Why the Displayed CPU Utilization of a Single Process is 100% While the Utilization of Both Processors is Only 50%

The displayed CPU utilization of a single process can be 100% while the utilization of both processors is only 50% because the operating system is scheduling the process on only one processor at a time. This can happen for a number of reasons, including:

• The process is using a lot of CPU resources, such as processing a large amount of data or performing a computationally intensive task.
• The operating system is trying to prevent the process from monopolizing the CPU and starving other processes.
• The process is not multithreaded, so it can only run on one processor at a time.

The feature of the operating system that might make this possible is called time slicing. Time slicing is a scheduling algorithm that allows each process to run for a short period of time, called a time quantum, before the operating system switches to another process. This ensures that all processes get a fair share of the CPU, even if one process is using a lot of resources.

In the case of a process that is using 100% of the CPU, the operating system will only give it a time quantum of one CPU cycle. This means that the process will only be able to run for one clock cycle before the operating system switches to another process. This will keep the process from monopolizing the CPU and starving other processes.

Time slicing can be a good way to prevent one process from hogging the CPU, but it can also lead to the displayed CPU utilization of a single process being 100% while the utilization of both processors is only 50%. This is because the operating system is constantly switching between processes, so the CPU is not always running at full speed.

There are a few things that can be done to improve the situation. One is to use a different scheduling algorithm, such as round robin scheduling. Round robin scheduling gives each process a time quantum of a fixed length, regardless of how much CPU resources it is using. This means that a process that is using a lot of resources will not be able to monopolize the CPU.

Another thing that can be done is to use a multithreaded process. A multithreaded process is a process that can run on multiple processors at the same time. This will allow the process to take advantage of all of the available CPU resources and avoid hogging the CPU.

Finally, the operating system can be configured to give more CPU resources to processes that are using a lot of resources. This can be done by setting the priority of the process to a higher value. A process with a higher priority will be given more CPU time than a process with a lower priority.

By using these techniques, it is possible to improve the performance of the system and prevent one process from hogging the CPU.