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Batch Processing Operating System: What It Is, Advantages & Disadvantages

In this tutorial, we will learn about the batch processing operating system with its examples, advantages, and disadvantages. By Monika Jha Last updated : May 05, 2023

What is Batch Processing Operating System?

When we are working in an environment there is a restriction of making use of computer resources effectively and improvement in the programmer's output. When we are working with tapes a large amount of CPU time wasted in mounting tapes or when the user was operating the input/output device then also a large amount of CPU time wasted CPU was sitting without any work to perform.

In the batch system, firstly user prepares his job by using punch cards and then, he submits the job to the computer operator.

The operator collects the jobs from different users and jobs with similar requirements were batched together and run through the computer as a group.

Batch Processing Operating System

Example

For example, suppose the operator received one 'C' Program one COBOL program and another 'C' program. If these programs can be run in that order, he would have to set up for the 'C' program environment (loading the 'C' compiler tapes) then set up the COBOL program and finally 'C' program again. If he runs two 'C' as a batch, however, he could set up only once for 'C'. Thus it saves the operator's time.

• Jobs in a batch are processed in the order of submission.
• Batching similar jobs helps in the utilization of system resources quite a bit. But there were still problems. During this transaction from one job to the next, the CPU sat idle.
• To overcome this idle time, a small program called resident monitor was created which is always resident in the memory. It automatically sequenced from one job to another job.

Advantages of Batch Processing System

The following are the advantages of batch processing system:

• It is very difficult to know the time needed by any job for completion of its execution but the processors of the batch systems know how long the job would be when it is in the queue.
• A new job gets started as soon as the previous job is finished without any manual intervention; this increases the performance of the system.
• The idle time for the batch system is very less and multiple users can share the batch systems.
• This makes management easy for large work in batch systems.
• A lot of time was being wasted earlier for each individual process in context switching from one environment to another environment but batch processing saves this time also.

Disadvantages of Batch Processing System

The following are the disadvantages of batch processing system:

1. CPU may remain idle for a long time in the batch system. If the processes of a batch need some I/O operation, at that time CPU must wait till the I/O operation gets completed. Insufficient use of CPU because of speed mismatch between fast CPU and slow devices and CPU cannot take any other job and execute it.
2. Priority cannot be implemented for the jobs because all the jobs of a batch are executed sequentially one after the other so the output is obtained only after all the jobs are executed. After the submission of the job, the user has to wait a long time to obtain the result.
3. There is a lack of interaction between a user and his job. Once a batch of jobs is submitted for execution, the user is not able to interact with any of his jobs. If a job requires the user to input data during run time, then the user must wait till the other jobs of the batch get executed and if an error occurs while the program is in execution, it can be found only after the completion of all jobs. Due to this increases the overall execution time.
4. It may lead to starvation because a particular batch of jobs might take a long time for their execution of other jobs in other batches have to wait for a long time to execute.

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