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Understanding the Critical-Section Problem in Process Synchronization
Explore the significance of process synchronization and discover how the critical section problem plays a crucial role in ensuring data consistency and coordination among cooperating processes within an operating system.
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Video Transcript
In the previous lecture, we have started studying about process synchronization,
and we have seen how process synchronization is a very important part of operating system.
So, with regard to that, we will be discussing an important topic now,
which is the critical section problem.
So, in this lecture, we will be studying about the critical section problem,
and this is something that is related to process synchronization.
So, keep in mind that what we mean by process synchronization is that
when we have cooperating processes,
we want them to be synchronized between each other in such a way that
there will be no data inconsistency,
but the data that we are having
or the data that is shared between processes will remain consistent.
So, that is the main aim of this process synchronization.
So, with regard to that, we will be seeing what is this critical section problem
and how is this critical section problem useful for process synchronization.
So, to understand the critical section problem,
let us consider a system consisting of n processes
with process id's p0, p1 up to pn.
So, we are having a system with n processes as given here.
So, each process has a segment of code
called a critical section
in which the process may be changing common variables,
updating a table, writing a file and so on.
So, what we have here is,
In all these processes, there is a certain section of code
which we call the critical section.
And what is this critical section?
The critical section is a segment of code in a process
where the process will be changing common variables
or updating a table, writing a file and so on.
That means, whenever the process is accessing the shared memory
and making some manipulations in the shared memory,
then the code that is responsible for doing that particular operation is known as a code.
critical section.
So, critical section is that segment of code of a process
in which the process will be changing the data
in a shared region of memory that is shared between different processes.
So, that is what we mean by the critical section.
So, now what we are going to do is,
when one process is executing in its critical section,
no other process is allowed to execute in its critical section.
That is, no two processes are executing in their critical sections at the same time.
So, when we discussed about process synchronization in the previous lecture,
we have taken one example and we saw that
when two different processes are simultaneously trying to manipulate a shared variable,
then we ended up with inconsistent data.
So, in order to avoid that, we are going to make use of this critical section.
So, we have already understood what a critical section is.
So, it is that portion of code which will be responsible for changing the...
one variable. That means, when the shared data is accessed,
