|
|
|
Modern Operating Systems by Herbert Bos and Andrew S. Tanenb...
Modern_Operating_Systems_by_Herbert_Bos_and_Andrew_S._Tanenbaum_4th_Ed.pdf
Showing 141 out of 1137
Modern Operating Systems by Herbert Bos and Andrew...
Modern_Operating_Systems_by_Herbert_Bos_and_Andrew_S._Tanenbaum_4th_Ed.pdf-M ODERN O PERATING S YSTEMS
Modern Operating Systems by Herbert...
Modern_Operating_Systems_by_Herbert_Bos_and_Andrew_S._Tanenbaum_4th_Ed.pdf-M ODERN O PERATING S YSTEMS
Page 141
110
PROCESSES AND THREADS
CHAP. 2
the machine happens to have an instruction to store all the registers and another
one to load them all, the entire thread switch can be done in just a handful of in-
structions. Doing thread switching like this is at least an order of magnitude—
maybe more—faster than trapping to the kernel and is a strong argument in favor
of user-level threads packages.
However, there is one key difference with processes. When a thread is finished
running for the moment, for example, when it calls
thread
yield
, the code of
thread
yield
can save the thread’s information in the thread table itself. Fur-
thermore, it can then call the thread scheduler to pick another thread to run. The
procedure that saves the thread’s state and the scheduler are just local procedures,
so invoking them is much more efficient than making a kernel call. Among other
issues, no trap is needed, no context switch is needed, the memory cache need not
be flushed, and so on. This makes thread scheduling very fast.
User-level threads also have other advantages. They allow each process to have
its own customized scheduling algorithm.
For some applications, for example,
those with a garbage-collector thread, not having to worry about a thread being
stopped at an inconvenient moment is a plus. They also scale better, since kernel
threads invariably require some table space and stack space in the kernel, which
can be a problem if there are a very large number of threads.
Despite their better performance, user-level threads packages have some major
problems. First among these is the problem of how blocking system calls are im-
plemented. Suppose that a thread reads from the keyboard before any keys have
been hit. Letting the thread actually make the system call is unacceptable, since
this will stop all the threads. One of the main goals of having threads in the first
place was to allow each one to use blocking calls, but to prevent one blocked
thread from affecting the others. With blocking system calls, it is hard to see how
this goal can be achieved readily.
The system calls could all be changed to be nonblocking (e.g., a
read
on the
keyboard would just return 0 bytes if no characters were already buffered), but re-
quiring changes to the operating system is unattractive.
Besides, one argument for
user-level threads was precisely that they could run with
existing
operating sys-
tems. In addition, changing the semantics of
read
will require changes to many
user programs.
Another alternative is available in the event that it is possible to tell in advance
if a call will block.
In most versions of UNIX, a system call,
select
, exists, which
allows the caller to tell whether a prospective
read
will block. When this call is
present, the library procedure
read
can be replaced with a new one that first does a
select
call and then does the
read
call only if it is safe (i.e., will not block).
If the
read
call will block, the call is not made. Instead, another thread is run.
The next
time the run-time system gets control, it can check again to see if the
read
is now
safe. This approach requires rewriting parts of the system call library, and is inef-
ficient and inelegant, but there is little choice. The code placed around the system
call to do the checking is called a
jacket
or
wrapper
.
Ace your assessments! Get Better Grades
Browse thousands of Study Materials & Solutions from your Favorite Schools
Concordia University
Concordia_University
School:
Operating_Systems
Course:
Great resource for chem class. Had all the past labs and assignments
Leland P.
Santa Clara University
Introducing Study Plan
Using AI Tools to Help you understand and remember your course concepts better and faster than any other resource.
Find the best videos to learn every concept in that course from Youtube and Tiktok without searching.
Save All Relavent Videos & Materials and access anytime and anywhere
Prepare Smart and Guarantee better grades
Know more
Students also viewed documents
lab 18.docx
lab_18.docx
Course
Course
3
Module5QuizSTA2023.d...
Module5QuizSTA2023.docx.docx
Course
Course
10
Week 7 Test Math302....
Week_7_Test_Math302.docx.docx
Course
Course
30
Chapter 1 Assigment ...
Chapter_1_Assigment_Questions.docx.docx
Course
Course
5
Week 4 tests.docx.do...
Week_4_tests.docx.docx
Course
Course
23
Week 6 tests.docx.do...
Week_6_tests.docx.docx
Course
Course
106
