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From: lively@sunybcs.uucp (Richard S. Lively)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: SEMAPHORES
Keywords: Semaphores
Message-ID: <5160@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 10 Apr 89 20:11:44 GMT
References: <511@orange6.qtp.ufl.edu>
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You must be thinking of SEMIFORKS which are used as a solution to the
Dining Philosophers Problem.  Seriously, any book on Operating Systems
should have s description: try Operating Systems: Design and Implementation
by Andrew Tannenbaum for a good, readable introduction.  Semaphores were
first used by Dijkstra (the famous P and V) for implementing mutual exclusion
in critical sections.