Interprocess Communication

Interprocess Communication

In a program organized as multiple, cooperating processes, the processes need to share data and coordinate their actions in well-defined ways. IRIX with REACT provides the following mechanisms, which are surveyed in the topics that follow:

Shared memory allows a single segment of memory to appear in the address spaces of multiple processes. The Silicon Graphics implementation is also the basis for implementing interprocess semaphores, locks, and barriers.
Semaphores are used to coordinate access from multiple processes to resources that they share.
Locks provide a low-overhead, high-speed method of mutual exclusion.
Barriers make it easy for multiple processes to synchronize the start of a common activity.
Signals provide asynchronous notification of special events or errors. IRIX supports signal semantics from all major UNIX heritages, but POSIX-standard signals are recommended for real-time programs.

Shared Memory Segments
Semaphores
Locks
Barriers
Mutual Exclusion Primitives
Signals