Chapter 2.
3 : Interprocess Communication
Process concept Process scheduling Interprocess communication Deadlocks Threads
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Producer - Consumer Problem
Producer Process Produce Put in buffer Consumer Process Get from buffer Consume
BUFFER Buffer is shared (ie., it is a shared variable)
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Progress in time..
Producer p1 1 p2 2 p3 3 p4 4
Buffer Consumer 1 c1
3 instead of 2! 2 c2
Both processes are started at the same time and consumer uses some old value initially
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A Race Condition
Because of the timing and which process starts first There is a chance that different executions may end up with different results
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Critical Sections
Critical Section
A section of code in which the process accesses and modifies shared variables
Mutual Exclusion
A method of preventing for ensuring that one (or a specified number) of processes are in a critical section
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Why Processes Need to Communicate?
To synchronize their executions
To exchange data and information
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Rules to Form Critical Sections
1. No two processes may be simultaneously inside their CS (mutual exclusion) 2. No assumptions are made about relative process speeds or number of CPUs 3. A process outside a CS should not block other processes 4. No process should wait forever before entering its CS
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Mutual Exclusion Problem : Starvation
Also known as Indefinite Definition
Indefinitely delaying the scheduling of a process in favour of other processes
Postponement
Cause
Usually a bias in a systems scheduling policies (a bad scheduling algorithm)
Solution
Implement some form of aging
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Another Problem : Deadlocks
Two (or more) processes are blocked waiting for an event that will never occur Generally, A waits for B to do something and B is waiting for A Both are not doing anything so both events never occur
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How to Implement Mutual Exclusion
Three possibilities
Application: programmer builds some method into the program Hardware: special h/w instructions provided to implement ME OS: provides some services that can be used by the programmer
enter_critical_section, and exit_critical_section
All schemes rely on some code for
These "functions" enclose the critical section
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Application Mutual Exclusion
Application Mutual Exclusion is
implemented by the programmer hard to get correct, and
very inefficient
All rely on some form of busy waiting (process tests a condition, say a flag, and loops while the condition remains the same)
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Example
Producer
produce If lock = 1 loop until lock = 0 lock=1 put in buffer lock=0
Consumer
If lock = 1 loop until lock = 0 lock=1 get from buffer lock=0 consume
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Hardware ME : Test and Set Instruction
Perform an indivisible x:=r and r:=1 x is a local variable r is a global register set to 0 initially
repeat (test&set(x)) until x = 0; < critical section > r:= 0;
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Hardware ME : Exchange Instruction
Exchange: swap the values of x and r x is a local variable r is a global register set to 1 initially x:= 0; repeat exchange(r, x) until x = 1; < critical section > exchange(r, x); Note: r:= 0 and x:= 1 when the process is in CS
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Hardware ME Characteristics
Advantages
can be used by a single or multiple processes (with shared memory) simple and therefore easy to verify can support multiple critical sections
busy waiting is used starvation is possible deadlock is possible (especially with priorities)
Disadvantages
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Another Hardware ME : Disabling Interrupts
On a single CPU only one process is executed Concurrency is achieved by interleaving execution (usually done using interrupts) If you disable interrupts then you can be sure only one process will ever execute One process can lock a system or degrade performance greatly
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Mutual Exclusion Through OS
Semaphores Message passing
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Semaphores
Major advance incorporated into many modern operating systems (Unix, OS/2)
A semaphore is a non-negative integer that has two indivisible, valid operations
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Semaphore Operations
Wait(s)
If s > 0
Signal(s)
then s:= s - 1 else block this process
If there is a blocked process on this semaphore then wake it up else s:= s + 1
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More on Semaphores
The other valid operation is initialisation Two types of semaphores
binary semaphores can only be 0 or 1 counting semaphores can be any non-negative integer
Semaphores are an OS service implemented using one of the methods shown already
usually by disabling interrupts for a very short time
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Producer - Consumer Problem: Solution by Semaphores
Produce Wait(mutex) Get from buffer Signal(mutex) Consume
CS
Wait(mutex) Put in buffer Signal(mutex)
Initially semaphore mutex is 1
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Another Example
Three processes all share a resource on which
one draws an A one draws a B one draws a C
Implement a form of synchronization so that the output appears ABC
Process A
think(); draw_A();
Process B
think(); draw_B();
Process C
think(); draw_C();
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Semaphore b = 0, c = 0; Process A Process B wait(b); think(); wait(c); Process C
think();
draw_A(); draw_B(); signal(b); draw_C(); think();
signal(c);
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Message Passing
Provides synchronization and information
exchange
Message Operations:
send(destination, &message)
receive (source, &message)
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Producer - Consumer Problem Using Messages
#define N 100 /*number of message slots*/
producer( ) {int item; message m; while (TRUE) { produce_item(&item); receive(consumer,&m); build_message(&m, item); send(consumer,&m); }}
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Consumer( ) {int item; message m; for (i=0; i<N; i++) send(producer,&m); while (TRUE) { receive(producer,&m); extract_item(&m,&item); send(producer,&m); consume_item(item); }}
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