Mutex

2 definitions found

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  MuTeX
       
           An extension of {TeX} for typesetting music.
       
          {(ftp://nic.stolaf.edu/pub/mutex/MuTeX.tar.Z)}.
       


          (1995-02-06)
       
       

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  mutex
       
           A {mutual exclusion} object that allows multiple
          {threads} to synchronise access to a shared resource.  A mutex
          has two states: locked and unlocked.  Once a mutex has been
          locked by a thread, other threads attempting to lock it will
          block.  When the locking thread unlocks (releases) the mutex,
          one of the blocked threads will acquire (lock) it and proceed.
       
          If multiple threads or tasks are blocked on a locked mutex
          object, the one to take it and proceed when it becomes
          available is determined by some type of scheduling algorithm.
          For example, in a priority based system, the highest priority
          blocked task will acquire the mutex and proceed.  Another
          common set-up is put blocked tasks on a first-in-first-out
          queue.
       
          See also: {priority inversion}
       
          (2002-03-14)