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The Mailbox Problem

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Book cover Distributed Computing (DISC 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 5218))

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Abstract

We propose and solve a synchronization problem called the mailbox problem, motivated by the interaction between devices and processor in a computer. In this problem, a postman delivers letters to the mailbox of a housewife and uses a flag to signal a non-empty mailbox. The wife must remove all letters delivered to the mailbox and should not walk to the mailbox if it is empty. We present algorithms and an impossibility result for this problem.

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Gadi Taubenfeld

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Aguilera, M.K., Gafni, E., Lamport, L. (2008). The Mailbox Problem. In: Taubenfeld, G. (eds) Distributed Computing. DISC 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5218. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87779-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87779-0_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87778-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87779-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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