Mutual Exclusion

• Mutual exclusion algorithms are used in concurrent programming to avoid the simultaneous use of a common resource, such as a global variable, by pieces of computer code called critical sections.
• A critical section is a piece of code in which a process or thread accesses a common resource.
• The critical section by itself is not a mechanism or algorithm for mutual exclusion.
• A program, process, or thread can have the critical section in it without any mechanism or algorithm which implements mutual exclusion.