Explain the circumstances under which os use mutexes, Operating System

Assignment Help:

Q. Give the reasons why Windows XP, Solaris and Linux implement multiple locking mechanisms. Explain the circumstances under which they use mutexes, spinlocks, semaphores, adaptive mutexes and condition variables. In every case explain why the mechanism is needed.

Answer: These operating systems offer different locking mechanisms depending on the application developers' needs. Spinlocks are helpful for multiprocessor systems where a thread can run in a busy-loop (for a short period of time) rather than incurring the overhead of being put in a sleep queue. Mutexes are valuable for locking resources. Solaris 2 utilizes adaptive mutexes meaning that the mutex is implemented with a spin lock on multiprocessor machines. Semaphores as well as condition variables are more appropriate tools for synchronization when a resource should be held for a long period of time, since spinning is inefficient for a long duration.


Related Discussions:- Explain the circumstances under which os use mutexes

What are the deadlock prevention methodologies?, What are the deadlock p r...

What are the deadlock p revention methodologies? a.       Necessitate that processes request all resources before starting - if cannot be granted don't run. b.      Process

Tlb replacement algorithm, Suppose a logical address space is 1KB, and the ...

Suppose a logical address space is 1KB, and the page-size is 16 bytes. Assume no page is in the main memory for this process initially and the pure demand paging is used. Current f

Quantum settings denoted by q, Determining the time quantum for a job is a ...

Determining the time quantum for a job is a critical task. Given the assumptions that the average switching time between processes is s, and the average amount of time an I/O bo

Operating system structure, Problem: (a) Modern operating systems are i...

Problem: (a) Modern operating systems are interrupt driven. If there are no processes to execute, no I/O devices to service, and no users to whom to respond, an operating syste

How virtual memory is implemented, How Virtual memory is implemented Vi...

How Virtual memory is implemented Virtual memory can be implemented along with Segmentation and Paging

Multi-level page tables, Multi-level page tables are tree-like structures t...

Multi-level page tables are tree-like structures to hold page tables. As an example, consider a two- level page table, again on a 32-bit architecture with 212 = 4 kbyte pages. Now,

Interpreters, Use and overview? Pure and impure interpreter?

Use and overview? Pure and impure interpreter?

Briefly discuss on bankers algorithm, Briefly discuss on Bankers algorithm?...

Briefly discuss on Bankers algorithm? The resource-allocation graph algorithm is not applicable to a resource-allocation system with multiple examples  for each resource type.

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd