Final answer:
The term 'priority inheritance' refers to a lower-priority task inheriting the priority level of a higher-priority task that is waiting for a resource the lower-priority task is using.
Step-by-step explanation:
The basic idea of priority inheritance is that a lower-priority task inherits the priority of any higher-priority task pending on a resource they share. This concept is often employed in real-time computing systems to handle the problem of priority inversion.
In a priority inversion scenario, a high-priority task is forced to wait because a resource it needs is held by a lower-priority task. This situation can lead to inefficiencies and even system failures if the high-priority tasks are time-sensitive. The priority inheritance protocol is a solution to this problem. When implemented, if a high-priority task is waiting for a resource held by a lower-priority task, the system temporarily elevates the priority of the lower-priority task to the level of the highest-priority task waiting for that resource. This change ensures that the lower-priority task can complete its interaction with the shared resource more quickly, therefore releasing it sooner for the high-priority task.
The benefit of priority inheritance is the minimization of the waiting time for high-priority tasks, leading to more predictable and consistent system behavior.