CPU Scheduling

        On operating systems that support them, it is kernel-level threads—not processes—that are being scheduled by the operating system. However, the terms process scheduling and thread scheduling are often used interchangeably. In this chapter, we use process scheduling when discussing general scheduling concepts and thread scheduling to refer to thread-specific ideas.

 

6.1 Basic Concepts

An I/O-bound program typically has many short CPU bursts. A CPU-bound program might have a few long CPU bursts. This distribution can be important in the selection of an appropriate CPU-scheduling algorithm.