From Program to Processor

About this interactive

Your computer runs many programs at once, and each program can be doing many things at once. The operating system keeps them apart with processes. Every program you open launches at least one process, and Chrome launches several, roughly one for each tab or site. Each process gets a number, its process ID (PID), so the system can tell thousands of them apart. When a process has work for the CPU, it flags the scheduler. The scheduler weighs that process's priority against everything else that is waiting, since some processes matter more than others, and puts it in the queue for the CPU. The CPU runs the work, and the result goes back to the program or out to a device. Close the program and its processes end. You can watch this in Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc). The Processes tab shows apps and background processes and can sort them by CPU use; the Details tab lists every process with its PID. Open Chrome with a few tabs and the list grows; close Chrome and its processes disappear. All seven steps are presented every run: take one out and the story no longer holds together.

What you'll learn

Put in order what happens from opening a program to closing it: processes start with their own process IDs, the scheduler prioritises and queues their work, and the CPU runs it
Explain the scheduler's job: it weighs each process's priority and lines its work up for the CPU

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+

3.1 Explain the purpose of operating systems.

3.2 Compare and contrast components of an operating system.

Key terms

Process: An instance of a program being executed by the operating system, assigned resources and managed alongside other running processes.
Scheduler: An operating system component that prioritizes and queues processes for CPU execution.
Process Identification Number: A unique numeric identifier assigned by the operating system to each active process. Administrators use PIDs to monitor, signal, or terminate specific processes.
Task Manager: A Windows utility (accessed via Ctrl+Shift+Esc) that displays running processes, application status, CPU and memory usage, and allows users to end unresponsive programs.
Process Management: The operating system function that prioritizes and schedules processes from applications to be executed by the CPU.

Topics

Process Scheduler Process Identification Number Task Manager Interactive Ordering

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