Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling

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

 Outline
▪ Basic Concepts
▪ Scheduling Criteria
▪ Scheduling Algorithms
▪ Thread Scheduling
▪ Multi-Processor Scheduling
▪ Real-Time CPU Scheduling
▪ Operating Systems Examples
▪ Algorithm Evaluation

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Objectives

▪ Describe various CPU scheduling algorithms

▪ Assess CPU scheduling algorithms based on scheduling criteria
▪ Explain the issues related to multiprocessor and multicore scheduling
▪ Describe various real-time scheduling algorithms
▪ Describe the scheduling algorithms used in the Windows, Linux, and
Solaris operating systems
▪ Apply modeling and simulations to evaluate CPU scheduling
algorithms

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Basic Concepts

▪ Maximum CPU utilization obtained with

multiprogramming
▪ CPU–I/O Burst Cycle – Process execution consists of
a cycle of CPU execution and I/O wait
▪ CPU burst followed by I/O burst
▪ CPU burst distribution is of main concern

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 Histogram of CPU-burst Times

Large number of short bursts

Small number of longer bursts

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 CPU Scheduler
▪ The CPU scheduler selects from among the processes in ready queue, and
allocates a CPU core to one of them
• Queue may be ordered in various ways
▪ CPU scheduling decisions may take place when a process:
1. Switches from running to waiting state
2. Switches from running to ready state
3. Switches from waiting to ready
4. Terminates
▪ For situations 1 and 4, there is no choice in terms of scheduling. A new process
(if one exists in the ready queue) must be selected for execution.
▪ For situations 2 and 3, however, there is a choice.

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Preemptive and Nonpreemptive Scheduling
▪ When scheduling takes place only under circumstances 1 and 4, the scheduling
scheme is nonpreemptive.
▪ Otherwise, it is preemptive.
▪ Under Nonpreemptive scheduling, once the CPU has been allocated to a
process, the process keeps the CPU until it releases it either by terminating or by
switching to the waiting state.
▪ Virtually all modern operating systems including Windows, MacOS, Linux, and
UNIX use preemptive scheduling algorithms.

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Preemptive Scheduling and Race Conditions

▪ Preemptive scheduling can result in :

race conditions when data are shared among several processes.
▪ Consider the case of two processes that share data. While one process is
updating the data, it is preempted so that the second process can run. The
second process then tries to read the data, which are in an inconsistent state.
▪ This issue will be explored in detail in Chapter 6.

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Dispatcher
▪ Dispatcher module gives control of the CPU to
the process selected by the CPU scheduler;
this involves:
• Switching context
• Switching to user mode

Dispatch latency – time it takes for the

dispatcher to stop one process and start
another running

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Scheduling Criteria

▪ CPU utilization – keep the CPU as busy as possible

▪ Throughput – # of processes that complete their execution per time unit
▪ Turnaround time – amount of time to execute a particular process
▪ Waiting time – amount of time a process has been waiting in the ready queue
▪ Response time – amount of time it takes from when a request was submitted
until the first response is produced.

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Scheduling Algorithm Optimization Criteria

▪ Max CPU utilization

▪ Max throughput
▪ Min turnaround time
▪ Min waiting time
▪ Min response time

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 First- Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling

Process Burst Time

P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
▪ Suppose that the processes arrive in the order: P1 , P2 , P3
The Gantt Chart for the schedule is:

P1 P2 P3
0 24 27 30

▪ Waiting time for P1 = 0; P2 = 24; P3 = 27

▪ Average waiting time: (0 + 24 + 27)/3 = 17

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 FCFS Scheduling (Cont.)

Suppose that the processes arrive in the order:

P2 , P3 , P1
▪ The Gantt chart for the schedule is:

P2 P3 P1
0 3 6 30

▪ Waiting time for P1 = 6; P2 = 0; P3 = 3

▪ Average waiting time: (6 + 0 + 3)/3 = 3
▪ Much better than previous case
▪ Convoy effect - short process behind long process
• Consider one CPU-bound and many I/O-bound processes

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Shortest-Job-First (SJF) Scheduling

▪ Associate with each process the length of its next CPU burst
• Use these lengths to schedule the process with the shortest
time
▪ SJF is optimal – gives minimum average waiting time for a given
set of processes
▪ Preemptive version called shortest-remaining-time-first
▪ How do we determine the length of the next CPU burst?
• Could ask the user
• Estimate

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 Example of SJF

Process Burst Time

P1 6
P2 8
P3 7
P4 3

▪ SJF scheduling chart

P4 P1 P3 P2
0 3 9 16 24

▪ Average waiting time = (3 + 16 + 9 + 0) / 4 = 7

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Determining Length of Next CPU Burst

▪ Can only estimate the length – should be similar to the previous one
• Then pick process with shortest predicted next CPU burst
▪ Can be done by using the length of previous CPU bursts, using
exponential averaging

▪ Commonly, α set to ½

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Prediction of the Length of the Next CPU Burst

TPred(0) = 10
TAct(1) = 6
TPred(1) = 0.5*6+0.5(10)
Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Examples of Exponential Averaging
▪  =0
• n+1 = n
• Recent history does not count
▪  =1
• n+1 =  tn
• Only the actual last CPU burst counts
▪ If we expand the formula, we get:
n+1 =  tn+(1 - ) tn -1 + …
+(1 -  )j  tn -j + …
+(1 -  )n +1 0

▪ Since both  and (1 - ) are less than or equal to 1, each successor

predecessor term has less weight than its predecessor

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Shortest Remaining Time First Scheduling

▪ Preemptive version of SJN=SJF

▪ Whenever a new process arrives in the ready queue, the decision on which
process to schedule next is redone using the SJN algorithm.
▪ Is SRTF more “optimal” than SJN in terms of the minimum average waiting
time for a given set of processes?

SRTF (Shortest
Criteria SJN (Shortest Job Next)
Remaining Time First)
Type Non-preemptive Preemptive
Shortest burst time at Shortest remaining burst
Decision basis
arrival time at any moment
Waits until current job Can preempt if a shorter
Response to new arrivals
finishes job arrives
Lower than FCFS, higher Lowest possible on
Average Waiting Time
than SRTF average
Complexity Simple to implement More complex

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example of Shortest-remaining-time-first

▪ Now we add the concepts of varying arrival times and preemption to

the analysis
Process i Arrival TimeT Burst Time
P1 0 8
P2 1 4
P3 2 9
P4 3 5
▪ Preemptive SJF Gantt Chart

P1 P2 P4 P1 P3
0 1 5 10 17 26

▪ Average waiting time = [(10-1)+(1-1)+(17-2)+(5-3)]/4 = 26/4 = 6.5

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Round Robin (RR)
▪ Each process gets a small unit of CPU time (time quantum q),
usually 10-100 milliseconds. After this time has elapsed, the
process is preempted and added to the end of the ready queue.
▪ If there are n processes in the ready queue and the time quantum
is q, then each process gets 1/n of the CPU time in chunks of at
most q time units at once. No process waits more than (n-1)q
time units.
▪ Timer interrupts every quantum to schedule next process
▪ Performance
• q large  FIFO (FCFS)
• q small  RR
▪ Note that q must be large with respect to context switch, otherwise
overhead is too high? Why?

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example of RR with Time Quantum = 4

Process Burst Time

P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
▪ The Gantt chart is:

P1 P2 P3 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
0 4 7 10 14 18 22 26 30

▪ Typically, higher average turnaround than SJF, but better response

▪ q should be large compared to context switch time
• q usually 10 milliseconds to 100 milliseconds,
• Context switch < 10 microseconds

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 Time Quantum and Context Switch Time

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 Turnaround Time Varies With The Time Quantum

80% of CPU bursts

should be shorter than q

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 Priority Scheduling

▪ A priority number (integer) is associated with each process

▪ The CPU is allocated to the process with the highest priority (smallest integer 
highest priority)
• Preemptive
• Nonpreemptive

▪ SJF is priority scheduling where priority is the inverse of predicted next CPU
burst time

▪ Problem  Starvation – low priority processes may never execute

▪ Solution  Aging – as time progresses increase the priority of the process

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example of Priority Scheduling

Process Burst Time Priority

P1 10 3
P2 1 1
P3 2 4
P4 1 5
P5 5 2

▪ Priority scheduling Gantt Chart

▪ Average waiting time = 8.2

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Priority Scheduling w/ Round-Robin

▪ Run the process with the highest priority. Processes with the same
priority run round-robin
▪ Example:
Process a Burst Time Priority
P1 4 3
P2 5 2
P3 8 2
P4 7 1
P5 3 3
▪ Gantt Chart with time quantum = 2

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multilevel Queue
▪ The ready queue consists of multiple queues
▪ Multilevel queue scheduler defined by the following parameters:
• Number of queues
• Scheduling algorithms for each queue
• Method used to determine which queue a process will enter
when that process needs service
• Scheduling among the queues

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 Multilevel Queue
▪ With priority scheduling, have separate queues for each priority.
▪ Schedule the process in the highest-priority queue!

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 Multilevel Queue

▪ Prioritization based upon process type

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 Multilevel Feedback Queue
▪ A process can move between the various queues.
▪ Multilevel-feedback-queue scheduler defined by the following
parameters:
• Number of queues
• Scheduling algorithms for each queue
• Method used to determine when to upgrade a process
• Method used to determine when to demote a process
• Method used to determine which queue a process will enter
when that process needs service
▪ Aging can be implemented using multilevel feedback queue

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Example of Multilevel Feedback Queue
▪ Three queues:
• Q0 – RR with time quantum 8 milliseconds
• Q1 – RR time quantum 16 milliseconds
• Q2 – FCFS
▪ Scheduling
• A new process enters queue Q0 which is
served in RR
 When it gains CPU, the process receives 8
milliseconds
 If it does not finish in 8 milliseconds, the
process is moved to queue Q1
• At Q1 job is again served in RR and
receives 16 additional milliseconds
 If it still does not complete, it is preempted
and moved to queue Q2

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Thread Scheduling
▪ Distinction between user-level and kernel-level threads
▪ When threads supported, threads scheduled, not processes
• Known as process-contention scope (PCS) since scheduling
competition is within the process
• Typically done via priority set by programmer
▪ Kernel thread scheduled onto available CPU is system-contention
scope (SCS) – competition among all threads in system

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Pthread Scheduling
▪ API allows specifying either PCS or SCS during thread creation
• PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS schedules threads using PCS
scheduling
• PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM schedules threads using SCS
scheduling
▪ Can be limited by OS – Linux and macOS only allow
PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Pthread Scheduling API
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define NUM_THREADS 5
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int i, scope;
pthread_t tid[NUM THREADS];
pthread_attr_t attr;
/* get the default attributes */
pthread_attr_init(&attr);
/* first inquire on the current scope */
if (pthread_attr_getscope(&attr, &scope) != 0)
fprintf(stderr, "Unable to get scheduling scope\n");
else {
if (scope == PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS)
printf("PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS");
else if (scope == PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM)
printf("PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM");
else
fprintf(stderr, "Illegal scope value.\n");
}

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Pthread Scheduling API

/* set the scheduling algorithm to PCS or SCS */

pthread_attr_setscope(&attr, PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM);
/* create the threads */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_create(&tid[i],&attr,runner,NULL);
/* now join on each thread */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_join(tid[i], NULL);
}
/* Each thread will begin control in this function */
void *runner(void *param)
{
/* do some work ... */
pthread_exit(0);
}

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 OpenMP Scheduling-Sync
int main() {
int i;
int num_threads = 4;
int total_sum = 0;
// Parallel region starts here
#pragma omp parallel num_threads(num_threads) shared(total_sum)
{
int thread_id = omp_get_thread_num();
int local_sum = 0;
// Each thread calculates its local sum
for (i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
local_sum += i;
}
total_sum += local_sum; // is there a race ondtion

// Barrier to synchronize all threads

//#pragma omp barrier
// Only one thread updates total_sum
//#pragma omp master
//{
// total_sum += local_sum;
//}
} // Parallel region ends here
printf("Total Sum = %d\n", total_sum);
Operating 0; Concepts – 10th Edition
System
return 5.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 OpenMP Scheduling-Race
int main() {
int i;
int num_threads = 4;
int total_sum = 0;
// Parallel region starts here
#pragma omp parallel num_threads(num_threads) shared(total_sum)
{
int thread_id = omp_get_thread_num();
int local_sum = 0;
// Each thread calculates its local sum
for (i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
local_sum += i;
}
// Critical section to update total_sum
#pragma omp critical
{
total_sum += local_sum;
printf("Thread %d: Local Sum = %d\n", thread_id, local_sum);
}
} // Parallel region ends here
printf("Total Sum = %d\n", total_sum);
return 0;
}

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
▪ CPU scheduling more complex when multiple CPUs are available
▪ Multiprocess may be any one of the following architectures:
• Multicore CPUs
• Multithreaded cores
• NUMA systems
• Heterogeneous multiprocessing

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 Multiple-Processor Scheduling

▪ Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) is where each processor is self

scheduling.
▪ All threads may be in a common ready queue (a)
▪ Each processor may have its own private queue of threads (b)

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 Multicore Processors
▪ Recent trend to place multiple processor cores on same physical chip
▪ Faster and consumes less power
▪ Multiple threads per core also growing
• Takes advantage of memory stall to make progress on another
thread while memory retrieve happens
▪ Figure

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multithreaded Multicore System
▪ Each core has > 1 hardware threads.
▪ If one thread has a memory stall, switch to another thread!
▪ Figure

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multithreaded Multicore System
▪ Chip-multithreading (CMT)
assigns each core multiple
hardware threads. (Intel refers
to this as hyperthreading.)

▪ On a quad-core system with 2

hardware threads per core, the
operating system sees 8 logical
processors.

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multithreaded Multicore System

▪ Two levels of scheduling:

1. The operating system

deciding which software
thread to run on a logical
CPU

2. How each core decides

which hardware thread to
run on the physical core.

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 Multiple-Processor Scheduling – Load Balancing

▪ If SMP, need to keep all CPUs loaded for efficiency

▪ Load balancing attempts to keep workload evenly distributed
▪ Push migration – periodic task checks load on each processor,
and if found pushes task from overloaded CPU to other CPUs
▪ Pull migration – idle processors pulls waiting task from busy
processor

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling – Processor Affinity

▪ When a thread has been running on one processor, the cache contents of that
processor stores the memory accesses by that thread.
▪ We refer to this as a thread having affinity for a processor (i.e., “processor
affinity”)
▪ Load balancing may affect processor affinity as a thread may be moved from one
processor to another to balance loads, yet that thread loses the contents of what it
had in the cache of the processor it was moved off of.
▪ Soft affinity – the operating system attempts to keep a thread running on the same
processor, but no guarantees.
▪ Hard affinity – allows a process to specify a set of processors it may run on.

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 NUMA and CPU Scheduling
If the operating system is NUMA-aware, it will assign memory closes
to the CPU the thread is running on.

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 Real-Time CPU Scheduling
▪ Can present obvious challenges
▪ Soft real-time systems – Critical real-time tasks have the highest
priority, but no guarantee as to when tasks will be scheduled
▪ Hard real-time systems – task must be serviced by its deadline

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 Real-Time CPU Scheduling
▪ Event latency – the amount of time
that elapses from when an event
occurs to when it is serviced.
▪ Two types of latencies affect
performance
1. Interrupt latency – time from
arrival of interrupt to start of routine
that services interrupt
2. Dispatch latency – time for
schedule to take current process
off CPU and switch to another

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 Interrupt Latency

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 Dispatch Latency
▪ Conflict phase of dispatch latency:
1. Preemption of any process
running in kernel mode
2. Release by low-priority process
of resources needed by high-
priority processes

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 Operating System Examples
▪ Linux scheduling
▪ Windows scheduling
▪ Solaris scheduling

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 Linux Scheduling (Cont.)
▪ Linux supports load balancing, but is also NUMA-aware.
▪ Scheduling domain is a set of CPU cores that can be balanced
against one another.
▪ Domains are organized by what they share (i.e., cache memory.) Goal
is to keep threads from migrating between domains.

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 Algorithm Evaluation
▪ How to select CPU-scheduling algorithm for an OS?
▪ Determine criteria, then evaluate algorithms
▪ Deterministic modeling
• Type of analytic evaluation
• Takes a particular predetermined workload and defines
the performance of each algorithm for that workload
▪ Consider 5 processes arriving at time 0:

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.76 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Queueing Models
▪ Describes the arrival of processes, and CPU and I/O bursts
probabilistically
• Commonly exponential, and described by mean
• Computes average throughput, utilization, waiting time, etc.
▪ Computer system described as network of servers, each with
queue of waiting processes
• Knowing arrival rates and service rates
• Computes utilization, average queue length, average wait
time, etc.

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.78 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Little’s Formula
▪ n = average queue length
▪ W = average waiting time in queue
▪ λ = average arrival rate into queue
▪ Little’s law – in steady state, processes leaving queue must
equal processes arriving, thus:
n=λxW
• Valid for any scheduling algorithm and arrival distribution
▪ For example, if on average 7 processes arrive per second, and
normally 14 processes in queue, then average wait time per
process = 2 seconds

Operating System Concepts – 10 th Edition 5.79 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Simulations
▪ Queueing models limited
▪ Simulations more accurate
• Programmed model of computer system
• Clock is a variable
• Gather statistics indicating algorithm performance
• Data to drive simulation gathered via
 Random number generator according to probabilities
 Distributions defined mathematically or empirically
 Trace tapes record sequences of real events in real systems

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 Evaluation of CPU Schedulers by Simulation

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 Implementation
▪ Even simulations have limited accuracy
▪ Just implement new scheduler and test in real systems
• High cost, high risk
• Environments vary
▪ Most flexible schedulers can be modified per-site or per-system
▪ Or APIs to modify priorities
▪ But again environments vary

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 End of Chapter 5

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