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I have:

A I/O devices
B Processors
C Processes

My main memory is large enough to hold C processes.

A is smaller than B and B smaller than C

What is the maximum number of processes that can be in either block-suspended state or in ready-suspended state at one time?

In other words: How many processes can a hard drive hold at one time according to my data shown above? A,B,C are numbers

Dchris
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1 Answers1

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The maximum number of blocked processes can be C, you could be dead-locked. The maximum blocked processes that won't result in a deadlock is C - 1. Someone has to be doing work somewhere to advance the system.

The maximum number of ready processes is going to be C - B. Everything is ready to run, and B processes are currently running.

The number of I/O devices doesn't matter. Either everyone is fighting over a single resource, or everyone is fighting over many resources. In the end, the amount of contention is going to be a factor of resource utilization.

Mark Robinson
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  • in my diagram, there are 5 states,READY,RUNNING,BLOCKED,BLOCKED-SUSPEND and READY-SUSPEND.i agree with you that maximum number of ready can be C-B, running B and blocked can be C. BLOCKED-SUSPEND and READY-SUSPEND are states in a secondary memory.and i want to find out what is the maximum number of processes that can be on those states at one time according to my data.also i cant find in which state belong the blocked processes that won't result ina deadlock(C-1)... – Dchris Feb 06 '11 at 16:26
  • Assuming everything is suspended to same pool then you will roughly get. SUSPENDED = Size of Pool / Average size of process That would be the maximum number of processes you can suspend. – Mark Robinson Feb 06 '11 at 22:17