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Fourth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'04)
A Learning System for the Problem of Mutual Exclusion in Multithreaded Programming
Joensuu, Finland
August 30-September 01
ISBN: 0-7695-2181-9
Eisuke Yoshida, Hiroshima University
Hirotsugu Kakugawa, Hiroshima University

In this paper, we propose a GUI-based learning system for the problem of mutual exclusion in multithreaded programming (MTP) such as race conditions, deadlock and starvation. Threads are group of cooperating program executions with shared memory. A thread in execution is switched one after another, and thread executions are in concurrent.

Because mutual exclusion is necessary for avoiding race conditions, understanding the problem of mutual exclusion and its solution is important for students. Deadlock and starvation are bugs of mutual exclusion algorithm such that threads are blocked forever, and threads cannot make progress, respectively. Finding such bugs is difficult because we must check every execution scheduling of threads. To this end, we have been developing a system for learning correct mutual exclusion algorithm in MTP. Our system is designed for university students studying computer science. Proposed system uses a model checking system to detect such bugs by analysis of multithreaded programs written in the MIPS R2000 assembly language. We describe the outline how learners use our system to understand the problem of mutual exclusion in MTP.

Citation:
Eisuke Yoshida, Hirotsugu Kakugawa, "A Learning System for the Problem of Mutual Exclusion in Multithreaded Programming," icalt, pp.2-6, Fourth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'04), 2004
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