Process Synchronization

Process Synchronization
 Background
 The Critical-Section Problem
 Peterson’s Solution
 Synchronization Hardware
 Semaphores
 Classic Problems of Synchronization
 Objectives

 To introduce the critical-section problem, whose solutions

can be used to ensure the consistency of shared data.

 To present both software and hardware solutions of the

critical-section problem.
 Background
 Concurrent access to shared data may result in data inconsistency.

 Maintaining data consistency requires mechanisms to ensure the

orderly execution of cooperating processes.

 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.
 Background
 Although both the producer and consumer routines are correct
separately, they may not function correctly when executed
concurrently.

 Suppose that the value of the variable counter is currently 5

and that the producer and consumer processes execute the
statements “counter ++” and “counter --” concurrently.

 After the above two statements, the value of the counter may be 4,
5, or 6.
 The only correct result is counter ==5, which is generated correctly
if the producer and consumer execute separately.
 Producer
while (true) {

/* produce an item and put in nextProduced */

while (counter == BUFFER_SIZE)
; // do nothing
buffer [in] = nextProduced;
in = (in + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
counter++;
}
 Consumer

while (true) {
while (counter == 0)
; // do nothing
nextConsumed = buffer[out];
out = (out + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
counter--;

/* consume the item in nextConsumed */

}
 Race Condition
 counter++ could be implemented in machine language as:

register1 = counter
register1 = register1 + 1
counter = register1
 counter-- could be implemented in machine language as:

register2 = counter
register2 = register2 - 1
counter = register2
 Consider this execution interleaving with “counter = 5” initially:
T0: producer execute register1 = counter {register1 = 5}
T1: producer execute register1 = register1 + 1 {register1 = 6}
T2: consumer execute register2 = counter {register2 = 5}
T3: consumer execute register2 = register2 - 1 {register2 = 4}
T4: producer execute counter = register1 {counter = 6 }
T5: consumer execute counter = register2 {counter = 4}
• Now we have arrived at the incorrect state “counter ==4”
 Race Condition
 If we reversed the order of the statements at T 4 and T5 we would
arrive at the incorrect state “counter==6”.

 We would arrive at this incorrect state because we allowed both

processes to manipulate the variable counter concurrently.

 A situation, where several processes access and manipulate the

same data concurrently and the outcome of the execution depends
on the particular order in which the access takes place, is called a
race condition.
 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 problem
 Each process must ask permission to enter critical section in entry
section, may follow critical section with exit section, then
remainder section
 Critical Section
 General structure of process pi is
 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
sections, then only those processes that are not executing in
their remainder sections can participate in the decision on
which will enter its critical section next, and this selection
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
 Peterson’s Solution
 Restricted to two process solution

 The two processes share two variables:

 int turn;
 Boolean flag[2]

 The variable turn indicates whose turn it is to enter the

critical section. That is, if turn == i, then process Pi is
allowed to execute in its 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!
 Algorithm for Process Pi
do {
flag[i] = TRUE;
turn = j;
while (flag[j] && turn == j);
critical section
flag[i] = FALSE;
remainder section
} while (TRUE);

 Provable that
1. Mutual exclusion is preserved
2. Progress requirement is satisfied
3. Bounded-waiting requirement is met
 Synchronization Hardware
 Many systems provide hardware support for critical section
code

 Uniprocessors – We could prevents interrupts from

occurring while a shared variable was being modified.
 Currently running code would execute without preemption
Solution to Critical-section Problem Using Locks

do {
acquire lock
critical section
release lock
remainder section
} while (TRUE);
 Semaphore
 Synchronization tool
 Semaphore S – integer variable
 Two standard operations modify S: wait() and signal()
 Originally called P() (“to test”) and V() (“to increment”)
 Less complicated
 Can only be accessed via two atomic operations
 wait (S) {
while S <= 0
; // no-op
S--;
}
 signal (S) {
S++;
}
 Semaphore as General Synchronization Tool
 Counting semaphore – integer value can range over an unrestricted domain
 Binary semaphore – integer value can range only between 0
and 1; can be simpler to implement
 Also known as mutex locks
 We can implement a counting semaphore S as a binary semaphore
 Provides mutual exclusion among multiple processes
 Suppose n processes share a semaphore, mutex, initialized to 1. Here, each process
Pi is organized as below:
Semaphore mutex; // initialized to 1
do {
wait (mutex);
// Critical Section
signal (mutex);
// remainder section
} while (TRUE);
 Semaphore as General Synchronization Tool

 Counting semaphores can be used to control access to a given

resource consisting of a finite number of instances.
 The semaphore is initialized to the number of resources available.
 Each process that wishes to use a resource performs a wait()
operation on the semaphore (decrementing the count).
 When a process releases a resource, it performs a signal () operation
(incrementing the count).
 When the count for the semaphore goes to 0, all resources are being
used.
 After that, processes that wish to use a resource will block until the
count becomes greater than 0.
 We can also use semaphores to solve various synchronization
problems.
 Semaphore as General Synchronization Tool
 Example: Consider two concurrently running processes: P 1 with a
statement S1 and P2 with a statement S2. Suppose we require that S2
be executed only after S1 has completed.

 Solution: We can implement this scheme by letting P1 and P2 share

a common semaphore synch initialized to 0, and by inserting the
statements:
S1;
signal (synch); // in P1
and statements:
wait (synch);
S2; // in P2
 Semaphore Implementation
 The main disadvantage of the semaphore definition given earlier
is that it requires busy waiting.
 While a process is in its critical section, any other process that
tries to enter its critical section must loop continuously in the
entry code.
 Busy waiting wastes CPU cycles that some other process might
be able to use productively.
 This type of semaphore is also called a spinlock because the
process "spins" while waiting for the lock.
 Note that applications may spend lots of time in critical sections
and therefore this is not a good solution
 To overcome the need for busy waiting, we can modify the
definition of the wait () and signal () semaphore operations.
Semaphore Implementation with no Busy waiting
 With each semaphore there is an associated waiting queue
 Here we define a semaphore as a “C” structure:
typedef struct {
int value;
struct process *list;
}semaphore;
 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
Semaphore Implementation with no Busy waiting (Cont.)

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

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

 Classical problems used to test newly-proposed synchronization

schemes

 Bounded-Buffer Problem

 Readers and Writers Problem

 Dining-Philosophers Problem
 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

 Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
 The structure of the producer process

do {
………..
// produce an item in nextp
………..
wait (empty);
wait (mutex);
………….
// add the item to the buffer
………….
signal (mutex);
signal (full);
} while (TRUE);
 Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
 The structure of the consumer process

do {
wait (full);
wait (mutex);
…………
// remove an item from buffer to nextc
…………
signal (mutex);
signal (empty);
………….
// consume the item in nextc
…………
} while (TRUE);
 Readers-Writers Problem
 A database 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 treated – all

involve priorities

 Shared Data
 Database
 Semaphore mutex initialized to 1
 Semaphore wrt initialized to 1
 Integer readcount initialized to 0
 Readers-Writers Problem Variations
 First variation – no reader will be kept waiting unless a writer has
already obtained permission to use the shared object. In other
words, no reader should wait for other readers to finish simply
because a writer is waiting.
 Second variation – once a writer is ready, it performs write as soon
as possible. In other words, if a writer is waiting to access the
object, no new readers may start reading.
 Both may have starvation. In first, writers may starve; in second,
readers may starve, leading to even more variations.
 Problem is solved on some systems by kernel providing reader-writer
locks.
 Here we present a solution to the first variation.
 Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
 The structure of a writer process

do {
wait (wrt) ;
………..
// writing is performed
…………
signal (wrt) ;
} while (TRUE);
 Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
 The structure of a reader process

do {
wait (mutex) ;
readcount ++ ;
if (readcount == 1)
wait (wrt) ;
signal (mutex)
………….
// reading is performed
………….
wait (mutex) ;
readcount - - ;
if (readcount == 0)
signal (wrt) ;
signal (mutex) ;
} while (TRUE);
 Dining-Philosophers Problem

 Philosophers spend their lives 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
 Bowl of rice
 Semaphore chopstick [5] initialized to 1
 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?

 Answer: It could create a deadlock.
End