priority scheduling

1 definition found

priority scheduling - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  priority scheduling
  
     <operating system> Processes scheduling in which the
     scheduler selects tasks to run based on their priority as
     opposed to, say, a simple round-robin.
  
     Priorities may be static or dynamic.  Static priorities are
     assigned at the time of creation, while dynamic priorities are
     based on the processes' behaviour while in the system.  For
     example, the scheduler may favour I/O-intensive tasks so
     that expensive requests can be issued as early as possible.
  
     A danger of priority scheduling is starvation, in which
     processes with lower priorities are not given the opportunity
     to run.  In order to avoid starvation, in preemptive
     scheduling, the priority of a process is gradually reduced
     while it is running.  Eventually, the priority of the running
     process will no longer be the highest, and the next process
     will start running.  This method is called aging.