CH 5
CH 5
Synchronization
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Chapter 5: Process Synchronization
Background
The Critical-Section Problem
Peterson’s Solution
Synchronization Hardware
Mutex Locks
Semaphores
Classic Problems of Synchronization
Monitors
Synchronization Examples
Alternative Approaches
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Objectives
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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.
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Producer
while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */
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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 5.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Race Condition
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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 5.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Critical Section
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Algorithm for Process Pi
do {
critical section
turn = j;
remainder section
} while (true);
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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 5.11 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
Essentially free of race conditions in kernel mode
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.12 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]
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.13 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);
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.14 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 5.15 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
Operating systems using this not broadly scalable
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.16 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 5.17 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 5.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Solution using test_and_set()
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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
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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 5.21 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()
Originally called P() and V()
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.22 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 5.23 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
But implementation code is short
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
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Semaphore Implementation with no Busy waiting
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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);
}
}
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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);
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Classical Problems of Synchronization
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Bounded-Buffer Problem
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Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
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 5.30 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 5.31 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 5.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
do {
wait(rw_mutex);
...
/* writing is performed */
...
signal(rw_mutex);
} while (true);
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition 5.33 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 5.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Readers-Writers Problem Variations
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Dining-Philosophers Problem
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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 5.37 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 5.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013
Problems with Semaphores
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End of Chapter 5
Operating System Concepts – 9th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2013