Operating Systems: A statistical model for console behavior in multiuser computers

The ability of a computer system to communicate with the outside world efficiently is as important as its ability to perform computations efficiently. It is quite difficult to characterize a particular user, but rather easy to characterize the entire user community. Based on the properties of this community we have postulated a hypothetical “virtual console.” No claim is made that a virtual console behaves like any actual console, but the entire collection of virtual consoles models the collection of actual consoles. Using the model we answer questions like: How many processes are suspended waiting for console input? What is the maximum rate at which a process can execute? What bounds can be set on overall buffer requirements? Answers to these and similar questions are needed in certain aspects of operating system design.

View this article in the ACM Digital Library.