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Process in Operating System

A process is an executing instance of a program, encompassing its code, current activity, and resources. The Process Control Block (PCB) holds essential information about the process, while process management involves creating, executing, and terminating processes. Efficient management of processes is crucial for system stability and multitasking.

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3 views2 pages

Process in Operating System

A process is an executing instance of a program, encompassing its code, current activity, and resources. The Process Control Block (PCB) holds essential information about the process, while process management involves creating, executing, and terminating processes. Efficient management of processes is crucial for system stability and multitasking.

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171ca040bca
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Process in Operating System

1. Process Concept

A process is an executing instance of a program. It includes the program code, current activity (indicated by

the value of the Program Counter), process stack, data section, and other resources.

Key components of a process:

- Program Code (Text section)

- Program Counter

- Stack (for temporary data)

- Heap (for dynamic memory)

- Data Section (global variables)

- Registers and Process Control Block (PCB)

2. Process Control Block (PCB)

The PCB is a data structure that holds information about a process:

- Process ID (PID)

- Process State

- Program Counter

- CPU Registers

- Memory Management Info

- Accounting Info

- I/O Status

3. Process Management

Process management refers to managing the creation, execution, suspension, and termination of processes.

Major OS responsibilities:

- Create and delete user/system processes

- Suspend and resume processes

- Provide mechanisms for process synchronization


Process in Operating System

- Provide mechanisms for process communication

- Handle deadlocks

4. Process States

Processes transition through multiple states during their lifecycle:

1. New: Process is being created

2. Ready: Waiting to be assigned to a processor

3. Running: Instructions are being executed

4. Waiting: Waiting for some event like I/O

5. Terminated: Finished execution

6. Suspended: Temporarily moved to secondary storage

State transitions:

- New -> Ready -> Running -> Terminated

- Running -> Waiting (for I/O)

- Waiting -> Ready (after I/O completes)

- Running -> Ready (preemption by scheduler)

5. Summary

A process is a fundamental unit of work in an OS. It is more than a program and includes execution context.

The OS must manage multiple processes efficiently using process control blocks, scheduling, and state

transitions. Proper process management ensures system stability, multitasking, and resource sharing.

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