Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling

Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling

 Basic Concepts
 Scheduling Criteria
 Scheduling Algorithms
 Thread Scheduling
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
 Objectives
 To introduce CPU scheduling, which is the basis for
multiprogrammed operating systems

 To describe various CPU-scheduling algorithms

 To discuss evaluation criteria for selecting a CPU-

scheduling algorithm for a particular system
 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.
 Processes alternate between these two states. Process
execution begins by CPU burst, that is followed by I/O
burst, which is followed by another CPU burst, and so on.
 CPU burst distribution
 Histogram of CPU-burst Times
The duration of CPU bursts have been measured extensively.
Alternating Sequence of CPU and
I/O Bursts
 CPU Scheduler
 Selects from among the processes in memory that are
ready to execute, and allocates the CPU to one of them.
 Note that the ready queue is not necessarily a FIFO queue.
When we consider various scheduling algorithms, a ready
queue can be implemented as a FIFO queue, a tree, or
simply an unordered linked list.
 Preemptive Scheduling
 CPU scheduling decisions may take place:

1. When a process switches from running to waiting state

2. When a process switches from running to ready state
3. When a process switches from waiting to ready
4. When a process terminates
 Scheduling under 1 and 4 is non-preemptive or
cooperative.
 All other scheduling is preemptive – implications for
data sharing between threads/processes
 Dispatcher
 It is another component involved in the CPU
scheduling.
 Dispatcher module gives control of the CPU to the
process selected by the scheduler; this involves:
 switching context
 switching to user mode
 jumpingto the proper location in the user
program to restart that program
 Dispatch latency – time it takes for the dispatcher
to stop one process and start another running
 Scheduling Criteria
 Different CPU scheduling algorithms have different properties
and the choice of a particular algorithm may favor one class
of process over another. Many criteria for comparing CPU
scheduling algorithms:
 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,
not output (for time-sharing environment)
 Optimization Criteria

 Max CPU utilization

 Max throughput
 Min turnaround time
 Min waiting time
 Min response time
 In words it is desirable to maximize CPU utilization
and throughput and to minimize turnaround time,
waiting time, and response time.
 Scheduling Algorithms
 CPU scheduling deals with the problem of deciding
which of the processes in the ready queue is to be
allocated the CPU.
 There are many different CPU scheduling algorithms.
They are:
i. First-Come First-Serve Scheduling
ii. Shortest-Job-First Scheduling
iii. Priority Scheduling
iv. Round Robin Scheduling
v. Multilevel Queue Scheduling
vi. Multilevel Feedback-Queue Scheduling
 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
 FCFS Scheduling (Cont.)

Suppose that the processes arrive in the order:

P 2 , P3 , P 1
 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
 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
 The difficulty is knowing the length of the
next CPU request.
 Example of SJF

ProcessArrival TimeBurst Time

P1 0.0 6
P2 2.0 8
P3 4.0 7
P4 5.0 3
 SJF scheduling chart

P4 P1 P3 P2

0 3 9 16 24
 Average waiting time = (3 + 16 + 9 + 0) / 4 = 7
 Determining Length of Next CPU Burst

 Can only estimate the length

 Can be done by using the length of previous
CPU bursts, using exponential averaging

1. t n  actual length of n th CPU burst

2.  n 1  predicted value for the next CPU burst
3.  , 0    1
4. Define :  n+1 =  t n + (1- )  n.
Prediction of the Length of the
Next CPU Burst
 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

successive term has less weight than its predecessor.
 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
 Non-preemptive
 Note that SJF is a priority scheduling where priority is the
predicted next CPU burst time
 Problem  Starvation – low priority processes may never
execute
 Solution  Aging – as time progresses increase the
priority of the process
 Round Robin (RR)
 Each process gets a small unit of CPU time (time
quantum), usually 10-100 milliseconds. After this time has
elapsed, the process is preempted and added to the end of
the ready queue.
 We can predict wait time: 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.
 Performance
 q large  FIFO
 q small  may hit the context switch wall: q must be
large with respect to context switch, otherwise overhead
is too high
 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
 Time Quantum and Context Switch Time

Time quantum to be large with respect to the Context switch

time.
Turnaround Time Varies With
The Time Quantum
 Multilevel Queue Scheduling
 This scheduling algorithm classifies the processes into different
groups.
 For example ready queue is partitioned into separate queues:
 foreground (interactive) processes
 background (batch) processes
 Multilevel queue scheduling algorithm partitions the ready queue
into several separate queues.
 Processes are assigned to one queue, based on some property of
the process, such as memory size, process priority or process
type.
 Each queue has its own scheduling algorithm: for example
 foreground – RR
 background – FCFS
 Scheduling must be done between the queues.
 Multilevel Queue Scheduling

Each queue has absolute priority over lower-priority queues.

 Multilevel Feedback Queue Scheduling
 Normally when multilevel queue scheduling algorithm is used,
processes are permanently assigned to a queue when they enter.
But it is inflexible, as processes do not move from one queue to the
other.
 What is the solution?
 Solution is Multilevel Feedback Queue Scheduling.
 This algorithm allows a process to move between the various
queues; aging can be prevented this way.
 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
 Example of Multilevel Feedback Queue
 Three queues:
 Q0 – RR with time quantum 8 milliseconds
 Q1 – RR time quantum 16 milliseconds
 Q2 – FCFS
 Scheduling - Explaination
Multilevel Feedback Queues
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
 CPU scheduling more complex when multiple CPUs are available.
 Focus is on Homogeneous processors within a multiprocessor.
 Approaches to multiple-processor Scheduling:
 Asymmetric multiprocessing – only one processor accesses the
system data structures, alleviating the need for data sharing
 Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) – each processor is self-
scheduling, all processes in common ready queue, or each has its
own private queue of ready processes
 Issues concerning symmetric multiprocessing:
 Contd …
 Consider what happens to cache memory when a process has been
running on a specific processor: data most recently accessed by a process
 Now what happens if the process migrates to another processor?
 The contents of cache memory must be invalidated for the processor being
migrated from, and cache for the processor being migrated to must be re-
populated.
 Most SMP systems try to avoid migration of processes, because of high
cost of invalidating and re-populating caches. Instead attempt to keep a
process running on the same processor. This is called Processor affinity.
 Processor affinity – process has affinity for processor on which it is
currently running. It takes several forms
 Soft affinity : Processes may migrate
 Hard affinity : No migration of processes
 Load Balancing
 In SMP, it is important to keep all CPUs loaded for efficiency.
 Load balancing attempts to keep workload evenly distributed.
 There are two general approaches to load balancing: Push migration and
Pull migration
 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.
 For example, the Linux scheduler implement both techniques and runs its
load balancing algorithm every 200 milliseconds.
 Symmetric Multithreading: SMP systems allow several threads to run
concurrently by providing multiple physical processor. Such strategy is
known as SMT(Symmetric Multithreading).
SMT Architecture
Questions ?