Question

Mutual exclusion implies that :

a) if a process is executing in its critical section, then no other process must be executing in their critical sections
b) if a process is executing in its critical section, then other processes must be executing in their critical sections
c) if a process is executing in its critical section, then all the resources of the system must be blocked until it finishes execution
d) None of these

Answer 1

Mutual exclusion means that if a process is executing in its critical section, no other process can execute in their critical sections at the same time.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mutual exclusion implies that a) if a process is executing in its critical section, then no other process must be executing in their critical sections. This concept ensures that multiple processes do not enter the critical section of a program at the same time, preventing data inconsistency and race conditions. Mutual exclusion is fundamental in concurrent programming to avoid the overlap of processes when accessing shared resources. Mutually exclusive events in probability are somewhat analogous to mutual exclusion in concurrent processes. The probability that two mutually exclusive events occur simultaneously is zero. However, mutual exclusion specifically in the context of concurrent computing dictates that when one process is in the critical section of the code, others must wait their turn to access it, ensuring that only one process is handling the shared resource at any given time.