Chapter 4: Threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Chapter 4: Threads
 Overview
 Multithreading Models
 Thread Libraries
 Threading Issues
 Operating System Examples
 Windows XP Threads
 Linux Threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Objectives
 To introduce the notion of a thread — a fundamental unit of CPU utilization that
forms the basis of multithreaded computer systems

 To discuss the APIs for the Pthreads, Win32, and Java thread libraries

 To examine issues related to multithreaded programming

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Motivation
 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 – 8th Edition 4.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Single and Multithreaded Processes

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 Benefits
 Responsiveness

 Resource Sharing

 Economy

 Scalability

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multicore Programming
 Multicore systems putting pressure on programmers, challenges include:
 Dividing activities
 Balance
 Data splitting
 Data dependency
 Testing and debugging

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Multithreaded Server Architecture

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 Concurrent Execution on a
Single-core System

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 Parallel Execution on a
Multicore System

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

 Three primary thread libraries:

 POSIX Pthreads
 Win32 threads
 Java threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Kernel Threads
 Supported by the Kernel

 Examples
 Windows XP/2000
 Solaris
 Linux
 Tru64 UNIX
 Mac OS X

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 Multithreading Models
 Many-to-One

 One-to-One

 Many-to-Many

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Many-to-One
 Many user-level threads mapped to single kernel thread

 Examples:
 Solaris Green Threads
 GNU Portable Threads

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 Many-to-One Model

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 One-to-One
 Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread

 Examples
 Windows NT/XP/2000
 Linux
 Solaris 9 and later

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 One-to-one Model

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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 NT/2000 with the ThreadFiber package

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 Many-to-Many Model

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 Two-level Model
 Similar to M:M, except that it allows a user thread to be bound to kernel
thread

 Examples
 IRIX
 HP-UX
 Tru64 UNIX
 Solaris 8 and earlier

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Two-level Model

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Pthreads
 May be provided either as user-level or kernel-level

 A POSIX standard (IEEE 1003.1c) API for thread creation and synchronization

 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)

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Pthreads Example

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 Pthreads Example (Cont.)

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 Win32 API Multithreaded C Program

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 Win32 API Multithreaded C Program (Cont.)

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 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

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 Java Multithreaded Program

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 Java Multithreaded Program (Cont.)

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 Threading Issues
 Semantics of fork() and exec() system calls

 Thread cancellation of target thread

 Asynchronous or deferred

 Signal handling
 Synchronous and asynchronous

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 Threading Issues (Cont.)

 Thread pools
 Thread-specific data
 Create Facility needed for data private to thread
 Scheduler activations

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 Semantics of fork() and exec()
 Does fork() duplicate only the calling thread or all threads?

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Thread Cancellation
 Terminating a thread before it has finished

 Two general approaches:

 Asynchronous cancellation terminates the target thread immediately.
 Deferred cancellation allows the target thread to periodically check if it
should be cancelled.

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Signal Handling
 Signals are used in UNIX systems to notify a process that a particular event
has occurred.

 A signal handler is used to process signals

1. Signal is generated by particular event
2. Signal is delivered to a process
3. Signal is handled

 Options:
 Deliver the signal to the thread to which the signal applies
 Deliver the signal to every thread in the process
 Deliver the signal to certain threads in the process
 Assign a specific thread to receive all signals for the process

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 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

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Thread Specific Data
 Allows each thread to have its own copy of data

 Useful when you do not have control over the thread creation process (i.e.,
when using a thread pool)

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Scheduler Activations
 Both M:M and Two-level models require communication to maintain the
appropriate number of kernel threads allocated to the application

 Scheduler activations provide upcalls - a communication mechanism from

the kernel to the thread library

 This communication allows an application to maintain the correct number

kernel threads

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition 4.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009
 Lightweight Processes

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 End of Chapter 4

Operating System Concepts – 8th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2009