Module 6 | Parallelism: threads and introduction to synchronisation

Objective

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

• Use threads
• Use mechanisms (monitors, locks,…) to synchronize threads
• Use basic thread-safe data structures

Resources: Part 1 (Threads, Monitors, Wait and Notify)

Slides

• Threads and thread pools (PDF file)
• Race conditions and monitors (PDF file)
• wait() and notify() (PDF file)

Youtube playlist:

• Lecture 6a (Playlist)

Java code examples:

• All examples in one zip file

Exercises:

• Small exercise on how to create threads
• Using futures
• Implementing a counter with monitors [medium]
• Producers and Consumers with bounded buffer [hard]

Resources: Part 2 (More about threads)

Slides

• Visibility, deadlocks (PDF file)
• Locks (PDF file)
• More useful tools to work with threads (PDF file)

Youtube playlist:

• Lecture 6b (Playlist)

Exercises:

• Producers/Consumers with locks [medium]
• CyclicBarrier [hard]
• Merge Sort with ForkJoinPool [hard]