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Operating Systems Chapter 3
Terms from Chapter Three of Operating Systems Concepts by Galvin, Silberschatz, and Gagne
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Computer Science
Undergraduate 3
02/10/2013

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Term
Process
Definition
A program that is currently executing.
Term
Text Section
Definition
Program counter and the programs registers. The additional part of a process beyond execution code.
Term
Program Counter
Definition
A value that represents a programs current activity.
Term
Stack
Definition
A data structure that contains the programs temporary data.
Term
Data Section
Definition
Data structure that contains global variables.
Term
Heap
Definition
Dynamically allocated memory during a programs execution.
Term
Process State
Definition
New, running, waiting, ready, terminated. Represents the current activity of the process.
Term
Process State: New
Definition
The process is being created.
Term
Process State: Running
Definition
The process is currently executing.
Term
Process State: Waiting
Definition
The process is waiting for some event to occur, usually IO or receiving a signal.
Term
Process State: Ready
Definition
The process can be executed once the operating system allows it to.
Term
Process State: Terminated
Definition
The process has finished execution.
Term
Process Control Block
Definition
A data structure that contains the information about one particular process. Contains process state, program counter, CPU registers, CPU- scheduling information, memory-management information, Accounting information, IO status information.
Term
Process Scheduler
Definition
The process that selects from a list of available processes which to execute first.
Term
Job Queue
Definition
A data structure that consists of all processes in a system.
Term
Ready Queue
Definition
All processes that are ready to run.
Term
Device Queue
Definition
The list of processes waiting for IO from a particular device.
Term
Process Dispatch
Definition
A process being selected for execution.
Term
Long-Term Scheduler
Definition
In batch systems, more jobs are submitted than can be stored in memory at a time. This leads to the problem of needing to decide which jobs get loaded into memory. The Long-Term Scheduler decides this.
Term
Short-Term Scheduler
Definition
Decides which process in the ready queue gets executed.
Term
Degree of multiprogramming
Definition
The number of processes in memory. Controlled by long-term scheduler. Generally tried to be kept stable, which means that the number of processes entering the system roughly equals the number of processes leaving the system. Because of this, the long-term scheduler is only executed when a process leaves the system.
Term
I/O Bound Process
Definition
The process is waiting for I/O from a device, and is thus bound by the device.
Term
CPU Bound Process
Definition
The process needs lots of computing time to complete and is thus bound by the CPU.
Term
Process Mix
Definition
The long term scheduler tries to increase productivity by selected an even mix of CPU bound processes and I/O bound processes.
Term
Medium-Term Scheduler
Definition
An intermediate level of scheduling that decides when a process needs to be temporarily moved out of main memory and into secondary storage through swapping.
Term
Swapping
Definition
Loading a memory into memory from secondary storage or vice-versa.
Term
Context Switch
Definition
Switching between a process. Saves the state of the process and then loads another process.
Term
Process Context
Definition
The state of the process control block.
Term
State Save
Definition
Saving the process context state that it can be switched from.
Term
State Restore
Definition
Loading the process context state so it can resume execution.
Term
Parent Process
Definition
Process that creates other processes.
Term
Child Process
Definition
Process that is made by another process.
Term
Process Identifier (PID)
Definition
The ID of a process, used by the operating system to distinguish processes.
Term
Cascading Termination
Definition
Some operating systems do not allow a child process to continue without its parent process running, so when a parent process dies, all its children die with it. Very barbaric.
Term
Interprocess Communication
Definition
A mechanism that allows processes to share data and information.
Term
Independent Processes
Definition
Process that cannot be affected by the other processes running on a system. Usually parent processes.
Term
Cooperating Processes
Definition
Process that can be affected by other processes. Generally any process that uses communication with other processes is a Cooperating Process.
Term
Shared Memory
Definition
A region of memory is opened by multiple processes and message can be written in this space to be read by other processes.
Term
Message Passing
Definition
Messages are exchanged between cooperating processes. Can be direct or indirect.
Term
Unbounded Buffer
Definition
No practical limit is placed of the size of the buffer. The producer can always make more items, but the consumer may have to wait for more to become available.
Term
Bounded Buffer
Definition
The size of the buffer is limited. The producer can't always make new items, but generally there is something waiting for the consumer.
Term
Communication Link
Definition
The way processes are connected for communication.
Term
Direct Communication
Definition
A type of communication in which the sender of a message must explicitly define which process it wants its message passed to.
Term
Indirect Communication
Definition
A type of communication in which the process sends its messages to a mailbox or port for the recipient to later read.
Term
Blocking
Definition
Putting the process in the waiting state until something happens.
Term
Blocking Send
Definition
The sending process is blocked until its message is received.
Term
Blocking Receive
Definition
The receiving process is blocked until a message becomes available for it to receive.
Term
Non-Blocking Send
Definition
The process that sends a message, sends a message and then continues without waiting for confirmation that the message was received.
Term
Non-Blocking Receive
Definition
The process retrieves either a valid message or a null message, depending on if one is available.
Term
Zero-Capacity Buffer
Definition
A queue has no size, so process must block until the message is received.
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