What specific operating system scheduler favors processes that have shorter CPU burst times, aiming to minimize the average waiting time?

The specific operating system scheduler that favors processes with shorter CPU burst times, aiming to minimize the average waiting time, is called Shortest-Job-First (SJF). An operating system scheduler is a component of the operating system that selects which process should be executed by the Central Processing Unit (CPU) next. A process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. A CPU burst time refers to the amount of time a process needs to use the CPU before it performs an I/O operation or terminates. The SJF scheduling algorithm operates by always selecting the process that has the smallest estimated CPU burst time from the set of processes that are ready to run, known as the ready queue. By executing shorter jobs first, SJF minimizes the average waiting time for all processes. Waiting time is the total amount of time a process spends in the ready queue waiting for its turn on the CPU. The average waiting time is calculated by summing the waiting times of all processes and then dividing by the total number of processes. For example, if a short process and a long process are waiting, running the short process first allows it to complete quickly, reducing its own waiting time and the total time other processes must wait for the CPU to become available. If the long process ran first, the short process would wait for a longer duration, contributing more to the overall average waiting time. A practical challenge with SJF is knowing the exact future CPU burst time for a process; typically, this is estimated based on past CPU burst times using techniques like exponential averaging. SJF can be implemented in two forms: non-preemptive, where a process, once started, runs to completion or blocks; and preemptive, known as Shortest-Remaining-Time-First (SRTF), where the currently executing process can be interrupted if a new process arrives in the ready queue with a CPU burst time (or remaining burst time) shorter than what is left for the running process.