操作系统精髓与设计原理英文Chapter04.ppt

Threads, SMP, and Microkernels Chapter 4 Process Resource ownership - process includes a virtual address space to hold the process image Scheduling/execution- follows an execution path that may be interleaved with other processes These two characteristics are treated independently by the operating system Process Dispatching is referred to as a thread or lightweight process Resource of ownership is referred to as a process or task Multithreading Operating system supports multiple threads of execution within a single process MS-DOS supports a single thread UNIX supports multiple user processes but only supports one thread per process Windows, Solaris, Linux, Mach, and OS/2 support multiple threads Process Have a virtual address space which holds the process image Protected access to processors, other processes, files, and I/O resources Thread An execution state (running, ready, etc.) Saved thread context when not running Has an execution stack Some per-thread static storage for local variables Access to the memory and resources of its process all threads of a process share the memory allocated to this process Benefits of Threads Takes less time to create a new thread than a process no need to allocate a virtual address space Less time to terminate a thread than a process not concerned with Memory and other resources Less time to switch between two threads within the same process process switches result in the invalidation of current CPU cache and TLB, and even worse, may trigger a swapping Since threads within the same process share memory and files, they can communicate with each other without invoking the kernel Uses of Threads in a Single-User Multiprocessing System Foreground to background work one thread displays menus and read user input while another thread executes user commands Asynchronous processing Speed of execution on a multiprocessor system, multiple threads from the same process may be able to execute simultaneously Modular program structure Threads