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Foil 34 General Types of Synchronization

From Second set of lectures on CPS615 Parallel Computing Overview CPS615 Basic Simulation Track for Computational Science -- Fall Semester 95. by Geoffrey C. Fox *
An implied constraint on the ordering of operations.
  • In distributed memory, messages often used to synchronize.
  • In shared memory, software semaphores, hardware locks, or other schemes needed. [Denning, P. 1989]
Synchronous: Objects (processors, network, tasks) proceed together in lockstep fashion
Asynchronous: Objects may proceed at somewhat different speeds, sometimes with occasional synchronization points (barriers) to allow slower objects to catch up.

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