(1) What is Process? Give the difference between Process and Program.

Process:
• Process is a program under execution.
• It is an instance of an executing program, including the current values of
the pro- gram counter, registers & variables.
• Process is an abstraction of a running program.

Process Program
A process is program in execution. A program is set of instructions.
A process is an active/ dynamic entity. A program is a passive/ static entity.
A process has a limited life span. It is created when execution starts and
terminated as execution is finished. A program has a longer life span. It is
stored on disk forever.
A process contains various resources
like memory address, disk, printer etc… as per requirements. A program is
stored on disk in some file. It does not contain any other resource.
A process contains memory address which is called address space. A program requires
memory space on disk to store all instructions.

(2) What is multiprogramming?

• A process is just an executing program, including the current values of the
program counter, registers, and variables.
• Conceptually, each process has its own virtual CPU.
• In reality, the real CPU switches back and forth from process to process, but
to under- stand the system, it is much easier to think about a collection of
processes running in (pseudo) parallel, than to try to keep track of how the CPU
switches from program to program.
• This rapid switching back and forth is called multiprogramming and the number
of pro- cesses loaded simultaneously in memory is called degree of
multiprogramming.

(3) What is context switching?

• Switching the CPU to another process requires saving the state of the old
process and

loading the saved state for the new process.

• This task is known as a context switch.
• The context of a process is represented in the PCB of a process; it includes
the value of the CPU registers, the process state and memory-management
information.
• When a context switch occurs, the kernel saves the context of the old process
in its PCB and loads the saved context of the new process scheduled to run.
• Context-switch time is pure overhead, because the system does no useful work
while switching.
• Its speed varies from machine to machine, depending on the memory speed, the
num- ber of registers that must be copied, and the existence of special
instructions.

Figure 2-1. Context Switching

(4) Explain Process Model in brief.

• In this model, all the runnable software on the computer, sometimes including
the op- erating system, is organized into a number of sequential processes.
• A process is just an executing program, including the current values of the
program counter, registers, and variables.
• Conceptually, each process has its own virtual CPU.
• In reality, of course, the real CPU switches back and forth from process to
process, but to understand the system, much easier to think about a collection of
processes running

in (pseudo) parallel, than to try to keep track of how the CPU switches from
program to program.
• This rapid switching back and forth is called multiprogramming.
• In Fig. 2-2 (a) we see a computer multiprogramming four programs in memory.
• In Fig. 2-2 (b) we see four processes, each with its own flow of control
(i.e., its own logi- cal program counter), and each one running independently of
the other ones.
• There is only one physical program counter, so when each process runs, its
logical pro- gram counter is loaded into the real program counter.
• When it is finished for the time being, the physical program counter is saved
in the pro-
cess’ logical program counter in memory.
• In Fig. 2-2 (c) we see that over a long period of time interval, all the
processes have made progress, but at any given instant only one process is actually
running.
• With the CPU switching back and forth among the processes, the rate at which
a pro- cess performs its computation will not be uniform and probably not even
reproducible if the same processes are run again.
• Thus, processes must not be programmed with built-in assumptions about
timing.
Figure 2-2. (a) Multiprogramming of four programs. (b) Conceptual model of four
inde- pendent, sequential processes. (c) Only one program is active at once.

Process Creation
• There are four principal events that cause processes to be created:
1. System initialization.
2. Execution of a process creation system call by a running process.
3. A user request to create a new process.
4. Initiation of a batch job.

Process Termination
• After a process has been created, it starts running and does whatever its job
is.
• However, nothing lasts forever, not even processes. Sooner or later the new
process will terminate, usually due to one of the following conditions:
1. Normal exit (voluntary).
2. Error exit (voluntary).
3. Fatal error (involuntary).
4. Killed by another process (involuntary).
Process Hierarchies
• In some systems, when a process creates another process, the parent process
and child process continue to be associated in certain ways.
• The child process can itself create more processes, forming a process
hierarchy.
• An example of process hierarchy is in UNIX, which initializes itself when it
is started.
• A special process, called init, is present in the boot image.
• When it starts running, it reads a file telling how many terminals there are.
• Then it forks off one new process per terminal. These processes wait for
someone to log in.
• If a login is successful, the login process executes a shell to accept
commands. These commands may start up more processes, and so forth.
• Thus, all the processes in the whole system belong to a single tree, with
init at the root.
• In contrast, Windows does not have any concept of a process hierarchy. All
process- es are equal.
• The only identification for parent child process is that when a process is
created, the parent is given a special token (called a handle) that it can use to
control the child.
• However, it is free to pass this token to some other process, thus
invalidating the hierarchy. Processes in UNIX cannot disinherit their children.

(5) What is process state? Explain state transition diagram. OR

What is process state? Explain different states of a process with various queue
gen- erated at each stage.
Process state:
• The state of a process is defined by the current activity of that process.
• During execution, process changes its state.

• The process can be in any one of the following three possible states.
1) Running (actually using the CPU at that time and running).
2) Ready (runnable; temporarily stopped to allow another process run).
3) Blocked (unable to run until some external event happens).

Figure 2-3. Process state transition diagram

• Figure 2-3 shows the state transition diagram.

• Logically, the first two states are similar. In both cases the process is
willing to run, but in the ready state there is no CPU temporarily available for
it.
• In blocked state, the process cannot run even if the CPU is available to it
as the pro- cess is waiting for some external event to take place.
• There four possible transitions between these three states.
• Transition 1 occurs when the operating system discovers that a process cannot
con- tinue right now due to unavailability of input. In other systems including
UNIX, when a process reads from a pipe or special file (e.g. terminal) and there is
no input avail- able, the process is automatically blocked.
• Transition 2 and 3 are caused by the process scheduler (a part of the
operating sys- tem), without the process even knowing about them.
• Transition 2 occurs when the scheduler decides that the running process has
run long enough, and it is time to let another process have some CPU time.
• Transition 3 occurs when all the other processes have had their fair share
and it is time for the first process to get the CPU to run again. The subject of
scheduling, that is, deciding which process should run when and for how long, is an
important one.
• Transition 4 occurs when the external event for which a process was waiting
(such as the arrival of some input) happens. If no other process is running at that
time, transition 3 will be triggered and the process will start running. Otherwise
it may have to wait in ready state for a little time until the CPU is available and
its turn comes.

Scheduling queues generated at each stage:

• As the process enters the system, it is kept into a job queue.
• The processes that are ready and are residing in main memory, waiting to be
exe- cuted are kept in a ready queue.
• This queue is generally stored as a linked list.
• The list of processes waiting for a particular I/O device is called a device
queue.
• Each device has its own queue. Figure 2-4 shows the queuing diagram of
processes.
• In the figure 2-4 each rectangle represents a queue.
• There are following types of queues
 Job queue : set of all processes in the system
 Ready queue : set of processes ready and waiting for execution
 Set of device queues : set of processes waiting for an I/O device
• The circle represents the resource which serves the queues and arrow
indicates flow of processes.
• A new process is put in ready queue. It waits in the ready queue until it is
selected for execution and is given the CPU.

Figure 2-4. Queuing diagram representation of Process Scheduling

• Once the process starts execution one of the following events could occur.
 The process issues an I/O request and then be placed in an I/O queue.
 The process creates a new sub process and wait for its termination.
 The process is removed forcibly from the CPU and is put back in ready queue.

• A process switches from waiting state to ready state and is put back in ready
queue.
• The cycle continues unless the process terminates, at which the process is
removed from all queues and has its PCB and resources de-allocated.

(6) Explain Process Control Block (PCB).

PCB (Process Control Block):
• To implement the process model, the operating system maintains a table (an
array of structures) called the process table, with one entry per process, these
entries are known as Process Control Block.
• Process table contains the information what the operating system must know to
manage and control process switching, including the process location and process
attributes.
• Each process contains some more information other than its address space.
This in- formation is stored in PCB as a collection of various fields. Operating
system main- tains the information to manage process.
• Various fields and information stored in PCB are given as below:
 Process Id: Each process is given Id number at the time of creation.
 Process state: The state may be ready, running, and blocked.
 Program counter: The counter indicates the address of the next instruction to
be executed for this process.
 CPU registers: The registers vary in number and type, depending on the com-
puter architecture. They include accumulators, index registers, stack pointers, and
general-purpose registers, plus any condition-code information. Along with the
program counter, this state information must be saved when an interrupt occurs, to
allow the process to be continued correctly afterward.
 CPU-scheduling information: This information includes a process priority,
point- ers to scheduling queues, and any other scheduling parameters.
 Memory-management information: This information may include such infor-
mation as the value of the base and limit registers, the page tables, or the seg-
ment tables, depending on the memory system used by the operating system.
 Accounting information: This information includes the amount of CPU and real
time used, time limits, account numbers, job or process numbers, and so on.
 Status information: The information includes the list of I/O devices
allocated to this process, a list of open files, and so on.
Figure 2-5. Some of the fields of a typical process table entry.
• Figure 2-5 shows some of the more important fields in a typical system.
• The fields in the first column relate to process management.
• The other two columns relate to memory management and file management, re-
spectively.
In practice, which fields the process table has is highly system dependent, but
this figure gives a general idea of the kinds of information needed.

(7) What is interrupt? How it is handled by an OS?

• A software interrupt is caused either by an exceptional condition in the
processor it- self, or a special instruction in the instruction set which causes an
interrupt when it is executed.
• The former is often called a trap or exception and is used for errors or
events occur- ring during program execution that is exceptional enough that they
cannot be han- dled within the program itself.
• Interrupts are a commonly used technique for process switching.
• Associated with each I/O device class (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks etc…)
there is a location (often near the bottom of memory) called the interrupt vector.
• It contains the address of the interrupt service procedure.
• Suppose that user process 3 is running when a disk interrupt occurs.
• User process 3’s program counter, program status word, and possibly one or
more
registers are pushed onto the (current) stack by the interrupt hardware.
• The computer then jumps to the address specified in the disk interrupt
vector.
• That is all the hardware does.

Figure 2-6. Skeleton of what the lowest level of the operating system does when an
in- terrupt occurs.
• From here on, it is up to the software, in particular, the interrupt service
procedure.
• All interrupts start by saving the registers, often in the process table
entry for the cur- rent process.
• Then the information pushed onto the stack by the interrupt is removed and
the stack pointer is set to point to a temporary stack used by the process handler.
• When this routine is finished, it calls a C procedure to do the rest of the
work for this specific interrupt type.
• When it has done its job, possibly making some process now ready, the
scheduler is called to see who to run next.
• After that, control is passed back to the assembly language code to load up
the registers and memory map for the now-current process and start it running.
• Interrupt handling and scheduling are summarized in Figure 2-6.

(8) What is thread? Explain thread structure. Explain different types of thread.
OR Explain thread in brief.
Thread
• A program has one or more locus of execution. Each execution is called a
thread of execution.
• In traditional operating systems, each process has an address space and a
single thread of execution.
• It is the smallest unit of p