Final answer:
A monitor is a higher-level synchronization construct than a semaphore, offering easier control and automatic lock management for preventing race conditions in concurrent programming.
Step-by-step explanation:
The monitor is a programming language construct that provides equivalent functionality to that of semaphores and is easier to control. Monitors contain procedures, variables, and data structures that are all encapsulated in a special kind of module or package.
Access to the monitors is controlled, which means that only one thread can execute a procedure in a monitor at a time, making it a convenient synchronization mechanism. This inherently prevents race conditions ensuring that data structures within the monitor are not subject to concurrent access.
Unlike semaphores, where the responsibility of ensuring proper use of the 'wait' and 'signal' operations rests with the programmer, monitors provide automatic management of lock acquisition and release, greatly reducing the chance of errors.
The programming language construct that provides equivalent functionality to that of semaphores and is easier to control is called mutex.
A mutex, short for mutual exclusion, is used in concurrent programming to ensure that only one thread of execution can access a shared resource at a time. It is often used to prevent data races and ensure thread synchronization.
Unlike semaphores, which can have multiple permits, a mutex can only be owned by one thread at a time. This makes mutexes easier to control and eliminates the need for complex counting and signaling mechanisms used by semaphores.