robin(RR) Scheduling
● Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling
These algorithms are either ​non-preemptive or preemptive​. Non-preemptive
algorithms are designed so that once a process enters the running state, it cannot
be preempted until it completes its allotted time, whereas the preemptive
scheduling is based on priority where a scheduler may preempt a low priority
running process anytime when a high priority process enters into a ready state.
First Come First Serve (FCFS)
● Jobs are executed on first come, first serve basis.
● It is a non-preemptive, pre-emptive scheduling algorithm.
● Easy to understand and implement.
● Its implementation is based on FIFO queue.
● Poor in performance as average wait time is high.
Shortest Job Next (SJN)
● This is also known as ​shortest job first​, or SJF

● This is a non-preemptive, pre-emptive scheduling algorithm.

● Best approach to minimize waiting time.

● Easy to implement in Batch systems where required CPU time is known in advance.
 ● Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU time is not known.

● The processer should know in advance how much time process will take.

Priority Based Scheduling

● Priority scheduling is a non-preemptive algorithm and one of the most common
scheduling algorithms in batch systems.

● Each process is assigned a priority. Process with highest priority is to be executed first
and so on.

● Processes with same priority are executed on first come first served basis.

● Priority can be decided based on memory requirements, time requirements or any other
resource requirement.

Shortest Remaining Time

● Shortest remaining time (SRT) is the preemptive version of the SJN algorithm.

● The processor is allocated to the job closest to completion but it can be preempted by a
newer ready job with shorter time to completion.

● Impossible to implement in interactive systems where required CPU time is not known.

● It is often used in batch environments where short jobs need to give preference.

Round Robin Scheduling

● Round Robin is the preemptive process scheduling algorithm.

● Each process is provided a fix time to execute, it is called a ​quantum​.

● Once a process is executed for a given time period, it is preempted and other process
executes for a given time period.

● Context switching is used to save states of preempted processes.

Multiple-Level Queues Scheduling

Multiple-level queues are not an independent scheduling algorithm. They make use
of other existing algorithms to group and schedule jobs with common
characteristics.

● Multiple queues are maintained for processes with common characteristics.

● Each queue can have its own scheduling algorithms.
● Priorities are assigned to each queue.
For example, CPU-bound jobs can be scheduled in one queue and all I/O-bound
jobs in another queue. The Process Scheduler then alternately selects jobs from
each queue and assigns them to the CPU based on the algorithm assigned to the
queue.
 Multi-Threading
What is Thread?
A thread is a flow of execution through the process code, with its own program
counter that keeps track of which instruction to execute next, system registers
which hold its current working variables, and a stack which contains the execution
history.
A thread shares with its peer threads information like code segment, data segment
and open files. When one thread alters a code segment memory item, all other
threads see that.
A thread is also called a ​lightweight process​. Threads provide a way to improve
application performance through parallelism. Threads represent a software
approach to improving performance of operating system by reducing the overhead
thread is equivalent to a classical process.
Each thread belongs to exactly one process and no thread can exist outside a
process. Each thread represents a separate flow of control. Threads have been
successfully used in implementing network servers and web server. They also
provide a suitable foundation for parallel execution of applications on shared
memory multiprocessors. Figure 5 shows the working of a single-threaded and a
multithreaded process.

Figure 5: Single threaded and Multi-threaded

Difference between Process and Thread

SN Process Thread
1 Process is heavy weight or resource intensive. Thread is light weight, taking lesser
resources than a process.
2 Process switching needs interaction with Thread switching does not need to
operating system. interact with operating system.
3 In multiple processing environments, each All threads can share same set of open
process executes the same code but has its own files, child processes.
memory and file resources.
4 If one process is blocked, then no other process While one thread is blocked and waiting,
can execute until the first process is unblocked. a second thread in the same task can
run.
5 Multiple processes without using threads use Multiple threaded processes use fewer
more resources. resources.
6 In multiple processes each process operates One thread can read, write or change
independently of the others. another thread's data.

Advantages of Thread
● Threads minimize the context switching time.
● Use of threads provides concurrency within a process.
● Efficient communication.
● It is more economical to create and context switch threads.
● Threads allow utilization of multiprocessor architectures to a greater scale and efficiency.
Types of Thread
Threads are implemented in two ways:
i. User Level Threads
In this case, the thread management kernel is not aware of the existence of
threads. The thread library contains code for creating and destroying
threads, for passing message and data between threads, for scheduling
thread execution and for saving and restoring thread contexts. The
application starts with a single thread.
Advantages
● Thread switching does not require Kernel mode privileges.
● User level thread can run on any operating system.
● Scheduling can be application specific in the user level thread.
● User level threads are fast to create and manage.
Disadvantages
● In a typical operating system, most system calls are blocking.
● Multithreaded application cannot take advantage of multiprocessing.
ii. Kernel Level Threads
In this case, thread management is done by the Kernel. There is no thread
management code in the application area. Kernel threads are supported
directly by the operating system. Any application can be programmed to
be multithreaded. All of the threads within an application are supported
within a single process.
The Kernel maintains context information for the process as a whole and for
individuals threads within the process. Scheduling by the Kernel is done on
a thread basis. The Kernel performs thread creation, scheduling and
management in Kernel space. Kernel threads are generally slower to
create and manage than the user threads.
 Advantages
● Kernel can simultaneously schedule multiple threads from the same process on multiple
processes.
● If one thread in a process is blocked, the Kernel can schedule another thread of the same
process.
● Kernel routines themselves can be multithreaded.
Disadvantages
● Kernel threads are generally slower to create and manage than the user threads.
● Transfer of control from one thread to another within the same process requires a mode
switch to the Kernel.
Multithreading Models
Some operating systems provide a combined user level thread and Kernel level
thread facility. Solaris is a good example of this combined approach. In a combined
system, multiple threads within the same application can run in parallel on multiple
processors and a blocking system call need not block the entire process.
Multithreading models are three types: M ​ any to many relationship, Many to one
relationship and One to one relationship.

Many to Many Model: ​The many-to-many model multiplexes any number of user
threads onto an equal or smaller number of kernel threads. Figure 6 shows the
many-to-many threading model where 6 user level threads are multiplexing with 6
kernel level threads. In this model, developers can create as many user threads as
necessary and the corresponding Kernel threads can run in parallel on a
multiprocessor machine. This model provides the best accuracy on concurrency and
when a thread performs a blocking system call, the kernel can schedule another
thread for execution.
Figure 6: Many to Many Multithreaded Model

Many to One Model: ​Many-to-one model maps many user level threads to one
Kernel-level thread. Thread management is done in user space by the thread
library. When thread makes a blocking system call, the entire process will be
blocked. Only one thread can access the Kernel at a time, so multiple threads are
unable to run in parallel on multiprocessors.
If the user-level thread libraries are implemented in the operating system in such a
way that the system does not support them, then the Kernel threads use the
many-to-one relationship modes. Figure 7 shows a many to one multi-threaded
model.
Figure 7: Many to one Multi-threaded Model

One to One Model: ​There is one-to-one relationship of user-level thread to the

kernel-level thread. This model provides more concurrency than the many-to-one
model. It also allows another thread to run when a thread makes a blocking system
call. It supports multiple threads to execute in parallel on microprocessors.
Disadvantage of this model is that creating user thread requires the corresponding
Kernel thread. OS/2, windows NT and windows 2000 use one to one relationship
model. Figure 8 shows a one to one multithreaded model.
Figure 8: One to One Multi-threaded Model.

Difference between User-Level & Kernel-Level Thread

S.N. User-Level Threads Kernel-Level Thread
1 User-level threads are faster to create and manage. Kernel-level threads are slower to
create and manage.
2 Implementation is by a thread library at the user Operating system supports
level. creation of Kernel threads.
3 User-level thread is generic and can run on any Kernel-level thread is specific to
operating system. the operating system.
4 Multi-threaded applications cannot take advantage Kernel routines themselves can be
of multiprocessing. multithreaded.

MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Memory management is the functionality of an operating system which handles or
manages primary memory and moves processes back and forth between main
memory and disk during execution. Memory management keeps track of each and
every memory location, regardless of either it is allocated to some process or it is
free. It checks how much memory is to be allocated to processes. It decides which
process will get memory at what time. It tracks whenever some memory gets freed
or unallocated and correspondingly it updates the status.
Process Address Space
The process address space is the set of logical addresses that a process references
in its code. For example, when 32-bit addressing is in use, addresses can range
from 0 to 0x7fffffff; that is, 2^31 possible numbers, for a total theoretical size of 2
gigabytes.
The operating system takes care of mapping the logical addresses to physical
addresses at the time of memory allocation to the program. There are three types
of addresses used in a program before and after memory is allocated.
i. Symbolic addresses: ​The addresses used in a source code. The variable names, constants,
and instruction labels are the basic elements of the symbolic address space.

ii. ​Relative addresses: ​At the time of compilation, a compiler converts symbolic addresses
into relative addresses.

iii. ​Physical addresses: ​The loader generates these addresses at the time when a program is
loaded into main memory.

Virtual and physical addresses are the same in compile-time and load-time
address-binding schemes. Virtual and physical addresses differ in execution-time
address-binding scheme.
The set of all logical addresses generated by a program is referred to as a ​logical
address space​. The set of all physical addresses corresponding to these logical
addresses is referred to as a ​physical address space.
The runtime mapping from virtual to physical address is done by the memory
management unit (MMU) which is a hardware device using the following
mechanism.
● The value in the base register is added to every address generated by a user process,
which is treated as offset at the time it is sent to memory. For example, if the base
register value is 10000, then an attempt by the user to use address location 100 will be
dynamically reallocated to location 10100.

● The user program deals with virtual addresses; it never sees the real physical
addresses.

Static vs Dynamic Loading

The choice between Static or Dynamic Loading is to be made at the time of
computer program being developed. If you have to load your program statically,
then at the time of compilation, the complete programs will be compiled and linked
without leaving any external program or module dependency. The linker combines
the object program with other necessary object modules into an absolute program,
which also includes logical addresses.
If you are writing a Dynamically loaded program, then your compiler will compile
the program and for all the modules which you want to include dynamically, only
references will be provided and rest of the work will be done at the time of
execution.
At the time of loading, with ​static loading​, the absolute program (and data) is
loaded into memory in order for execution to start.
If you are using ​dynamic loading​, dynamic routines of the library are stored on a
disk in relocatable form and are loaded into memory only when they are needed by
the program.
Static vs Dynamic Linking
When static linking is used, the linker combines all other modules needed by a
program into a single executable program to avoid any runtime dependency.
When dynamic linking is used, it is not required to link the actual module or library
with the program, rather a reference to the dynamic module is provided at the time
of compilation and linking. Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) in Windows and Shared
Objects in Unix are good examples of dynamic libraries.
Swapping
Swapping is a mechanism in which a process can be swapped temporarily out of
main memory (or move) to secondary storage (disk) and make that memory
available to other processes. At some later time, the system swaps back the
process from the secondary storage to main memory.
Though performance is usually affected by swapping process but it helps in running
multiple and big processes in parallel and that's the reason ​Swapping is also
known as a technique for memory compaction​.

The total time taken by swapping process includes the time it takes to move the
entire process to a secondary disk and then to copy the process back to memory,
as well as the time the process takes to regain main memory.
Let us assume that the user process is of size 2048KB and on a standard hard disk
where swapping will take place has a data transfer rate around 1 MB per second.
The actual transfer of the 1000K process to or from memory will take

2048KB / 1024KB per second

= 2 seconds
= 2000 milliseconds
Now considering in and out time, it will take complete 4000 milliseconds plus other
overhead where the process competes to regain main memory.
Memory Allocation
Main memory usually has two partitions:
 ● Low Memory​: Operating system resides in this memory.

● High Memory​: User processes are held in high memory.

Operating system uses the following memory allocation mechanism.

i. Single-partition allocation: ​In this type of allocation, relocation-register scheme is used to
protect user processes from each other, and from changing operating-system code and data.
Relocation register contains value of smallest physical address whereas limit register contains
range of logical addresses. Each logical address must be less than the limit register.

ii. ​Multiple-partition allocation: ​In this type of allocation, main memory is divided into a
number of fixed-sized partitions where each partition should contain only one process. When a
partition is free, a process is selected from the input queue and is loaded into the free partition.
When the process terminates, the partition becomes available for another process.

Fragmentation
As processes are loaded and removed from memory, the free memory space is
broken into little pieces. It happens after sometimes that processes cannot be
allocated to memory blocks considering their small size and memory blocks
remains unused. This problem is known as Fragmentation. There are two types of
fragmentation.
i. External fragmentation: ​Total memory space is enough to satisfy a request or to reside a
process in it, but it is not contiguous, so it cannot be used.

ii. ​Internal fragmentation: ​Memory block assigned to process is bigger. Some portion of
memory is left unused, as it cannot be used by another process.
Figure 9 shows how fragmentation can cause waste of memory and a compaction
technique can be used to create more free memory out of fragmented memory.

Figure 9: Fragmentation and Compaction Technique

External fragmentation can be reduced by compaction or shuffle memory contents

to place all free memory together in one large block. To make compaction feasible,
relocation should be dynamic.
The internal fragmentation can be reduced by effectively assigning the smallest
partition but large enough for the process.
Paging
Paging is a memory management technique in which process address space is
broken into blocks of the same size called ​pages​ (size is power of 2, between 512
bytes and 8192 bytes). The size of the process is measured in the number of
pages.
Similarly, main memory is divided into small fixed-sized blocks of (physical)
memory called ​frames​ and the size of a frame is kept the same as that of a page
to have optimum utilization of the main memory and to avoid external
fragmentation. Figure 10 illustrates paging technique.
Figure 10: Paging Technique

Address Translation
Page address is called ​logical address​ and represented by ​page number ​and
the ​offset​.

Logical Address = Page number + page offset

Frame address is called ​physical address​ and represented by a ​frame
number​ and the ​offset​.

Physical Address = Frame number + page offset

A data structure called ​page map table​ is used to keep track of the relation
between a page of a process to a frame in physical memory.
Figure 11: Illustration of Address Translation.

When the system allocates a frame to any page, it translates this logical address
into a physical address and create entry into the page table to be used throughout
execution of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding pages are loaded into any
available memory frames. Suppose you have a program of 8Kb but your memory
can accommodate only 5Kb at a given point in time, then the paging concept will
come into picture. When a computer runs out of RAM, the operating system (OS)
will move idle or unwanted pages of memory to secondary memory to free up RAM
for other processes and brings them back when needed by the program.
This process continues during the whole execution of the program where the OS
keeps removing idle pages from the main memory and write them onto the
secondary memory and bring them back when required by the program.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Paging
● Paging reduces external fragmentation, but still suffer from internal fragmentation.

● Paging is simple to implement and assumed as an efficient memory management

technique.

● Due to equal size of the pages and frames, swapping becomes very easy.

● Page table requires extra memory space, so may not be good for a system having small
RAM.
Segmentation
Segmentation is a memory management technique in which each job is divided into
several segments of different sizes, one for each module that contains pieces that
perform related functions. Each segment is actually a different logical address
space of the program.
When a process is to be executed, its corresponding segmentation are loaded into
non-contiguous memory though every segment is loaded into a contiguous block of
available memory.
Segmentation memory management works very similar to paging but here
segments are of variable-length where as in paging pages are of fixed size.
A program segment contains the program's main function, utility functions, data
structures, and so on. The operating system maintains a ​segment map table​ for
every process and a list of free memory blocks along with segment numbers, their
size and corresponding memory locations in main memory. For each segment, the
table stores the starting address of the segment and the length of the segment. A
reference to a memory location includes a value that identifies a segment and an
offset. Figure 12 illustrates segmentation technique.

Figure 12: Segmentation Technique

 VIRTUAL MEMORY
A computer can address more memory than the amount physically installed on the
system. This extra memory is actually called ​virtual memory​ and it is a section of
a hard disk that's set up to emulate the computer's RAM.
The main visible advantage of this scheme is that programs can be larger than
physical memory. Virtual memory serves two purposes. First, it allows us to extend
the use of physical memory by using disk. Second, it allows us to have memory
protection, because each virtual address is translated to a physical address.
Following are the situations, when entire program is not required to be loaded fully
in main memory.
● User written error handling routines are used only when an error occurred in the data or
computation.

● Certain options and features of a program may be used rarely.

● Many tables are assigned a fixed amount of address space even though only a small
amount of the table is actually used.

● The ability to execute a program that is only partially in memory would counter many
benefits.

● Less number of I/O would be needed to load or swap each user program into memory.

● A program would no longer be constrained by the amount of physical memory that is

available.

● Each user program could take less physical memory, more programs could be run the
same time, with a corresponding increase in CPU utilization and throughput.

Modern microprocessors intended for general-purpose use, a memory management

unit, or MMU, is built into the hardware. The MMU's job is to translate virtual
addresses into physical addresses. A basic example is given in Figure 13.
Figure 13: Virtual Memory Technique

Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand paging. It can also be

implemented in a segmentation system. Demand segmentation can also be used to
provide virtual memory.
Demand Paging
A demand paging system is quite similar to a paging system with swapping where
processes reside in secondary memory and pages are loaded only on demand, not
in advance. When a context switch occurs, the operating system does not copy any
of the old program’s pages out to the disk or any of the new program’s pages into
the main memory Instead, it just begins executing the new program after loading
the first page and fetches that program’s pages as they are referenced. Figure 14
illustrates demand paging technique.
Figure 14: Demand Paging Technique

While executing a program, if the program references a page which is not available
in the main memory because it was swapped out a little ago, the processor treats
this invalid memory reference as a ​page fault​ and transfers control from the
program to the operating system to demand the page back into the memory.
Advantages
● Large virtual memory.
● More efficient use of memory.
● There is no limit on degree of multiprogramming.
Disadvantages
● Number of tables and the amount of processor overhead for handling page interrupts
are greater than in the case of the simple paged management techniques.
Page Replacement Algorithm
Page replacement algorithms are the techniques using which an Operating System
decides which memory pages to swap out, write to disk when a page of memory
needs to be allocated. Paging happens whenever a page fault occurs and a free
page cannot be used for allocation purpose accounting to reason that pages are not
available or the number of free pages is lower than required pages.
When the page that was selected for replacement and was paged out, is referenced
again, it has to read in from disk, and this requires for I/O completion. This process
determines the quality of the page replacement algorithm: the lesser the time
waiting for page-ins, the better is the algorithm.
A page replacement algorithm looks at the limited information about accessing the
pages provided by hardware, and tries to select which pages should be replaced to
minimize the total number of page misses, while balancing it with the costs of
primary storage and processor time of the algorithm itself. There are many
different page replacement algorithms. We evaluate an algorithm by running it on a
particular string of memory reference and computing the number of page faults,
Reference String
The string of memory references is called reference string. Reference strings are
generated artificially or by tracing a given system and recording the address of
each memory reference. The latter choice produces a large number of data, where
we note two things.
● For a given page size, we need to consider only the page number, not the entire
address.

● If we have a reference to a page ​p​, then any immediately following references to

page ​p​ will never cause a page fault. Page p will be in memory after the first reference;
the immediately following references will not fault.

● For example, consider the following sequence of addresses − 123,215,600,1234,76,96

● If page size is 100, then the reference string is 1,2,6,12,0,0

First In First Out (FIFO) algorithm

● Oldest page in main memory is the one which will be selected for replacement.

● Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages from the tail and add new pages at the
head.
Optimal Page algorithm
● An optimal page-replacement algorithm has the lowest page-fault rate of all algorithms.
An optimal page-replacement algorithm exists, and has been called OPT or MIN.

● Replace the page that will not be used for the longest period of time. Use the time when
a page is to be used.

Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm

● Page which has not been used for the longest time in main memory is the one which will
be selected for replacement.

● Easy to implement, keep a list, replace pages by looking back into time.
Page Buffering algorithm

● To get a process start quickly, keep a pool of free frames.

● On page fault, select a page to be replaced.
● Write the new page in the frame of free pool, mark the page table and restart the
process.
● Now write the dirty page out of disk and place the frame holding replaced page in free
pool.
Least frequently Used(LFU) algorithm
● The page with the smallest count is the one which will be selected for replacement.

● This algorithm suffers from the situation in which a page is used heavily during the initial
phase of a process, but then is never used again.

Most frequently Used(MFU) algorithm

● This algorithm is based on the argument that the page with the smallest count was
probably just brought in and has yet to be used.

I/O HARDWARE
One of the important jobs of an Operating System is to manage various I/O devices
including mouse, keyboards, touch pad, disk drives, display adapters, USB devices,
Bit-mapped screen, LED, Analog-to-digital converter, On/off switch, network
connections, audio I/O, printers etc.
An I/O system is required to take an application I/O request and send it to the
physical device, then take whatever response comes back from the device and
send it to the application. I/O devices can be divided into two categories −
 ● Block devices​ − A block device is one with which the driver communicates by sending
entire blocks of data. For example, Hard disks, USB cameras, Disk-On-Key etc.

● Character devices​ − A character device is one with which the driver communicates by
sending and receiving single characters (bytes, octets). For example, serial ports,
parallel ports, sounds cards etc

Device Controllers
Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a
particular device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O
devices.
The Device Controller works like an interface between a device and a device driver.
I/O units (Keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) typically consist of a mechanical
component and an electronic component where electronic component is called the
device controller.
There is always a device controller and a device driver for each device to
communicate with the Operating Systems. A device controller may be able to
handle multiple devices. As an interface its main task is to convert serial bit stream
to block of bytes, perform error correction as necessary.
Any device connected to the computer is connected by a plug and socket, and the
socket is connected to a device controller. Figure 15 shows a model for connecting
the CPU, memory, controllers, and I/O devices where CPU and device controllers all
use a common bus for communication.

Figure 15: Model for connecting CPU, Memory, controllers and I/O devices

Synchronous vs asynchronous I/O

● Synchronous I/O​ − In this scheme CPU execution waits while I/O proceeds

● Asynchronous I/O​ − I/O proceeds concurrently with CPU execution

Communication to I/O Devices
The CPU must have a way to pass information to and from an I/O device. There are
three approaches available to communicate with the CPU and Device.

● Special Instruction I/O

● Memory-mapped I/O
● Direct memory access (DMA)
Special Instruction I/O: ​This uses CPU instructions that are specifically made for
controlling I/O devices. These instructions typically allow data to be sent to an I/O
device or read from an I/O device.
Memory-mapped I/O: ​When using memory-mapped I/O, the same address space
is shared by memory and I/O devices. The device is connected directly to certain
main memory locations so that I/O device can transfer block of data to/from
memory without going through CPU.

Figure 16: Memory mapped I/O

While using memory mapped IO, OS allocates buffer in memory and informs I/O
device to use that buffer to send data to the CPU. I/O device operates
asynchronously with CPU, interrupts CPU when finished.
The advantage to this method is that every instruction which can access memory
can be used to manipulate an I/O device. Memory mapped IO is used for most
high-speed I/O devices like disks, communication interfaces.
Direct Memory Access (DMA): ​Slow devices like keyboards will generate an
interrupt to the main CPU after each byte is transferred. If a fast device such as a
disk generated an interrupt for each byte, the operating system would spend most
of its time handling these interrupts. So a typical computer uses direct memory
access (DMA) hardware to reduce this overhead.
Direct Memory Access (DMA) means CPU grants I/O module authority to read from
or write to memory without involvement. DMA module itself controls exchange of
data between main memory and the I/O device. CPU is only involved at the
beginning and end of the transfer and interrupted only after entire block has been
transferred.
Direct Memory Access needs a special hardware called DMA controller (DMAC) that
manages the data transfers and arbitrates access to the system bus. The
controllers are programmed with source and destination pointers (where to
read/write the data), counters to track the number of transferred bytes, and
settings, which includes I/O and memory types, interrupts and states for the CPU
cycles.

Figure 16: DMA Technique

The operating system uses the DMA hardware as follows:
Step Description

1 Device driver is instructed to transfer disk data to a buffer address X.

2 Device driver then instruct disk controller to transfer data to buffer.

3 Disk controller starts DMA transfer.

4 Disk controller sends each byte to DMA controller.

5 DMA controller transfers bytes to buffer, increases the memory address,

decreases the counter C until C becomes zero.

6 When C becomes zero, DMA interrupts CPU to signal transfer completion.

Polling vs Interrupts I/O

A computer must have a way of detecting the arrival of any type of input. There are
two ways that this can happen, known as ​polling​ and ​interrupts​. Both of these
techniques allow the processor to deal with events that can happen at any time and
that are not related to the process it is currently running.
Polling I/O: ​Polling is the simplest way for an I/O device to communicate with the
processor. The process of periodically checking status of the device to see if it is
time for the next I/O operation, is called polling. The I/O device simply puts the
information in a Status register, and the processor must come and get the
information.
Most of the time, devices will not require attention and when one does it will have
to wait until it is next interrogated by the polling program. This is an inefficient
method and much of the processors time is wasted on unnecessary polls.
Compare this method to a teacher continually asking every student in a class, one
after another, if they need help. Obviously the more efficient method would be for
a student to inform the teacher whenever they require assistance.
Interrupts I/O: ​An alternative scheme for dealing with I/O is the interrupt-driven
method. An interrupt is a signal to the microprocessor from a device that requires
attention.
A device controller puts an interrupt signal on the bus when it needs CPU’s
attention when CPU receives an interrupt, It saves its current state and invokes the
appropriate interrupt handler using the interrupt vector (addresses of OS routines
to handle various events). When the interrupting device has been dealt with, the
CPU continues with its original task as if it had never been interrupted.
 I/O SOFTWARES
I/O software is often organized in the following layers −
● User Level Libraries​ − This provides simple interface to the user program to perform
input and output. For example, ​stdio​ is a library provided by C and C++ programming
languages.

● Kernel Level Modules​ − This provides device driver to interact with the device
controller and device independent I/O modules used by the device drivers.

● Hardware​ − This layer includes actual hardware and hardware controller which interact
with the device drivers and makes hardware alive.

A key concept in the design of I/O software is that it should be device independent
where it should be possible to write programs that can access any I/O device
without having to specify the device in advance. For example, a program that reads
a file as input should be able to read a file on a floppy disk, on a hard disk, or on a
CD-ROM, without having to modify the program for each different device.

Device Drivers
Device drivers are software modules that can be plugged into an OS to handle a
particular device. Operating System takes help from device drivers to handle all I/O
devices. Device drivers encapsulate device-dependent code and implement a
standard interface in such a way that code contains device-specific register
reads/writes. Device driver, is generally written by the device's manufacturer and
delivered along with the device on a CD-ROM.
A device driver performs the following jobs −

● To accept request from the device independent software above to it.

● Interact with the device controller to take and give I/O and perform required error
handling
● Making sure that the request is executed successfully
How a device driver handles a request is as follows: Suppose a request comes to
read a block N. If the driver is idle at the time a request arrives, it starts carrying
out the request immediately. Otherwise, if the driver is already busy with some
other request, it places the new request in the queue of pending requests.
Interrupt handlers
An interrupt handler, also known as an interrupt service routine or ISR, is a piece of
software or more specifically a callback function in an operating system or more
specifically in a device driver, whose execution is triggered by the reception of an
interrupt.
When the interrupt happens, the interrupt procedure does whatever it has to in
order to handle the interrupt, updates data structures and wakes up process that
was waiting for an interrupt to happen.
The interrupt mechanism accepts an address ─ a number that selects a specific
interrupt handling routine/function from a small set. In most architectures, this
address is an offset stored in a table called the interrupt vector table. This vector
contains the memory addresses of specialized interrupt handlers.
Device-Independent I/O Software
The basic function of the device-independent software is to perform the I/O
functions that are common to all devices and to provide a uniform interface to the
user-level software. Though it is difficult to write completely device independent
software but we can write some modules which are common among all the devices.
Following is a list of functions of device-independent I/O Software −

● Uniform interfacing for device drivers

● Device naming - Mnemonic names mapped to Major and Minor device numbers
● Device protection
● Providing a device-independent block size
● Buffering because data coming off a device cannot be stored in final destination.
● Storage allocation on block devices
● Allocation and releasing dedicated devices
 ● Error Reporting
User-Space I/O Software
These are the libraries which provide richer and simplified interface to access the
functionality of the kernel or ultimately interactive with the device drivers. Most of
the user-level I/O software consists of library procedures with some exception like
spooling system which is a way of dealing with dedicated I/O devices in a
multiprogramming system.
I/O Libraries (e.g., stdio) are in user-space to provide an interface to the OS
resident device-independent I/O SW. For example putchar(), getchar(), printf() and
scanf() are example of user level I/O library stdio available in C programming.
Kernel I/O Subsystem
Kernel I/O Subsystem is responsible to provide many services related to I/O.
Following are some of the services provided.
● Scheduling​ − Kernel schedules a set of I/O requests to determine a good order in
which to execute them. When an application issues a blocking I/O system call, the
request is placed on the queue for that device. The Kernel I/O scheduler rearranges the
order of the queue to improve the overall system efficiency and the average response
time experienced by the applications.

● Buffering​ − Kernel I/O Subsystem maintains a memory area known as ​buffer​ that
stores data while they are transferred between two devices or between a device with an
application operation. Buffering is done to cope with a speed mismatch between the
producer and consumer of a data stream or to adapt between devices that have different
data transfer sizes.

● Caching​ − Kernel maintains cache memory which is region of fast memory that holds
copies of data. Access to the cached copy is more efficient than access to the original.

● Spooling and Device Reservation​ − A spool is a buffer that holds output for a device,
such as a printer, that cannot accept interleaved data streams. The spooling system
copies the queued spool files to the printer one at a time. In some operating systems,
spooling is managed by a system daemon process. In other operating systems, it is
handled by an in kernel thread.

● Error Handling​ − An operating system that uses protected memory can guard against
many kinds of hardware and application errors.

FILE SYSTEM
File
A file is a named collection of related information that is recorded on secondary
storage such as magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and optical disks. In general, a file
is a sequence of bits, bytes, lines or records whose meaning is defined by the files
creator and user.
File Structure
A File Structure should be according to a required format that the operating system
can understand.
● A file has a certain defined structure according to its type.

● A text file is a sequence of characters organized into lines.

● A source file is a sequence of procedures and functions.

● An object file is a sequence of bytes organized into blocks that are understandable by
the machine.

● When operating system defines different file structures, it also contains the code to
support these file structure. Unix, MS-DOS support minimum number of file structure.

File Type
File type refers to the ability of the operating system to distinguish different types
of file such as text files source files and binary files etc. Many operating systems
support many types of files. Operating system like MS-DOS and UNIX have the
following types of files −
Ordinary files

● These are the files that contain user information.

● These may have text, databases or executable program.
● The user can apply various operations on such files like add, modify, delete or even
remove the entire file.
Directory files

● These files contain list of file names and other information related to these files.
Special files

● These files are also known as device files.

● These files represent physical device like disks, terminals, printers, networks, tape drive
etc.
These files are of two types −
● Character special files​ − data is handled character by character as in case of
terminals or printers.

● Block special files​ − data is handled in blocks as in the case of disks and tapes.

File Access Mechanisms

File access mechanism refers to the manner in which the records of a file may be
accessed. There are several ways to access files −

● Sequential access
● Direct/Random access
● Indexed sequential access
Sequential access
A sequential access is that in which the records are accessed in some sequence,
i.e., the information in the file is processed in order, one record after the other.
This access method is the most primitive one. Example: Compilers usually access
files in this fashion.
Direct/Random access
● Random access file organization provides, accessing the records directly.

● Each record has its own address on the file with by the help of which it can be directly
accessed for reading or writing.

● The records need not be in any sequence within the file and they need not be in
adjacent locations on the storage medium.

Indexed sequential access

● This mechanism is built up on base of sequential access.

● An index is created for each file which contains pointers to various blocks.
● Index is searched sequentially and its pointer is used to access the file directly.
Space Allocation
Files are allocated disk spaces by operating system. Operating systems deploy
following three main ways to allocate disk space to files.

● Contiguous Allocation
● Linked Allocation
● Indexed Allocation
Contiguous Allocation

● Each file occupies a contiguous address space on disk.

● Assigned disk address is in linear order.
● Easy to implement.
● External fragmentation is a major issue with this type of allocation technique.
Linked Allocation

● Each file carries a list of links to disk blocks.

● Directory contains link / pointer to first block of a file.
● No external fragmentation
● Effectively used in sequential access file.
● Inefficient in case of direct access file.
Indexed Allocation

● Provides solutions to problems of contiguous and linked allocation.

● A index block is created having all pointers to files.
 ● Each file has its own index block which stores the addresses of disk space occupied by
the file.
● Directory contains the addresses of index blocks of files.

Operating System - Linux

Linux is one of popular version of UNIX operating System. It is open source as its
source code is freely available. It is free to use. Linux was designed considering
UNIX compatibility. Its functionality list is quite similar to that of UNIX.
Components of Linux System
Linux Operating System has primarily three components
● Kernel​ − Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all major activities of this
operating system. It consists of various modules and it interacts directly with the
underlying hardware. Kernel provides the required abstraction to hide low level
hardware details to system or application programs.

● System Library​ − System libraries are special functions or programs using which
application programs or system utilities accesses Kernel's features. These libraries
implement most of the functionalities of the operating system and do not requires kernel
module's code access rights.

● System Utility​ − System Utility programs are responsible to do specialized, individual

level tasks.

Kernel Mode vs User Mode

Kernel component code executes in a special privileged mode called ​kernel
mode​ with full access to all resources of the computer. This code represents a
single process, executes in single address space and do not require any context
switch and hence is very efficient and fast. Kernel runs each processes and
provides system services to processes, provides protected access to hardware to
processes.
Support code which is not required to run in kernel mode is in System Library. User
programs and other system programs works in ​User Mode​ which has no access to
system hardware and kernel code. User programs/ utilities use System libraries to
access Kernel functions to get system's low level tasks.
Basic Features
Following are some of the important features of Linux Operating System.
● Portable​ − Portability means software can works on different types of hardware in
same way. Linux kernel and application programs supports their installation on any kind
of hardware platform.

● Open Source​ − Linux source code is freely available and it is community based
development project. Multiple teams work in collaboration to enhance the capability of
Linux operating system and it is continuously evolving.

● Multi-User​ − Linux is a multiuser system means multiple users can access system
resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at same time.

● Multiprogramming​ − Linux is a multiprogramming system means multiple applications

can run at same time.

● Hierarchical File System​ − Linux provides a standard file structure in which system
files/ user files are arranged.

● Shell​ − Linux provides a special interpreter program which can be used to execute
commands of the operating system. It can be used to do various types of operations,
call application programs. etc.

● Security​ − Linux provides user security using authentication features like password
protection/ controlled access to specific files/ encryption of data.
Architecture
The following illustration shows the architecture of a Linux system −

The architecture of a Linux System consists of the following layers −

● Hardware layer​ − Hardware consists of all peripheral devices (RAM/ HDD/ CPU etc).

● Kernel​ − It is the core component of Operating System, interacts directly with

hardware, provides low level services to upper layer components.

● Shell​ − An interface to kernel, hiding complexity of kernel's functions from users. The
shell takes commands from the user and executes kernel's functions.

● Utilities​ − Utility programs that provide the user most of the functionalities of an
operating systems.