SYNCHRONIZATION

SYNCHRONIZATION :

In computer science, synchronization refers to one of two distinct but related concepts: synchronization of process, and synchronization of data. Process synchronization refers to the idea that multiple processes are to join up or handshake at a certain point, in order to reach an agreement or commit to a certain sequence of action. Data synchronization refers to the idea of keeping multiple copies of a dataset in coherence with one another, or to maintain data integrity. Process synchronization primitives are commonly used to implement data synchronization.

NEED FOR SYNCHRONIZATION:

The need for synchronization does not arise merely in multi-processor systems but for any kind of concurrent processes; even in single processor systems. Mentioned below are some of the main needs for synchronization:

FORK : When a job arrives at a fork point, it is split into N sub-jobs which are then serviced by n tasks. After being serviced, each sub-job waits until all other sub-jobs are done processing. Then, they are joined again and leave the system. Thus, in parallel programming ,we require synchronization as all the parallel process wait for several other processes to occur.

Producer-Consumer: In a producer-consumer relationship, the consumer process is dependent on the producer process till the necessary data has been produced.

PROCESS SYNCHRONIZATION:

* Process Synchronization means sharing system resources by processes in a such a way that, Concurrent access to shared data is handled thereby minimizing the chance of inconsistent data. Maintaining data consistency demands mechanisms to ensure synchronized execution of cooperating processes.