Concurrency & Synchronization GATE CS PYQ Quiz

Fetch_And_Add(X,i) is an atomic Read-Modify-Write instruction that reads the value of memory location X, increments it by the value i, and returns the old value of X. It is used in the pseudocode shown below to implement a busy-wait lock. L is an unsigned integer shared variable initialized to 0. The value of 0 corresponds to lock being available, while any non-zero value corresponds to the lock being not available.

  AcquireLock(L){
         while (Fetch_And_Add(L,1))
               L = 1;
   }
  ReleaseLock(L){
         L = 0;
   }

This implementation

Two processes, P1 and P2, need to access a critical section of code. Consider the following synchronization construct used by the processes:Here, wants1 and wants2 are shared variables, which are initialized to false. Which one of the following statements is TRUE about the above construct?v

  /* P1 */
while (true) {
  wants1 = true;
  while (wants2 == true);
  /* Critical
    Section */
  wants1=false;
}
/* Remainder section */       


/* P2 */
while (true) {
  wants2 = true;
  while (wants1==true);
  /* Critical
    Section */
  wants2 = false;
}
/* Remainder section */

Consider the procedure below for the Producer-Consumer problem which uses semaphores:



Which one of the following is TRUE?

The atomic fetch-and-set x, y instruction unconditionally sets the memory location x to 1 and fetches the old value of x n y without allowing any intervening access to the memory location x. consider the following implementation of P and V functions on a binary semaphore S.

void P (binary_semaphore *s)
{
    unsigned y;
    unsigned *x = &(s->value);
    do
    {
        fetch-and-set x, y;
    }
    while (y);
}
void V (binary_semaphore *s)
{
    S->value = 0;
} 

Which one of the following is true?

Barrier is a synchronization construct where a set of processes synchronizes globally i.e. each process in the set arrives at the barrier and waits for all others to arrive and then all processes leave the barrier. Let the number of processes in the set be three and S be a binary semaphore with the usual P and V functions. Consider the following C implementation of a barrier with line numbers shown on left.

void barrier (void) {
1:   P(S);
2:   process_arrived++;
3.   V(S);
4:   while (process_arrived !=3);
5:   P(S);
6:   process_left++;
7:   if (process_left==3) {
8:      process_arrived = 0;
9:      process_left = 0;
10:  }
11:  V(S);
} 

The variables process_arrived and process_left are shared among all processes and are initialized to zero. In a concurrent program all the three processes call the barrier function when they need to synchronize globally. The above implementation of barrier is incorrect. Which one of the following is true?

Barrier is a synchronization construct where a set of processes synchronizes globally i.e. each process in the set arrives at the barrier and waits for all others to arrive and then all processes leave the barrier. Let the number of processes in the set be three and S be a binary semaphore with the usual P and V functions. Consider the following C implementation of a barrier with line numbers shown on left.

void barrier (void) {
1:   P(S);
2:   process_arrived++;
3.   V(S);
4:   while (process_arrived !=3);
5:   P(S);
6:   process_left++;
7:   if (process_left==3) {
8:      process_arrived = 0;
9:      process_left = 0;
10:  }
11:  V(S);
} 

The variables process_arrived and process_left are shared among all processes and are initialized to zero. In a concurrent program all the three processes call the barrier function when they need to synchronize globally. Which one of the following rectifies the problem in the implementation?

Consider two processes P1 and P2 accessing the shared variables X and Y protected by two binary semaphores SX and SY respectively, both initialized to 1. P and V denote the usual semaphore operators, where P decrements the semaphore value, and V increments the semaphore value. The pseudo-code of P1 and P2 is as follows : P1 :

 While true do {
   L1 : ................
   L2 : ................
   X = X + 1;
   Y = Y - 1;
   V(SX);
   V(SY);             
 }

P2 :

 While true do {
   L3 : ................   
   L4 : ................
   Y = Y + 1;
   X = Y - 1;
   V(SY);
   V(SX);            
}

In order to avoid deadlock, the correct operators at L1, L2, L3 and L4 are respectively

Suppose we want to synchronize two concurrent processes P and Q using binary semaphores S and T. The code for the processes P and Q is shown below.

Process P:
while (1) {
W:
   print '0';
   print '0';
X:
}
	
Process Q:
while (1) {
Y:
   print '1';
   print '1';
Z:
}

Synchronization statements can be inserted only at points W, X, Y and Z.

Which of the following will always lead to an output starting with '001100110011' ?

Suppose we want to synchronize two concurrent processes P and Q using binary semaphores S and T. The code for the processes P and Q is shown below.

Synchronization statements can be inserted only at points W, X, Y and Z Which of the following will ensure that the output string never contains a substring of the form 01^n0 or 10^n1 where n is odd?

Two processes X and Y need to access a critical section. Consider the following synchronization construct used by both the processes.



Here, varP and varQ are shared variables and both are initialized to false. Which one of the following statements is true?