Operating Systems Concepts - Engineering

Q1:

What problem is solved by Dijkstra's banker's algorithm?

A mutual exclusion

B deadlock recovery

C deadlock avoidance

D cache coherence

E None of the above

ANS:C - deadlock avoidance

The Banker's algorithm is a resource allocation & deadlock avoidance algorithm developed by Edsger Dijkstra that tests for safety by simulating the allocation of pre-determined maximum possible amounts of all resources, and then makes a "safe-state" check to test for possible deadlock conditions for all other pending activities, before deciding whether allocation should be allowed to continue.