Chapter 4: Threads

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Chapter 4: Threads
 Overview
 Multicore Programming
 Multithreading Models
 Thread Libraries
 Implicit Threading
 Threading Issues
 Operating System Examples

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Objectives
 To introduce the notion of a thread—a fundamental unit of CPU
utilization that forms the basis of multithreaded computer
systems
 To discuss the APIs for the Pthreads, Windows, and Java
thread libraries
 To explore several strategies that provide implicit threading
 To examine issues related to multithreaded programming
 To cover operating system support for threads in Windows and
Linux

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 Thread

 “Single sequential stream of instructions within a process”

 “Lightweight process”

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 Motivation

 Most modern applications are multithreaded

 Threads run within application
 Multiple tasks with the application can be implemented by
separate threads
 Update display
 Fetch data
 Spell checking
 Answer a network request
 Process creation is heavy-weight while thread creation is
light-weight
 Can simplify code, increase efficiency
 Kernels are generally multithreaded

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 Multithreaded Server Architecture

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 Benefits

 Responsiveness – may allow continued execution if part of

process is blocked, especially important for user interfaces
 Resource Sharing – threads share resources of process, easier
than shared memory or message passing
 Economy – cheaper than process creation, thread switching
lower overhead than context switching
 Scalability – process can take advantage of multiprocessor
architectures

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 Single and Multithreaded Processes

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 User Threads and Kernel Threads

 User threads - management done by user-level with threads library

 Three primary thread libraries:
 POSIX Pthreads
 Windows threads
 Java threads
 Kernel threads – Supported and managed directly by the Kernel
 Examples – virtually all general purpose operating systems, including:
 Windows
 Solaris
 Linux
 Tru64 UNIX
 Mac OS X

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 User Threads and Kernel Threads

User Level Thread Kernel level thread

 User level thread are managed by  Kernel level threads are managed
user libraries by OS
 Typically fast  Typically slower
 Context switching is fast  Context switching is slow
 Of one thread perform blocking  If one kernel level thread blocked
entire process get block no effect on other

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Multithreading Models

 Multithreading models are nothing but the type of relationship between

threads
 Many-to-One

 One-to-One

 Many-to-Many

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 Many-to-One

 Many user-level threads mapped to

single kernel thread
 Thread management done by the thread
library in the user space so it is efficient
Limitation
 Entire process will block if one thread
make a block system call
 Multiple threads may not run in parallel
on multicore system because only one
may be in kernel at a time
 Few systems currently use this model
 Examples:
 Solaris Green Threads
 GNU Portable Threads

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 One-to-One
 Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread
 Creating a user-level thread creates a kernel thread
 More concurrency than many-to-one
Limitation
 Number of threads per process sometimes
restricted due to overhead
 Examples
 Windows
 Linux
 Solaris 9 and later

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Many-to-Many Model
 Allows many user level threads to be
mapped to smaller or equal kernel
threads
 Allows the operating system to create
a sufficient number of kernel threads
 Solaris prior to version 9
 Windows with the ThreadFiber
package

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 Two-level Model

 Similar to M:M, except that it allows a user thread to be

bound to kernel thread
 Examples
 IRIX
 HP-UX
 Tru64 UNIX
 Solaris 8 and earlier

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 Thread Libraries

 Thread library provides programmer with API for creating

and managing threads
 Two primary ways of implementing
 Library entirely in user space
 Kernel-level library supported by the OS
 Three primary thread libraries:
 POSIX Pthreads
 Windows threads
 Java threads

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 Pthreads Example

 Next two slides show a multithreaded C program that

calculates the summation of a non-negative integer in
a separate thread.
 In a Pthreads program, separate threads begin
execution in a specified function. In the program, this
is the runner() function.
 When this program starts, a single thread of control
begins in main(). After some initialization, main()
creates a second thread that begins control in the
runner() function. Both threads share the global data
sum.

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 Pthreads Example

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 Pthreads Example (Cont.)

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 Pthreads Code for Joining Ten Threads

 The summation program in the previous slides

creates a single thread.
 With multicore systems, writing programs containing
several threads is common.
 Example a Pthreads program, for joining the threads:

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 Windows Multithreaded C Program

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 Windows Multithreaded C Program (Cont.)

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 Thread Cancellation
 Terminating a thread before it has finished(database, web browser)
 The thread to be canceled is referred to as target thread
 Cancelation of a target thread may be handled using two general
approaches:
 Asynchronous cancellation terminates the target thread
immediately
 Deferred cancellation allows the target thread to periodically
check if it should be cancelled
 The difficulty with cancellation occurs in situations where:
 Resources have been allocated to a canceled thread.
 A thread is canceled while in the midst of updating data it is
sharing with other threads.

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 Thread Cancellation
 The operating system usually will reclaim system resources from
a canceled thread but will not reclaim all resources.
 Canceling a thread asynchronously does not necessarily free a
system-wide resource that is needed by others.
 Deferred cancellation does not suffer from this problem:
 One thread indicates that a target thread is to be canceled,
 The cancellation occurs only after the target thread has
checked a flag to determine whether or not it should be
canceled.
 The thread can perform this check at a point at which it can
be canceled safely.

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 Pthread Cancellation

 Phread cancellation is initiated using the function:

pthread\_cancel()
The identifier of the target Pthread is passed as a
parameter to the function.
 Pthread code to create and cancel a thread:

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 Operating System Examples

 Windows Threads
 Linux Threads

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 Windows Threads

 Windows implements the Windows API – primary API for Win

98, Win NT, Win 2000, Win XP, and Win 7
 Implements the one-to-one mapping, kernel-level
 Each thread contains
 A thread id
 Register set representing state of processor
 Separate user and kernel stacks for when thread runs in
user mode or kernel mode
 Private data storage area used by run-time libraries and
dynamic link libraries (DLLs)
 The register set, stacks, and private storage area are known as
the context of the thread

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Windows Threads (Cont.)

 The primary data structures of a thread include:

 ETHREAD (executive thread block) – includes pointer to
process to which thread belongs and to KTHREAD, in
kernel space
 KTHREAD (kernel thread block) – scheduling and
synchronization info, kernel-mode stack, pointer to TEB, in
kernel space
 TEB (thread environment block) – thread id, user-mode
stack, thread-local storage, in user space

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Windows Threads Data Structures

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 Linux Threads
 Linux refers to them as tasks rather than threads
 Thread creation is done through clone() system call
 clone() allows a child task to share the address space of the
parent task (process)
 Flags control behavior

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 4

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013