Disadvantages of Locking | Atomic Variables and Nonblocking Synchronization (2024)

Coordinating access to shared state using a consistent locking protocol ensures that whichever thread holds the lock guarding a set of variables has exclusive access to those variables, and that any changes made to those variables are visible to other threads that subsequently acquire the lock.

Modern JVMs can optimize uncontended lock acquisition and release fairly effectively, but if multiple threads request the lock at the same time the JVM enlists the help of the operating system. If it gets to this point, some unfortunate thread will be suspended and have to be resumed later.[1] When that thread is resumed, it may have to wait for other threads to finish their scheduling quanta before it is actually scheduled. Suspending and resuming a thread has a lot of overhead and generally entails a lengthy interruption. For lock-based classes with fine-grained operations (such as the synchronized collections classes, where most methods contain only a few operations), the ratio of scheduling overhead to useful work can be quite high when the lock is frequently contended.

[1] A smart JVM need not necessarily suspend a thread if it contends for a lock; it could use profiling data to decide adaptively between suspension and spin locking based on how long the lock has been held during previous acquisitions.

Volatile variables are a lighter-weight synchronization mechanism than locking because they do not involve context switches or thread scheduling. However, volatile variables have some limitations compared to locking: while they provide similar visibility guarantees, they cannot be used to construct atomic compound actions. This means that volatile variables cannot be used when one variable depends on another, or when the new value of a variable depends on its old value. This limits when volatile variables are appropriate, since they cannot be used to reliably implement common tools such as counters or mutexes.[2]

[2] It is theoretically possible, though wholly impractical, to use the semantics of volatile to construct mutexes and other synchronizers; see (Raynal, 1986).

For example, while the increment operation (++i) may look like an atomic operation, it is actually three distinct operationsfetch the current value of the variable, add one to it, and then write the updated value back. In order to not lose an update, the entire read-modify-write operation must be atomic. So far, the only way we've seen to do this is with locking, as in Counter on page 56.

Counter is thread-safe, and in the presence of little or no contention performs just fine. But under contention, performance suffers because of context-switch overhead and scheduling delays. When locks are held so briefly, being put to sleep is a harsh penalty for asking for the lock at the wrong time.

Locking has a few other disadvantages. When a thread is waiting for a lock, it cannot do anything else. If a thread holding a lock is delayed (due to a page fault, scheduling delay, or the like), then no thread that needs that lock can make progress. This can be a serious problem if the blocked thread is a high-priority thread but the thread holding the lock is a lower-priority threada performance hazard known as priority inversion. Even though the higher-priority thread should have precedence, it must wait until the lock is released, and this effectively downgrades its priority to that of the lower-priority thread. If a thread holding a lock is permanently blocked (due to an infinite loop, deadlock, livelock, or other liveness failure), any threads waiting for that lock can never make progress.

Even ignoring these hazards, locking is simply a heavyweight mechanism for fine-grained operations such as incrementing a counter. It would be nice to have a finer-grained technique for managing contention between threadssomething like volatile variables, but offering the possibility of atomic updates as well. Happily, modern processors offer us precisely such a mechanism.

Disadvantages of Locking | Atomic Variables and Nonblocking Synchronization (2024)

FAQs

What is the disadvantage of locking? ›

Answer: Locking has a poor degree of concurrency. It in fact has no concurrency at all.

What are the disadvantages of basic locking protocol? ›

Problems associated with Simple locking:
  • Data inconsistency between multiple transactions.
  • Deadlock, a situation where the transactions try to access lock on already locked data items.
  • No guarantee of serializability (i.e. execution of a concurrent transaction equivalent to that of a transaction executed serially)

Are atomic variables thread safe? ›

Atomic classes allow us to perform atomic operations, which are thread-safe, without using synchronization. An atomic operation is executed in one single machine-level operation.

What is atomic lock? ›

Atomic locks are synchronization primitives that are used to ensure that basic arithmetic and bit operations are executed without preemption.

What are the 2 disadvantages or problems of lock based protocols? ›

Pitfalls of Lock-Based Protocols (Cont.)

The potential for deadlock exists in most locking protocols. Deadlocks are a necessary evil. sequence of other transactions request and are granted an S-lock on the same item. È The same transaction is repeatedly rolled back due to deadlocks.

What are the advantages of using a lock instead of synchronization? ›

In synchronisation, if a thread is waiting for another thread, then the waiting thread won't do any other activity which doesn't require lock access but with lock interface there is a trylock() method with which you can try for access the lock and if you don't get the lock you can perform other alternate tasks.

What are the advantages and disadvantages in smart locks? ›

While some smart locks remove the threat of lock picking, they may be subject to attempts by hackers to override the entry code that can unlock the door. On the plus side, the system may be able to notify you (and the police) if an unauthorized user accesses the system.

What are the disadvantages of digital lock? ›

Downsides of Digital Locks
  • More expensive. The biggest disadvantage of keyless locks is their price. ...
  • Stolen access code. There is a certain comfort with carrying a physical key in your bag or pocket, at least you know your key is with you. ...
  • Access code rotations. ...
  • Smart but not foolproof.

What is the advantage of locking in DBMS? ›

Locking is used to enable multiple users to concurrently and safely access the data. When updates are being made to the database tables, a lock must be established on at least the record being updated to prevent other users from locking, updating, or deleting the record.

Which variables are thread-safe? ›

On its stack(basically thread stack), local primitives and local reference variables are stored. Hence one thread does not share its local variables with any other thread as these local variables and references are inside the thread's private stack. Hence local variables are always thread-safe.

Why instance variables are not thread-safe? ›

Such an object would not be thread-safe, because in a multithreaded environment, the object could become corrupted or be observed to have an invalid state. A thread-safe object is one that always maintains a valid state, as observed by other classes and objects, even in a multithreaded environment.

How do you make a variable thread-safe? ›

There are basically four ways to make variable access safe in shared-memory concurrency:
  1. Confinement. Don't share the variable between threads. ...
  2. Immutability. Make the shared data immutable. ...
  3. Threadsafe data type. ...
  4. Synchronization.

Can multithreading be lock-free? ›

Lock-free techniques allow multiple threads to work together in a non-blocking way, often achieving incredible performance. As the name suggests, locks are not used. If the idea of a multithreaded program without mutexes makes you uncomfortable, you are quite sane. Yet lock-free systems are pervasive.

Are atomics faster than mutex? ›

Summing up, in general atomic operations are faster if contention between threads is sufficiently low.

What advantage can a strict two-phase locking provide and what disadvantage can result? ›

16.3 What benefit does strict two-phase locking provide? What disadvantages re- sult? Answer: Because it produces only cascadeless schedules, recovery is very easy. But the set of schedules obtainable is a subset of those obtainable from plain two phase locking, thus concurrency is reduced.

What is the problem occur in 2 phase locking protocol? ›

The waiting time never ends. Both the transaction cannot proceed further at least any one releases the lock voluntarily. This situation is called deadlock.

What is the problem in binary locking system? ›

Drawbacks of Binary Locks :

Binary locks are highly restrictive. They do not even permit reading of the contents of item X. As a result, they are not used commercially.

What is the disadvantage of synchronization? ›

Synchronization makes sure that shared resources or data can be accessed by only one thread at a time while execution. its advantage is that it prevent data inconsistency and disadvantage is that it makes execution slower as it makes other thread wait till current thread completes execution.

Which is better synchronized method or block? ›

A Java synchronized block doesn't allow more than one JVM, to provide access control to a shared resource. The system performance may degrade because of the slower working of synchronized keyword. Java synchronized block is more efficient than Java synchronized method.

What are the risks of synchronization? ›

Synchronization risk arises from arbitrageur's uncertainty about when other arbitrageurs will start exploiting a common arbitrage opportunity (Abreu and Brunnermeier, 2002 and 2003). The arbitrage opportunity appears when prices move away from fundamental values.

What are the disadvantages of smart devices? ›

They are expensive, usually have a shorter battery life, and with so many apps available, they can be distracting in ways that simpler phones aren't. Another disadvantage of smart phone technology is the security risk they present when loaded with personal and business data.

Are smart locks less secure? ›

While smart locks offer ease of access and they can be locked from anywhere, if you forget to lock up, they are very similar to traditional locks when it comes to security. Since most smart locks work with a traditional deadbolt, they are just as secure as traditional locks.

What happens if a smart lock fails? ›

Your Smart Lock will give you low-battery warnings for multiple weeks before it loses power. However, if your Smart Lock dies entirely before you can replace your batteries, your key will still work. This is the same deadbolt key that you've always used - the Smart Lock doesn't change the key needed.

What is the main disadvantage of digital data transmission? ›

Disadvantages could include issues of easy deletion, security, and theft. Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.

What are the disadvantages of digital techniques? ›

The disadvantages of digital technology include the spread of disinformation, addiction to social media, compromised personal privacy, increase in the crime rate, breaches in data security, loss of traditional lifestyle and values, development of more deadly weapons of war, loss of jobs and information overload.

What are the disadvantages of digital transformation? ›

What Are the Biggest Digital Transformation Challenges Organizations Face?
  • Lack of Change Management Strategy.
  • Complex Software & Technology.
  • Driving Adoption of New Tools & Processes.
  • Continuous Evolution of Customer Needs.
  • Lack of a Digital Transformation Strategy.
  • Lack of Proper IT Skills.
  • Security Concerns.
2 Dec 2021

What is the importance of locking the system when not in use? ›

Why should you lock your screen when you're away? This helps prevent others from viewing or using your device when you're not around. Set up your computer and mobile devices to automatically go to screensaver after a certain amount of inactivity. In addition, manually lock when leaving your device unattended.

What is the importance of locking? ›

Locks must never be considered as a stand-alone method of security. The systematic control of locks and keys is one of the most important components of any security program. Without proper key control, locks provide little deterrence to illegal or unauthorized entry into a facility.

What is difference between thread-safe and non thread-safe? ›

Conditionally safe: Different threads can access different objects simultaneously, and access to shared data is protected from race conditions. Not thread safe: Data structures should not be accessed simultaneously by different threads.

Is Lazy variable thread-safe? ›

Another problem is that lazy var is not thread-safe which means the closure can get executed multiple times due to accesses from different threads.

Can two threads access same variable? ›

Only one thread can read and write a shared variable at a time. When one thread is accessing a shared variable, other threads should wait until the first thread is done. This guarantees that the access to a shared variable is Atomic, and multiple threads do not interfere.

Which of the following are disadvantages of using threads? ›

The Thread class has the following disadvantages: With more threads, the code becomes difficult to debug and maintain. Thread creation puts a load on the system in terms of memory and CPU resources. We need to do exception handling inside the worker method as any unhandled exceptions can result in the program crashing.

Why is synchronized thread-safe? ›

Because If a method becomes synchronized, so this is becomes safe to allow multiple threads to act on it, without any problem. Remember:: multiple threads "not act on it at the same time" hence we call synchronized methods thread safe.

What is the biggest disadvantage of implementing threads in user space? ›

The biggest disadvantage is that if one thread blocks, the entire process blocks.

How do you make a variable unchangeable? ›

Variables can be declared as constants by using the “const” keyword before the datatype of the variable. The constant variables can be initialized once only.

Can we make vector as non thread-safe? ›

Vectors are synchronized. Any method that touches the Vector 's contents is thread safe. ArrayList , on the other hand, is unsynchronized, making them, therefore, not thread safe.

Are read only variables thread-safe? ›

These variables are thread-safe since they are local to each thread. Immutable objects: The state of an object cannot be changed after construction. This means that only read-only data is shared between different threads.

What are the 4 types of lock? ›

Although there are many types of locks, the four most common are padlocks, deadbolts, knob locks, and levers.

What are the two modes of locking? ›

Two types of locks are used by the basic protocol: Shared and Exclusive locks.

What are locking methods? ›

There are four types of lock protocols available:
  • Simplistic lock protocol. It is the simplest way of locking the data while transaction. ...
  • Pre-claiming Lock Protocol. ...
  • Two-phase locking (2PL) ...
  • Strict Two-phase locking (Strict-2PL)

Why do we need lock in multithreading? ›

A lock may be a tool for controlling access to a shared resource by multiple threads. Commonly, a lock provides exclusive access to a shared resource: just one thread at a time can acquire the lock and everyone accesses to the shared resource requires that the lock be acquired first.

Can multiple threads take a lock simultaneously? ›

Only one thread can hold a lock at a time. If a thread tries to take a lock that is already held by another thread, then it must wait until the lock is released. When this happens, there is so called “contention” for the lock.

What is the difference between lock-free and wait-free? ›

A method is lock-free if it guarantees that infinitely often some method call finishes in a finite number of steps. A method is wait-free if it guarantees that every call finishes its execution in a finite number of steps.

What is difference between semaphore and mutex? ›

A Mutex is different than a semaphore as it is a locking mechanism while a semaphore is a signalling mechanism. A binary semaphore can be used as a Mutex but a Mutex can never be used as a semaphore.

Do atomic variables need mutex? ›

Even if the shared variable is atomic, it must be modified under the mutex in order to correctly publish the modification to the waiting thread.

Are Atomics volatile? ›

Volatile and Atomic are two different concepts. Volatile ensures, that a certain, expected (memory) state is true across different threads, while Atomics ensure that operation on variables are performed atomically.

What are the disadvantages of a Smart Lock? ›

Cons Of Having A Smart Lock

Smart locks communicate with your phone, usually via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. If your phone is stolen, you lose it or it dies, you could get locked out if you don't have a backup plan (like logging in to your account on another device).

What is an example of locking? ›

Example Sentences

The car locks automatically when you start the engine. The wheels locked and the car skidded off the road. They were locked in each other's arms. She locked her hands around the steering wheel.

Are smart locks a security risk? ›

Not only can many smart locks be hacked, but they also are proven to have other vulnerabilities like the ability to be removed with a flathead screwdriver. Since smart locks often work with an existing deadbolt, this may mean they have the same level of security as traditional locks.

What are the advantage and disadvantage of smart locks? ›

Pro: No More Keys and Convenience with Codes, Con: Risk of Hackers and Dependence on a Power Supply. “You won't have to fumble with your keys or jiggle the key in the lock to get it to unlock if you have a smart door lock.

What are the benefits and disadvantages of strict two phase locking? ›

16.3 What benefit does strict two-phase locking provide? What disadvantages re- sult? Answer: Because it produces only cascadeless schedules, recovery is very easy. But the set of schedules obtainable is a subset of those obtainable from plain two phase locking, thus concurrency is reduced.

What are the characteristics of locking? ›

The movements are generally large and exaggerated, and often very rhythmic and tightly synced with the music. Locking is performance oriented, often interacting with the audience by smiling or giving them a high five, and some moves are quite comical.

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