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Operating System: Process Management

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary unit of memory management in a computer system?

Pages, typically 4KiB or 8KiB in size.

What is the purpose of the kernel's page tables in a process's virtual address space?

To track the layout of the process's virtual address space in physical memory.

What information does the kernel's internal data structures record about each process?

Various pieces of information, including the process's address space map, current status, execution priority, resource usage, and more.

What is the primary difference between a process and a thread?

A process has its own address space, while a thread is an execution context within a process and shares the same address space. Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of multithreaded applications in modern computer hardware?

They can farm out requests to individual threads, allowing them to run simultaneously on different cores and improving system performance. Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of the execution priority of a process?

It determines the amount of processor time the process gets. Signup and view all the answers

What information does the process's signal mask contain?

A record of which signals are blocked. Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the process's address space map?

To track the layout of the process's virtual address space in physical memory. Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between a process and its threads?

A process has at least one thread, but some processes have many, and each thread operates within the address space of its enclosing process. Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of multiple CPUs and multiple cores per CPU in modern computer hardware?

It allows processes to run simultaneously on different cores, improving system performance. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Process Structure

A process consists of an address space and a set of kernel data structures.
An address space is a set of memory pages marked for the process's use, containing code, libraries, variables, stacks, and kernel information.
Memory pages are the units of memory management, typically 4KiB or 8KiB in size.

Process Address Space

The process's virtual address space is laid out randomly in physical memory and tracked by the kernel's page tables.

Kernel Data Structures

The kernel maintains data structures recording information about each process, including:
Address space map
Current status (sleeping, stopped, runnable, etc.)
Execution priority
Resource usage (CPU, memory, etc.)
Open files and network ports
Signal mask (blocked signals)
Owner of the process

Threads

A thread is an execution context within a process, with its own stack and CPU context, operating within the process's address space.
Each process has at least one thread, but may have many.
Multithreading allows simultaneous execution on multiple cores, benefiting applications like BIND and Apache.
Process attributes, such as processor time and file access, affect thread execution.

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Description

Learn about the key components of a process in an operating system, including the address space and kernel data structures. Understand how memory is managed in units of pages.