# Rick van der Zwet
# 0433373
# OS Assigment 4
# Licence: BSD
# $Id: README.txt 540 2008-04-01 20:51:39Z rick $


= Intro =
File compiled on mac os x, gcc 4.0.1, and linux gcc 4.1.2. 



= Files =
Makefile         =   Makefile to generate executables of C code
assignment4a.c   =   Source code part A
assignment4b.c   =   Source code part B
assignment4c.c   =   Source code part C
README.txt       =   Currently reading

= Part A =

It measurement times varies between 1 clocktick and 20000. It kind of
depends on the OS when it swiches to a different thread and at which
point.

= Part B =
No need for mutexes as processes will only write one variables and read
the other ones. No variable is needed to be written by 2 threads. So
simple checking when something is changed is suffient

= Part C =
Peterson's algoritm is very well documented at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterson's_algorithm which include a rather
advanced example of locking and editing. In our consumer/producer world
are things way more easy. So locking/unlocking is relatively simple
done, due the fact we are context switching between one consumer and
one producer. There are no multiples.

= Part D =
Think of specilized threads inside a program waiting to do a difficult
computation. The UI detects difficult program, passes the formula into
'worker' thread and get the result when done.