Peterson’s Algorithm for Critical Section

• This is a software based solution to Critical Section Problem.
• Doesn’t work on modern architectures.
• It’s for 2 processes which alternate execution between then critical section and remainder section. Say, P1 is the first process and P2 is the second process.
• The 2 processes should share 2 data items with each other.
int turn Boolean flag [2]
• Turn - It indicates the process who should enter into its critical section.
• Flag Array - It tells whether a process is ready to enter its critical section. Let flag[0] indicate process P1. If flag[0] = true , then Process P1 is ready to execute in its critical section. flag[1] indicates process P2. If flag[1] = true, then Process P2 is ready to execute in its critical section.

Now let’s take a look at Peterson’s Algorithm -

• First , p1 sets flag[0] true, then sets turn to j . So that if P2 wants to enter Critical Section, it can do so.
• If P1 , P2 try to execute at same time, then turn is first changed to i, then j or it could be vice-versa. But, the important point is, only one of these 2 process is allowed to enter its critical section. The second value gets overwritten.

Features of Peterson’s Solution Algorithm -

• Does not require any special hardware.
• Uses Busy waiting ( Spinlock ).

What is Race Around Condition ? If many kernel processes in OS, it may lead to race around condition. Eg - Consider a kernel data structure that maintains a list of all open files in system. List is modified if a new file is opened or closed. If 2 process simultaneously try to open files , it may separate updates to list leading to race around condition