Chapter 5: Process

Synchronization
6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.6 - 6.6.1

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 ● A cooperating process is one that can affect or be affected by
other processes executing in the system.
● Cooperating processes can either
● directly share a logical address space (that is, both code and
data)--- threads
● allowed to share data only through files or messages
● Concurrent access to shared data may result in data inconsistency
● various mechanisms to ensure the orderly execution of cooperating
processes that share a logical address space, so that data consistency
is maintained

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Background
● Processes can execute concurrently
● May be interrupted at any time, partially completing execution
● Concurrent access to shared data may result in data inconsistency
● Maintaining data consistency requires mechanisms to ensure the
orderly execution of cooperating processes
● Illustration of the problem:
Suppose that we wanted to provide a solution to the
consumer-producer problem that fills all the buffers. We can do so
by having an integer counter that keeps track of the number of full
buffers. Initially, counter is set to 0. It is incremented by the
producer after it produces a new buffer and is decremented by the
consumer after it consumes a buffer.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Producer

while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */

while (counter == BUFFER_SIZE) ;

/* do nothing */
buffer[in] = next_produced;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
counter++;
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Consumer

while (true) {
while (counter == 0)
; /* do nothing */
next_consumed = buffer[out];
out = (out + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
counter--;
/* consume the item in next consumed */
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Race Condition

● counter++ could be implemented as

register1 = counter
register1 = register1 + 1
counter = register1
● counter-- could be implemented as
register2 = counter
register2 = register2 - 1
counter = register2

● Consider this execution interleaving with “count = 5” initially:

S0: producer execute register1 = counter {register1 = 5}
S1: producer execute register1 = register1 + 1 {register1 = 6}
S2: consumer execute register2 = counter {register2 = 5}
S3: consumer execute register2 = register2 – 1 {register2 = 4}
S4: producer execute counter = register1 {counter = 6 }
S5: consumer execute counter = register2 {counter = 4}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Critical Section Problem
● Consider system of n processes {p0, p1, … pn-1}
● Each process has critical section segment of code
● Process may be changing common variables, updating table,
writing file, etc
● When one process in critical section, no other may be in its
critical section
● Critical section problem is to design protocol to solve this
● Each process must ask permission to enter critical section in entry
section, may follow critical section with exit section, then
remainder section

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Critical Section

● General structure of process Pi

P C

CS CS
Exit Exit

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solution to Critical-Section Problem
1. Mutual Exclusion - If process Pi is executing in its critical section,
then no other processes can be executing in their critical sections
2. Progress - If no process is executing in its critical section and there
exist some processes that wish to enter their critical section, then the
selection of the processes that will enter the critical section next
cannot be postponed indefinitely
3. Bounded Waiting - A bound must exist on the number of times that
other processes are allowed to enter their critical sections after a
process has made a request to enter its critical section and before that
request is granted
⚫ Assume that each process executes at a nonzero speed
⚫ No assumption concerning relative speed of the n processes

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 ● At a given point in time, many kernel-mode processes may be
active in the operating system. As a result, the code
implementing an operating system (kernel code) is subject to
several possible race conditions. Consider as an example a
kernel data structure that maintains a list of all open files in the
system. This list must be modified when a new file is opened
or closed (adding the file to the list or removing it from the
list). If two processes were to open file simultaneously, the
separate updates to this list could result in a race condition.
Other kernel data structures that are prone to possible race
conditions include structures for maintaining memory
allocation, for maintaining process lists, and for interrupt
handling. It is up to kernel developers to ensure that the
operating system is free from such race conditions

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Critical-Section Handling in OS
Two approaches depending on if kernel is preemptive or non-
preemptive
● Preemptive – allows preemption of process when running in
kernel mode
● Non-preemptive – runs until exits kernel mode, blocks, or
voluntarily yields CPU
4 Essentially free of race conditions in kernel mode
● Obviously, a nonpreemptive kernel is essentially free from race
conditions on kernel data structures, as only one process is active in
the kernel at a time
● Preemptive kernels are especially difficult to design for SMP
architectures,since in these environments it is possible for two
kernel-mode processes to run simultaneously on different processors

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 ● A preemptive kernel may be more responsive,
since there is less risk that a kernel-mode
process will run for an arbitrarily long period
before relinquishing the processor to waiting
processes.
● preemptive kernel is more suitable for
real-time programming, as it will allow a
real-time process to preempt a process
currently running in the kernel

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Algorithm for Process Pi

do { do {

while (turn == j);

while (turn == i);
critical
critical section
section
turn = j; turn = i;
remainder section remainder
} while (true); section
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Pi

While flag [i] = t, No Op

Flag [j] =t

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 ● t0 Pi flag = i
● T1 Pj flag = j
● T3 pi while (flag<>j)
● T4 pj while (flag <>i)

● t0 pi while (flag<>j)
● T1 pj while (flag <>i)
● T3 Pi flag = i
● T4 Pj flag = j

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Peterson’s Solution
● Good algorithmic description of solving the problem
● Two process solution
● Assume that the load and store machine-language instructions
are atomic; that is, cannot be interrupted
● The two processes share two variables:
● int turn;
● Boolean flag[2]

● The variable turn indicates whose turn it is to enter the critical section
● The flag array is used to indicate if a process is ready to enter the
critical section. flag[i] = true implies that process Pi is ready!

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Algorithm for Process Pi

do {
flag[i] = true;
turn = j;
while (flag[j] && turn = = j);
critical section
flag[i] = false;
remainder section
} while (true);
do {
flag[j] = true;
turn = i;
while (flag[i] && turn = = i);
critical section
flag[j] = false;
remainder section
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Peterson’s Solution (Cont.)
● Provable that the three CS requirement are met:
1. Mutual exclusion is preserved
Pi enters CS only if:
either flag[j] = false or turn = i
2. Progress requirement is satisfied
3. Bounded-waiting requirement is met

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Synchronization Hardware
● Many systems provide hardware support for implementing the critical
section code.
● All solutions below based on idea of locking
● Protecting critical regions via locks
● Uniprocessors – could disable interrupts
● Currently running code would execute without preemption
● Generally too inefficient on multiprocessor systems
4 Operating systems using this not broadly scalable
● Modern machines provide special atomic hardware instructions
4 Atomic = non-interruptible
● Either test memory word and set value
● Or swap contents of two memory words

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solution to Critical-section Problem Using Locks

do {
acquire lock
critical section
release lock
remainder section
} while (TRUE);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 test_and_set Instruction
Definition:
boolean test_and_set (boolean *target)
{
boolean rv = *target;
*target = TRUE;
return rv:
}
1. Executed atomically
2. Returns the original value of passed parameter
3. Set the new value of passed parameter to “TRUE”.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solution using test_and_set()

● Shared Boolean variable lock, initialized to FALSE

● Solution:
do {
while (test_and_set(&lock))
; /* do nothing */
/* critical section */
lock = false;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 compare_and_swap Instruction
Definition:
int compare _and_swap(int *value, int expected, int new_value) {
int temp = *value;

if (*value == expected)
*value = new_value;
return temp;
}
1. Executed atomically
2. Returns the original value of passed parameter “value”
3. Set the variable “value” the value of the passed parameter “new_value” but
only if “value” ==“expected”. That is, the swap takes place only under this
condition.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solution using compare_and_swap
● Shared integer “lock” initialized to 0;
● Solution:
do {
while (compare_and_swap(&lock, 0, 1) != 0)
; /* do nothing */
/* critical section */
lock = 0;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Bounded-waiting Mutual Exclusion with test_and_set

do {
waiting[i] = true;
key = true;
while (waiting[i] && key)
key = test_and_set(&lock);
waiting[i] = false;
/* critical section */
j = (i + 1) % n;
while ((j != i) && !waiting[j])
j = (j + 1) % n;
if (j == i)
lock = false;
else
waiting[j] = false;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Mutex Locks
● Previous solutions are complicated and generally inaccessible to
application programmers
● OS designers build software tools to solve critical section problem
● Simplest is mutex lock
● Protect a critical section by first acquire() a lock then
release() the lock
● Boolean variable indicating if lock is available or not
● Calls to acquire() and release() must be atomic
● Usually implemented via hardware atomic instructions
● But this solution requires busy waiting
● This lock therefore called a spinlock

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 acquire() and release()
● acquire() {
while (!available)
; /* busy wait */
available = false;
}
● release() {
available = true;
}
● do {
acquire lock
critical section
release lock
remainder section
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Semaphore
● Synchronization tool that provides more sophisticated ways (than Mutex locks) for
process to synchronize their activities.
● Semaphore S – integer variable
● Can only be accessed via two indivisible (atomic) operations
● wait() and signal()
4 Originally called P() and V()

● Definition of the wait() operation

wait(S) {
while (S <= 0)
; // busy wait
S--;
}
● Definition of the signal() operation
signal(S) {
S++;
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Semaphore Usage
● Counting semaphore – integer value can range over an unrestricted domain
● Binary semaphore – integer value can range only between 0 and 1
● Same as a mutex lock
● Can solve various synchronization problems
● Consider P1 and P2 that require S1 to happen before S2
Create a semaphore “synch” initialized to 0
P1:
S1;
signal(synch);
P2:
wait(synch);
S2;
● Can implement a counting semaphore S as a binary semaphore

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Semaphore Implementation
● Must guarantee that no two processes can execute the wait() and
signal() on the same semaphore at the same time
● Thus, the implementation becomes the critical section problem where
the wait and signal code are placed in the critical section
● Could now have busy waiting in critical section implementation
4 But implementation code is short
4 Little busy waiting if critical section rarely occupied
● Note that applications may spend lots of time in critical sections and
therefore this is not a good solution

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Semaphore Implementation with no Busy waiting

● With each semaphore there is an associated waiting queue

● Each entry in a waiting queue has two data items:
● value (of type integer)
● pointer to next record in the list
● Two operations:
● block – place the process invoking the operation on the
appropriate waiting queue
● wakeup – remove one of processes in the waiting queue and
place it in the ready queue
● typedef struct{
int value;
struct process *list;
} semaphore;

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Implementation with no Busy waiting (Cont.)

wait(semaphore *S) {
S->value--;
if (S->value < 0) {
add this process to S->list;
block();
}
}

signal(semaphore *S) {
S->value++;
if (S->value <= 0) {
remove a process P from S->list;
wakeup(P);
}
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Deadlock and Starvation
● Deadlock – two or more processes are waiting indefinitely for an event that
can be caused by only one of the waiting processes
● Let S and Q be two semaphores initialized to 1
P0 P1
wait(S); wait(Q);
wait(Q); wait(S);
... ...
signal(S); signal(Q);
signal(Q); signal(S);

● Starvation – indefinite blocking

● A process may never be removed from the semaphore queue in which it is
suspended
● Priority Inversion – Scheduling problem when lower-priority process holds
a lock needed by higher-priority process
● Solved via priority-inheritance protocol

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Classical Problems of Synchronization

● Classical problems used to test newly-proposed synchronization schemes

● Bounded-Buffer Problem
● Readers and Writers Problem
● Dining-Philosophers Problem

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Bounded-Buffer Problem

● n buffers, each can hold one item

● Semaphore mutex initialized to the value 1
● Semaphore full initialized to the value 0
● Semaphore empty initialized to the value n

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)

● The structure of the producer process

do {
...
/* produce an item in next_produced */
...
wait(empty);
wait(mutex);
...
/* add next produced to the buffer */
...
signal(mutex);
signal(full);
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
● The structure of the consumer process

Do {
wait(full);
wait(mutex);
...
/* remove an item from buffer to next_consumed */
...
signal(mutex);
signal(empty);
...
/* consume the item in next consumed */
...
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Readers-Writers Problem
● A data set is shared among a number of concurrent processes
● Readers – only read the data set; they do not perform any updates
● Writers – can both read and write
● Problem – allow multiple readers to read at the same time
● Only one single writer can access the shared data at the same time
● Several variations of how readers and writers are considered – all involve some
form of priorities
● Shared Data
● Data set
● Semaphore rw_mutex initialized to 1
● Semaphore mutex initialized to 1
● Integer read_count initialized to 0

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)

● The structure of a writer process

do {
wait(rw_mutex);
...
/* writing is performed */
...
signal(rw_mutex);
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
● The structure of a reader process
do {
wait(mutex);
read_count++;
if (read_count == 1)
wait(rw_mutex);
signal(mutex);
...
/* reading is performed */
...
wait(mutex);
read count--;
if (read_count == 0)
signal(rw_mutex);
signal(mutex);
} while (true);

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Readers-Writers Problem Variations

● First variation – no reader kept waiting unless writer has

permission to use shared object
● Second variation – once writer is ready, it performs the write
ASAP
● Both may have starvation leading to even more variations
● Problem is solved on some systems by kernel providing
reader-writer locks

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Dining-Philosophers Problem

● Philosophers spend their lives alternating thinking and eating

● Don’t interact with their neighbors, occasionally try to pick up 2 chopsticks
(one at a time) to eat from bowl
● Need both to eat, then release both when done
● In the case of 5 philosophers
● Shared data
4 Bowl of rice (data set)
4 Semaphore chopstick [5] initialized to 1

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Dining-Philosophers Problem Algorithm
● The structure of Philosopher i:
do {
wait (chopstick[i] );
wait (chopStick[ (i + 1) % 5] );

// eat

signal (chopstick[i] );
signal (chopstick[ (i + 1) % 5] );

// think

} while (TRUE);
● What is the problem with this algorithm?

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Dining-Philosophers Problem Algorithm (Cont.)

● Deadlock handling
● Allow at most 4 philosophers to be sitting simultaneously
at the table.
● Allow a philosopher to pick up the forks only if both are
available (picking must be done in a critical section.
● Use an asymmetric solution -- an odd-numbered
philosopher picks up first the left chopstick and then the
right chopstick. Even-numbered philosopher picks up first
the right chopstick and then the left chopstick.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Problems with Semaphores

● Incorrect use of semaphore operations:

● signal (mutex) …. wait (mutex)

● wait (mutex) … wait (mutex)

● Omitting of wait (mutex) or signal (mutex) (or both)

● Deadlock and starvation are possible.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Monitors
● A high-level abstraction that provides a convenient and effective mechanism for
process synchronization
● Abstract data type, internal variables only accessible by code within the procedure
● Only one process may be active within the monitor at a time
● But not powerful enough to model some synchronization schemes

monitor monitor-name
{
// shared variable declarations
procedure P1 (…) { …. }

procedure Pn (…) {……}

Initialization code (…) { … }

}
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Schematic view of a Monitor

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Condition Variables

● condition x, y;
● Two operations are allowed on a condition variable:
● x.wait() – a process that invokes the operation is suspended
until x.signal()
● x.signal() – resumes one of processes (if any) that invoked
x.wait()
4 If no x.wait() on the variable, then it has no effect on the
variable

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Monitor with Condition Variables

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Condition Variables Choices

● If process P invokes x.signal(), and process Q is suspended in

x.wait(), what should happen next?
● Both Q and P cannot execute in paralel. If Q is resumed, then P must wait
● Options include
● Signal and wait – P waits until Q either leaves the monitor or it waits for
another condition
● Signal and continue – Q waits until P either leaves the monitor or it waits
for another condition
● Both have pros and cons – language implementer can decide
● Monitors implemented in Concurrent Pascal compromise
4 P executing signal immediately leaves the monitor, Q is resumed
● Implemented in other languages including Mesa, C#, Java

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.51 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Monitor Solution to Dining Philosophers
monitor DiningPhilosophers
{
enum { THINKING; HUNGRY, EATING) state [5] ;
condition self [5];

void pickup (int i) {

state[i] = HUNGRY;
test(i);
if (state[i] != EATING) self[i].wait;
}

void putdown (int i) {

state[i] = THINKING;
// test left and right neighbors
test((i + 4) % 5);
test((i + 1) % 5);
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.52 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solution to Dining Philosophers (Cont.)
void test (int i) {
if ((state[(i + 4) % 5] != EATING) &&
(state[i] == HUNGRY) &&
(state[(i + 1) % 5] != EATING) ) {
state[i] = EATING ;
self[i].signal () ;
}
}

initialization_code() {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
state[i] = THINKING;
}
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.53 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solution to Dining Philosophers (Cont.)

● Each philosopher i invokes the operations pickup() and putdown()

in the following sequence:

DiningPhilosophers.pickup(i);

EAT

DiningPhilosophers.putdown(i);

● No deadlock, but starvation is possible

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.54 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Monitor Implementation Using Semaphores

● Variables

semaphore mutex; // (initially = 1)

semaphore next; // (initially = 0)
int next_count = 0;

● Each procedure F will be replaced by

wait(mutex);
…
body of F;
…
if (next_count > 0)
signal(next)
else
signal(mutex);

● Mutual exclusion within a monitor is ensured

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.55 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Monitor Implementation – Condition Variables

● For each condition variable x, we have:

semaphore x_sem; // (initially = 0)

int x_count = 0;

● The operation x.wait can be implemented as:

x_count++;
if (next_count > 0)
signal(next);
else
signal(mutex);
wait(x_sem);
x_count--;

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.56 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Monitor Implementation (Cont.)

● The operation x.signal can be implemented as:

if (x_count > 0) {
next_count++;
signal(x_sem);
wait(next);
next_count--;
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.57 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Resuming Processes within a Monitor

● If several processes queued on condition x, and x.signal() executed,

which should be resumed?
● FCFS frequently not adequate
● conditional-wait construct of the form x.wait(c)
● Where c is priority number
● Process with lowest number (highest priority) is scheduled
next

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.58 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Single Resource allocation
● Allocate a single resource among competing processes using priority
numbers that specify the maximum time a process plans to use the
resource

R.acquire(t);
...
access the resurce;
...

R.release;

● Where R is an instance of type ResourceAllocator

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.59 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 A Monitor to Allocate Single Resource
monitor ResourceAllocator
{
boolean busy;
condition x;
void acquire(int time) {
if (busy)
x.wait(time);
busy = TRUE;
}
void release() {
busy = FALSE;
x.signal();
}
initialization code() {
busy = FALSE;
}
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.60 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Synchronization Examples

● Solaris
● Windows
● Linux
● Pthreads

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.61 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Solaris Synchronization
● Implements a variety of locks to support multitasking, multithreading
(including real-time threads), and multiprocessing
● Uses adaptive mutexes for efficiency when protecting data from short code
segments
● Starts as a standard semaphore spin-lock
● If lock held, and by a thread running on another CPU, spins
● If lock held by non-run-state thread, block and sleep waiting for signal of lock
being released
● Uses condition variables
● Uses readers-writers locks when longer sections of code need access to data
● Uses turnstiles to order the list of threads waiting to acquire either an
adaptive mutex or reader-writer lock
● Turnstiles are per-lock-holding-thread, not per-object
● Priority-inheritance per-turnstile gives the running thread the highest of the
priorities of the threads in its turnstile

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.62 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Windows Synchronization

● Uses interrupt masks to protect access to global resources on

uniprocessor systems
● Uses spinlocks on multiprocessor systems
● Spinlocking-thread will never be preempted
● Also provides dispatcher objects user-land which may act mutexes,
semaphores, events, and timers
● Events
4 An event acts much like a condition variable
● Timers notify one or more thread when time expired
● Dispatcher objects either signaled-state (object available) or
non-signaled state (thread will block)

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.63 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Linux Synchronization
● Linux:
● Prior to kernel Version 2.6, disables interrupts to implement
short critical sections
● Version 2.6 and later, fully preemptive
● Linux provides:
● Semaphores
● atomic integers
● spinlocks
● reader-writer versions of both
● On single-cpu system, spinlocks replaced by enabling and
disabling kernel preemption

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.64 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Pthreads Synchronization
● Pthreads API is OS-independent
● It provides:
● mutex locks
● condition variable
● Non-portable extensions include:
● read-write locks
● spinlocks

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.65 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Alternative Approaches
● Transactional Memory

● OpenMP

● Functional Programming Languages

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.66 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Transactional Memory
● A memory transaction is a sequence of read-write operations to
memory that are performed atomically.

void update()
{
/* read/write memory */
}

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.67 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 OpenMP
● OpenMP is a set of compiler directives and API that support parallel
progamming.

void update(int value)

{
#pragma omp critical
{
count += value
}
}

The code contained within the #pragma omp critical directive is

treated as a critical section and performed atomically.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.68 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 Functional Programming Languages
● Functional programming languages offer a different paradigm than
procedural languages in that they do not maintain state.

● Variables are treated as immutable and cannot change state once they
have been assigned a value.

● There is increasing interest in functional languages such as Erlang and

Scala for their approach in handling data races.

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.69 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
 End of Chapter 5

Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013