Understanding Critical Sections and Mutexes

These flashcards cover key concepts related to critical sections and mutexes as discussed in the lecture.

Critical Section

A section of code that accesses shared resources and must not be concurrently accessed by more than one thread.

Mutex

A mutual exclusion object that prevents multiple threads from accessing a shared resource simultaneously.

Enter Critical Section

Code block that locks a mutex and checks a predicate before allowing access to the critical section.

Exit Critical Section

Code block that updates the predicate and releases the mutex after operations on shared resources.

Predicate

A condition that must be met for a thread to proceed in accessing a shared resource.

Condition Variable

A synchronization primitive that allows threads to wait for certain conditions to be true.

Reader-Writer Policy

A policy that allows multiple reader threads to access a file simultaneously or gives exclusive access to one writer thread.

Mutual Exclusion Policy

A policy enforced by mutexes that allows only one thread to access a resource at a time.