OPERATING SYSTEM

UNIT 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION

What is an Operating System?

An operating system is a program that manages the computer hardware. It acts as an intermediary
between the computer user and the computer hardware.

Operating system goals:

 It executes user programs and makes solving user problems easier.
 It makes the computer system convenient to use.
 It uses the computer hardware in an efficient manner.

Computer System Components

1. Hardware – It provides basic computing resources (CPU, memory and I/O devices).
2. Operating system – It controls and coordinates the use of the hardware among the various application
programs for the various users.
3. Applications programs – It define the ways in which the system resources are used to solve the
computing problems of the users (word processors, spread sheets, compilers, database systems, video
games, business programs, web browsers).
4. Users (people, machines, other computers).

Figure: Abstract View of a

computer System

1.2 MAINFRAME SYSTEMS

Mainframe computer systems were the first computers used to tackle many commercial and scientific
applications.

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It has the following systems.
1. Batch Systems
2. Multiprogrammed Systems
3. Time – Shared Systems.

1. Batch System
It is the first fundamental operating system.
o Batch processing is execution of a series of programs ("jobs") on a computer without manual
intervention
o The common input devices of batch system were card readers and tape drives.
o The output devices of batch system were line printers, tape drives and card punches.
o The user prepared a job which consisted of the programmed data and some control information
about the nature of the job (control cards) and submitted it to the computer operators.
o The job was usually in the form of punched cards.
o The output consisted of the result of the program as well as the dump of final memory and
registers for debugging.

The major task is as follows

 To speed up the processing operators batched similar jobs and ran them as a group.
 Automatic job sequencing – automatically transfers control from one job to another.
 It is called as Resident monitor
 Initially the control is in monitor
 Then the control transfers to job.
 When job completes control is transferred back to monitor

Memory Layout for a Simple Batch System

2. The multiprogrammed systems

 The operating system keeps several jobs in main memory at the same time, simultaneously.
 The operating system keeps several jobs in memory in the job pool.
 The OS picks and begins to execute one of the jobs. The job may have to wait for some task
[I/O operation has to complete] in a non multi-programmed system.
 In a multiprogramming system, it simply switches to another job.

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 Multiprogramming system

The following are the features in the multiprogramming

 I/O routine supplied by the system.
 Memory management – the system must allocate the memory to several jobs.
 CPU scheduling – the system must choose among several jobs ready to run.
 Allocation of devices.

3. Time-Sharing Systems–Interactive Computing

 Time sharing or multitasking is a logical extension of multiprogramming.

 A time shared OS allows many users to share the computer simultaneously.
 The CPU executes multiple jobs by switching among them but the switches occurs so frequently
that the users can interact with each program while it is running.
 The CPU is switched among several jobs that are kept in memory and on disk (the CPU is
allocated to a job only if the job is in memory).
 The job is swapped in and out of memory to the disk.
 On-line communication between the user and the system is provided in the time sharing system;
when the operating system finishes the execution of one command, it seeks the next “control
statement” from the user’s keyboard. On-line system must be available for users to access data
and code.

1-3 DESKTOP SYSTEMS

 Personal computers are called desktop systems. These computer systems dedicated to a single
user.
 It consists of I/O devices – keyboards, mouse, display screens, small printers.
 It provides user convenience and responsiveness.
 It can adopt technology developed for larger operating system.
 The disadvantage of desktop systems is that often individuals have sole use of computer and do
not need advanced CPU utilization or protection features.
 It also has the capability to run several different types of operating systems (Windows, Mac OS,
UNIX, Linux)

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1-4 MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEMS OR PARALLEL SYSTEMS

 Multiprocessor systems are the systems with more than one CPU in close communication.
 It is also called as parallel system or tightly coupled system.
 It has more than one processor in close communication sharing the computer bus,clock,memory
and peripheral devices.

 Tightly coupled system – processors share memory and a clock, communication usually takes
place through the shared memory.

 Advantages of parallel system:

1. Increased throughput- By increasing the no of processors, work is done in less time.
2. Economical – multiprocessor system can save more money because they can share peripheral,
mass storage and power supply.
3. Increased reliability--If one processor fails then the remaining processors will share the work of
the failed processors. This is known as graceful degradation or fault tolerant

 Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)

 Each processor runs an identical copy of the operating system and these copies communicate with
each other as needed.
 Many processes can run at once without performance weakening.
 Most modern operating systems support SMP

 Asymmetric multiprocessing
 Each processor is assigned a specific task;
 A master processor controls the system, the other processors looks for master processor for
instruction or it has some predefined tasks.
 Master process schedules and allocates work to slave processors.
 It is more common in extremely large systems.

Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture

1-5 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

 Distribute the computation among several physical processors.

 Loosely coupled system – each processor has its own local memory; processors communicate
with one another through various communications lines, such as high-speed buses or telephone
lines.
 Advantages of distributed systems.
1. Resources Sharing
2. Computation speed up – load sharing
3. Reliability
4. Communications

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  Requires networking infrastructure.
 Local area networks (LAN) or Wide area networks (WAN)

It has four systems.

1. Computer Networks
2. Client – Server systems
3. Peer – to – Peer systems
4. Distributed operating systems

1. Computer Networks

It is a network communication path between two or more systems. It depends on networking for their
functionality.
Networks vary by the protocols used, the distance between nodes, and transport media. It needs an
interface device a network adapter.

It deals with
LAN  Local Area Network
Computers within a room, floor or a building
WAN  Wide Area Network
It usually links buildings, cities or countries.
MAN  Metropolitan Area Network
It could link buildings within a city.

2. Client – Server systems

 Server systems to satisfy requests generated by client systems.

 It can be categorized as
i. Compute Server Systems
ii. File Servers Systems
Compute Server Systems

It provides an interface to which a client can send requests to perform an action, the server executes the
action and sends back result to the client.

File Servers Systems

It provides a file system interface where client can create, update, read, and delete files.

3. Peer – to – Peer systems

In a Peer – to Peer systems, services can be provided by several nodes distributed throughout the network.
In this, a node first join the network of peers, once a node has joined the network, it provides
services to requesting and response services are accomplished in following ways:

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 1. When a node joins network, it register its service and its centralized service on the network.
2. Client acting as a client must first discover what node provides a desired service by broadcasting
a request for the service to all other nodes in the network.

4. Distributed Operating Systems:

A network operating system that provides features such as file sharing across the network and that
includes communication schemes that allow different processes on different computers exchange
messages.

1-6 CLUSTERED SYSTEMS

 Clustered systems gather together multiple CPUs to accomplish computational work.

 It shares storage
 It is used to provide high availability.

It has two types

1. Symmetric Cluster
In symmetric mode, two or more hosts are running applications, and they are monitoring each other.
2. Asymmetric Cluster
In asymmetric clustering one machine is in hot – standby mode while the other is running the application.
The hot –stand- by host (machine) does nothing but monitor the active server.

1-7 REAL-TIME SYSTEMS

 It is a special purpose OS.

 It is often used as a control device in a dedicated application such as controlling scientific experiments,
medical imaging systems, industrial control systems, and some display systems.
 A real time system has well-defined fixed-time constraints.
 Real-Time systems may be either hard or soft real-time.

 Hard real-time:
A hard real time system guarantees that critical tasks can be completed on time.
In hard real time system secondary storage is usually limited or absent. Data is stored in short
term memory, or read-only memory (ROM)
Most advanced operating system features are missing.
Conflicts with time-sharing systems, not supported by general-purpose operating systems.

 Soft real-time
In a soft real time system a critical task gets priority over the other tasks and retains that priority
until it completes.
They have more limited utility than hard real time system.
They are risky to use in robotics.
 They are useful in applications (multimedia, virtual reality) requiring advanced operating-
system features.

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1.8 HARDWARE PROTECTION

Early operating systems were called resident monitor.

 To improve system utilization, OS began to share system resources among several programs
simultaneously.
 If not sharing means, error occurs. This sharing improves both utilization and problems.
 It has four functions / objectives
1. Dual- mode operation
2. I/O protection
3. memory protection
4. CPU protection

1. Dual- mode operation

To ensure proper operations, we must protect the operating system and all the programs and their data
from any malfunctioning program.

Sharing system resources requires operating system to ensure that an incorrect program cannot cause
other programs to execute incorrectly. Protection is needed for any shared resource.

It provides hardware support to differentiate between at least two modes of operations.

1. User mode – execution done on behalf of a user.
2. Monitor mode (also kernel mode or system mode) – execution done on behalf of operating system.
Mode bit added to computer hardware to indicate the current mode: monitor (0) or user (1).

If bit is set to 1 it is in user mode. If bit is set to 0 it is monitor mode.

At system boot time, the hardware starts in monitor mode. The operating system is then loaded and starts
user processes in user mode. Whenever trap/interrupt occurs, hardware switches from user mode to
monitor mode.

The lack of a hardware supported dual mode can cause serious shortcomings in the operating system

2. I/O protection

All I/O instructions are privileged instructions and it is used to prevent users from illegal I/O.

Thus users cannot issue I/O instruction directly; they must do it through the OS by means of a system
call.

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 Use a system call to perform a I/O

1. At initial stage program in monitor mode.

2. Performing I/O operations using read command in user mode.
3. After performing I/O, returns to user done by system call.
Case n -> deals with number of programs

3. Memory Protection

 To ensure correct operation, we must protect the interrupt vector from modification by a user
program.

 We can provide this protection by using two registers.

1. Base registers -> smallest legal physical memory address.
2. Limit register -> size of the range.

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 (i.e.) 300040(base) – 420940 = 120999 (Limit)

The base and limit register can be loaded only by the operating system.

300040 + -> base

120900 -> limit
--------------
420940
---------------
 Memory outside the defined range is protected.

4. CPU Operation

Protecting CPU, by ensuring OS maintain control. We must prevent stuck from the user program by
using timer.
 A timer can be set to interrupt the computer after a specified period. The period may be fixed /
variable.
 Timer is decremented every clock tick.
 When timer reaches the value 0, an interrupt occurs.
 Timer commonly used to implement time sharing.
 Timer also used to compute the current time.
 Load
-timer is
a
privileg
ed
instructi
on.

Figure:Hardware Address Protection

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1.9 SYSTEM COMPONENTS

We can create a system as large and complex as an operating system only by partitioning it into
smaller pieces, each piece should be a well – defined portion of the system, with carefully defined inputs,
outputs and functions.

The various system components are

1. Process Management
2. Main memory Management
3. I/O system Management
4. File Memory Management
5. Secondary storage Management
6. Networking Management
7. Protection Management
8. Command – Interpreter System

Process Management
A set of instructions not complied is called program.
A process can be thought of as a program in execution, but its definition.
A time shared user program such as a compiler is a process.
A word processing program being run by an individual user on a PC is a process.
A system task, such as sending output to a printer, is also a process.

Thus, a process need resources such as

 CPU Time
 Memory
 Files
 I/O devices

Here program is a passive entity, such as the contents of a file stored on disk, whereas process is an
active entity, with a program counter specifying the next instruction to execute. The execution of a
process must be sequential.

The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with process
management:
Creating and deleting both user and system processes.
Suspending and resuming processes.
Providing mechanisms for process synchronization.
Providing mechanisms for process communication.
Providing mechanisms for deadlock handling.

Main Memory Management

The main memory is central to the operation of a modern computer system. Main memory is a large array
of words or bytes, ranging in size from hundreds of thousands to billions. Each word or byte has its own
address. Main memory is a repository of quickly accessible data shared by the CPU and I/O devices.

Many different memory- management schemes are available, and the effectiveness of the different
algorithms depends on the particular situation.

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 The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with memory
management:
Keeping track of which parts of memory are currently being used and by whom.
Deciding which processes are to be loaded into memory when memory space becomes
available.
Allocating and de allocating memory space as needed.

File Management

File management is one of the most visible components of operating systems. Computers can store
information on several different types of physical media. Magnetic tape, Magnetic disk and optical disk
are the most common media. Each of these media has its own characteristics and physical organization.
Each medium is controlled by a device, such as a disk drive or tape drive, that also has unique
characteristics. These properties include access speed, capacity, data transfer rate and access method.

The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with file management:
Creating and deleting files
Creating and deleting directories
Supporting primitives for manipulating files and directories
Mapping files onto secondary storage
Backing up files on stable (nonvolatile) storage media.

I/O System Management

One of the purposes of an operating system is to hide the peculiarities of specific hardware devices
form the user.
The I/O subsystem consists of
A memory – management component that includes buffering, caching and spooling.
A general device – driver interface.
Drivers for specific hardware devices.

Secondary storage management

The main purpose of a computer system is to execute programs. These programs, with the data they
access, must be in main memory, or primary storage, during execution.

The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connection with disk
management:
Free – space management
Storage allocation
Disk scheduling.

Networking

Distributed system is a collection of processors that do not share memory, peripheral devices, or a
clock.

Each processor has its own local memory and clock, and the processors communicate with one
another through various communication lines, such as high – speed buses or networks.

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 The processors in a distributed system vary in size and function. They may include small micro
processors, workstations, minicomputers and large, general – purpose computer systems.

Protection System

If a computer system has multiple users and allows the concurrent execution of multiple processes,
then the various processes must be protected from one another’s activities.

Protection can improve reliability by detecting latent errors at the interfaces between component
subsystems. Early detection of interface errors can often prevent contamination of a healthy subsystem by
another subsystem that is malfunctioning.

Command – Interpreter System

One of the most important systems programs for an operating system is the command interpreter,
which is the interface between the user and the operating system.

Some of the operating systems include the command interpreter in the kernel.

When a new job is started in a batch system, or when a user logs on to a time – shared system, a
program that reads and interprets control statements is executed automatically.

This program is sometimes called the control – card interpreter or the command- line interpreter, and
is often known as the shell. Its function is simple. To get the next command statement and execute it.

1-11 OPERATING SYSTEM SERVICES

An operating system provides an environment for the execution of programs, one set of OS services
provides functions that are helpful to the user.

1. Program execution:
The system must be able to load a program into memory and run that program.

2. I/O Operations:
A running program may require I/O which may involve file or an I/O device.

3. File System manipulation:

Programs need to read and write files and directions. They also need to create and delete then
by name, search for a given file, and list file information.

4. Communications:
One process needs to communicate with another process by exchanging or passing messages
between them.

5. Error detection:
The OS constantly needs to be aware of possible error. Errors may be detected by OS in the
programs.

6. Resource Allocation:

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 When there are multiple users or multiple jobs running at the same time, resources must be
allocated to each of them. Different types of resources are managed by the OS.

OS allocates, what are the resources are required to execute the program which can be done by OS.

7. Accounting:
 It maintains what are the resources are used for the program.
 Status of the program.

8. Protection and Security:

Protection involves ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled security of the
system from outsiders is also important.

1-12 SYSTEM CALLS

System call provides the interface between a process and the operating system.

These calls are available in assembly language instructions.

 Certain systems allow calls to be made directly from a higher level language program.

 To include function call. In terms of user defined program, contains two parts
1. Main program
2. Function
Which is invoked by the call statement.

 The user can then use the mouse to select the source name, and a window can be opened for
the destination name to be specified. It require many I/O system calls.

 Once the two files names are obtained program must open the input file and create the output
file. Each operations require another system call if we are opening file means OS checks whether the
proper is existing / not. If the input file exists, we must create the output file. Each requires system
call.

 System calls over in different ways, depending on the computer use. Often, more inform is
required than simply the identity of the desired system call. The exact type and amount of information
vary according to the particular operating system and call.

 Three general methods are used to pass parameters to the operating system.
1. The simplest approach is to pass the parameters in registers.
2. In some cases, there may be more parameters in registers. Here parameters are and
address of the block is passed as a parameter in a register.
3. Parameters stored in stack => PUSH approach.

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 In this diagram, passing parameters as tables through registers.

Types of system calls

1. Process control
2. File management
3. Device management
4. Information management
5. Communications.

1. Process control

A running program needs to be able to halt its execution either normally / abnormally.

A program in execution can be referred as process. Process can be controlled by detecting the errors.

Using following objectives process can be controlled.

1. end , abort
2. load, execute
3. create process, terminate process
4. get process attributes, set process attributes
5. wait for time
6. wait event, signal event
7. allocate and free memory.

 end means, if the program is successfully completed. Abort means, if the program is not successfully
completed, then this program will be aborted.

 At initial stage program will be loaded from main memory to buffer and executed.

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 Getting attributes of the process such as,
 name of the process
 memory space
 speed execution of the process
 What are the resources are utilized.

Depends on this information it sets the attribute. If memory space needed for storing of program, which
can be allocated, if a program can be deleted from the secondary storage, free space can be managed for
the future use.

At system startup, free memory, command interpreter and kernel is available because no process is
loaded.

 During execution of a program, free memory, process, command interpreter and kernel is available.

 If we run more number of programs, structures looking like the following

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 UNIX RUNNING MULTIPLE PROGRAMS

Process D and process C can be interpreted by command interpreter and also process B. Finally three
programs can be executed.

2. File management

In file management file manipulation are performed.

They are
1. File creation
2. Deletion
3. Renaming a file
4. Modifying a file contents
5. Creating files and directories are performed.

3. Device management

A program as it is running may need more resources to execute. i.e. main memory, disk drives ,access to
files and so on .If the resources are available they can be granted and control can be returned to the user
process. Otherwise the processes have to wait until sufficient resources are available. The resources
controlled by the OS are called devices.

4. Information Maintanence

System maintaining the following information

1. System have a system call to return the current time and date.

2. Other system call may return information about the system, such as the number of current
users, the version number of the OS, the amount of free memory or disk space and so on.

3. It also maintains get process attributes and sets process attributes.

5. Communication

There are two common models for communication

1. message passing model
2. shared memory model

In message passing model, information is exchanged through an interprocess – communication facility

provided by the OS.

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Before communication can take place, a condition must be opened. The name of the other communicator
must be known be it another process on the same CPU / Process on another computer connected by a
communications network.

1-13 SYSTEM PROGRAMS

System programs provide a convenient environment for program development and execution. It
can be divided into following categories.

1. File Management
These programs create, delete, copy, rename, print, dump, list and manipulate files and
directories.

2. Status Information
It deals with the amount of memory or disk space, numbers of users, date, time / similar status
information.

3. File Modification
Before modifying files, we should check whether the file is existing / not. If it is existing we can
modify the files, if not error occurs.

4. Programming – Language Support

Compilers, assemblers and interpreters for common programming languages.

5. Program loading and execution

Once the program is assembled or compiled, it must be loaded into memory to be executed. The
system may provide loaders, linkage editors.

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 6. Communication
Each process should be communicated by passing messages. Since it is sharing the resources
between them.

In addition to system progress, most OS are supplied with programs that are useful in solving
common problems or performing common operations or performing common operations.

Such programs include web browsers, word processors and text formatters, spreadsheets,
database system – complier, plotting and statistical analysis packages and games.

These programs are known as system utilities or application programs.

1-14 PROCESS CONCEPT

 Process is a unit of work in a modern time sharing system.

 Process is a program in execution. It includes event activity represented by value of the program
counter and the contents of the processor’s registers.
 A program is a passive entity such as contents of a file stored on disk.
 Process is an active entity with program counter specifies the next instruction is to be fetched and
executed.

Process State:
If the process executes, it changes its state.
It has the following states,
1. New -> The process is being created.
2. Running -> Instructions are being executed.
3. Waiting -> The process is waiting for some event such as I/O or CPU.
4. Ready -> waiting process is assigned to the processor.
5. Terminated -> The process has finished execution

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 Diagram of process state

Process Control Block

Each process is represented in the operating system by a process control block (PCB) also called
task control block.

It includes following objectives:

1. process state:
The state may be new, ready, running, waiting,halted, and so on.

2. Program Counter:
The counter indicates address of the next instruction to be executed of this process.

3. CPU Register:
Temporary registers are used to stores results. It includes accumulators, index
registers, stack pointer, general purpose registers and condition code (cc i.e indicates
error status of the progress.) information.
4. CPU – Scheduling information:

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 It includes process priority, pointer to scheduling queue.

5. Memory management information:

It includes values of the base and limit registers, page tables or segment tables
depending on the memory system used by the operating system

6. Accounting information:
It includes amount of CPU and real time used, time limits, account numbers, job
or process numbers .

7. I/O status information:

It includes I/O devices allocated to the process.

Threads:

Thread is a logical extension of the program. Program in execution is a process that perform a single
thread of execution

CPU SWITCHES FROM PROCESS TO PROCESS

1-15 PROCESS SCHEDULING

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 The main objective of multiprogramming is to have some process running at all times to
maximize CPU utilization.

The main objective of time-sharing is to switch the CPU among different processes so frequently
that users can interact with each program while it is running.

A system with one CPU can only have one running process at any time. As user jobs enter the
system, they are put on a queue called as the “job pool”. This consists of all jobs in the system.

Processes that reside in main memory that are ready to execute are put on the “Ready Queue”. A
queue has a “header” node which contains pointers to the first and the last PCBs in the list.

There are also other queues in the system like device queue which is the list of the processes
waiting for a particular device. Each device has its own queue.

A general queuing diagram is given below:

The list of processes waiting for a particular I/O device is called a device queue. Each device has
its own device queue.
A common representation of process scheduling is a queuing diagram.

Two types of queues are present.

1. ready queue

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 2. Set of device queues

FIG : Queuing diagram for process

represent Process

represent flow of process

queue

New process is initially put in the ready queue. It waits in the ready queue until it is selected for
execution. Following events could occur.

1. The process could issue an I/O request, placed in an I/O queue.

2. The process could create a new subprocess and wait for its termination.
3. The process removed from CPU, as a result of an interrupt and put back in the ready queue.

Schedulers:

The selection of processes from the queues is managed by schedulers.

There are two kinds:

 Long-term scheduler

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 It selects processes from a mass-storage (i.e., hard disk) device where they are spooled and loads
them into memory for execution. Also referred to as job scheduler, it selects a job to run and
creates a new process.
 Short term Scheduler (CPU Scheduler)
It is responsible for scheduling ready processes that are already loaded in memory and are ready
to execute.

The long-term scheduler brings the processes into memory and hands them over to the CPU scheduler. It
controls the number of processes that the CPU scheduler is handling thus maintains the degree of
multiprogramming which corresponds to the number of processes in memory.

The long-term scheduler has to make careful selection among I/O-bound and CPU-bound
processes. I/O bound processes spend more of their time doing I/O then computation, while CPU-bound
processes spend more time on computation then I/O.

A long-term scheduler should pick a relatively good mix of I/O- and CPU-bound processes so
that the system resources are better utilized. If all processes are I/O-bound, the ready queue will almost
always be empty. If all processes are CPU-bound, I/O queue will be almost always empty. A balanced
combination should be selected for system efficiency.

Context Switching

Switching the CPU from one process to another requires saving (storage) the state of the running process
into its PCB and loading the state of the latter from its PCB. This is known as the context switch.

Switching involves copying registers, local and global data, file buffers and other information to the PCB.

1-16 OPERATIONS ON PROCESSES

Major operations on processes are creation and termination.

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Process Creation
The long-term scheduler creates a job’s first process as the job is selected for execution from the
job pool.

A process may create new processes via various system calls. So created processes are called
children processes while the creating process is referred to as the mother or parent process. On Unix, the
system call is fork(). Creating a process involves creating a PCB for it and scheduling for its execution.

Process Execution
Depending on OS policy, a newly created process may inherit its resources from its
parent or it may acquire its own resources from the OS.

When a child process is restricted to the parent’s resources, new processes do not overload the system. At
the same time some initialization data may be passed from the parent to the child process.

In Unix OS, each process has a different process identifier (aka, process number as referred to above) and
each child process executes in the address space of the parent. This eases communication between parent
and child processes.

When a new process (child) is created, either the parent runs concurrently with its child or parent
waits until the child terminates.

Process Termination
Having completed its execution and sent its output to its parent, a process terminates by signaling
the OS that it’s finished. On Unix, this is accomplished via the exit() system call.
The OS de-allocates memory, reclaims resources such as I/O buffers, open files that were
allocated to that process.
On some systems, when a parent process terminates, the OS also terminates all children processes.
Likewise if:
 The child has exceeded its usage of resources it has been allocated; or
 The task assigned to the child is no longer required; or
 The OS does not allow a child to continue after its parent terminates,
Then the parent may terminate its child process. The concept of terminating the children processes by a
terminated parent is known as cascading termination.

1-17 COOPERATING PROCESSES

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 Processes running simultaneously may be either independent or cooperating. An independent
process is not affected nor it can affect other processes executing in the system. A cooperating process
can affect the state of other processes by sharing memory, sending signals, etc.

Advantages of process cooperation:

1. Information sharing: Accessing some information sources like a shared database by multiple
processes simultaneously may be essential.
2. Computation speed-up: Computer systems with multiple CPUs may allow decomposition of the
task into subtasks and then the parallel execution of them provides speedup.
3. Modularity: The system can be constructed in a modular fashion.
4. Convenience: A user may be willing to use different system tools like editing, printing,
compiling, etc. in parallel.

Example:

Consider the producer- consumer problem which is a typical example of cooperating processes
where cooperation is demonstrating the classical inter-process communication problem.

The idea is that an operating system may have many processes that need to communicate.
Imagine a program that prints output somewhere internally which is later consumed by a printer driver.

In the case of unbounded-buffer producer-consumer problem, there is no restriction on the size of the
buffer. On the other hand, bounded-buffer producer-consumer problem assumes that there is a fixed
buffer size. A producer process produces information that is consumed by a consumer process. Producer
places its production into a buffer and consumer takes its consumption from the buffer. When buffer is
full, producer must wait until consumer consumes at least an item; likewise, when buffer is empty,
consumer must wait until producer places at least an item into the buffer. Consider a shared-memory
solution to the bounded-buffer problem.

Shared variables:
var n; // buffer size
type item = …; // kind of items kept in the buffer
var buffer : array [0 .. n-1] of item; // buffer
in, out : 0 .. n-1; // in & out indexes to buffer.

Producer code:

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 var nextp : item; // local variable of item produced

repeat
….
produce an item in nextp;
….
while in + 1 mod n = out do no-op;
buffer [in] := nextp;
in := in + 1 mod n;
until false;

Consumer code:

var nextc: item; // local variable of item consumed

repeat
while in = out do no-op;
nextc := buffer [out];
out := out + 1 mod n;
….
Consume the item in nextc;
….
until false;

Shared buffer is an array that is used circularly as follows:

. . .
n-1
out
Buffer empty when:
x 0 in = out
y 1
z Buffer full when:
2 in + 1 mod n = out
. 3
. . in

1-18 INTER-PROCESS COMMUNICATION

Inter-process communication (IPC) provides a mechanism to allow processes to communicate

and synchronize their actions. It is best provided by a message-passing system.

An IPC facility basically provides two operations: send (message) and receive (message). The
messages may be of fixed or variable length.

If two processes want to communicate, a communication link must exist between them so that
they can send and receive messages to and from each other.

The communication established can be either direct communication or indirect communication.

Direct Communication

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 In this type of communication, each process that wants to communicate must explicitly name the
recipient or sender of the communication:
 send (P, message) : Process P is the recipient.
 receive (Q, message): Process Q is the sender.

Direct communication links have the following properties:

 It is established automatically between every pair of processes that want to communicate. The ID
of each process is necessary;
 A link is associated with exactly two processes;
 Between each pair of processes, there exist exactly one link;
 A link may be unidirectional, but are usually bi-directional.

Consider the producer – consumer problem: direct communication algorithm for producer and
consumer are as follows:

Producer: Consumer:

repeat repeat
… receive (Producer, nextc);
produce an item in nextp; …
… consume the item in nextc;
send (Consumer, nextp); …
until false; until false;

The main disadvantage is limited modularity in direct communication. The names of producer
and receiver should be correctly set in every time they are used.

Indirect Communication

The messages are sent to and received from mailboxes also known as ports. Each mailbox has a
unique identification into which messages can be placed by processes. Then two processes can
communicate only if they share the same mailbox. The instructions for communication are in the
following form:
 send (A, message)
 receive (A, message), where A is the name of a mailbox.
Indirect communication has the following properties:
 A link is established between a pair of processes only if a shared mailbox is available;
 A link may be associated with more than two processes;

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  Between two processes, there may be a number of different links, each link corresponding to a
mailbox;
 A link may be unidirectional or bidirectional.
P1
What if a single mailbox is shared by more than two processes? Reference the
following figure, assume that P1 sends a message to mailbox A. Which of the
other processes will receive it, P2 or P3? In order to resolve this issue, either
Mailbox A
 A link is associated with at most two processes, or
 One process at a time can execute receive operation, or
 The system may identify the recipient.
P1 P1
Buffering (Link Capacity)

A link capacity determines the number of messages that can reside in it temporarily. A link may be
viewed as a queue of messages which can be implemented in one of three ways:
1. Zero Capacity (No buffering): The queue has maximum length 0. The link cannot hold any
messages waiting in it. Sender must wait until the previously sent message is received.

2. Bounded Capacity: The queue has finite length n. Hence at most n messages can reside in it. If
the link is full, the sender must be delayed.

3. Unbounded Capacity: Any number of messages can wait in it.

Message Acknowledgement

After receiving a message, in order to inform sender of the receipt of the message, receiver sends
an acknowledgement message.

Process P sends a Process Q

message to
1st send (Q, message) 2nd receive (P, message)
4th receive (Q, message) 3rd send (Q, “Acknowledgement”)

Exception Conditions

Message system is useful in distributed environments since the probability of error during
communication is larger than that of a single machine environment. In a single machine environment,
shared memory system is generally used.

If an error occurs in a computer system, error recovery or exception condition handling must take
place. Some typical errors that must be handled can be as follows:

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a) A Process Terminates:
A sender or receiver process may terminate before a message is processed. This situation will leave
behind message that will never be received or processes waiting for messages that will never be sent.

P Q Receiver waits a message from Q that has terminated.

Then P will be blocked forever.
waiting

P sends a message to a terminated process. If P requires an

P Q acknowledgement from Q for further processing, P will be blocked
forever.
sender
In the above cases, the OS should either terminate P or notify P that Q
has terminated.

b) Lost Messages
Either,
1) The OS is responsible for detecting and responding, or
P Q 2) The sending process is responsible for detecting and should
retransmit the message.
The message is lost
due to hardware or Responding in case of (1) by the OS may also be implemented by
communication line notifying the sending process that the message has been lost.
failure.
The most common method for detecting lost messages is to use
timeouts. For instance, if the acknowledgement signal does not arrive at the sending process in a specified
time interval, it is assumed that the signal is lost and resent.

c) Scrambled Messages

Because of the noise in communication channels, the delivered message may be scrambled (modified) in
transit

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