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Priority Inversion
When a high-priority task is stuck behind a low-priority one, and a medium task makes it unbounded. The classic Mars Pathfinder bug, and the fix: priority inheritance (and ceilings).
22 min read
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Explain priority inversion with a concrete scenario.What's the difference between bounded and unbounded priority inversion?How does priority inheritance solve priority inversion?What is the priority ceiling protocol and how does it differ from inheritance?You protected a shared resource with a binary semaphore and a high-priority task occasionally misses its deadline. What's likely wrong?
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