Lecture 10: More Locks

COSC 273: Parallel and Distributed Computing

Spring 2023

Last Time: Fair Locks

Safety Goal:

• Both dogs are not simultaneously out in the yard
  • mutual exclusion property

Liveness Goals:

• If a dog needs to go outside, eventually one does
  • deadlock-freedom property
• If a dog needs to go outside, eventually that dog does
  • starvation-freedom property

Peterson lock Pseudocode

	public void lock() {
	   int i = ThreadID.get(); // get my ID, 0 or 1
	   int j = 1 - i;          // other thread's ID
	   
	   flag[i] = true;         // set my flag
	   victim = i;             // set myself to be victim
	   while (flag[j] && victim == i) {
	       // wait
	   }
	}

Peterson unlock Pseudocode

	public void unlock() {
	    int i = ThreadID.get();
		flag[i] = false;
	}

Left Off

Showed:

Mutual Exclusion. If both threads concurrently call lock(), then both cannot return until other calls unlock().

Today:

Starvation Freedom. If thread i calls lock() then eventually thread i returns.

Why?

Starvation Freedom I

Claim. If thread $A$ calls lock(), eventually the method will return.

	public void lock() {
	   int i = ThreadID.get(); // get my ID, 0 or 1
	   int j = 1 - i;          // other thread's ID	   
	   flag[i] = true;         // set my flag
	   victim = i;             // set myself to be victim
	   while (flag[j] && victim == i) { /*wait*/ }
	}

Case 1. $A$ reads flag[B] == false or victim == B.

Starvation Freedom II

Claim. If thread $A$ calls lock(), eventually the method will return.

	public void lock() {
	   int i = ThreadID.get(); // get my ID, 0 or 1
	   int j = 1 - i;          // other thread's ID	   
	   flag[i] = true;         // set my flag
	   victim = i;             // set myself to be victim
	   while (flag[j] && victim == i) { /*wait*/ }
	}

Case 2. $A$ reads flag[B] == true and victim == A.

Starvation Freedom III

Assumption. After B obtains lock, B calls unlock()

    public void unlock() {
        int i = ThreadID.get();
        flag[i] = false;
    }

What then happens to thread A?

Conclusion II

The Peterson lock satisfies starvation freedom!

Semantics of Peterson Lock

• flag variable signals intent to enter CS
  • easily generalizes to more threads
• victim variable signals priority to enter CS
  • victim = me means you have priority
• For more threads
  • more victims?
    • how decide priority among victims?
  • how can this system be fair?

Lamport’s Bakery Algorithm

Locks for more threads!

Lamport’s Inspiration for Priority

An Attempt

Setup:

• $n$ threads, IDs 0, 1,...,n-1
• flag is Boolean array of size $n$
  • flag[i] == true if thread i wants to obtain lock
• label is integer array of size $n$
  • label[i] is priority of thread i

Question

Why won’t this attempt work?

Breaking Priority Ties

Two processes may see the same set of tickets and take same label:

• have label[i] == label[j] for i != j

Question About Tie-breaking

Is this process fair?

• Seems we are always giving priority to thread 0…

Lamport’s Bakery Algorithm

Fields:

• boolean[] flag
  • flag[i] == true indicates i would like enter CS
• int[] label
  • label[i] indicates “ticket” number held by i

Initialization:

• set all flag[i] = false, label[i] = 0

Locking

Locking Method:

public void lock () {
    int i = ThreadID.get();
    flag[i] = true;
    label[i] = max(label[0], ..., label[n-1]) + 1;
    while (!hasPriority(i)) {} // wait	
}

The method hasPriority(i) returns true if and only if there is no k such that

• flag[k] == true and
• either label[k] < label[i] or label[k] == label[i] and k < i

Unlocking

Just lower your flag:

public void unlock() {
    flag[ThreadID.get()] = false;
}

Bakery Algorithm is Deadlock-Free

public void lock () {
    int i = ThreadID.get();
    flag[i] = true;
    label[i] = max(label[0], ..., label[n-1]) + 1;
    while (!hasPriority(i)) {} // wait	
}

Why?

First-come-first-served (FCFS)

• If: $A$ writes to label before $B$ calls lock(),
• Then: $A$ enters CS before $B$.

public void lock () {
    int i = ThreadID.get();
    flag[i] = true;
    label[i] = max(label[0], ..., label[n-1]) + 1;
    while (!hasPriority(i)) {} // wait	
}

Why?

Bakery Algorithm is Starvation-Free

Thread i calls lock():

• i writes label[i]
• By FCFS, subsequent calls to lock() by j != i have lower priority
• By deadlock-freedom every k ahead of i eventually releases lock

So:

• i eventually served

Bakery Algorithm Satisfies MutEx

public void lock () {
    int i = ThreadID.get();
    flag[i] = true;
    label[i] = max(label[0], ..., label[n-1]) + 1;
    while (!hasPriority(i)) {} // wait	
}

Suppose not:

• $A$ and $B$ concurrently in CS
• Assume: $(\mathrm{label}(A), A) < (\mathrm{label}(B), B)$

Proof (Continued)

Since $B$ entered CS:

• Must have read
  • $(\mathrm{label}(B), B) < (\mathrm{label}(A), A)$, or
  • $\mathrm{flag}[A] == \mathrm{false}$

• Former can not happen: labels strictly increasing

• So $B$ read $\mathrm{flag}[A] == \mathrm{false}$

Compare Timelines!

Conclusion

Lamport’s Bakery Algorithm:

1. Works for any number of threads
2. Satisfies MutEx and starvation-freedom

Is the bakery algorithm practical?

Two Issues:

1. For $n$ threads, need arrays of size $n$
   • hasPriority method is costly
   • what if we don’t know how many threads?
2. Assume threads have sequential IDs 0, 1,...
   • not the case with Java!
   • thread IDs are essentially random long values

Homework 2 will have questions that address these issues.

Remarkably

We cannot do better:

• If $n$ threads want to achieve mutual exclusion + deadlock-freedom, must have $n$ read/write registers (variables)

• This is really bad if we have a lot of threads!
  • 1,000 threads means each call to lock() requires 1,000s of reads
  • each call to hasPriority requires either 1,000s of reads or a more advanced data structure
• Things are messy!

A Way Around the Bound

• Argument relies crucially on fact that the only atomic operations are read and write

• Modern computers offer more powerful atomic operations

• In Java, AtomicInteger class

  • getAndIncrement() is supported atomic operation

Homework 2 Use AtomicIntegers to get a cleaner and more efficient realization of Lamport’s bakery idea.

Next Week

Vector operations!