05 Lect121314 (3)

Chapter 4: Threads
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Motivation
 Most modern applications are multithreaded

 Threads run within application
 Multiple tasks with the application can be implemented by
separate threads
 Update display
 Fetch data
 Spell checking
 Answer a network request
 Process creation is heavy-weight while thread creation is
light-weight
 Can simplify code, increase efficiency
 Kernels are generally multithreaded
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 4.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Multithreaded Server Architecture
Benefits
 Responsiveness – may allow continued execution if part of

process is blocked, especially important for user interfaces
 Resource Sharing – threads share resources of process, easier
than shared memory or message passing
 Economy – cheaper than process creation, thread switching
lower overhead than context switching
 Scalability – process can take advantage of multiprocessor
architectures
Single and Multithreaded Processes
User Threads and Kernel Threads
 User threads - management done by user-level threads library

 Three primary thread libraries:
 POSIX Pthreads
 Windows threads
 Java threads
 Kernel threads - Supported by the Kernel
 Examples – virtually all general purpose operating systems, including:
 Windows
 Solaris
 Linux
 Tru64 UNIX
 Mac OS X
Multithreading Models
 Many-to-One
 One-to-One
 Many-to-Many
Many-to-One
 Many user-level threads mapped to

single kernel thread
 One thread blocking causes all to block
 Multiple threads may not run in parallel
on muticore system because only one
may be in kernel at a time
 Few systems currently use this model
 Examples:
 Solaris Green Threads
 GNU Portable Threads
One-to-One
 Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread
 Creating a user-level thread creates a kernel thread
 More concurrency than many-to-one
 Number of threads per process sometimes
restricted due to overhead
 Examples
 Windows
 Linux
 Solaris 9 and later
Many-to-Many Model
 Allows many user level threads to be
mapped to many kernel threads
 Allows the operating system to create
a sufficient number of kernel threads
 Solaris prior to version 9
 Windows with the ThreadFiber
package
Thread Libraries
 Thread library provides programmer with API for creating

and managing threads
 Two primary ways of implementing
 Library entirely in user space
 Kernel-level library supported by the OS
Pthreads
 May be provided either as user-level or kernel-level

 A POSIX standard (IEEE 1003.1c) API for thread creation and
synchronization
 Specification, not implementation
 API specifies behavior of the thread library, implementation is
up to development of the library
 Common in UNIX operating systems (Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X)
 Compile thread code with -lpthread switch at the end
Pthreads Example
#include<stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int sum; /* this data is shared by the thread(s) */
void *runner(void *param); /* the thread */
int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
pthread_t tid; /* the thread identifier */
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: a.out <integer value>\n");
return -1;
}
if (atoi(argv[1]) < 0) {
fprintf(stderr,"Argument %d must be non negative\
n",atoi(argv[1]));
return -1;
}
Pthreads Example (Cont.)
/* create the thread */

pthread_create(&tid,0,runner,argv[1]);
/* now wait for the thread to exit */

pthread_join(tid,NULL);
printf("sum = %d\n",sum);
}
void *runner(void *param)

{
int i;
sum=0;
int upper = atoi((char *)param);
if (upper > 0) {
for (i = 1; i <= upper; i++)
sum += i;
}
pthread_exit(0);
}
Pthreads Code for Joining 10 Threads
Operating System Concepts – 9 th Edition 4. 21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Windows Multithreaded C Program
Windows Multithreaded C Program (Cont.)
Java Threads
 Java threads are managed by the JVM

 Typically implemented using the threads model provided by
underlying OS
 Java threads may be created by:
 Extending Thread class

 Implementing the Runnable interface
Java Multithreaded Program
Java Multithreaded Program (Cont.)
Threading issues - Thread Cancellation
 Terminating a thread before it has finished
 Thread to be canceled is target thread
 Two general approaches:
 Asynchronous cancellation terminates the target thread
immediately
 Deferred cancellation allows the target thread to periodically
check if it should be cancelled
 Pthread code to create and cancel a thread:
Implicit Threading
 Growing in popularity as numbers of threads increase,

program correctness more difficult with explicit threads
 Creation and management of threads done by compilers and
run-time libraries rather than programmers
 Implemented through a method called Thread Pools
Thread Pools
 Create a number of threads in a pool where they await work
 Advantages:
 Usually slightly faster to service a request with an existing
thread than create a new thread
 Allows the number of threads in the application(s) to be
bound to the size of the pool
 Separating task to be performed from mechanics of
creating task allows different strategies for running task
 i.e.Tasks could be scheduled to run periodically
 Windows API supports thread pools:
End of Chapter 4
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013

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Chapter 4: Threads

 Most modern applications are multithreaded

 Responsiveness – may allow continued execution if part of

 User threads - management done by user-level threads library

 Many user-level threads mapped to

 Thread library provides programmer with API for creating

 May be provided either as user-level or kernel-level

int sum; /* this data is shared by the thread(s) */

void runner(void param); /* the thread */

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

/* create the thread */

/* now wait for the thread to exit */

void runner(void param)

Operating System Concepts – 9 th Edition 4. 21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013

 Java threads are managed by the JVM

 Extending Thread class

 Growing in popularity as numbers of threads increase,

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