Process Synchronization

Operating System Concepts 7.1 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Process Synchronization

 Background
 The Critical-Section Problem
 Synchronization Hardware
 Semaphores
 Classical Problems of Synchronization
 Critical Regions
 Monitors

Operating System Concepts 7.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Background

 Concurrent access to shared data may result

in data inconsistency.
 Maintaining data consistency requires
mechanisms to ensure the orderly execution
of cooperating processes.
 Shared-memory solution to bounded-buffer
problem allows at most n – 1 items in buffer at
the same time. A solution, where all N buffers
are used is as follows:
 Suppose that we modify the producer-consumer
code by adding a variable counter, initialized to
0 and incremented each time a new item is
added to the buffer

Operating System Concepts 7.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded-Buffer
 Shared data

#define BUFFER_SIZE 10
typedef struct {
...
} item;
item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
int in = 0;
int out = 0;
int counter = 0;

Operating System Concepts 7.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded-Buffer

 Producer process

item nextProduced;

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

Operating System Concepts 7.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded-Buffer

 Consumer process

item nextConsumed;

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

Operating System Concepts 7.6 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded Buffer

 The statements

counter++;
counter--;

must be performed atomically.

 Atomic operation means an operation that

completes in its entirety without interruption.

Operating System Concepts 7.7 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded Buffer

 The statement “count++” may be implemented

in machine language as:

register1 = counter
register1 = register1 + 1
counter = register1

 The statement “count--” may be implemented

as:

register2 = counter
register2 = register2 – 1
counter = register2

Operating System Concepts 7.8 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded Buffer

 If both the producer and consumer attempt to

update the buffer concurrently, the assembly
language statements may get interleaved.

 Interleaving depends upon how the producer

and consumer processes are scheduled.

Operating System Concepts 7.9 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded Buffer

 Assume counter is initially 5. One interleaving

of statements is:

producer: register1 = counter (register1 = 5)

producer: register1 = register1 + 1 (register1 =
6)
consumer: register2 = counter (register2 = 5)
consumer: register2 = register2 – 1 (register2 =
4)
producer: counter = register1 (counter = 6)
consumer: counter = register2 (counter = 4)

 The value of count may be either 4 or 6, where

the correct result should be 5.

Operating System Concepts 7.10 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Race Condition

 Race condition: The situation where several

processes access – and manipulate shared
data concurrently. The final value of the
shared data depends upon which process
finishes last.

 To prevent race conditions, concurrent

processes must be synchronized.

Operating System Concepts 7.11 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 The Critical-Section Problem

 n processes all competing to use some shared

data
 Each process has a code segment, called
critical section, in which the shared data is
accessed.
 Problem – ensure that when one process is
executing in its critical section, no other
process is allowed to execute in its critical
section.

Operating System Concepts 7.12 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 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.

Operating System Concepts 7.13 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Initial Attempts to Solve Problem

 Only 2 processes, P0 and P1

 General structure of process Pi (other process
Pj)
do {
entry section
critical section
exit section
remainder section
} while (1);
 Processes may share some common variables
to synchronize their actions.

Operating System Concepts 7.14 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Algorithm 1

 Shared variables:
 int turn;
initially turn = 0
 Turn = i  P can enter its critical section
i
 Process P
i
do {
while (turn != i) ;
critical section
turn = j;
remainder section
} while (1);
 Satisfies mutual exclusion

Operating System Concepts 7.15 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Algorithm 2

 Shared variables
 boolean flag[2];
initially flag [0] = flag [1] = false.
 flag [i] = true  P ready to enter its critical
i
section
 Process P
i
do {
flag[i] := true;
while (flag[j]) ;
critical section
flag [i] = false;
remainder section
} while (1);
 Satisfies mutual exclusion

Operating System Concepts 7.16 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Algorithm 3 (Peterson’s
Solution)
 Combined shared variables of algorithms 1
and 2.
 Process P
i
do {
flag [i]:= true;
turn = j;
while (flag [j] and turn == j) ;
critical section
flag [i] = false;
remainder section
} while (1);
 Meets all three requirements; solves the
critical-section problem for two processes.

Operating System Concepts 7.17 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Synchronization Hardware

 Many systems provide hardware support for critical

section code

 Uniprocessors – could disable interrupts

 Currently running code would execute without
preemption
 Generally too inefficient on multiprocessor
systems

 Modern machines provide special atomic hardware

instructions
 Atomic = non-interruptable
 Either test memory word and set value
 Or swap contents of two memory words

7.18 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Synchronization Hardware

 Test and modify the content of a word

atomically

boolean TestAndSet (boolean *target)

{
boolean rv = *target;
*target = TRUE;
return rv;
}

Operating System Concepts 7.19 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Mutual Exclusion with Test-and-
Set
 Shared data:
boolean lock = false;

 Process Pi
do {
while (TestAndSet(&lock))
; // do-nothing
//critical section
lock = false;
//remainder section
}while(1);

Operating System Concepts 7.20 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Synchronization Hardware

 Atomically swap two variables.

void Swap (boolean *a, boolean *b)

{
boolean temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp:
}

Operating System Concepts 7.21 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Mutual Exclusion with Swap
 Shared Boolean variable lock initialized to FALSE;
each process has a local Boolean variable key.
 Solution:
do {
key = TRUE;
while ( key == TRUE)
Swap (&lock, &key );

// critical section

lock = FALSE;

// remainder section

} while ( TRUE);

Operating System Concepts 7.22 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Semaphores

 Synchronization tool
 Semaphore S – integer variable
 Two standard operations modify S: wait() and
signal()
 Originally called P() [to test] and V() [to
increment] respectively
 Can only be accessed via two indivisible
(atomic) operations
 wait (S) {
while S <= 0
; // no-op
S--;
}

 signal (S) {
S++;
Operating System Concepts
} 7.23 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002
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
 Provides mutual exclusion
 Semaphore S; // initialized to 1
 wait (S);
Critical Section
signal (S);

Must guarantee that no two processes can

execute wait () and signal () on the same
semaphore at the same time

7.24 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Critical Section of n Processes

 Shared data:
semaphore mutex; //initially mutex = 1

 Process Pi:

do {
wait(mutex);
critical section
signal(mutex);
remainder section
} while (1);

Operating System Concepts 7.25 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 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.

7.26 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Semaphore Implementation

Assume two simple operations:

 block() suspends the process that invokes it.
 wakeup(P) resumes the execution of a blocked
process P.

Operating System Concepts 7.27 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Semaphore Implementation with no busy waiting
(Cont.)

 Implementation of wait:

wait (S){
value--;
if (value < 0) {
add this process to waiting queue
block(); }
}

 Implementation of signal:

Signal (S){
value++;
if (value <= 0) {
remove a process P from the
waiting queue
wakeup(P); }
}

7.28 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Semaphore as a General
Synchronization Tool

 Execute B in Pj only after A executed in Pi

 Use semaphore flag initialized to 0
 Code:
Pi Pj
 
A wait(flag)
signal(flag) B

Operating System Concepts 7.29 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 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.

Operating System Concepts 7.30 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Two Types of Semaphores

 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.
 Can implement a counting semaphore S as
a binary semaphore.

Operating System Concepts 7.31 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Classical Problems of
Synchronization
 Bounded-Buffer Problem

 Readers and Writers Problem

 Dining-Philosophers Problem

Operating System Concepts 7.32 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded-Buffer Problem

 Shared data

semaphore full, empty, mutex;

Initially:

full = 0, empty = n, mutex = 1

Operating System Concepts 7.33 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded-Buffer Problem Producer
Process

do {
…
produce an item in nextp
…
wait(empty);
wait(mutex);
…
add nextp to buffer
…
signal(mutex);
signal(full);
} while (1);

Operating System Concepts 7.34 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded-Buffer Problem Consumer
Process

do {
wait(full)
wait(mutex);
…
remove an item from buffer to nextc
…
signal(mutex);
signal(empty);
…
consume the item in nextc
…
} while (1);

Operating System Concepts 7.35 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Readers-Writers Problem

 Shared data

semaphore mutex, wrt;

Initially

mutex = 1, wrt = 1, readcount = 0

Operating System Concepts 7.36 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Readers-Writers Problem Writer
Process

wait(wrt);
…
writing is performed
…
signal(wrt);

Operating System Concepts 7.37 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Readers-Writers Problem Reader
Process

wait(mutex);
readcount++;
if (readcount == 1)
wait(wrt);
signal(mutex);
…
reading is performed
…
wait(mutex);
readcount--;
if (readcount == 0)
signal(wrt);
signal(mutex);

Operating System Concepts 7.38 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Dining-Philosophers Problem

 Shared data
semaphore chopstick[5];
Initially all values are 1

Operating System Concepts 7.39 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Dining-Philosophers Problem

 Philosopher i:
do {
wait(chopstick[i])
wait(chopstick[(i+1) % 5])
…
eat
…
signal(chopstick[i]);
signal(chopstick[(i+1) % 5]);
…
think
…
} while (1);

Operating System Concepts 7.40 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Problems with Semaphores

 Incorrect use of semaphore operations:

 signal (mutex) …. wait (mutex) [Violates mutual

exclusion]

 wait (mutex) … wait (mutex) [Deadlock]

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

7.41 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Critical Regions

 High-level synchronization construct

 A shared variable v of type T, is declared as:
v: shared T
 Variable v accessed only inside statement
region v when B do S

where B is a boolean expression.

 While statement S is being executed, no other

process can access variable v.

Operating System Concepts 7.42 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Critical Regions

 Regions referring to the same shared variable

exclude each other in time.

 When a process tries to execute the region

statement, the Boolean expression B is
evaluated. If B is true, statement S is
executed. If it is false, the process is delayed
until B becomes true and no other process is
in the region associated with v.

Operating System Concepts 7.43 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Example – Bounded Buffer

 Shared data:

struct buffer {
int pool[n];
int count, in, out;
}

var buffer : shared record

item pool[n];
int count, in, out;
end;

Operating System Concepts 7.44 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded Buffer Producer Process

 Producer process inserts nextp into the

shared buffer

region buffer when (count < n) {

pool[in] = nextp;
in:= (in+1) % n;
count++;
}

Operating System Concepts 7.45 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Bounded Buffer Consumer
Process
 Consumer process removes an item from the
shared buffer and puts it in nextc

region buffer when (count > 0) {

nextc = pool[out];
out = (out+1) % n;
count--;
}

Operating System Concepts 7.46 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Monitors
 High-level synchronization construct that allows the safe sharing of
an abstract data type among concurrent processes.

monitor monitor-name
{
shared variable declarations
procedure body P1 (…) {
...
}
procedure body P2 (…) {
...
}
procedure body Pn (…) {
...
}
{
initialization code
}
}

Operating System Concepts 7.47 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Monitors

 To allow a process to wait within the monitor,

a condition variable must be declared, as
condition x, y;
 Condition variable can only be used with the
operations wait and signal.
 The operation
x.wait();
means that the process invoking this operation
is suspended until another process invokes
x.signal();
 The x.signal operation resumes exactly one
suspended process. If no process is suspended,
then the signal operation has no effect.

Operating System Concepts 7.48 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Schematic View of a Monitor

Operating System Concepts 7.49 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Monitor With Condition Variables

Operating System Concepts 7.50 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Dining Philosophers Example
monitor dp
{
enum {thinking, hungry, eating} state[5];
condition self[5];
void pickup(int i) // following
slides
void putdown(int i) // following slides
void test(int i) // following slides
void init() {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
state[i] = thinking;
}
}

Operating System Concepts 7.51 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Dining Philosophers
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 7.52 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

 Dining Philosophers
void test(int i) {
if ( (state[(I + 4) % 5] != eating) &&
(state[i] == hungry) &&
(state[(i + 1) % 5] != eating)) {
state[i] = eating;
self[i].signal();
}
}

Operating System Concepts 7.53 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002