A racetrack problem is a specific instance of a type of
race condition
A race condition or race hazard is the condition of an electronics, software, or other system where the system's substantive behavior is dependent on the sequence or timing of other uncontrollable events, leading to unexpected or inconsistent ...
. A racetrack problem is a flaw in a system or process whereby the output and/or result of the process is unexpectedly and critically dependent on the sequence or timing of other events that run in a circular pattern. This problem is semantically different from a race condition because of the circular nature of the problem.
The term originates with the idea of two signals racing each other in a circular motion to influence the output first.{{Citation needed, date=January 2011 Racetrack problems can occur in electronics systems, especially logic circuits, and in computer software, especially multithreaded or distributed programs.
See also
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Concurrency control
In information technology and computer science, especially in the fields of computer programming, operating systems, multiprocessors, and databases, concurrency control ensures that correct results for concurrent operations are generated, whil ...
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Deadlock
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Synchronization
Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the Conductor (music), conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are sa ...
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Therac-25
External links
Starvation and Critical Race Analyzers for Ada*Paper
by Robert M. Fuhrer, Bill Lin and Steven M. Nowick
*Paper
by Luciano Lavagno, Cho W. Moon,
Robert K. Brayton and
Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli
Alberto Luigi Sangiovanni-Vincentelli (born June 23, 1947) is an Italian-American computer scientist. Since 1976 he has been a professor affiliated with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of Califor ...
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Secure programmer: Prevent race conditions—Resource contention can be used against you by David A. Wheeler
*Chapter
(Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO)
with sample source code and comparison to C code, by Chiral Software
Computer security exploits
Concurrency (computer science)
Software bugs
Logic gates
Logic in computer science