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\chapter{Data Structures}
\label{data_structures}
\section{Process Control Block}
\label{process_control_block}
The operating system stores information about processes in a Process Control Block\index{Process Control Block} (PCB)\index{PCB}. Defined in {\tt mpx.h}, the PCB stores the following information:
\begin{enumerate}
\item A pointer to the next PCB in the chain.
\item A pointer to the previous PCB in the queue.
\item A pointer to the next PCB in the queue.
\item A 9-character array to store the process name.\footnote{Note that thus, the maximum length of a process name is 8 characters, since character 9 will be {\tt 0x0}.}
\item A type (application or system).
\item A state (ready, running, or blocked).
\item A ``suspended'' flag.
\item A stack pointer for the process's stack.
\item An array of size {\tt STACK\_SIZE} to store the stack.
\item The address at which the process is loaded in memory.
\item The amount of memory allocated for the process.
\item A pointer to a parameter structure, storing the operation number and operation type for the process's current IO operation (if any).
\end{enumerate}
The actual code for the structure is listed here:
\begin{lstlisting}
struct pcbstruct {
struct pcbstruct * chain;
struct pcbstruct * next;
struct pcbstruct * prev;
char name[9];
short type;
short priority;
short state;
short suspend;
unsigned stack_ptr;
unsigned stack[STACK_SIZE];
unsigned loadaddr;
parm *parm_add;
int mem_size;
};
\end{lstlisting}
Each process control block is linked to the next one (except for the last one, whose next PCB is {\tt NULL}) by a pointer for iteration purposes. Process control blocks can reside in at most one of several system-wide queues at any given time.
\subsection{Ready Queue}
The ready queue is maintained as a priority-ordered list of processes that are ready to be run. This way, the dispatcher knows which process to start next. Queue operations stored in {\tt pcb.c} use the {\tt next} and {\tt prev} fields of the PCB to create a doubly-linked list and is prioritized using the PCB's {\tt priority} field. By definition, the priority of an application process must be greater than the minimum priority and smaller than the maxiumum priority of a system process. In this way, we can assign the idle process to have the lowest possible priority and the command handler to have the highest possible priority.
\subsection{I/O Queue}
The I/O queue stores queue of processes involved in I/O operations. This queue is a normal FIFO queue, contrasted with the Ready Queue.
\section{Device Control Block}
\label{device_control_block}
In order to manage I/O devices, MPX-OS uses Device Control Blocks,\index{Device Control Block} or DCBs. The {\tt struct} for the DCB is defined in {\tt mpx.h}, and is accessible to all component programs.
The following information is stored:
\begin{enumerate}
\item The current operation.
\item A pointer to the event flag used to signal completion.
\item A pointer to the PCB currently using the device.
\item A pointer to the head of the queue of PCBs waiting to use the device.
\item A far pointer to an int to store the length of the device buffer. The far pointer allows it to point to a different section of memory, since the variable will be declared in a user program.
\item A far pointer to a char array to store the I/O buffer.
\item A count of the number of characters in the buffer.
\item A char array to act as the ring buffer, implemented as a circular queue (see below).
\item The index of the front element of the ring buffer.
\item The index of the rear element of the ring buffer.
\item The number of characters in the ring buffer.
\item The maximum size of the ring buffer.
\end{enumerate}
The code for the DCB structure is listed below:
\begin{lstlisting}
struct dcb_struct {
unsigned current_op;
unsigned * event_flag;
pcb * current_pcb;
pcb * pcb_head;
far int * length;
far char * buffer;
int count;
far char * c_buffer;
char ring[INPUT_BUFFER_MAX];
int ring_front;
int ring_rear;
int ring_count;
int ring_size;
};
\end{lstlisting}
\subsection{Ring Buffer}
The ring buffer is used to implement type-ahead; that is, inputted characters are stored by the DCB when there is no current read operation and inserted into the buffer when a read request is made. There are several variables in the DCB structure used to implement the circular queue, whose logic is located in {\tt dcb.c}
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