Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling
 Basic Concepts
 Scheduling Criteria
 Scheduling Algorithms
 Thread Scheduling
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
 Operating Systems Examples
 Algorithm Evaluation

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 distribution

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Alternating Sequence of CPU and
I/O Bursts

Process life Cycle

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 CPU Scheduler
 Short-term scheduler

 Selects a process from among the processes in the ready queue

 Invokes the dispatcher to have the CPU allocated to the selected

process

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Dispatcher
 Dispatcher module gives control of the CPU to the process
selected by the short-term scheduler; this involves:
 switching context
 switching to user mode
 jumping to 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 CPU Scheduler
 Selects from among the processes in ready queue, and allocates the
CPU 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
 Scheduling under 1 and 4 is nonpreemptive
 All other scheduling is preemptive
 Consider access to shared data
 Consider preemption while in kernel mode
 Consider interrupts occurring during crucial OS activities

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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, not output (for time-sharing
environment)

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Scheduling Algorithm Optimization Criteria

 Max CPU utilization

 Max throughput
 Min turnaround time
 Min waiting time
 Min response time

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling
ProcessBurst Time
1 24 P
It is Non-Preemptive scheduling

P2 3
Preemptive or
P3 3 NonPreemptive

 Suppose that the processes arrive in the order: P , P ,

1 2
P3
The Gantt Chart
P
for the schedule
1 P
is: P 2 3

0 24 27 30

 Waiting time for P = 0; P = 24; P = 27

1 2 3
 Average waiting time: (0 + 24 + 27)/3 = 17
Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 – 8th Edition 5.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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
 Could ask the user

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of SJF
ProcessArriva l Time Burst 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of Shortest-remaining-time-first
 Now we add the concepts of varying arrival times and preemption to
the analysis

ProcessA arri 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 msec

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 – 8th Edition 5.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Example of Priority Scheduling
ProcessA arri Burst TimeT Priority
P1 10 3
P2 1 1
P3 2 4
P4 1 5
P5 5 2
 Priority scheduling Gantt Chart

P2 P5 P1 P3 P4

0 1 6 16 18 19

 Average waiting time = 8.2 msec

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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.
 Timer interrupts every quantum to schedule next process
 Performance
 q large  FIFO
 q small  q must be large with respect to context switch,
otherwise overhead is too high

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 10ms to 100ms, context switch < 10 usec

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Time Quantum and Context Switch Time

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Turnaround Time Varies With
The Time Quantum

80% of CPU bursts should

be shorter than q

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multilevel Queue
 Ready queue is partitioned into separate queues, eg:
 foreground (interactive)
 background (batch)
 Process permanently in a given queue

 Each queue has its own scheduling algorithm:

 foreground – RR
 background – FCFS

 Scheduling must be done between the queues:

 Fixed priority scheduling; (i.e., serve all from foreground then from background).
Possibility of starvation.
 Time slice – each queue gets a certain amount of CPU time which it can schedule
amongst its processes; i.e., 80% to foreground in RR
 20% to background in FCFS

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multilevel Queue Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multilevel Feedback Queue

 A process can move between the various queues; aging can be implemented 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 job enters queue Q0 which is served FCFS
 When it gains CPU, job receives 8 milliseconds
 If it does not finish in 8 milliseconds, job is moved to queue Q1
 At Q1 job is again served FCFS and receives 16 additional milliseconds
 If it still does not complete, it is preempted and moved to queue Q2

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multilevel Feedback Queues

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling

 CPU scheduling more complex when multiple CPUs are available

 Homogeneous processors within a multiprocessor

 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
 Currently, most common

 Processor affinity – process has affinity for processor on which it is currently

running
 soft affinity
 hard affinity
 Variations including processor sets

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multithreaded Multicore System

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 Operating System Examples
 Solaris scheduling
 Windows XP scheduling
 Linux scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Solaris
 Priority-based scheduling
 Six classes available
 Time sharing (default)
 Interactive
 Real time
 System
 Fair Share
 Fixed priority
 Given thread can be in one class at a time
 Each class has its own scheduling algorithm
 Time sharing is multi-level feedback queue
 Loadable table configurable by sysadmin

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Solaris Dispatch Table

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Solaris Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Solaris Scheduling (Cont.)
 Scheduler converts class-specific priorities into a per-thread global priority
 Thread with highest priority runs next
 Runs until (1) blocks, (2) uses time slice, (3) preempted by higher-priority thread
 Multiple threads at same priority selected via RR

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Windows Scheduling
 Windows uses priority-based preemptive scheduling
 Highest-priority thread runs next
 Dispatcher is scheduler
 Thread runs until (1) blocks, (2) uses time slice, (3) preempted by higher-priority thread
 Real-time threads can preempt non-real-time
 32-level priority scheme
 Variable class is 1-15, real-time class is 16-31
 Priority 0 is memory-management thread
 Queue for each priority
 If no run-able thread, runs idle thread

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Windows Priority Classes
 Win32 API identifies several priority classes to which a process can belong
 REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS, HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS,
ABOVE_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS
 All are variable except REALTIME
 A thread within a given priority class has a relative priority
 TIME_CRITICAL, HIGHEST, ABOVE_NORMAL, NORMAL, BELOW_NORMAL, LOWEST, IDLE
 Priority class and relative priority combine to give numeric priority
 Base priority is NORMAL within the class
 If quantum expires, priority lowered, but never below base
 If wait occurs, priority boosted depending on what was waited for
 Foreground window given 3x priority boost

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Windows XP Priorities

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Linux Scheduling
 Constant order O(1) scheduling time
 Preemptive, priority based
 Two priority ranges: time-sharing and real-time
 Real-time range from 0 to 99 and nice value from 100 to 140
 Map into global priority with numerically lower values indicating higher priority
 Higher priority gets larger q
 Task run-able as long as time left in time slice (active)
 If no time left (expired), not run-able until all other tasks use their slices
 All run-able tasks tracked in per-CPU runqueue data structure
 Two priority arrays (active, expired)
 Tasks indexed by priority
 When no more active, arrays are exchanged

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Linux Scheduling (Cont.)
 Real-time scheduling according to POSIX.1b
 Real-time tasks have static priorities
 All other tasks dynamic based on nice value plus or minus 5
 Interactivity of task determines plus or minus
 More interactive -> more minus
 Priority recalculated when task expired
 This exchanging arrays implements adjusted priorities

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Priorities and Time-slice length

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 List of Tasks Indexed
According to Priorities

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 – 8th Edition 5.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 – 8th Edition 5.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Evaluation of CPU Schedulers
by Simulation

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 End of Chapter 5

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 5.08

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 In-5.7

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 In-5.8

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 In-5.9

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.52 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Dispatch Latency

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.53 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Java Thread Scheduling

 JVM Uses a Preemptive, Priority-Based Scheduling Algorithm

 FIFO Queue is Used if There Are Multiple Threads With the Same Priority

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.54 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Java Thread Scheduling (Cont.)
JVM Schedules a Thread to Run When:

1. The Currently Running Thread Exits the Runnable State

2. A Higher Priority Thread Enters the Runnable State

* Note – the JVM Does Not Specify Whether Threads are Time-Sliced or Not

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.55 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Time-Slicing
Since the JVM Doesn’t Ensure Time-Slicing, the yield() Method
May Be Used:

while (true) {
// perform CPU-intensive task
...
Thread.yield();
}

This Yields Control to Another Thread of Equal Priority

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.56 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Thread Priorities

Priority Comment
Thread.MIN_PRIORITY Minimum Thread Priority
Thread.MAX_PRIORITY Maximum Thread Priority
Thread.NORM_PRIORITY Default Thread Priority

Priorities May Be Set Using setPriority() method:

setPriority(Thread.NORM_PRIORITY + 2);

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.57 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Solaris 2 Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 5.58 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009