CPU

CHAPTER
5
Scheduling

Exercises
5.11 Of these two types of programs:

a. I/O-bound

b. CPU-bound

which is more likely to have voluntary context switches, and which

is more likely to have nonvoluntary context switches? Explain your
answer.
5.12 Discuss how the following pairs of scheduling criteria conflict in certain
settings.

a. CPU utilization and response time

b. Average turnaround time and maximum waiting time

c. I/O device utilization and CPU utilization

5.13 One technique for implementing lottery scheduling works by assigning

processes lottery tickets, which are used for allocating CPU time. When-
ever a scheduling decision has to be made, a lottery ticket is chosen at
random, and the process holding that ticket gets the CPU. The BTV oper-
ating system implements lottery scheduling by holding a lottery 50 times
each second, with each lottery winner getting 20 milliseconds of CPU
time (20 milliseconds × 50 = 1 second). Describe how the BTV scheduler
can ensure that higher-priority threads receive more attention from the
CPU than lower-priority threads.

5.14 Most scheduling algorithms maintain a run queue, which lists processes
eligible to run on a processor. On multicore systems, there are two
general options: (1) each processing core has its own run queue, or
(2) a single run queue is shared by all processing cores. What are the
advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches?
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5.15 Consider the exponential average formula used to predict the length of
the next CPU burst. What are the implications of assigning the following
values to the parameters used by the algorithm?
a. α = 0 and τ0 = 100 milliseconds
b. α = 0.99 and τ0 = 10 milliseconds
5.16 A variation of the round-robin scheduler is the regressive round-robin
scheduler. This scheduler assigns each process a time quantum and a
priority. The initial value of a time quantum is 50 milliseconds. However,
every time a process has been allocated the CPU and uses its entire time
quantum (does not block for I/O), 10 milliseconds is added to its time
quantum, and its priority level is boosted. (The time quantum for a
process can be increased to a maximum of 100 milliseconds.) When a
process blocks before using its entire time quantum, its time quantum is
reduced by 5 milliseconds, but its priority remains the same. What type
of process (CPU-bound or I/O-bound) does the regressive round-robin
scheduler favor? Explain.
5.17 Consider the following set of processes, with the length of the CPU burst
given in milliseconds:
Process Burst Time Priority
P1 5 4
P2 3 1
P3 1 2
P4 7 2
P5 4 3
The processes are assumed to have arrived in the order P1 , P2 , P3 , P4 , P5 ,
all at time 0.
a. Draw four Gantt charts that illustrate the execution of these pro-
cesses using the following scheduling algorithms: FCFS, SJF, non-
preemptive priority (a larger priority number implies a higher
priority), and RR (quantum = 2).
b. What is the turnaround time of each process for each of the
scheduling algorithms in part a?
c. What is the waiting time of each process for each of these schedul-
ing algorithms?
d. Which of the algorithms results in the minimum average waiting
time (over all processes)?
5.18 The following processes are being scheduled using a preemptive,
Each process is assigned a numerical priority, with a higher number indi-
priority-based, round-robin scheduling algorithm.
cating a higher relative priority. The scheduler will execute the highest-
priority process. For processes with the same priority, a round-robin
scheduler will be used with a time quantum of 10 units. If a process is
preempted by a higher-priority process, the preempted process is placed
at the end of the queue.
a. Show the scheduling order of the processes using a Gantt chart.
 Exercises 21

Process Priority Burst Arrival

P1 8 15 0
P2 3 20 0
P3 4 20 20
P4 4 20 25
P5 5 5 45
P6 5 15 55

b. What is the turnaround time for each process?

c. What is the waiting time for each process?
5.19 The nice command is used to set the nice value of a process on Linux,
as well as on other UNIX systems. Explain why some systems may allow
any user to assign a process a nice value >= 0 yet allow only the root (or
administrator) user to assign nice values < 0.
5.20 Which of the following scheduling algorithms could result in starvation?
a. First-come, first-served
b. Shortest job first
c. Round robin
d. Priority
5.21 Consider a variant of the RR scheduling algorithm in which the entries
in the ready queue are pointers to the PCBs.
a. What would be the effect of putting two pointers to the same
process in the ready queue?
b. What would be two major advantages and two disadvantages of
this scheme?
c. How would you modify the basic RR algorithm to achieve the same
effect without the duplicate pointers?
5.22 Consider a system running ten I/O-bound tasks and one CPU-bound
task. Assume that the I/O-bound tasks issue an I/O operation once for
every millisecond of CPU computing and that each I/O operation takes
10 milliseconds to complete. Also assume that the context-switching
overhead is 0.1 millisecond and that all processes are long-running tasks.
Describe the CPU utilization for a round-robin scheduler when:
a. The time quantum is 1 millisecond
b. The time quantum is 10 milliseconds
5.23 Consider a system implementing multilevel queue scheduling. What
strategy can a computer user employ to maximize the amount of CPU
time allocated to the user’s process?
5.24 Consider a preemptive priority scheduling algorithm based on dynami-
cally changing priorities. Larger priority numbers imply higher priority.
22 Chapter 5 CPU Scheduling

When a process is waiting for the CPU (in the ready queue, but not run-
ning), its priority changes at a rate α. When it is running, its priority
changes at a rate β. All processes are given a priority of 0 when they
enter the ready queue. The parameters α and β can be set to give many
different scheduling algorithms.
a. What is the algorithm that results from β > α > 0?
b. What is the algorithm that results from α < β < 0?

5.25 Explain the how the following scheduling algorithms discriminate either
in favor of or against short processes:
a. FCFS

b. RR
c. Multilevel feedback queues
5.26 Describe why a shared ready queue might suffer from performance
problems in an SMP environment.
5.27 Consider a load-balancing algorithm that ensures that each queue has
approximately the same number of threads, independent of priority.
How effectively would a priority-based scheduling algorithm handle
this situation if one run queue had all high-priority threads and a second
queue had all low-priority threads?
5.28 Assume that an SMP system has private, per-processor run queues.
When a new process is created, it can be placed in either the same queue
as the parent process or a separate queue.
a. What are the benefits of placing the new process in the same queue
as its parent?
b. What are the benefits of placing the new process in a different
queue?
5.29 Assume that a thread has blocked for network I/O and is eligible to
run again. Describe why a NUMA-aware scheduling algorithm should
reschedule the thread on the same CPU on which it previously ran.
5.30 Using the Windows scheduling algorithm, determine the numeric pri-
ority of each of the following threads.
a. A thread in the REALTIME PRIORITY CLASS with a relative priority
of NORMAL
b. A thread in the ABOVE NORMAL PRIORITY CLASS with a relative
priority of HIGHEST
c. A thread in the BELOW NORMAL PRIORITY CLASS with a relative
priority of ABOVE NORMAL
5.31 Assuming that no threads belong to the REALTIME PRIORITY CLASS and
that none may be assigned a TIME CRITICAL priority, what combination
 Exercises 23

of priority class and priority corresponds to the highest possible relative

priority in Windows scheduling?
5.32 Consider the scheduling algorithm in the Solaris operating system for
time-sharing threads.
a. What is the time quantum (in milliseconds) for a thread with pri-
ority 15? With priority 40?
b. Assume that a thread with priority 50 has used its entire time
quantum without blocking. What new priority will the scheduler
assign this thread?
c. Assume that a thread with priority 20 blocks for I/O before its time
quantum has expired. What new priority will the scheduler assign
this thread?

5.33 Assume that two tasks, A and B, are running on a Linux system. The nice
values of A and B are −5 and +5, respectively. Using the CFS scheduler as
a guide, describe how the respective values of vruntime vary between
the two processes given each of the following scenarios:
• Both A and B are CPU-bound.
• A is I/O-bound, and B is CPU-bound.
• A is CPU-bound, and B is I/O-bound.
5.34 Provide a specific circumstance that illustrates where rate-monotonic
scheduling is inferior to earliest-deadline-first scheduling in meeting
real-time process deadlines?
24 Chapter 5 CPU Scheduling

5.35 Consider two processes, P1 and P2 , where p1 = 50, t1 = 25, p2 = 75, and
t2 = 30.
a. Can these two processes be scheduled using rate-monotonic
scheduling? Illustrate your answer using a Gantt chart such as the
ones in Figure 5.21–Figure 5.24.
b. Illustrate the scheduling of these two processes using earliest-
deadline-first (EDF) scheduling.
 Exercises 25

5.36 Explain why interrupt and dispatch latency times must be bounded in a
hard real-time system.
5.37 Describe the advantages of using heterogeneous multiprocessing in a
mobile system.