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Lecture 5

A process represents a program in execution and progresses sequentially. It is defined as the basic unit of work and is divided into four sections - stack, heap, text, and data - in memory. A program is a collection of instructions that performs a task when executed, and a process is a running instance of a program. The process lifecycle includes new, ready, run, terminate, block/wait, suspend ready, and suspend wait states. A process control block (PCB) contains information like state, ID, registers, and scheduling to track each process.

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21 views5 pages

Lecture 5

A process represents a program in execution and progresses sequentially. It is defined as the basic unit of work and is divided into four sections - stack, heap, text, and data - in memory. A program is a collection of instructions that performs a task when executed, and a process is a running instance of a program. The process lifecycle includes new, ready, run, terminate, block/wait, suspend ready, and suspend wait states. A process control block (PCB) contains information like state, ID, registers, and scheduling to track each process.

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Habiba Shifa
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Process

A process is basically a program in execution. The execution of a process must progress in a sequential
fashion.
A process is defined as an entity which represents the basic unit of work to be implemented in the system.
To put it in simple terms, we write our computer programs in a text file and when we execute this program,
it becomes a process which performs all the tasks mentioned in the program.
When a program is loaded into the memory and it becomes a process, it can be divided into four sections ─
stack, heap, text and data. The following image shows a simplified layout of a process inside main memory
−

S.N. Component & Description

1
Stack
The process Stack contains the temporary data such as method/function parameters,
return address and local variables.

2
Heap
This is dynamically allocated memory to a process during its run time.

3
Text
This includes the current activity represented by the value of Program Counter and the
contents of the processor's registers.

4
Data
This section contains the global and static variables.

Program
A program is a piece of code which may be a single line or millions of lines. A computer program is usually
written by a computer programmer in a programming language. For example, here is a simple program
written in C programming language −

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
printf("Hello, World! \n");
return 0;
}
A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when executed by a
computer. When we compare a program with a process, we can conclude that a process is a dynamic
instance of a computer program.
A part of a computer program that performs a well-defined task is known as an algorithm. A collection of
computer programs, libraries and related data are referred to as a software.

Process Life Cycle


When a process executes, it passes through different states. These stages may differ in different operating
systems, and the names of these states are also not standardized.
In general, a process can have one of the following five states at a time.
New State
When a program in secondary memory is started for execution, the process is said to be in a new state.
Ready State
After being loaded into the main memory and ready for execution, a process transitions from a new to a
ready state. The process will now be in the ready state, waiting for the processor to execute it. Many
processes may be in the ready stage in a multiprogramming environment.
Run State
After being allotted the CPU for execution, a process passes from the ready state to the run state.
Terminate State
When a process’s execution is finished, it goes from the run state to the terminate state. The operating
system deletes the process control box (or PCB) after it enters the terminate state.
Block or Wait State
If a process requires an Input/Output operation or a blocked resource during execution, it changes from run
to block or the wait state. The process advances to the ready state after the I/O operation is completed or
the resource becomes available.
Suspend Ready State
If a process with a higher priority needs to be executed while the main memory is full, the process goes from
ready to suspend ready state. Moving a lower-priority process from the ready state to the suspend ready
state frees up space in the ready state for a higher-priority process.
Until the main memory becomes available, the process stays in the suspend-ready state. The process is
brought to its ready state when the main memory becomes accessible.

Suspend Wait State


If a process with a higher priority needs to be executed while the main memory is full, the process goes from
the wait state to the suspend wait state. Moving a lower-priority process from the wait state to the suspend
wait state frees up space in the ready state for a higher-priority process.
The process gets moved to the suspend-ready state once the resource becomes accessible. The process is
shifted to the ready state once the main memory is available.

Process Control Block (PCB)


A Process Control Block is a data structure maintained by the Operating System for every process. The PCB
is identified by an integer process ID (PID). A PCB keeps all the information needed to keep track of a process
as listed below in the table −

S.N. Information & Description

1
Process State
The current state of the process i.e., whether it is ready, running, waiting, or whatever.

2
Process privileges
This is required to allow/disallow access to system resources.

3
Process ID
Unique identification for each of the process in the operating system.

4
Pointer
A pointer to parent process.

5
Program Counter
Program Counter is a pointer to the address of the next instruction to be executed for this
process.

6
CPU registers
Various CPU registers where process need to be stored for execution for running state.

7
CPU Scheduling Information
Process priority and other scheduling information which is required to schedule the process.

8
Memory management information
This includes the information of page table, memory limits, Segment table depending on
memory used by the operating system.

9
Accounting information
This includes the amount of CPU used for process execution, time limits, execution ID etc.

10
IO status information
This includes a list of I/O devices allocated to the process.

The architecture of a PCB is completely dependent on Operating System and may contain different
information in different operating systems. Here is a simplified diagram of a PCB −
The PCB is maintained for a process throughout its lifetime, and is deleted once the process terminates.

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