System Interface Guide

Performance

Because the scheduler determines when and for how long processes run, it has an overriding importance in the performance and perceived performance of a system.

By default, all user processes are time-sharing processes. A process changes class only via a priocntl function call.

All real-time process priorities have a higher priority than any time-sharing process. As long as any real-time process is runnable, no time-sharing process or system process ever runs. So if a real-time application is not written carefully, it can completely lock out other users and essential kernel housekeeping.

Besides controlling process class and priorities, a real-time application must also control several other factors that influence its performance. The most important factors in performance are CPU power, amount of primary memory, and I/O throughput. These factors interact in complex ways. The sar(1) command has options for reporting on all performance factors.

Process State Transition

Applications that have strict real-time constraints might need to prevent processes from being swapped or paged out to secondary memory. Here's a simplified overview of UNIX process states and the transitions between states:

Figure 4-3 Process State Transition Diagram

Graphic

An active process is normally in one of the five states in the diagram. The arrows show how it changes states.

Software Latencies

See "Dispatch Latency" for information about latencies in real-time applications.