Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Assignment#04 Alpha
 Write a multithreaded program in Java that calculates various statistical
values for a list of numbers. This program will be passed a series of
numbers and will then create three separate threads.
 One thread will determine the average of the numbers, the second will
determine the maximum value, and the third will determine the minimum
value. For example, suppose your program is passed the integers
 90 81 78 95 79 72 85
 The program will report
 The average value is 82
 The minimum value is 72
 The maximum value is 95
 Check Time complexity of these three threads
 Observe CPU usage 1, 2 and 3 threads respectively.
 For steps time complexity and CPU usage, you can use thread.sleep()
function or can use stop watch or timer class in java.
 Submission in a group of two students, submission due date 08/04/2025 on
MS Teams
 Demonstration/viva of selected groups in class
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Assignment#04 Omega
 Modify Assignment#03 code in the following way.
 Create two sockets on different ports on server and two sockets on
different ports on client.
 For each socket on both server and client, send and receive messages
through that ports (in while loop)
 For each port on both server and client create a thread that listens on
that ports.
 On one port simply text msgs are sent and received while on the
second port task of assignment#03 is performed.
 Submission on MS Teams, due date 09/04/2025, in a group of two
students.
 Demonstration/viva of selected groups in class

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.3 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 – 10th Edition 5.4 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 the scheduling algorithms used in the Windows, Linux, and
Solaris operating systems
 Apply modeling and simulations to evaluate CPU scheduling
algorithms

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.5 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.6 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Time Quantum and Context Switch Time

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Turnaround Time Varies With The Time Quantum

80% of CPU bursts should

be shorter than q

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.10 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 – 10th Edition 5.11 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:
Processa 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 – 10th Edition 5.12 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multilevel Queue
 With priority scheduling, have separate queues for each priority.
 Schedule the process in the highest-priority queue!

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multilevel Queue
 Prioritization based upon process type

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.16 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 – 10th Edition 5.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Thread Scheduling
 Distinction between user-level and kernel-level threads
 When threads supported, threads scheduled, not processes
 Many-to-one and many-to-many models, thread library schedules
user-level threads to run on LWP
• 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 – 10th Edition 5.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Pthread Scheduling
 APIs allow 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 – 10th Edition 5.19 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 – 10th Edition 5.20 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 – 10th Edition 5.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Multiple-Processor Scheduling
 CPU scheduling more complex when multiple CPUs are available
 Multiprocessors may be any one of the following architectures:
• Multicore CPUs
• Multithreaded cores
• NUMA systems
• Heterogeneous multiprocessing

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.24 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 – 10th Edition 5.25 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 – 10th Edition 5.26 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. Each core decides

which hardware
thread to run on the
physical core.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.28 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.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 NUMA and CPU Scheduling
If the operating system is NUMA-aware, it will assign memory closes
to the CPU the thread is running on.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Operating System Examples
 Linux scheduling
 Windows scheduling
 Solaris scheduling

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Linux Scheduling Through Version 2.5
 Prior to kernel version 2.5, ran variation of standard UNIX scheduling algorithm
having poor response for SMP systems
 Version 2.5 moved to constant order O(1) scheduling time
• Increased support for SMP systems including processor affinity and load
balancing
• Two priority ranges: time-sharing and real-time
• 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 used 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

• Worked well, but poor response times for interactive processes

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Linux Scheduling in Version 2.6.23 +
 Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS)
 Scheduling classes
• Two scheduling classes included, others can be added
default
1.
2. real-time
• Each class has specific priority
• Scheduler picks highest priority task in highest scheduling class
• Rather than quantum based on fixed time allotments, based on
proportion of CPU time

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Linux Scheduling in Version 2.6.23 + (Cont.)

 Quantum calculated based on nice value from -20 to +19

• Lower nice value is higher priority
• Tasks with lower nice value receives a higher proportion of
CPU time
• Calculates target latency – interval of time during which task
should run at least once
• Target latency can increase if say number of active tasks
increases
 CFS scheduler maintains per task virtual run time in variable
vruntime(how long a task has run)
• Associated with decay factor based on priority of task – lower
priority is higher decay rate
• Normal default priority(nice value 0) yields virtual run time =
actual run time
 To decide next task to run, scheduler picks task with lowest virtual
run time

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 CFS Performance

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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
 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 class
 If no run-able thread, runs idle thread
 Real-time threads can preempt non-real-time

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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_CL
ASS, 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

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Windows Priorities

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Windows Scheduling(Cont.)
 If wait occurs, priority boosted depending on what was waited for
 Foreground window may be given 3x priority boost
 Windows also supports scheduling on multiprocessor systems as by
attempting to schedule a thread on the most optimal processing core for
that thread, which includes maintaining a thread’s preferred as well as
most recent processor.
 One technique used by Windows is to create set of logical processors
(known as SMT sets).
 On a hyper-threaded SMT system, hardware threads belonging to the
same CPU core would also belong to the same SMT set.
 Logical processors are numbered, beginning from 0. As an example, a
dual-threaded/quad-core system would contain eight logical processors,
consisting of the four SMT sets: {0, 1}, {2, 3}, {4, 5}, and {6, 7}.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Sun Solaris OS
 Priority-based scheduling
 Six classes available
• Time sharing (default) (TS)
• Interactive (IA)
• Real time (RT)
• System (SYS)
• Fair Share (FSS)
• Fixed priority (FP)
 Given thread can be in one class at a time
 Each class has its own priority and scheduling algorithm
 The default scheduling class for a process is time sharing.
 The scheduling policy for the time-sharing class dynamically
alters priorities and assigns time slices of different lengths using a
multilevel feedback queue.
 Inverse relationship between priorities and time slices.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Solaris Dispatch Table

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Deterministic Evaluation
 For each algorithm, calculate minimum average waiting time
 Simple and fast, but requires exact numbers for input, applies
only to those inputs
• FCFS is 28ms:

• Non-preemptive SJF is 13ms:

• RR is 23ms:

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.45 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.
 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 – 10th Edition 5.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Simulations
 Queueing models also limited
 Simulations are 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
 Record sequences of real time events

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 Evaluation of CPU Schedulers by Simulation

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 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 – 10th Edition 5.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 The End
 Quiz#03 Next Week

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018
 End of Chapter 5

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